PSNA Newsletter No 100 - July 25 2023
25 Hōngongoi 2023
25 July 2023
Newsletter No 100
Kia ora koutou,
Thank You Jane Campion
Jane Campion requests her film be withdrawn from apartheid Israel’s Jerusalem Film Festival
Last week PSNA congratulated New Zealand film director Jane Campion on her request for her debut film “Sweetie” to be withdrawn from apartheid Israel’s Jerusalem Film Festival.
The announcement was made by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) in this release:
https://bdsmovement.net/jerusalem-film-festival-2023
PSNA has been working with PACBI on appeals to film directors at the festival and we are delighted to have an esteemed New Zealand director join at least four other international film directors in requesting their films be withdrawn from the Festival which is partnered with the Israeli Ministry of Culture.
This is a moment of pride for Aotearoa New Zealand – similar to the pride felt when New Zealand entertainer Lorde cancelled a scheduled concert in Israel in 2018.
At a time when Palestinians are suffering immeasurably under the most fanatical, openly racist Israeli government ever, this solidarity action will be deeply appreciated by Palestinians everywhere.
These film directors are taking action where governments, New Zealand included, have failed morally and politically, again and again and again, to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people.
This is similar to the fight against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s when it was civil society organisations around the world, and in New Zealand, which led the anti-apartheid struggle outside South Africa while western governments either colluded with the regime or looked the other way.
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Something you can do right now with a few clicks…
Send a letter of congratulations to Jane Campion. You can write your own letter or copy and paste this letter and email it to Jane’s agent Kate Richter kate.richter@hlamgt.com.au
Message for Jane Campion
c/o Kate Richter
kate.richter@hlamgt.com.au
Kia ora Jane,
Thank you Jane Campion
Thank you for making me proud to be a New Zealander. Your request to have your film withdrawn from the Jerusalem Film Festival is encouraging and inspiring. So many other film directors are too nervous to challenge Israel for fear of false smears of anti-semitism but you have taken a principled position. I applaud you for doing so.
This is a moment of pride for Aotearoa New Zealand – similar to the pride we felt when New Zealand entertainer Lorde cancelled a scheduled concert in Israel in 2018.
The Jerusalem Film Festival is partnered with the apartheid Israel Ministry of Culture. It is part of Israel’s apartheid establishment. Just as we protested and boycotted apartheid South Africa last century, we must challenge apartheid Israel in the same way this century.
We must stand up for human rights everywhere and not give apartheid Israel a free pass to abuse Palestinians.
Thank you again Jane Campion.
<your Name>
Another thing you can do right now with just a few clicks…
Post a meme about PUMA’s collaboration with apartheid Israel. Try to post a different meme each day the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Football Cup continues.
PUMA is sponsoring Israeli football teams in illegal Israeli settlements the occupied Palestinian territories. More details are here and a selection of memes and social media messages are here. Here is one of the memes:
Let’s keep this up throughout the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Football Cup tournament.
Palestine Film Festival on Waiheke Island
All movies are held at:
Waiheke Island Community Cinema
127-129 Ocean View Road,
Oneroa, Auckland 1081
Tickets are $10.00 at the door
proceeds to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
For city visitors, ferries (Fullers) on the hour from Downtown Ferry Building, with Waiheke bus link-up and stop outside cinema (1 Km).
Tickets at door but booking recommended: online: www.waihekecinema.co.nz select 'online booking' or ph: (09) 3724240.
Please check the PSNA Facebook events page for full information.
PLEASE NOTE: Donations to the film festival would be greatly appreciated so all the proceeds from the screenings can go to humanitarian work for Palestinians in occupied Palestine. If you can help then please contact Liz on 021 1752218.
Saturday July 29 - 7:30 pm
From Balfour to Banksy, 72 mins
dir. Martin Buckley, 2020
Facebook Event with details
Sunday July 30 - 5:00 pm
Gaza Fights for Freedom, 84 mins
dir. Abby Martin, 2019
Facebook Event with details
Monday July 31 - 7:30 pm
Farha, 92 mins
dir. Darrin J. Sallam, 2021
Facebook Event with details
Tuesday August 1 - 5:00pm
Tantura, 94 mins
dir. Alon Schwarz, 2022
Facebook Event with details
Wednesday August 2 - 7.30 pm
Walled Off - The Other Side of Oslo
dir. Vin Arfuso, 2023, prods Anwar Hadid, Kweku Mandela, Roger Waters, 90 mins
Facebook Event with details
Thursday August 3 - 7:30 pm
Mayor, 83 mins
Dir. David Osit, 2020
and
Seven Jewish Children: a play for Gaza, 20 mins
by Caryl Churchill, Waiheke production
Facebook Event with details
If you would like to be involved in helping with these events, Please contact Liz on 021 1752218
Cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald with Netanyahu in the driver’s seat…
The cost of fighting the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel
Back in the 1980s international entertainers were lured to apartheid South Africa’s “Sun City” – a huge, lavish entertainment centre in one of South Africa’s bantustans – with lucrative appearance fees as the white regime fought the entertainment boycott of Apartheid South Africa. Entertainers responded with the song “Ain’t gonna play Sun City”.
New Zealand entertainer Lorde cancelled a show in Israel in 2018 in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle
Today apartheid Israel is fighting a similar boycott as entertainers shun playing or performing in the racist state – despite huge appearance fees. Here is an except from PACBI’s Samir Eskanda’s piece on Jacobin. (PACBI is the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel)
Israeli and international media have long reported on the unusually high fees that Israeli promoters routinely offer, reflecting concerns about a “silent boycott” that stretch back years. According to the cultural correspondent of a major Israeli news outlet, international artists performing in the country “get much more money than in any other place in the world.”
David Caspi, a former communications sergeant for the Israeli military, has explained how Israeli promoters now pay “more than double the usual artist fee.” Caspi quotes a cofounder of Live Nation Israel, the country’s leading concert firm, who talks about a constant struggle to defeat the advocates of a cultural boycott: “Our war against them is daily.”
Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams reportedly paid Madonna a million dollars to perform in Tel Aviv to contribute to the “strengthening of Israel’s positive branding in the world.” His late father, Marcel Adams, previously helped to finance Israeli performances of several international artists including Leonard Cohen.
Israeli government ministers and diplomats stationed around the world are also directly involved in this large-scale art-washing operation. When Radiohead ignored Palestinian appeals and performed in Tel Aviv, Israel’s strategic affairs minister Gilad Erdan, who was leading Israel’s anti-BDS efforts, told CNN “we salute Radiohead.”
Israeli embassies all over the world praised the performances by Radiohead and Nick Cave, crossing the Palestinian picket line, as groups like Artists for Palestine UK had predicted. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson declared “bravo Nick Cave.” The promoter of Radiohead’s concert secured a permit for the venue after presenting the show as a victory for Israeli propaganda efforts. The Israeli foreign ministry itself gave the OK.
Before Lana Del Rey cancelled her performance at Israel’s Meteor festival in 2018, the Israeli government’s anti-BDS app was directing its supporters to comment on her social media posts. Del Rey was one of twenty international artists to withdraw from the festival.
Many other artists have cancelled Israeli concerts and other appearances after moral appeals from Palestinian and international artists and human rights defenders — most recently Buddy Guy, Sam Smith, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Natalie Portman, and Big Thief. Others include Lorde, Shakira, Lauryn Hill, Elvis Costello, and many more.
Thousands of artists worldwide have publicly endorsed BDS and the cultural boycott of Israel, including musicians, DJs, filmmakers and actors, visual artists, black artists, Latin American artists, and countless others across all fields and continents. This is in spite of efforts made by Israeli government-linked lobby groups like the so-called “Creative Community for Peace.” These actions of meaningful solidarity are deeply moving to Palestinians.
The Palestinian-led BDS movement aims for the end of Israel’s military occupation, to achieve full equality for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and to secure the right of return for Palestinian refugees. BDS isn’t asking international artists to come and save Palestinians. We are just asking them to, at the very least, not undermine our nonviolent movement.
Beyond this fundamental moral duty is the recognition that powerful international pressure and inspiring solidarity helped to end apartheid in South Africa. It can help to dismantle Israel’s decades-old regime of apartheid, occupation, and settler-colonialism against indigenous Palestinians too.
Swim in solidarity with Gaza’s children on August 26th
PSNA will be supporting this Swim with Gaza action on 26th August.
So get your togs out and get ready – more details in the next newsletter…
American attitudes are changing
(from the latest Mondoweiss newsletter)
I have noted it in this newsletter dozens of times, but the Democratic Party is out of step with its constituency when it comes to Israel. The vast majority of House Democrats back a resolution proclaiming that Israel is not an apartheid state, but 44% of Democratic voters say it is.
Yasmeen Serhan has a piece in Time (the most mainstream of mainstream publications!) rounding up similar data.
“While these Democrats may be in the minority among their congressional peers, their positions are more mainstream than the D.C. establishment might suggest. Polls this year have shown that the gap between the American public and those elected to represent them is widening when it comes to U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly among Democrats,” she writes. “This year, for the first time, an annual Gallup survey found that Democrats’ sympathies lie more with Palestinians than Israelis by a margin of 49% to 38%. The survey found that sympathy toward Palestinians among U.S. adults is at a new high of 31%, while the proportion not favoring either side is at a new low of 15%. That’s a remarkable shift from only a decade ago, when sympathy toward Palestinians stood at just 12%. During that same period, sympathy toward Israelis has declined from 64% to 54%.”
There’s important new polling from Shibley Telhami at the Brookings Institute that we have to throw into the mix when citing these developments. Respondents were asked, “If a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians were not possible, meaning the West Bank and Gaza had to be under Israeli control indefinitely, which of the following would be closer to your view?”
Almost 75% of Americans, including 80% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans, say they would choose a democratic Israel that isn’t Jewish, over a Jewish Israel without full citizenship and equality for non-Jews living under its authority.
There’s other intriguing data here: 62% of Americans say they don’t know whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism, while 21% said they did not think it was and 15% said they did. Excluding the respondents who don’t know, 56% say attitudes against Zionism are not antisemitic. That includes 64% of Democrats.
Excluding those unfamiliar with Zionism, 49% of respondents said they have neither a positive nor a negative view of it, including 50% of Republicans and 44% of Democrats. Overall, respondents saw Zionism (30%) more negatively than positively (21%). Just 20% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans said they had a positive view of Zionism.
So, the majority of Americans aren’t concerned with Israel remaining a Jewish state if the two-state solution is dead. The majority of those who know what anti-Zionism is don’t believe it’s antisemitic, and Zionism isn’t nearly as popular as pro-Israel groups make it out to be.
The human cost of Israel’s brutal military occupation and oppression of Palestinians
Figures released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) show that in the last six months alone at least 174 Palestinians, including 153 civilians and 25 children, have been killed and 6,336 injured by Israeli soldiers and settlers (through to June 24). In contrast, Palestinians have killed 23 Israeli civilians (of which 15 are settlers) including 4 children and injured 143. Every life is precious, and all lives lost are a tragedy; but Israel, its lobby and their stooges in some media would have us believe that Israel is not colonialist, oppressing and racially discriminating against the Palestinian people, and denying the refugees they ethnically cleansed the human right to return to their homeland just because they are not Jews, but a peace loving country defending itself from aggressive bloodthirsty Palestinians who just want to kill Jews.
The figures below released by OCHA, represent the number of Palestinians and Israelis who were killed or injured only in the last fifteen years (since 2008), in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in the context of the occupation and conflict.
Handala’s return
The Palestinian Feminist Collective is proud to announce the launch of a children’s story and workbook called Handala’s return.
More information about the cartoon character Handala and his significance is on the Palestinian Feminist Collective website where you can also download the book.
Note: The Freedom flotilla boat to Gaza this year is called Handala. The latest update on the flotilla and its visit to Cardiff in Wales is here.
The Handala prepares to head to GAZA later this year.
Antony Loewenstein’s visit a huge success
We were very pleased with the strong public interest in Antony Loewenstein’s whirlwind tour of Aotearoa New Zealand. He was a delight to host, warm and engaging with his audiences and very clearly and patiently explained the issues of Israel’s apartheid policies and occupation of Palestine. Many dozens of copies of his book “The Palestine Laboratory” were sold at the meetings.
If you don’t have a copy then please ask your local library to get copies in.
Antony was interviewed on Radio New Zealand by Kim Hill (If you missed the interview it is well worth listening to) as well as being interviewed by the Listener here – paywalled unfortunately. You may have to buy a copy to read the excellent interview.
PSNA in the news…
PSNA National Chair John Minto had this opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald on 4 July. It’s been reprinted on the Days of Palestine website where it is easier to read.
The ongoing problems with government tweets…
The government has put out several tweets recently – three of them are here and all are seriously problematic:
Anyone reading the third tweet for example would think two groups were in conflict and were equally to blame. In reality Israeli occupation forces invaded Jenin, launching air strikes with rockets and a ground attack which killed numerous Palestinian civilians, including children, as well as Palestinian resistance fighters. In this Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank Israeli occupation forces destroyed water and electricity infrastructure, dug up roads and bulldozed houses.
And the New Zealand government calls for “all parties to exercise restraint”. Seriously?
This is like asking Ukrainians to “exercise restraint” in the face of Russia’s occupation army or the French resistance to “exercise restraint” when resisting the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s.
These tweets are once-over-lightly, tick-the-box, diplomatic-speak apologies for Israeli racism, apartheid and brutality. They are softly-softly excuses for Israeli occupation violence, ethnic cleansing, theft of land and war crimes against the Palestinian people.
And then Palestinians are expected to “show restraint”? The government would be better off saying nothing than putting out meaningless messages like this.
Watch out for this man promoting racism and apartheid
Here he is – the Israeli ambassador – watch out for him around Aotearoa New Zealand – if you hear of any planned appearances or speaking engagements please contact us urgently: Email apartheid-Israel@PSNA.nz or text 027 4 APARTHEID or 027427278.
Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby
Is your property an “apartheid free zone”?
These are popping up on letterboxes and fences all over the country – to get your “Apartheid free zone” coreflute to stick on your letterbox or your front fence just deposit $5 in:
Account Name: Palestine Solidarity Network
Account Number: 38 9015 0849542 00
and send an email to secretary@PSNA.nz with your address and we’ll send you one - or as many as you’d like for your neighbours and friends….
Petition to Close the Israeli Embassy
If you haven’t signed our petition to close the Israeli embassy yet…
Scan and Sign here
Or Click and Sign here
Important stories from the Web
General
Australia, Canada, UK deeply concerned over Israeli settlements here
The challenge to Israel and its lobby here
PSNA Chair John Minto interview on Auckland student radio bFM here
Clashes are the wrong word for Israel-Palestine violence here (Video)
Financial Times called on countries to threaten boycotts of products produced in illegal Israeli settlements here
Podcast: M. Muhannad Ayyash joins host Yara Hawari to discuss liberal Zionism and the dominant role it plays in Zionist ideology here
Ban ki Moon and Mary Robinson find evidence of apartheid in Israel-Palestine here
Anticipating Israel’s counter attack – make the one democratic state solution mainstream again here
UK bill would outlaw schools and other public bodies from boycotting Israel here
Why are they trying to cancel Roger Waters here (Video)
Return to peaceful and armed struggle here
Victorian Labor gives Anthony Albanese deadline to recognise Palestine here
Australian Labour Party factions pull punches on AUKUS but back Palestine here
Fresh pressure on Albanese govt to recognise Palestine here
Albanese government must recognise Palestine this term: Victorian Labor Conference here
Australian Greens say Israel perpetrates the crime of apartheid here
Australian Greens Palestine resolution here
Israel
Israel murders five Palestinians in disastrous Jenin raid – four Israeli soldiers killed in retaliation here
Israel - Druze confrontation with the state is deeper than anger at wind farm here
The shocking truth behind the Baghdad bombings of 1950 and 1951 here
Israel's Christians horrified by hate crimes in Jerusalem here
Israel approves plans for thousands of illegal settlement homes here
Israel kills three Palestinians in West Bank drone strike here
Young Jews talk of change of heart here
Israeli brutality
Nowhere in Palestine is free: West Bank villagers defenceless against rising settler violence here
Jewish Power lawmaker threatens to blow up summer camp for Palestinian and Israeli children here
Will we see a major Israeli assault in the occupied West Bank here
Israel’s control challenged by Hezbollah in north, restive West Bank here
Deaths and injuries as Israeli occupation forces raid Jenin here
Palestine
Two key developments in the Palestinian Authority here
UNRWA Commissioner-General Calls for Sustainability of the Agency’s Services to Millions of Palestine Refugees at Advisory Commission Meeting in Beirut here
Return to peaceful and armed struggle here
Al Shabaka’s later annual report is here
Israel increasingly fears West Bank chaos and the rise of Hamas here
UN
Israel tells the UN we will not stop building in the West Bank here
UN chief encourages Israel to kill more Palestinian children here
UN slams Israel’s use of advanced military weaponry in Jenin here
US
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says its anti-semitic when people tweet “Free Palestine” at him here
Reminder: Dates for Palestine Solidarity in 2023
Israel apartheid week has been added to the dates for likely local and national Palestine solidarity activity this year.
28 Mar – 4 Apr Israel Apartheid Week
30 Mar Land Day Palestine
5 Apr Palestinian Childs Day
9 Apr Deir Yassin massacre - Irgun Terrorism - 107-120 Palestinian men, women and children massacred
17 Apr Palestinian Prisoners Day
11 May World Kufiya Day
15 May Nakba Day – marking the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in 1948
5 Jun Nakba Day - Start of 1967 War - Land Grab – Invasion of Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, Egypt and Syria - 5 June 1967 – 10 June 1967
20 Jun Attack on Gaza - 6–21 May 2021 (2 weeks and 1 day)
16-18 Sep 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres
28 Sep Second Intifada - 28 Sept 2000 – 8 Feb 2005
2 Nov Balfour Declaration
29 Nov United Nations - International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
8 Dec First Intifada - 8 Dec 1987 – 13 Sept 1993
Are you able to donate a cup of coffee a month to the campaign?
We will need some serious money to make our campaign as effective as possible. For example, we will need somewhere in the vicinity of $25,000 to bring speakers to New Zealand over the next year and organise large public meetings to help spread the message.
You can help. Are you able to donate a cup of coffee a month to the campaign? In other words, can you afford to make an automatic payment of $5 per month to support the Palestinian struggle? (If you can afford more that would be great!)
Our account details are:
Account name: Palestine Solidarity Network
Account number: 38-9015-0849542-00
We are happy to provide a receipt upon request (however, we are not a registered charity so this is not tax-deductible)
In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter – an invitation to subscribe from Leslie Bravery
Because of mainstream news media complicity, daily headlines and commentary only occasionally ever mention the relentless Israeli violence in Palestine, not even the frequent air strikes!
However, daily news and statistics regarding the violence Palestinians are forced to live under are regularly reported on in the “In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter”, sourced and compiled for easy reading and correlation chiefly from the Palestinian Monitoring Group's daily situation reports.
The In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter continues to be circulated, by email, worldwide to subscribers only, as it has been over the last two decades.
Please contact lesliebravery@icloud.com if you also wish to become a subscriber.
Merchandise for sale
We have Merchandise you can buy including T-shirts from our website.
Go here - https://www.psna.nz/shop
More ways you can get involved
Forward this Newsletter – If you know people who may be interested in this movement, please forward this Newsletter to them.
Join in local activities in your area monthly Rallies - In Auckland at 2.00 pm on the first Saturday of every month. Please consider doing the same in your community. Contact Secretary@PSNA.nz if you would like to know where and how to get Flags and Banners
Help set up a Students for Justice in Palestine groups on your campus
Tell Your MP your opinions on Divestment and Sanctions of Israel.
Write Letters to Newspapers – Call Talkback Radio
Keep in touch with the campaign on social media
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network website: https://www.PSNA.nz
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/671376706283605/
o NZ Palestine Solidarity Network email: Secretary@PSNA.nz
The Palestine Human Rights Campaign produces the In Occupied Palestine newsletter. It is a regular daily newsletter on the daily situation in Palestine, compiled by Leslie Bravery and emailed to subscribers. If you would also like to become a subscriber, please contact Leslie at “lesliebravery @ icloud .com” (remove the spaces to use as an email address) for further information.
Keep Updated on our Facebook pages and websites (listed below)
Human rights for Uyghur refugees - In line with our support for human rights for the people of Palestine we have added our name to the petition in support of human rights for Uyghur refugees so they can be included in the government’s refugee quota. PSNA members who wish to also sign this petition can do so here - https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/open-letter-let-s-show-compassion-to-the-uyghur-community
PSNA Groups
PSNA National Committee
Website: www.PSNA.nz
Chair - John Minto: Chair@PSNA.nz
Secretary - Neil Scott: Secretary@PSNA.nz
Regional Groups
Bay of Islands PSN Bay of Islands (Email)
Whangarei PSN Whangarei (Facebook)
Auckland PSN Auckland – Tamaki Makaurau (Website)
Hamilton Palestine Human Rights Campaign Waikato (Facebook)
Tauranga Tauranga Moana 4 Palestine (Facebook)
Napier/Hastings Aotearoa Standing with Palestine (Facebook)
Palmerston North PSN Palmerston North (Email)
New Plymouth PSN Taranaki (Facebook)
Wellington PSN Wellington (Email)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSN Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (Email)