Nationwide rallies and marches for Palestinians on Saturday – Nakba Day, 15 May

Nationwide rallies and marches will take place across the country this Saturday, 15 May as New Zealanders express their outrage at Israel brutality and their support for the Palestinian struggle for human rights.

The protest venues can be seen here https://www.facebook.com/Palestine-Solidarity-Network-Aotearoa-PSNA-403868133556427/events

These protests mark Nakba Day (Arabic for “catastrophe”) which remembers the mass ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land by Israeli militias in 1948.

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Sorry Nanaia – your tweet doesn’t cut the mustard – it addresses the symptoms but not the cause of violence in the Middle East

The Palestine Solidarity Movement Aotearoa has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta tonight urging the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies.

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem in which over 200 Palestinians have been injured.

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Government urged to speak out against Israel’s ethnic cleansing polices and unbridled brutality towards protesting Palestinians

The Palestine Solidarity Movement Aotearoa has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta tonight urging the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies.

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem in which over 200 Palestinians have been injured.

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Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem

We urge the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in which 200Palestinians have been injured.

Tensions have been high in East Jerusalem in recent weeks after Israeli restrictions on Palestinians around the Damascus Gate and the intervention of extreme right-wing Israeli politicians, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir who wants to “Expel the Arab enemy”. Ben-Gvir is stoking the flames of race-hatred against Palestinians while he enjoys under the protection of the Israeli army.

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Trading military equipment with Israel is a human rights outrage

Revelations that foreign affairs officials have approved the sale of military equipment to a host of human-rights-abusing countries, including Israel, is an outrage.

In recent years foreign affairs has been dominated by trade priorities with concerns for human rights sidelined. Senior foreign affairs staff at all levels have advised successive ministers of foreign affairs to prioritise trade above everything else.

The tragic outcome was seen in last night’s television one story. [See link below]

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Neil ScottIsrael, NZ Media
NZ Super Fund disinvestment in Israel banks lesson for New Zealand government

The ethical decision by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to disinvest in Israeli banks should be followed by our government according to local Palestinian supporters.

The NZ Super Fund has announced that it has dumped its investments in five Israeli banks because the Israeli banks were funding the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

A NZ Super Fund analysis “concluded the Banks are materially contributing (and are highly likely to continue to contribute) to the construction of settlement in the OPT”.

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Neil ScottIsrael, NZ Media
Misrepresentation of Israel’s Covid 19 vaccination programme

Misrepresentation of Israel’s Covid 19 vaccination programme

It is unacceptable to have Israel’s vaccination programme constantly misrepresented in the New Zealand media.

Israel is regularly being paraded as the world leader in vaccination rates but this hides an ugly, racist truth. Israel is refusing to vaccinate 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control in Gaza and the West Bank Palestinian territories.

These people are refused vaccinations because they are Palestinian while Jews living in illegal Israeli settlements nearby are vaccinated. Israel’s actual vaccination rates are much lower than claimed and reported here.

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Government must speak out on Israeli plans to demolish Palestinian medical clinic

An Israeli government demand that a medical clinic in the Occupied West Bank be demolished has raised another call from the Palestine Solidarity Network for the New Zealand government to speak out.

Israel has instructed inhabitants of the West Bank town of Zanouta to destroy many of their homes and their medical clinic. This follows an earlier Israel demolition of a Palestinians Covid 19 clinic.

PSNA Spokesperson John Minto says not only is Israel denying Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control but is using the pandemic as a cover to increase its rate of destruction of Palestinian houses and structures.

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Dolphins, discrimination and the government’s complicity by silence

With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations and demand Israel end its medical apartheid immediately and provide vaccinations to all Palestinians.

When questioned by Andrew Marr of the BBC this week, Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein likened his obligation to vaccinate Palestinians to Palestinians’ responsibility to care for “dolphins in the Mediterranean” (See interview transcript below)

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PSNA welcomes Nanaia Mahuta as new Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa welcomes Nanaia Mahuta as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs.

We hope the new appointment will bring a fresh approach to New Zealand policy in the Middle East and practical support for the Palestinian struggle.

The entire area of historic Palestine is under the longest military occupation in modern history as Israel repeatedly and blatantly defies international law and continues the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem and the theft of Palestinian land.

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