4 Poutū-te-rangi 2026
4 March 2026

Newsletter No 230

Items in this newsletter

New Items

Nationwide rallies/marches/vigils this week
PSNA National Hui in Rotorua – Friday May 1 to Sunday May 3
Israel’s genocide in Gaza – PSNA resource on genocide
A couple of letters this week
Some pics from around the country
No room for Genocide – BDS campaign
Update on Flowers for Palestine
City Councilor tries to stop Palestine protests at Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance
My Name is Rachel Corrie – for Tamaki/Auckland supporters
Important stories this week

REGULAR ITEMS

MPs Complicit with Genocide
Keep spreading the message about the Genocide Hotline!
Annual Palestinian Solidarity Dates
How to Donate
Palestine Solidarity Groups around Aotearoa

Nationwide rallies/marches/MP protests/vigils this week

To view events around Aotearoa:

We have an events page on our website as well as a Facebook events page

PSNA Website events page:

You can find it here – www.PSNA.nz/Events

The QR code for the PSNA website events page is this:

It is updated on Wednesday afternoon and ongoing as events are notified to us. Please check back on Friday afternoon to see if there has been Additions or Changes.

Or go to the PSNA Homepage – www.PSNA.nz. Scroll down to the button “For a list of events Nationwide, please click here - Check back often for updates”. Click the button. Check back on Friday for any moves, adds or changes

PSNA Facebook events page

Go to the PSNA Facebook events page here

There are more than 30 events around the Motu this week.

PSNA National meeting in Rotorua

– 5pm Friday May 1 to 1pm Sunday May 3, 2026 –

PSNA are holding our National Hui in Rotorua on Friday 1st of May to Sunday 3rd of May. The venue is a marae where most people will be able to stay with any extra accommodation provided in cabins or billeting with locals. Alternatively you may like to make your own accommodation arrangements.

PSNA will be covering the cost of meals and accommodation and we’d like you to register with Anne secretary@psna.nz as soon as possible to help with planning.

We imagine most people coming from the South Island and lower North Island will need to fly and others will come by car. Either way if you need help with a travel subsidy please let Anne know.

If you are flying we advise to BOOK NOW to get reasonably priced airfares.

Please note there will be a Mihi Whakatau (welcome) late on Friday afternoon so please try to arrive by 5pm on the Friday.

This national will be a critically important event for people from around the country to come together to build the campaign to isolate genocidal, apartheid Israel and build the campaign for Palestinian liberation.

We are fighting the most important human rights issue of the 21st century and we need your help to shape, plan and organize for the future.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza – PSNA resource on genocide

Check out the new resource here https://www.psna.nz/reports-of-israeli-genocide-in-gaza

The QR code for this page is

Please save this QR code to your phone so you can share the link with friends and other people who want to know more.

A couple of letters this week

Some pics from around the country

**The letter below explains this protest in Ngāmotu/New Plymouth**

Kia ora Mayor Brough,

I am a resident of Ngāmotu New Plymouth and strongly object to the display of American flags during the Americarna event. I was particularly shocked to see the American flag flying next to the Tino Rangatiratanga flag at the council building.

A flag is a powerful political symbol of a country, and in view of the US imperialism and its role in funding and supporting a genocide in Gaza, disregarding International law, sanctioning the UN, illegally sanctioning and attacking sovereign nations while terrorizing and killing its own citizens, I would like to request that the flag, now representing military aggression and lawlessness, not be displayed at NPDC, so we can avoid the perception of support by our council and residents for these abuses of International law and human rights.

Ngā mihi

Kate Cole
Palestinian Solidarity Taranaki

**Ngāmotu/New Plymouth swims with Gaza**

**And plenty of flags to amplify the protest…**

No room for genocide

This is a BDS campaign against companies advertising booking in homes in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

From the BDS organisers:

Since the launch of our No Room for Genocide campaign, ethical hospitality businesses, grassroots organizations and conscientious individuals across the world have joined us. They are pressuring their respective governments to meet their legal obligations and ensure those who have been implicated in the commission of genocide, apartheid and war crimes against Palestinians are not provided safe haven in their territories.

The BDS movement has just launched two new tools to amplify this campaign.

Are you running a hotel or a B&B, a trek or a café, etc.?

You can do your part now, joining businesses, communities, and neighbourhoods to ensure they don’t host war criminals and genocidaires: Sign the pledge to be a Sanctuary of Peace and join a growing number of businesses that are taking a stand worldwide

Sign the sanctuary pledge here

Are you using Booking.com and Airbnb?

They list illegal settlement properties built on stolen Palestinian land, a war crime under international law, as Israeli rentals on their sites. Escalate our BDS campaign to pressure both companies to end their complicity by signing the pledge as an ethical traveller.

Sign the pledge to drop Airbnb and Booking.com here

Update on Flowers for Palestine

City Councilor loses vote to stop Palestine protests at Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance

Christchurch could have protest-free zones at 'sensitive sites' rnz.co.nz

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2019025357/councillor-rallying-for-protest-to-be-banned-from-parts-of-christchurch

PSNA presentation to Council opposing the notice of motion on 4 March 2026

John Minto – Co-Chair PSNA – delivered this presentation at the council meeting on 4 March

The good news is the motion was lost 8 to 7.

The agenda for this council meeting has a notice of motion at Item 20 in the name of Councillor Keown which calls for council staff to report on the possibility of creating protest-free zones in Christchurch with a focus on the Bridge of Remembrance, cemeteries and Churches.

It’s clear to me the notice of motion is focused on the regular Palestine solidarity protests at the Bridge of Remembrance – if that’s not the case I’m sure Councillor Keown who has moved this notice of motion will correct me.

Incidentally, the only protest I’ve been to in a cemetery was in Auckland to protest the spraying of swastikas on Jewish Graves in the Symonds Street cemetery and to show solidarity with the Jewish community against this anti-semitic attack. I’m sure if Councillor Keown had been there he would have joined me at that protest despite the notice of motion he has put forward today.

The Bridge of Remembrance is the most appropriate site in Christchurch for protests in support of Palestinian liberation.

Etched into the sandstone of the bridge are the names of the regions where New Zealand soldiers were killed in the First and Second World Wars. These names include “Palestine” prominently carved in bold letters on both sides of the bridge reminds us that New Zealand soldiers died to liberate Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during WWI.

Subsequently the British betrayed the Palestinians by refusing to allow Palestinian independence (they agreed to other independent Arab states) and instead supported forming a Jewish state in Palestine – a state that was formed in 1948 by driving 750,000 Palestinians off their land and murdering 15,000 Palestinian men, women and children in the process. It’s a process that continues today – every day more Palestinians are killed, more Palestinian land is stolen by Israel and the Israeli leadership says they will never agree to a Palestinian state between the river and the sea.

The Gaza War cemetery has the graves of 21 New Zealanders and two from the Cook Islands (who fought with the Māori Pioneer battalion)

Seven of those 23 graves are of soldiers from Canterbury.

Last year Israel bulldozed part of the cemetery in Gaza – the Australians has spoken loudly about this but of course nothing from our cowardly New Zealand government. I would invite the Christchurch City Council to take this up with the government – we should be protesting Israel’s desecration of New Zealand war graves.

This notice of motion is an attack on the right to protest under the Bill of Rights Act (BORA) and the right to free speech. Having the right to protest only at designated places reflects the actions of authoritarian states which allow protests in a cul de sac on the other side of town and out of the public eye.

Palestine is the defining human rights issue of the 21st century just as the Holocaust was the defining human rights issue of the 20th century and when our government refuses to condemn the perpetrators of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide then civil society groups must take up that responsibility to call that out. New Zealanders have done this for the past two and a half years and I’m proud of that. Two to one New Zealanders support sanctions against Israel and recognition of a Palestinian state – our government refuses to do either and so the protests continue.

Mr Keown, I invite you to withdraw your notice of motion and join us at the Bridge of Remembrance this Saturday at 1pm and reflect on the lives of those Canterbury soldiers lost in the battle to liberate Palestine and join the vast majority of humanity in demanding freedom for Palestinians.

Keown’s motion was lost 8 to 7. Good News.

My name is Rachel Corrie

(for Auckland supporters)

More details are here:

My Name is Rachel Corrie | Te Pou Theatre

The show is only on for four nights in this initial run.

19-22 March

6.30pm

(Te Pou Theatre is in the Corban Estate in West Auckland)

We'd love to see you there if you can make it!

Lots of love

Acacia and the Sumud Ensemble team x

Important stories this week

Editor’s picks

NZ rally slams Five Eyes intelligence ties hours before US-Israel attack on Iran here
Amnesty slams global impunity fueling Israel’s illegal West Bank annexation measures here
The Palestine Chronicle: Roger Fowler’s legacy – a Palestinian tribute here

Regular items

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Join the ICC Six Watch

Share the poster on social media – keep alert – email ICC6@PSNA.nz if you find where any of these six genocide deniers are due to show up.

Keep spreading the message about the Genocide Hotline!

Remember possible action for local groups

For groups affiliated to PSNA we suggest the following actions could be taken at any time in support of this campaign

Asking your local backpacker accommodation to display the poster and draw it to the attention of any Israeli soldiers here on “rest and recreation” from the genocide.
Pasting the hotline poster (use the version in this newsletter which includes a contact email) around the vicinity of backpacker venues in your local area. This is already happening in some areas.
Hand out flyers to people in the vicinity of your local backpackers
Contact us on the hotline if you come across Israeli soldiers

Merchandise for sale - please check with your local branch and/or contact us Merchandise@PSNA.nz

**Recent new material – leaflets and stickers are free the bucket hats and caps are $25**

If your local branch does not have what you are after we are ready to mail to you any of our t-shirts, long ($35) and short ($30) sleeved, hoodies ($45) bumper stickers ($3), Tino/Palestine pins ($3) flags large & medium ($10 or $7) and other items plus postage.

The watermelon and the fist stickers will be back in stock early next week.

See more on the PSNA website here.

Reminder: Annual Dates for Palestine Solidarity

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)

Nationwide Rally list

To view events around Aotearoa:

Go to the PSNA Homepage – www.PSNA.nz. Scroll down to the button “For a list of events Nationwide, please click here - Check back often for updates”. Click the button. Check back on Friday for any moves, adds or changes
Or events are on the PSNA Facebook events page here
Or Scroll down to the bottom of this Newsletter for the detailed list of events for this week.
We have added a page to the PSNA website where we now post the Events list. You can find it here – www.PSNA.nz/Events

The QR code for this is:

It is updated on Wednesday afternoon and ongoing as events are notified to us. Please check back on Friday afternoon to see if there has been Additions or Changes.

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 - 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