29 Hōngongoi 2026
29 July 2026

Four single clicks for Palestinian solidarity this week

1) Click here to send this message to the Prime Minister. (more background is in the PSNA media release later in the newsletter)

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Rt Hon Christopher Luxon
Prime Minister
c.luxon@ministers.govt.nz

Kia ora Mr Luxon,

Did New Zealand back the Israel/US at the ICC this week or did it back international law?

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan was ousted from his role last Friday in a vote by member states of the ICC.

The vote was preceded by intense Israeli/US lobbying against Khan because he sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Mr Luxon: Which way did New Zealand vote?

Did we capitulate to Israel/US pressure, or did we stand up for the ICC’s legal processes?

(your name)

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2) Click here to send this message to the Foreign Minister

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Rt Hon Winston Peters
Foreign Minister
w.peters@ministers.govt.nz

Kia ora Mr Peters,

36 days and still counting…

It’s been 36 days and you still appear to be “studying” the United Nations Independent Commission report on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

How is the study going?

This is the report which found that it appears the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers were engaged in a “game” of target practice with “different body parts of children being targeted on different days”.

Don’t shame New Zealand any more with your silence.

Please respond to this email urgently.

(your name)

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3) Click here to send this email to the Nauru government

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David Adeang
President of Naura
gio.nauru@nauru.gov.nr

Kia ora Mr Adeang,

We are deeply disappointed and our members have been angered to see your government intends to open an embassy in Jerusalem.

At a time when the people of the world are condemning Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children as documented in the latest report of the United Nations Independent Commission on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories you are giving comfort and support to their blatant breaches of international law, their war crimes and their genocide against the Palestinian people.

Why give comfort and political cover to an apartheid state as it continues its brutal oppression of the indigenous people of Palestine?

We urge you to take careful note of the statements of Rev James Bhagwan, the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, who warns of the dangers of Israeli diplomacy.

We urge you to reconsider this decision to establish an embassy in Jerusalem in defiance of international law and the rights of the Palestinian people.

We look forward to your response.

(your name)

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4) Click here to send this message to ACT MP Simon Court

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Simon Court
ACT MP
simon.Court@parliament.govt.nz

Kia ora Mr Court,

Will you accept the challenge from the Palestine Solidarity Network to publicly debate Palestine/Israel?

If not why not?

(your name)

Items in this newsletter

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week
Webinar with Francesca Albanese: “When the world sleeps”
PSNA full-page ad in Wellington’s Post newspaper this week
PSNA ad hits a raw nerve with ACT MP Simon Court
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” film coming this month
Free Palestine political party update
Notes on Video making – Part 1
Did New Zealand back the Israel/US at the ICC this week or did it back international law?
Israel buying Naura embassy in Jerusalem
Quotes of the week
Important stories this week

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture

Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners
Two new Palestine films in NZ Int Film Festival

Regular items

“Sitting on the Fence” documentary now available for general release
Your KiwiSaver may be funding violations of Palestinian rights
Join the ICC Six watch
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.

Webinar with Francesca Albanese: “When the world sleeps”

Note this is on at 9pm New Zealand time on Thursday 30th July.

PSNA is joining with other Palestine solidarity groups in Australia to support and promote this important webinar. It will be well worth the watch.

Francesca Albanese has refused to be silent. Join us live online for When the World Sleeps, a vital conversation on Palestine, genocide, international law and the attempts to sanction and silence those who speak the truth. With Francesca Albanese, Antony Loewenstein and Chris Sidoti.

30 July, 9pm New Zealand time. Register now: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist

PSNA’s full page advertisement this week in Wellington’s Post newspaper

PSNA took to the Post newspaper this week to highlight the latest report from the United Nations Independent Commission on Israel and occupied Palestine. This report highlights the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by the Israeli military in the most shocking and barbaric manner imaginable.

And still our government stays silent through an awful combination of a Foreign Minister who is in active complicity with Israel’s genocide and a weak Prime Minister.

If you can help fund this newspaper ad and future such ads then please donate to PSNA using the account name and number at the bottom of the ad.

The PSNA ad hits a raw nerve with ACT MP Simon Court who issued a diatribe of Israeli propaganda in response

It’s a great ad and it didn’t take long for ACT MP Simon Court to attack us in a fact-free diatribe of Israeli propaganda on Facebook.

Mr Court has been challenged to publicly debate the issues but always refuses.

PSNA has repeated the challenge to a public debate with Mr Court.

Come on Simon – have the courage of your convictions and take up the challenge!

The Voice of Hind Rajab – new film will be at NZ International Film Festival later this year

In The Voice of Hind Rajab, the voice in question is a small one, belonging to a young girl alone and in unconscionable peril, high and breathless with fear and confusion. But it cuts through Kaouther Ben Hania’s film with piercing clarity, largely because, in contrast to a surrounding chorus of frantic adult voices, it isn’t performed. Rather, it’s a real-life recording of the last words ever spoken by Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian child killed on Jan. 29, 2024, after her family’s car was shelled by Israeli forces during their invasion of the Gaza Strip. In her final hours, the girl repeatedly phoned call-center volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society, pleading for a rescue vehicle that never made it to her.

Making that horrifying 70-minute audio file the heart and spine of her film, Ben Hania baldly confronts her audience with the real-time fate of one of more than 18,000 children killed so far in an ongoing genocide.

If The Voice of Hind Rajab opens one hitherto blinkered eye, or ear, to the atrocities in Gaza, it will have done its job. - Guy Lodge, Variety

More information here

Free Palestine Party Registration Update

Notice from the Free Palestine Party:

Kia ora to all party members,

This is an update on where we are with the process of registering The Free Palestine Party.

Firstly, if you are receiving this email, you are a member of the party. We know some of you don’t seem to have received a confirmation email.

The public submission phase of the party registration process has just finished. We received 207 submissions against our party registration. We have responded to these submissions within the four days that the commission gave us. It is our understanding that when the Electoral Commission board meets next, they will decide on our party’s registration.

We feel confident that the party will be registered, as the submissions made no credible objections to our party name or logo. With that in mind, we intend to hold a planning meeting here in Christchurch on the Thursday 6th of August for the launch of the party and our election campaign. The meeting will be held at The Dell, 19 Church Square, at 7 pm - 8 pm. All party members are welcome.

We will email out a Zoom link for those out of Christchurch to be able to contribute. To make this logistically manageable, those out of Christchurch will be able to put in questions, suggestions, ideas, etc as messages in the Zoom chat that the chairperson will put in the meeting.

Below are some ideas for the party’s launch meeting agenda. We will update the meeting agenda when we send out the Zoom link. Please feel free to email any suggestions for the meeting agenda.

Thank you to all our members for your support and patience.

Free Palestine!

Resistance Until Victory!

Paul Hopkinson
President
Free Palestine Party

You can join the Free Palestine Party by registering at https://www.palfree.nz/

Notes on Video Production

This is the first of a series of short notes about how we improve communicating our messages through social media.

Filming Protests – Part One

The best way to learn how to make memorable and interesting video clips for posting online is to consciously watch what other techniques other people have used in the entertainment or news media that captures your attention.

It also helps to check through this list to pick up some basic hints on how to shoot material to begin with.

Your ideal production team is three people, two with handicams for the video and the other person looks after the still photos. Professionals avoid trying to do video at the same time as the still photos if they can. Shooting stills and video are quite different skills. Keep your focus (pun intended) and that includes not being distracted by having other duties at the protest.
Cheaper handicams can give amazing image quality, so you don’t need to go expensive. Handicams give you a ‘landscape’ format, which can be edited to fit a ‘portrait’ image frame. Cellphones held upright only record a portrait which can’t be edited to landscape without compromising the image quality. As you get experience you will find that Handicams also give you much more and easier control over your filming than do cellphones.
With two video cameras you can edit to show an action or speech from different angles and range.
In particular for a speech. Fix one camera on a tripod framing the speechmaker from at least the waist up. This can be used to record the whole speech from beginning to end.
The other camera is mobile. You can go right in close to the speaker, even to the extent that their face fills the whole frame. Don’t be afraid to go in close. Take video from different angles and distances and heights. Then edit the two camera’s material together.

We’ll have some more video hints in upcoming PSNA Newsletters.

It would be great to get your feedback or questions in the meantime. Please send comments, questions and suggestions to Secretary@PSNA.nz

Did New Zealand back the Israel/US at the ICC this week or did it back international law?

PSNA media release online here

PSNA has today challenged the Prime Minister to explain why his government has not revealed how New Zealand voted at the International Criminal Court on Friday when ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan was ousted from his role after intense Israeli/US lobbying.

Khan is under attack from Israel and the US because he sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says Israel and the US intensified their lobbying and diplomatic bullying after an ICC Judicial Panel established to examine the evidence on claims of sexual abuse against Khan declared they were ‘unanimously of the opinion that the factual findings by OIOS (the ICC evidence collecting body) do not establish misconduct or breach of duty under the relevant legal framework’.

Israel and the US rejected the ICC legal ruling and demanded a vote of all member states of the ICC to remove Khan. That vote was held on Friday and Khan removed from office.

“The key question for Mr Luxon is ‘Did we capitulate to Israel/US pressure, or did we stand up for the ICC’s legal processes?” Tamimi says.

“We are not able to make any judgement on the allegations against Mr Khan, but New Zealand should have voted against his expulsion and insisted a proper judicial process be followed”

“Did we?” asks Ms Tamimi.

“In October last year, Foreign Minister Winston Peters issued a formal statement, with Nordic ministers in Stockholm, to ‘reaffirm our unwavering support for the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court’.”

“Did Mr Peters we waver on Friday?”

“New Zealand has already failed numerous times to uphold international law in the face of Israeli/US pressure. We want an assurance the Coalition didn’t throw in the towel again”

Israel buying Nauru embassy in Jerusalem

This PSNA media release is online here

PSNA says the news this week of Nauru opening an embassy in Jerusalem is an alarming indication of Israel diplomatically consolidating its illegal occupation of Palestinian Territory and buying Pacific votes in the United Nations.

Israel and the government of Nauru have announced Nauru will open an embassy in Jerusalem, following an announcement in January that Samoa would locate its embassy there.

Papua New Guinea and Fiji have already established their embassies in Jerusalem, along with the US, Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala and Kosovo.

All other countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, to avoid inferring approval of Israeli sovereignty claims over Jerusalem.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says Israel is unashamedly using Pacific countries to undermine the international consensus that Israel’s claims over all of Jerusalem are legally not valid.

“That nearly half of the countries with embassies in Jerusalem are from the Pacific clearly shows the effort and dollars Israel is putting into the region.”

“Tuvalu, with a population of 12,000, has only five diplomatic posts in the entire world, and suddenly its government finds a need to have another one in Jerusalem.”

“The other concerning aspect is the Pacific votes in the United Nations. In 2024 there was a landmark vote in the United Nations to instruct Israel that it had 12 months to get out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

“New Zealand voted in favour, along with 123 other countries. But seven Pacific nations voted against upholding this statement of international law. That was half of the 14 countries who voted against,” Tamimi says.

“Obviously we are in favour of Pacific countries being independent and making their own choices. But PSNA is speaking out to support indigenous groups in those countries who see Israel as a highly aggressive modern colonial venture which should not be permitted by their governments to manipulate the Pacific for its interests against international law.”

“New Zealand’s government is critical when it believes other countries are increasing their interests in the Pacific. It’s time Wellington made the same statements about Israel.”

Quotes of the week – no surprises here

“There are some people within their (Israel’s) system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely.

Not toward any objective, but just indefinitely.”

—JD Vance; US Vice President

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“I tried to break the door, but there was a huge fire behind it.

We brought six buckets of water, but they did nothing.

As the flames reached us, I realized the window bars had opened from the blast, giving us a chance to jump from the first floor.

I threw my children, my wife, and my mother out. It was our only way to survive.”

—Mohammed Al Masri; Brother of Firas Al Masri who Israel Burned to Death in Gaza

Important stories this week

Editor’s picks

Palestine Forum of NZ condemns ‘provocative’ Israeli assault on Al-Aqsa Mosque, demands govt action here
Israeli Settlers Set Up At Least Six New Colonial Outposts After Friday Killings in the Occupied West Bank here
Why Israel needs to continue its genocidal war on Gaza here
Israel accused of ‘buying Pacific votes’ over plan to open Nauru embassy in Jerusalem here
Media avoids Israel’s sadism like a crocodile-infested moat here
Israel Firebombed a Family Home Where Children Were Sleeping in Latest Killing Spree here
Nauru’s government announces plans for embassy in Israel here

Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners

View this short video about this amazing production

If you believe these voices deserve to be heard, we’d be deeply grateful for your support

https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/asra/

Two new Palestine films in the New Zealand International Film Festival

As you know the NZ International Film Festival is showing the following two great Palestinian films. If you would like to secure a group booking, distribute leaflets or sell merchandise in your local area then our secretary Anne should be able to help. Email her at secretary@PSNA.nz

With Hasan in Gaza

With Hasan in Gaza - In rediscovered 2001 camcorder footage, acclaimed Palestinian director Kamal Aljafari goes in search of a man he once met when they were prisoners, in a heartfelt tribute to the lost of Gaza, and the life that persists.

Auckland Thu 30 July at 8pm (ACA)
Christchurch Sun 16 August at 4.30pm (LUM)

Chronicles from the siege

Chronicles of a Siege - Palestinian-Syrian director Abdallah Alkhatib’s Berlin Film Festival winner is an absurdist, inventive tapestry of tales from a besieged city, where the desires of its citizens become sparks of resistance against oblivion. 

Auckland Saturday 8 August 2pm (HWB)
Christchurch Sunday 16 August 2.45pm (JMA)

Regular items

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“Sitting on the Fence” now available online

In Sitting On The Fence, Kiwi voices speaking truth to power in Aotearoa, US and Israel over their complicity in genocide have at last been given the platform that those in Parliament, the media and diplomacy have sought to silence.” Jane Kelsey - Emeritus Professor of Law, Auckland University, Aotearoa / New Zealand

With the NZ International Film Festival not selecting Sitting On The Fence it can now finally be released online in NZ.

The film can be viewed at this link www.sittingonthefence.tv. Please share on your social media networks.

Your KiwiSaver may be funding violations of Palestinian rights

Important message from Barry Coates – founder and CEO of Mindful Money

(Website: mindfulmoney.nz. Join our mailing list here)

The judgement won by PSNA forcing the NZ Super Fund to review its investments in four companies that violate the rights of Palestinian people was important. It also sends a warning across the bow of KiwiSaver and other investment funds funds. You may not realise it, but your KiwiSaver might be invested in those four companies.

Mindful Money is a charity that tracks investment in KiwiSaver, including companies on the United Nations Human Rights Council database of companies involved in the building and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Our analysis shows there is even more invested in the four companies by KiwiSaver funds than by the NZ Super Fund.

So what can you do? Check your fund – it is free, quick and easy to do so. Go to www.mindfulmoney.nz, type in the name of your KiwiSaver fund into the Fund Checker, click the button ‘Show Companies’ and look for the companies with an OPT symbol. If you see any of those companies in your fund, write to your fund manager (the address is on your KiwiSaver statement) and tell them you don’t want your savings going to those companies.

If you want to shift to a fund that doesn’t invest in those companies, use the Fund Finder to find a Mindful Ethical Fund. You can also use the same website for non-KiwiSaver managed funds.

It’s your money. Don’t let it be used to fund companies that violate human rights.

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