5 Here-turi-kōkā 2026
5 August 2026

Three single clicks for Palestinian solidarity this week

1) Click here to send this message to the TVNZ Head of News (more background is in the PSNA complaint to TVNZ later in the newsletter)

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Nadia Tolich
Chief News and Content Officer
TVNZ
nadia.tolich@tvnz.co.nz

Kia ora Ms Tolich,

TVNZ’s consistent anti-Palestinian bias

We have watched as TVNZ has funnelled Israeli propaganda into our living rooms across the country for decades.

Last week (1News on Saturday 25 July 2026) on you managed to turn an Israeli pogrom against a Palestinian community into the need for Israel to launch a "major counter-terrorism operation" against Palestinians.

You inverted the truth as you have done so often by presenting Israeli narratives, Israeli explanations, Israeli justifications and plain Israeli propaganda with barely a nod to Palestinians.

This is disgusting, racist reporting. It has deadly consequences for Palestinians.

When do you intend to centre journalism in your news reports from Palestine rather than Israeli propaganda?

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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,

43 days and still counting…

How is the study going?

It’s been 43 days and you still appear to be “studying” the United Nations Independent Commission report on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

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 (Note that last week we included an email which bounced back – this is a new email)

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David Adeang
President of Naura
c/o enquirenauruparl@gmail.com

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)

Items in this newsletter

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week
TVNZ continues to funnel Israeli propaganda into our living rooms
Ron Mark would join New Zealand at the hip with genocidal Israel in Defence role
Otago University’s partnership with Palo Alto challenged
Free Palestine political party planning meeting
A few pics from around the country
Quote of the week
The alleged “rising tide of anti-semitism”
Cameron Slater emerges to attack PSNA
Notes on Video making – Part 2
Important stories this week

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture

Roger Waters and Mona Miari team up to re-record Pink Floyd classic “Comfortably numb”
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” film coming this month
Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners – tickets available now!

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.

TVNZ continues to funnel Israeli propaganda into our living rooms

Television New Zealand outdid itself last week.

For decades it has been a direct funnel for Israeli propaganda into our living rooms and last week TVNZ news editors managed to turn an Israeli pogrom against a Palestinian community into the need for Israel to launch a "major counter-terrorism operation" against Palestinians.

Here is the latest complaint we have lodged with TVNZ (We will keep you posted on the outcome)

Complaint Re 1News 6pm news bulletin on Saturday 25 July 2026 under the free to air broadcasting standard #6 related to accuracy

Context:
The context in which this news item was presented to viewers is that Israeli settlers, backed by the Israeli military, have been conducting violent attacks on Palestinian communities across the Occupied West Bank over many years, but most intensively over the past three years.

These attacks have been labelled pogroms where Palestinians have been killed, their houses and cars torched, their property destroyed, their livestock stolen and no redress available from the Israeli state.

This situation has been documented exhaustively by the United Nations, human rights groups in Israel and internationally – including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. There are thousands of videos online recorded these attacks as well as numerous in-depth analyses showing this is a central strategy of the Israeli state to steal Palestinian land and dispossess the Palestinian people.

The New Zealand government has a public list of the most notorious of these settlers who it refuses to let enter New Zealand.

All this would have been known to 1News editors even if 1News has chosen not to inform the wider public in any significant manner in its news bulletins.

1News report on Saturday 25 July 6pm:
The news report included some indeterminate footage with the 1News presenter saying:

“Israel has launched a major counterterrorism offensive in the Occupied West Bank following a deadly clash between Palestinian residents and Israeli settlers and security forces. Four Palestinians and two Israelis including a security guard and a soldier were killed in the incident in a village south of Nablus. Several others from both groups were injured.

Palestinians say settlers targeted their homes. Israel says a group of Israeli hikers were attacked”

Our complaint:
1News framed the report in Israeli propaganda terms by stating “Israel has launched a major counterterrorism offensive”.

1News failed to attribute its description of a “counterterrorism offensive” to whatever Israeli sources it was relying on to frame it in such a way.

A “counterterrorism offensive” is an Israeli government claim. 1News has reported it as a fact, that Israel is responding and not initiating action, and that the nature of that action is “counterterrorism”.

The 1News claim is similar to the non-attribution of a statement made by ThreeNews, for which the BSA upheld a complaint, on 22 April 2025-081, when the reporter stated that “Israel chose to respond to … ceasefire violations”.

In the 25 July instance, viewers are told by 1News that Israel was responding to a terrorist attack, or attacks, of some sort. However, it was blatantly clear to anyone who had read any online reports that the recent violence started as a co-ordinated settler pogrom against a Palestinian community with the Israeli government endorsed aim of ethnic cleansing.

The 1News framing editorially points the finger at Palestinians as the attackers/aggressors and Israelis as the victims – the inverse of the truth.

1News’ presentation of Israel’s justification for its “counterterrorism offensive” is a response to “an attack on Israeli hikers”.

This Israeli explanation would have been ignored or pointed out as not true, if it had been subjected to basic journalistic scrutiny.

In the context of the incident described above it was so implausible as to be laughable. Hikers don’t set fire to vehicles, destroy property and terrorise Palestinian families. There was plenty of evidence available for 1News to ignore or dismiss Israel’s explanation.

Alongside the lead-in to the story, the 1News description of a “deadly clash”’ is an assumption of it being Palestinians who were in the wrong.

The 1News report helps give political cover to Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing policies against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It encourages viewers to see Palestinians as the problem. Such framing of events gives Israel impunity in its war crimes (ethnic cleansing is a war crime).

It is literally a deadly framing for Palestinians.

This 1News report, like the majority of western agency reporting on the Middle East, centres Israeli narratives, Israeli explanations and Israeli justifications with barely a passing nod to Palestinians.

The report amounts to a lie.

Ron Mark would join New Zealand at the hip with genocidal Israel in Defence role

PSNA media release 3 August

PSNA is alarmed that former Defence Minister Ron Mark wants the same job again in a government after the election.

Ron Mark has just been announced as New Zealand’s First candidate for Wairarapa.

The last time Ron Mark was Defence Minister he invited the Israeli Prime Minister, and now cited war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit New Zealand.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa spokesperson, Rinad Tamimi, says the invite was part of a nauseating display of obsequiousness from Mark towards Netanyahu when they met in Israel in 2019. Video of their meeting is here.

Tamimi says the meeting and invitation was the basis for an even more sinister visit in Israel. – a tour of the leading Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

“Elbit is vital for Israel’s capacity to conduct its genocide in Gaza. In Britian, Palestinians supporters are languishing for up to eight years in prison for attempting to disrupt Elbit’s war drone production in the UK. Elbit is looking for safer places to make their weapons.”

“I’d like to hear Ron Mark deny he would buy Israeli war or surveillance technology from Israel, or would allow or invite Elbit, or any other Israeli arms manufacturers, to make their death machines in our country.”

“The man is singularly unsuited to be in cabinet in any capacity. On past experience, he won’t stand up for New Zealand values or our support for international law. His track record indicates he’s an extremist ‘Israel First’ politician, like American politicians Mike Hukabee and Ted Cruz, who unashamedly put Israel ahead of their own country.”

“When Mark met with Netanyahu in 2019, the Israeli government was busy building illegal Israeli settlements across Palestinian land in the Occupied Werst Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem” says Tamimi.

“Netanyahu’s forces were terrorising Palestinian communities after Netanyahu had passed his Nation State Law which specifically denies Palestinians self-determination in the land of their birth.”

“All this was lost on the hapless Ron Mark from the Wairarapa. He had eyes only for the Israeli PM and didn’t raise any objections to Israel’s racist apartheid policies against Palestinians, nor did he meet any Palestinians during his visit.”

“And visiting Elbit Systems in Israel further underlines his lack of suitability or basic common sense we might have assumed him to have.”

“European countries are getting out of supplying war materials to Israel. The NZ Superfund had divested from Elbit Systems by 2019, because the company flouted international law when it built Israel’s apartheid wall in Occupied West Bank in the early 2000’s. This was all lost on Foreign Affairs and Mark, who instead delighted in discussing Israel’s newest weapons of death – tested on Palestinians.”

Otago University’s partnership with Palo Alto challenged

And here is how the ODT reported the subsequent protest:

Free Palestine Party meeting to plan party launch event

Meeting of party members to discuss the party launch.

Thursday 6th August
7 pm - 8 pm
The Dell, 19 Church Square, Addington, Christchurch
Or via Zoom

All party members are welcome.

We will email out a Zoom link for those out of Christchurch to be able to contribute.

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

A few pics from around the country this week…

Quote of the week

“If the State of Israel had a real system of justice, Katz (Israeli Defence Minister ed) would have been arrested when he left the auditorium.

If the international community had an effective justice system, he would have been put on a global most wanted list”

—Gideon Levy; Israeli Journalist, Haaretz

The alleged rising tide of anti-semitism

The pro-Israel lobby has a long, sordid history of using claims of the rising tide of anti-semitism in the western world to encourage news editors and politicians to go soft on Israeli war crimes. They claim criticism of Israel makes the Jewish community feel afraid and nervous. This is why our media don’t describe Israel correctly as an apartheid state or its actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as ethnic cleansing and genocide.

All racism is abhorrent but using police figures FIANZ (the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand) shows that Islamophobia remains of central concern seven years after the terror attacks at two Christchurch mosques. It’s important to say Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are openly promoted by key figures in the pro-Israel lobby and their Destiny Church allies.

Cameron Slater emerges to attack PSNA

We must be doing something right. Cameron Slater (remember him being outed in Nicky Hager’s book “Dirty Politics a few years back?) has posted on social media to ask “Why hasn’t PSNA been designated a terror organisation?”

This is not surprising. Slater visited Israel – expenses paid by the Israeli government – and returned to defend Israel and attack the Palestine solidarity movement.

Form his comment here it seems he is still on side with Netanyahu and the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.

A nasty representative for a nasty country.

Notes on Video Production

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

Filming & Sound – Part Two

(Part one was in the previous newsletter)

This post is about sound. A great video can be let down by bad sound, just because it’s an invisible consideration when filming. It’s too easy to concentrate on just the images.

You don’t need to edit in music beds to be effective, but it can help.
Poor and muffed sound is a common oversight. A well-placed external microphone is always better than the internal camera microphone.
If you are recording speakers, what they say will be much clearer if you get an audio-feed on a lead from the event sound amplifier to your video camera.
Or you can attach your microphone to the lectern, or the same stand as the event microphone.
Failing that, film or put your microphone close to a sound speaker.
Technically the best option is to use a lapel microphone attached to the speaking person which broadcasts a signal to your camera. No leads required, but more expensive gear.
Check your camera sound levels. An automatic setting is ok, but setting it to the level of the speaking person is best

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

Important stories this week

Editor’s picks

The Satanic Hazing Rituals of the IDF here
With Karim Khan's dismissal, the elimination of the war crimes court is near-complete here
Israel's end game in Palestine is a land with no Palestinians here
Enduring a Pregnancy in Gaza here
'We Destroyed Gaza': Israeli Defense Chief Katz Boasts of Gaza's Demolition here
Israel expands extermination zone here
Meta censoring Palestinian content – and here’s proof of ‘platformicide’ here
John Minto: When TVNZ’s Israeli ‘counter-terrorism’ op against Palestinians is actually a lie here

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture:

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Roger Waters and Mona Miari team up to re-record Pink Floyd classic “Comfortably numb”

Roger Waters Hopes People Will Hear “Comfortably Numb” Remake With Palestinian Singer as “Prophetic” here And you can watch the fantastic remake here

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

Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners – tickets now available

View this short video about this amazing production

Tickets are available here

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