19 Here-turi-kōkā 2026
19 August 2026

Two steps for Palestinian solidarity this week

If you want to, please edit the messages to better reflect Your thoughts. Or if you are happy with them, please just send them as they are.

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

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

Kia ora Mr Peters,

57 days and still counting…

How is the study going?

It’s been 57 days and you still appear to be “studying” the United Nations Independent Commission report on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

Is this report in your inbox or do you need to retrieve it from the rubbish bin?

Surely it can’t be that hard. This is the report which found 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)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2) Spend a few minutes looking through our social media channels. Like, follow and share.

Website: www.psna.nz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Palestine-Solidarity-Network-Aotearoa-PSNA-100064134091562/

Instagram:

@psnaotearoa

@psna_otautahi

@psnatamakimakaurau

Items in this newsletter

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week
Describing the case against Judith Collins
October 10 – international Day of Action for Palestine
Holocaust Centre event cancelled after community pressure
Calling all social studies teachers!
A few events from around the country this week
Letter to Editor
New Russia sanctions expose double standard towards Israel
Important stories this week

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture

“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.

Describing the case against Judith Collins

View this excellent 21-minute interview with Yasser Abdulaal (lead plaintiff in the case) and Sam Vincent, one of the lawyers acting for the plaintiffs in the case. The link is here

See the details of this historic case on our homepage here, our media release here and our resource page here

**The two ministers cited in decisions to sideline New Zealand’s international legal obligations Chris Penk and Judith Collins – both on the way out…**

Put this date in your diary now – October 10

International day of action for Palestine

Holocaust Centre event cancelled after community pressure

We were very pleased to see this Holocaust Centre event cancelled after community pressure. It appeared to be a crude attempt to smear an entire people with links to Nazi crimes. Shameful that the Holocaust Centre endorsed and promoted it.

Here is one letter to the centre outlining the issues:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kia ora,

I am writing regarding your upcoming event, “L'Dor V'Dor -Hitler & the Arab Connection.”

The Holocaust Center has stated that “the Holocaust Centre's mission is to inspire and empower action against antisemitism, discrimination, and apathy by remembering, educating, and bearing witness to the Holocaust.” I write to challenge how this event aligns with that stated purpose, as broad-brush historical framing of this nature steps outside your core mission and actively generates discrimination against another targeted minority group.

1. Overstepping Mission and Creating Discrimination
While examining the documented wartime collaboration of specific 20th-century political figures- such as Haj Amin al-Husseini- is a valid historical topic, sweeping titles like “Hitler & the Arab Connection” broad-brush an entire ethnic and religious demographic with the atrocities of Nazism. Instead of dismantling prejudice and apathy, this framing risks inflaming anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia in Aotearoa New Zealand. An institution dedicated to fighting discrimination acts irresponsibly when its public education creates new vectors of bias against local minority communities.

2. Domestic Impact on Fragile Minority Communities
Language has real-world consequences. New Zealand’s Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian communities are currently navigating high levels of systemic hostility, daily security threats, and anti-Arab prejudice. I have personally experienced physical violence in an anti-Arab hate incident that resulted in police intervention, court proceedings, and a criminal conviction against the offender. When public institutions promote unnuanced narratives connecting an entire ethnicity to Nazism, fragile minority communities end up feeling further marginalized, unsafe, and exposed to collective hostility.

3. Academic Rigor and Institutional Responsibility
True Holocaust education relies on historical nuance, critical thinking, and a strict refusal to apply collective guilt. By failing to draw explicit, unambiguous distinctions between individual actors and entire Arab or Muslim populations, the Centre is departing from the ethical standards expected of a publicly recognized educational body.

Responsible Holocaust education relies on historical nuance, critical thinking, and a strict refusal to apply collective guilt. In light of your national role and your obligation to prevent collective stereotyping, I request that the Holocaust Centre formally answer the following questions prior to the event:
What specific historical and academic sources underpin the presentation?
How does the presentation explicitly distinguish individual political actors from Arab and Muslim communities generally?
What contextualization will be provided regarding the complex political and colonial circumstances of that period?
Will Arab and Muslim resistance to fascism during the same era also be addressed?
What independent academic review has been undertaken regarding the framing of this session?
Has the Centre conducted a risk assessment on the potential contemporary social-cohesion and safety implications of this framing for local communities?

My concern is not about preventing difficult history from being taught. It is about ensuring that Holocaust education demonstrates the same principles of historical accuracy, nuance, and resistance to collective stereotyping that the Centre itself promotes.

I look forward to your response addressing these points prior to the event.

Ngā mihi,

Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab

Calling all social studies teachers!

The Year 10 Social Studies Curriculum

We are pleased to say the new Year 10 Social Studies curriculum which was released last week includes important changes sought by PSNA in a lengthy submission we made to the Ministry of Education earlier this year.

We support study of the Holocaust in the curriculum but giving it a broader context. If the main lesson from the Holocaust is NEVER AGAIN then this must apply to all peoples at all times. The final curriculum is here.

PSNA is very keen to develop, alongside teachers, high-quality resources for the delivery of this section of the curriculum. We’d love to hear from you if you are a teacher with the time and energy to help develop these resources. Please contact secretary@psna.nz if you are able to help.

A few events from around the country this week

**Hawkes Bay protest outside National MP Catherine Wedd’s Hastings office**

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Letter to the editor

New Russia sanctions expose double standard towards Israel

PSNA media release 14 August 2026 – available online here

PSNA is urging the government to ‘even-up’ its foreign policy going into the November election.

PSNA is responding to Foreign Minister, Winston Peters’, announcement of a new round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which is the government’s 36th sanction measure against Russia.

PSNA spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says the government’s particular justification for the new sanctions, were Russia’s forced migration of Ukrainians and the dissemination of propaganda to justify Russia’s occupation.

“Israel does the same thing and the government does nothing. It has a list of 35 Israelis it won’t allow to enter New Zealand. But this is a pathetic list against the more than two-thousand long list against Russia.”

“Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza is vast, well documented, admitted and ongoing. Our government won’t mention it, let alone take Russia-level action against it.”

“And Israel and its proxies, throughout the world, are disseminating what Israel calls ‘Hasbara’, which is propaganda and bribes to influence news media and politicians,” Tamimi says.

“Right here in this country, the Israeli embassy funds the New Zealand Holocaust Centre. The Centre’s been publicly, although fruitlessly, advocating for compulsory and exclusive study of the Holocaust in schools. They want to ignore and lessen the significance of other genocides in comparison – in particular the Gaza genocide”

“All this is intended to stifle free speech and to legitimise Israel’s illegal wars.”

“The Israeli government doesn’t like the poll results here and in most western countries.”

In September 2025, a Reid Research poll for Radio New Zealand found a ratio of three to one respondents wanting the government to do more to support Palestine, than those who wanted more support for Israel.”

“Among National voters, support for the government to do more for Israel was only 11 percent, while 17 percent of National voters thought the government should do more for Palestine.”

“The poll showed most National voters didn’t care at that time, but of those who were interested, most backed Palestine,” Tamimi says.

‘The Prime Minister would do well to work for what his party members want and stop NZ First running our foreign policy and ignoring international law. Bizarrely, an even higher percentage of NZ First voters support Palestine than the National voters do – nearly 25 percent for Palestine and just under 18 precent for Israel.”

Important stories this week

Editor’s picks

‘Is this how our story ends?’ Palestinian refugees live in fear as Israel takes aim at West Bank camps here
Islam vs the West: The four biggest fallacies about Islam explained here
No, Israel does not have ‘a right to exist.’ Quite the contrary, actually here
Palestinian Kiwis, Māori doctor file claim against NZ govt over Gaza spy satellites here
Israeli military plans to transfer law enforcement in occupied West Bank to police here
Israel deliberately starting wildfires in southern Lebanon, firefighters say here
Israel Has No Place Training New Zealand Teachers About Genocide here
Israeli defence tech looks to new routes into Australia and New Zealand here

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture:

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

Auckland Details:

Thursday 3 September, 7:00 pm
Friday 4 September, 7:00 pm
Saturday 5 September, 7:00 pm
Sunday 6 September, 2:00 pm & 6:00 pm
Te Pou Theatre, 2 Mount Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Auckland

Tickets are available here

Regular items

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“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