16 Mahuru 2026
16 September 2026

Five steps for Palestinian solidarity this week

1) Click here to sign this petition calling for the boycott of the basketball match between LDLC ASVEL and Maccabi Tel Aviv FC on Thursday 24 September in France!

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2) Share some posts about the boycott call (they are in French but the message is clear)

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JGekTVGzm/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/p/DdRTczmohbx/?stkn=bHJxZXdyN3V3ejFv
X : https://x.com/campagnebds/status/2099500929577893894?s=46
Bluesky : https://bsky.app/profile/campagnebds.bsky.social/post/3mvibzayzw22e
Telegram : https://t.me/bdsFrance/2457
TikTok : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8j4mHhq/

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3 Paste this cartoon on your social media pages. It’s by the late renowned Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig. He drew it many years ago and its even more relevant today. It sums up Israel’s ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people of Palestine.

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

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4) Click here to send this message to the Foreign Minister (PLEASE CLICK AND SEND 20 TIMES (or more if you like) SO THE MINISTER GETS THE MESSAGE)

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

Kia ora Mr Peters,

A chance to reflect New Zealand values

It’s been 85 days and you are obviously still having trouble responding to the United Nations Independent Commission report on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

But here is a chance for you to reflect this country’s values by speaking out in support of the new report from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem “The Elimination Project” which details Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Please respond to this email urgently.

(your name)

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5) Spend a few minutes looking through our social media channels on our website. Go to our website at www.psna.nz and click on social media links. Like, follow and share.

Items in this newsletter

Nationwide rallies/marches/flagwavings this week
Presentation to Hamiliton City Council last week by Palestine Action Waikato
Retiring Labour MP Duncan Webb presented PSNA petition to parliament this week
“The Elimination Project” – new report from B’Tselem
Peters out of step with the world and legal obligations on Israeli settlement trade
Campaigning for humanity during the election
Al Shabaka webinar on Israeli elections
Too little, too late
October 10 – international day of action for Palestine
Noel Leeming and SodaStream
Important stories this week

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture

NAZA, an expose on Israel’s use of AI systems in Gaza gets lengthy standing ovation in Venice
“How to sell a genocide” – book review

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

(One of the posters for the Global Rally for Palestine on October 10. Facebook event already created.)

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.

Presentation to Hamilton City Council last week by Palestine Action Waikato

Palestine Action Waikato last week presented to the Hamilton City Council urging the council to support New Zealand government policy opposed to ethnic cleansing and illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. The presentation was well received and a staff report on our proposal for the council to end procurement of goods and services from companies helping Israel commit war crimes will be presented to a council meeting later this year.

Retiring Labour MP Duncan Webb presented PSNA petition to parliament this week

**Duncan Webb delivers his valedictory speech at parliament**

PSNA’s Nakba rights petition calling for comprehensive sanctions against Israel was presented to parliament this week by retiring Labour MP Duncan Webb. Duncan Webb has been personally committed

The petition has been referred to parliament’s Petitions Select Committee which has invited us to provide more background material to support the petition before it is considered by the committee. The petition will come before the committee for consideration after the election

Thanks to everyone who signed the petition which received over 3,500 signatures. We will keep you posted on progress.

“THE ELIMINATION PROJECT”

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem this week released a detailed report on Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The link to the report is here

From the report:

“Since the current Israeli government took office at the end of 2022, and even more so since October 2023, Israel has dramatically escalated its assault on all aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank. At any moment, Palestinians may be exposed to violence by soldiers or armed settler militias, arrested and imprisoned, subjected to abuse and humiliation, and sometimes even killed.

The Elimination Project draws on more than 2,000 testimonies B’Tselem collected from Palestinians since October 2023 and over three decades of documenting the Israeli apartheid regime’s human rights abuses in the West Bank. The report looks at the current reality not as a collection of isolated incidents or specific harms, but as part of a comprehensive mechanism of elimination that works to dismantle the conditions for continued Palestinian existence in the West Bank, while deepening Jewish control and supremacy in an irreversible manner. An examination of the current reality in the West Bank reveals that the project of elimination is now being implemented more openly, directly and violently than before, and increasingly relies on cooperation between official state authorities and settler militias operating in the West Bank with state backing and support”

Peters out of step with the world and legal obligations on Israeli settlement trade

PSNA media release – 9 September 2026. Online here

PSNA says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is derelict in its duties if it can’t identify and ban products from illegal Israeli settlements on the Occupied West Bank.

This follows announcements by the UK, France and Canada that they would ban imports of products which originated from the settlements.

MFAT is reported to have stated a ban ‘would be complex and require a full policy process’ and so New Zealand couldn’t do it, at least until after the elections.

PSNA spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says Palestinian support groups had been urging the government to identify imports from the Occupied Palestinian Territory for more than 20 years, on the basis that settlement goods were falsely labelled as ‘Product of Israel.’

“Then in July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that UN members must ‘distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967’, as means of ending the occupation.”

“That’s plenty of time for MFAT to work out how to deliver a trade ban.”

Tamimi says there is ample precedent for import bans.

“The sanctions New Zealand imposes on Russia include oil, gas, coal and gold. Other Russian imports are prohibitively tariffed.”

“There were comprehensive import bans on apartheid South Africa.”

“So statements, like those made by ACT Leader David Seymour, that New Zealand is ‘a trading nation - we don't generally use trade bans to make political points’, is quite untrue.”

Tamimi says the MFAT was also falsely claiming that New Zealand was sending a clear signal to Israel that New Zealand condemned settler violence, and the Israeli government must control it, and it must not expand settlements.

“The government has banned a small bunch of rabid settlers from entering New Zealand, along with two ministers.”

“But it also sent a clear message at the same time, in June last year, by stating that that it was just two ministers, and the ban was specifically not ‘designed to sanction the wider Israeli government’.”

“Yes, the message is clear to Israel - the New Zealand criticism is meaningless hot air.”

Campaigning for humanity during the election

Tairawhiti Stands With Palestine (TSWP) media release last week

This week, Te Tairāwhiti locals at both ends of the East Cape electorate launch a campaign to place humanity at the centre of the upcoming election. Featuring the leaders of the current coalition government together with local National MP Dana Kirkpatrick, the promotion highlights the lack of meaningful action taken by New Zealand to use its leverage to have Israel comply with international law and asks voters to consider what this means. The initiative is supported by Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA).

New Zealand was quick to condemn Hamas in October 2023. Israel since has killed or seriously injured more than 64,000 children in Gaza – three times the number of tāmariki in Te Tairāwhiti – without any corresponding condemnation. Israel’s crimes in Gaza over the past three years extend to the entire civilian population there: the destruction of almost everything, including schools and hospitals; repeated forcible displacement; the blockade of food and humanitarian aid; and mass arrest, deportation, and torture. Think Dr Adman Al-Bursh, surgeon and head of orthopaedics, arrested in December 2023 and tortured – to death – in April 2024, his body not returned to his family. Think Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, paediatrician and hospital director, held without charge since December 2024 and now close to death. The list goes on and now extends to ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank and southern Lebanon.

Civilians, medical personnel and journalists are all legally protected in the Geneva Conventions, to which both New Zealand and Israel are parties. Tairawhiti Stands With Palestine (TSWP), a grassroots response in Gisborne to the unfolding genocide, has been calling for the enforcement of international law for the past three years. Efforts in July 2024 and again in May 2025 to enlist MP Dana Kirkpatrick’s support for sanctions against Israel were not successful.

Rather than condemn Israel’s behaviour, the coalition government continues to engage with the rogue state, including New Zealand’s participation alongside Israel in the large-scale US-run naval military exercise in the Pacific, RIMPAC. In September 2025, New Zealand declined to recognise the State of Palestine. In the latest capitulation to intense US-Israel lobbying, the government won’t divulge how it voted in July to have International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan removed. We sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. We sanction Iran for its non-compliance with nuclear obligations. We won’t sanction Israel even though being signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide makes it legally incumbent on us to do so. To our shame (but not surprise), New Zealand is absent from the list of nations finally banning trade from Israel’s illegal settlements.

TSWP spokesperson Jane Luiten asks voters in Te Tairawhiti this election to consider the broader issues the lack of action represents.

‘I appreciate Gaza is a long way from home in Te Tairāwhiti. I’m also aware that three years of livestreamed atrocities has numbed us to their suffering. But these crimes against humanity affect all of us. We ignore international humanitarian law at our own peril. Our government’s silence with respect to Israel’s behaviour amounts to support for it. At bottom, it demonstrates an appalling disregard for human life. Is that who we want running our country?’

Israeli Elections: Consensus on Genocide Across Party Lines – Al Shabaka webinar

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2am NZ time! Register here

With Israelis heading to the polls next month, international attention has mainly focused on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition can cling to power. Meanwhile, liberal Zionists have cast Israel’s opposition candidates as a more “moderate” alternative to Netanyahu’s government. Yet across the Israeli political spectrum, a broad consensus persists around maintaining the apartheid system, entrenching the occupation, and sustaining the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

What do the upcoming elections reveal about Israel’s political trajectory? Is there any meaningful alternative to the far right, or has Israel’s political mainstream converged around increasingly violent forms of Jewish supremacy? And what are the implications of this right-wing consolidation for Palestinians?

In this Policy Lab, Al-Shabaka analysts Amjad Iraqi and Nijmeh Ali join host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to examine Israel’s electoral landscape, the limits of its so-called opposition camp, and what the election means for the future of the Palestinian struggle.

Nijmeh Ali is a policy member of Al-Shabaka and a political scientist and researcher specializing in political behavior, resistance, and decolonial thought. She holds a PhD from the University of Otago.

Amjad Iraqi is a policy member of Al-Shabaka and senior analyst for Israel/Palestine at the International Crisis Group. Amjad previously served as senior editor at +972 Magazine.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa is Al-Shabaka's US Policy Fellow and co-host of Al-Shabaka's Policy Lab series. He holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

Note: This discussion will take place in English. Our policy labs are supported through the generosity of donors. They are free to attend, though we accept contributions on a sliding scale upon registration to help sustain the program

Too little, too late

October 10 – international day of action for Palestine

We have set up this page where details of local protest action around the country will able to be accessed. The link is here and a QR code which takes you directly to the page is here:

Noel Leeming and Sodastream

**What are all those small stickers doing? Is this an attack of genocidal measels?**

Important stories this week

Editor’s picks

Britain's settlement trade ban is cosmetic. For it to work, it must sanction Israel here
Peters’ ‘hot air’ over Israeli settlement trade ban rules out of step with world here
Labour would prioritise recognition of Palestine, sanctions on Israel here
Three-quarters of US college students say Israel is committing genocide here
Pioneer of Palestine protest in NZ warns against the IDF ‘obscenity’ becoming normalized here
Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran tour after onstage ‘Free Palestine’ statements here

Films, books, performances, Palestinian culture:

NAZA, an expose on Israel’s use of AI systems in Gaza gets lengthy standing ovation in Venice

“How to sell a genocide” – Book Review by Don Carson

How to sell a Genocide
Author: Adam H. Johnson

This book has just been swept off the shelves of the Waverly City Library in Sydney by ‘outraged’ and ‘upset’ Zionists.

It’s a supreme irony of any such in-depth and forensic analysis of how the Israeli lobby manipulates and cancels media and politicians. Israeli acolytes treat any exposure of Israeli bias and lobby-cancelling as a recipe to follow.

Their argument goes “it’s so outrageously antisemitic to claim that we conspire to ban books, that we demand any book which states this should be banned,”

It’s not surprising that American journalist Adam H. Johnson struck such a nerve with Sydney information gatekeepers with his recent volume.

He has written an excellent and painstaking quantitative breakdown of the bias of the US media towards Israel, comparable to the Centre for Media Monitoring exposure of the BBC bias against Palestine a year ago.

Johnson concentres his attention on where it matters – the conglomerate media giants such as Fox News and the New York Times. For instance, he documents their standard use of particular expressions, such as ‘massacre’ to describe Palestinian actions, but very rarely to categorise Israeli actions.

These western thought (sic) leaders determine our mainstream news paradigms too.

Not that Johnson has written a dry book. His targeted excoriation is the ‘liberal’ Atlantic magazine, for which “a crucial role in defending and opening up ideological and political space for the genocide in Gaza cannot be overstated.’

Its writers pretend to be academic and open minded, yet slavishly follow the Israeli paradigm. Johnson makes it wry entertaining reading.

How to sell a Genocide is available from Pluto Press.

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

Sitting On The Fence is now available to watch online in New Zealand.

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

And from Ilan Pappe…

**Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian / author, Professor at Exeter University UK**

When asked to comment on the kiwi film by Daniel Cleary well-known Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has high praise:

“Albert Einstein said that "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” This includes those politicians in New Zealand who sat on the fence, and still do, during the most televised genocide in our times. But Sitting On The Fence and some of the brave critics interviewed in it give us hope that complicity is not only exposed but can also be challenged. This film is a tribute to the few who did not remain silent and a harsh indictment of those who will be judged for being on the wrong side of the history of New Zealand and of Palestine. This is not just a film about complicity in New Zealand, but how the silence in New Zealand tragically epitomises that of the world”

You can watch the film here: www.sittingonthefence.tv

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