PSNA Newsletter Special July 16 2023
16 Hōngongoi 2023
16 July 2023
Newsletter Special
Kia ora koutou,
Antony Loewenstein will be here in Aotearoa this week
For visiting Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein his critique of Israel’s policies has come with a high personal cost.
His interview with Kim Hill RNZ last Saturday can be found here.
His latest book The Palestine Laboratory shows the extent to which Israel’s military-industrial complex has become a global leader in spying technology and defence hardware.
The independent journalist is currently touring New Zealand and will speak about his book’s ground-breaking findings at public meetings around the country (see poster for details)
However, this research into how the Occupied Palestinian Territories have long been a testing ground for war technologies – and his support for the Palestinian cause – have made him a pariah in his own community.
Since My Israel Question, his first book published in 2006, German-Australian Lowenstein has been called a Nazi collaborator, a self-hating Jew, terror supporter, Arab lover, an anti-Semite. He understands why.
“The stakes over Israel and Palestine couldn’t be higher, are nothing less than a matter of life and death for both,” the author says.
Lowenstein’s latest book addresses how the occupation is buttressed by a largely unquestioning Jewish diaspora. It reveals also how Israel’s technology is now exported around the world.
In a Sydney Morning Herald interview in May this year, Loewenstein revealed that much criticism of him since 2006 revolved around the central question: “How could I, as a Jew, who had lost members of my family to the gas chambers, not automatically side with a Jewish nation that had been born from this monstrous crime.
“Since we had returned to Zion, the ‘kingdom of heaven’, Judaism had come to equal Zionism. To not believe in Israel is to somehow forfeit one’s name as a good Jew.”
“After the 1967 war, when hundreds of thousands of refugees were added to the 750 000 Palestinians displaced in 1948, Jews blamed Palestinians’ plight on belligerent Arab leaders. And on the Arab world’s refusal to accept a Jewish homeland in its midst.
“Jewish hearts became closed to the fact that nearly every aspect of daily life is dictated by Israel,” Loewenstein said.
The author says to debate is to be part of a rich and proud Jewish tradition of verbal contest. And yet when it comes to the Palestinian people, much of the Jewish community has had no desire to question Israeli actions.
However, Loewenstein instances his family’s contrary example. If Jew’s redemption and return as a people had happened as result of another people’s catastrophe, his parents shifted from an uncritical pro-Israeli position to both support Israeli’s right to exist and the rights of Palestinians.
A key theme in The Palestinian Laboratory is how the Jewish state has spent decades developing tools and technologies to oppress Palestinians, and how it now exports these tools to well over 100 countries. Including dictatorships such as Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2016 when Lowenstein accompanied his partner to her human rights job with Oxfam in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah, he experienced life under occupation at first hand. Since then, he believes, racism in Israel has since soared to new heights.
While also believing anti-Semitism is a real and growing threat, that author says that combatting it requires an understanding of how unqualified Jewish support for Israeli behaviour sometimes supports it.
Loewenstein cites a Gallup poll this year that found for the first time that US Democrats sympathise more now with Palestinians than Israeli Jews.
“Within the American Jewish community, there’s a civil war-of-words over attitudes towards Israel. Barely a day passes without a synagogue finally allowing anti-Zionist views to be heard or Jewish youth groups insisting to their elders that Palestinian voices be listened to and respected”, Loewenstein says.
The event pages for Antony’s tour are here:
Monday 17th July in Christchurch
Public meeting 7pm
Knox Centre, Cnr Bealey Avenue & Victoria street, Christchurch (books for sale)
Tuesday 18th July in Wellington
Public meeting 7pm
St Andrews on the Terrace, 30 The Terrace (books for sale)
Wednesday 19th July in Hawkes Bay
Public meeting 8pm
Greenmeadows Community Hall, 83 Tait Drive, Napier (books for sale)
Thursday 20th July in Auckland
Public Meeting 7pm
The Fickling Centre, 546 Mt Albert Road (books for sale)
Background on Antony Loewenstein’s new book
In the meantime here are three internationally-renowned endorsements for the book.
‘This is a must-read on a hidden and shocking aspect of the Israeli colonisation of the Palestinians. This book shows clearly that this kind of export is now Israel’s most significant contribution to the global violation of human rights.’
Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Ten Myths About Israel
‘A triumph of investigative journalism. It exposes the ruthlessness with which Israel exploits the experience gained from the illegal occupation to export all kinds of military hardware as well as the technology of surveillance, espionage, cyber warfare, phone-hacking, and house demolition. It also shines a torch on the dark side of Israel’s support for despots around the world. Altogether, a profoundly depressing audit on a country that used to boast of being “a light unto the nations”.’
Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab world
‘A sad and sordid record of how “the light unto the nations” became the purveyor of the means of violence and brutal repression from Guatemala to Myanmar and wherever else the opportunity arose.’
Noam Chomsky
More details of the book can be read here and all reviews so far can be found here.
And here is the link to an excellent article in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month by Antony Loewenstein – https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-may-13-edition-20230405-p5cygt.html
Watch out for this man promoting racism and apartheid
Here he is – the Israeli ambassador – watch out for him around Aotearoa New Zealand – if you hear of any planned appearances or speaking engagements please contact us urgently: Email apartheid-Israel@PSNA.nz or text 027 4 APARTHEID or 027427278.
Israeli ambassador Ran Yaakoby
Is your property an “apartheid free zone”?
These are popping up on letterboxes and fences all over the country – to get your “Apartheid free zone” coreflute to stick on your letterbox or your front fence just deposit $5 in:
Account Name: Palestine Solidarity Network
Account Number: 38 9015 0849542 00
and send an email to secretary@PSNA.nz with your address and we’ll send you one - or as many as you’d like for your neighbours and friends….
Petition to Close the Israeli Embassy
If you haven’t signed our petition to close the Israeli embassy yet…
Scan and Sign here
Or Click and Sign here
Important stories from the Web
General
Australia, Canada, UK deeply concerned over Israeli settlements here
The challenge to Israel and its lobby here
PSNA Chair John Minto interview on Auckland student radio bFM here
Clashes are the wrong word for Israel-Palestine violence here (Video)
Financial Times called on countries to threaten boycotts of products produced in illegal Israeli settlements here
Podcast: M. Muhannad Ayyash joins host Yara Hawari to discuss liberal Zionism and the dominant role it plays in Zionist ideology here
Ban ki Moon and Mary Robinson find evidence of apartheid in Israel-Palestine here
Anticipating Israel’s counter attack – make the one democratic state solution mainstream again here
UK bill would outlaw schools and other public bodies from boycotting Israel here
Why are they trying to cancel Roger Waters here (Video)
Return to peaceful and armed struggle here
Victorian Labor gives Anthony Albanese deadline to recognise Palestine here
Australian Labour Party factions pull punches on AUKUS but back Palestine here
Fresh pressure on Albanese govt to recognise Palestine here
Albanese government must recognise Palestine this term: Victorian Labor Conference here
Australian Greens say Israel perpetrates the crime of apartheid here
Australian Greens Palestine resolution here
Israel
Israel murders five Palestinians in disastrous Jenin raid – four Israeli soldiers killed in retaliation here
Israel - Druze confrontation with the state is deeper than anger at wind farm here
The shocking truth behind the Baghdad bombings of 1950 and 1951 here
Israel's Christians horrified by hate crimes in Jerusalem here
Israel approves plans for thousands of illegal settlement homes here
Israel kills three Palestinians in West Bank drone strike here
Young Jews talk of change of heart here
Israeli brutality
Nowhere in Palestine is free: West Bank villagers defenceless against rising settler violence here
Jewish Power lawmaker threatens to blow up summer camp for Palestinian and Israeli children here
Will we see a major Israeli assault in the occupied West Bank here
Israel’s control challenged by Hezbollah in north, restive West Bank here
Deaths and injuries as Israeli occupation forces raid Jenin here
Palestine
Two key developments in the Palestinian Authority here
UNRWA Commissioner-General Calls for Sustainability of the Agency’s Services to Millions of Palestine Refugees at Advisory Commission Meeting in Beirut here
Return to peaceful and armed struggle here
Al Shabaka’s later annual report is here
Israel increasingly fears West Bank chaos and the rise of Hamas here
UN
Israel tells the UN we will not stop building in the West Bank here
UN chief encourages Israel to kill more Palestinian children here
UN slams Israel’s use of advanced military weaponry in Jenin here
US
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says its anti-semitic when people tweet “Free Palestine” at him here
Reminder: Dates for Palestine Solidarity in 2023
Israel apartheid week has been added to the dates for likely local and national Palestine solidarity activity this year.
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)
In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter – an invitation to subscribe from Leslie Bravery
Because of mainstream news media complicity, daily headlines and commentary only occasionally ever mention the relentless Israeli violence in Palestine, not even the frequent air strikes!
However, daily news and statistics regarding the violence Palestinians are forced to live under are regularly reported on in the “In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter”, sourced and compiled for easy reading and correlation chiefly from the Palestinian Monitoring Group's daily situation reports.
The In Occupied Palestine daily newsletter continues to be circulated, by email, worldwide to subscribers only, as it has been over the last two decades.
Please contact lesliebravery@icloud.com if you also wish to become a subscriber.
Merchandise for sale
We have Merchandise you can buy including T-shirts from our website.
Go here - https://www.psna.nz/shop
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 monthly Rallies - In Auckland at 2.00 pm on the first Saturday of every month. Please consider doing the same in your community. 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
PSNA Groups
PSNA National Committee
Website: www.PSNA.nz
Chair - John Minto: Chair@PSNA.nz
Secretary - Neil Scott: Secretary@PSNA.nz
Regional Groups
Bay of Islands PSN Bay of Islands (Email)
Whangarei PSN Whangarei (Facebook)
Auckland PSN Auckland – Tamaki Makaurau (Website)
Hamilton Palestine Human Rights Campaign Waikato (Facebook)
Tauranga Tauranga Moana 4 Palestine (Facebook)
Napier/Hastings Aotearoa Standing with Palestine (Facebook)
Palmerston North PSN Palmerston North (Email)
New Plymouth PSN Taranaki (Facebook)
Wellington PSN Wellington (Email)
Nelson Te Tau Ihu (Nelson) Palestine (Facebook)
Christchurch PSN Christchurch (Facebook)
Dunedin Dunedin for Justice in Palestine (Facebook)
Invercargill PSNA Invercargill (Email)