US Ice Cream manufacturer Ben and Jerry’s has announced it will no longer sell ice-cream in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

This is a welcome development while Israel is continuing to flout international law with their new government approving the building of 31 more illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank alongside the destruction of Palestinian homes and on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from occupied East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers.

It appears this move may be linked to last week’s request from the UN Special Rapporteur, Michael Lynk, for countries to recognise Israel’s sponsoring of Israeli settlers on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank as “a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

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The swearing in of a new Israeli Prime Minister after 12 years of appalling anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism from former Prime Minister Netanyahu is not good news.

New Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tips the scales as even more racist than Netanyahu.

Netanyahu was infamous for statements of race-hatred such as:

• “The way to deal with Palestinians is to beat them up. Not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until its unbearable”

• “Palestinians are an existential threat to Israel” (shades of the Nazi attitudes to Jews)

• “Israeli is not a state for all its citizens” (ie he’s right – it’s an apartheid state – Palestinians are second-class citizens)

• (If anyone isn’t sure just how racist these statements are – replace the word “Palestinians” with the word “Jews” and read them again!)

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Q: What can New Zealanders do to help the Palestinian struggle?
A: Change your Kiwisaver provider

As the ceasefire in the Middle East holds, Israeli state forces have begun mass arrests of Palestinian citizens of Israel involved in peaceful solidarity actions in support of Palestinians in Gaza, occupied Jerusalem and the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Needless to say no effort is being made to track and arrest the hundreds of Jewish Israelis who chanted “Death to Arabs” through many cities across Israel during its heavy bombardment of Gaza.

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PSNA met online tonight and decided to organise nationwide protests again next Saturday 22 May.

We were very pleased with the 4,000 people who turned out in 10 centres around the country last Saturday – the largest public protests on this issue for many years – and we expect this coming Saturday to be significantly bigger given the escalating attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, across the occupied West Bank, through Israel itself and now in cruel, cowardly attacks on Gaza.

The focus of the protest will again be the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and their failure to offer more than pious words and ineffective platitudes in the face of horrendous war crimes.

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Nationwide rallies and marches will take place across the country this Saturday, 15 May as New Zealanders express their outrage at Israel brutality and their support for the Palestinian struggle for human rights.

The protest venues can be seen here https://www.facebook.com/Palestine-Solidarity-Network-Aotearoa-PSNA-403868133556427/events

These protests mark Nakba Day (Arabic for “catastrophe”) which remembers the mass ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land by Israeli militias in 1948.

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The Palestine Solidarity Movement Aotearoa has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta tonight urging the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies.

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem in which over 200 Palestinians have been injured.

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Today is World Keffiyeh Day (the keffiyeh is a piece of iconic Palestinian dress) and a big group of MPs got together to wear keffiyehs as a show of solidarity with Palestinians at a time when it is so desperately needed.

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The Palestine Solidarity Movement Aotearoa has written to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta tonight urging the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies.

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem in which over 200 Palestinians have been injured.

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We urge the government to speak out against the imminent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied East Jerusalem area of Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli state violence being used against Palestinians protesting against these racist, apartheid policies

In recent hours there has been extensive media coverage of Palestinian protests in which 200Palestinians have been injured.

Tensions have been high in East Jerusalem in recent weeks after Israeli restrictions on Palestinians around the Damascus Gate and the intervention of extreme right-wing Israeli politicians, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir who wants to “Expel the Arab enemy”. Ben-Gvir is stoking the flames of race-hatred against Palestinians while he enjoys under the protection of the Israeli army.

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An Israeli government demand that a medical clinic in the Occupied West Bank be demolished has raised another call from the Palestine Solidarity Network for the New Zealand government to speak out.

Israel has instructed inhabitants of the West Bank town of Zanouta to destroy many of their homes and their medical clinic. This follows an earlier Israel demolition of a Palestinians Covid 19 clinic.

PSNA Spokesperson John Minto says not only is Israel denying Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control but is using the pandemic as a cover to increase its rate of destruction of Palestinian houses and structures.

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With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations and demand Israel end its medical apartheid immediately and provide vaccinations to all Palestinians.

When questioned by Andrew Marr of the BBC this week, Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein likened his obligation to vaccinate Palestinians to Palestinians’ responsibility to care for “dolphins in the Mediterranean” (See interview transcript below)

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The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa welcomes Nanaia Mahuta as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs.

We hope the new appointment will bring a fresh approach to New Zealand policy in the Middle East and practical support for the Palestinian struggle.

The entire area of historic Palestine is under the longest military occupation in modern history as Israel repeatedly and blatantly defies international law and continues the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem and the theft of Palestinian land.

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