PSNA is pleased with the large turnout of Palestinians and Palestinian supporters at rallies around the country today.
The rallies, which began with a minute of silence to remember all the civilians killed in the last week, had two aims:
- To condemn 75 years of Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people
- To demand the government speak out against these war crimes.
Dunedin (200), Christchurch (500), Auckland (3000) were the largest but gatherings also took place in small centres like Napier, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Palmerston North and New Plymouth.
There has been plenty of anti-Palestinian racism on display this week on line with the pro-Israel lobby condemning anyone flying a Palestinian flag and trying to drive Palestinians in New Zealand into a dark corner. Palestinians blew that idea apart today.
There are some excellent video clips on my Facebook page here ( https://www.facebook.com/john.minto.90 ) of the rally in Christchurch. We are happy for any media to use it if they want to do so.
Just to be clear PSNA condemns all attacks on civilians as a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention – it’s appalling that our Prime Minister Chris Hipkins hasn’t been prepared to call out Israeli war crimes.
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
