30 NOVEMBER, 2023 – Action for Palestine (A4P), Student Justice for Palestine (SJP)- University of Auckland, Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), Solidarity Action Network Aotearoa (SANA) and Working Students Aotearoa (WSA) are calling on all those who are demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide being committed in Gaza to join us in a protest today, November 30th, 2023, at 5 pm, at the Ports of Auckland, Solent Street entrance.
This protest is a nonviolent direct action, in the tradition of the civil rights movement in countries like India when it liberated itself from British colonisation. This protest is aligned with the global call to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) the Apartheid State of Israel, by targeting all businesses that bolster the Israeli economy and the Israeli Occupation Forces. Our protest today is to raise awareness of the ZIM Integrated Shipping Services that docks our ports throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. In the last year, ZIM recorded a revenue of over $12 billion USD.
We are calling on our government to cut all diplomatic, cultural, sporting and economic ties with the Apartheid State of Israel. Israeli companies must not be permitted to make profit on our shores while the Israeli State continues to commit its merciless genocide against the Palestinian people, and continues to deny them their inalienable right to self-determination. As the BDS campaign gains momentum worldwide, we here in Aotearoa New Zealand must play our part in ensuring that we disrupt Israel’s economic, cultural and sporting activities because we know how effective this strategy was for ending South Africa’s apartheid.
We are calling on the Port of Auckland and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) to stand in solidarity with us and refuse to host and offload the ZIM ships. Your solidarity is essential if we are to stop this genocide. The solidarity of workers in Australia alongside protestors, successfully disrupted the offloading of the ZIM ship there, resulting in delaying its arrival here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our call is for everyone to stand in solidarity to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the escalating violence in the West Bank. None of us are free, until Palestine is free.
