Stop Israel cutting butter with a chain saw!!

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Details

Whanganui Tramways Museum
27 Taupo Quay, Whanganui

Start

Saturday 15 June, 2024
11:00AM

Finish

Saturday 15 June, 2024
12:00PM

Description

Come rally with us to call on the New Zealand government to take serious action. Not just mouth platitudes. This is Genocide.
Send the Israeli Ambassador home and declare a Palestinian State FFS!!!

Dr. Naomi Wolf:
"Okay, so I was challenged below: "Read the Bible! God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people." So....I may get crucified for this but I have started to say it -- most recently (terrified, trembling) to warm welcome in a synagogue in LA: Actually if you read Genesis Exodus and Deuteronomy in Hebrew -- as I do -- you see that God did not "give" Israel to the Jews/Israelites. We as Jews are raised with the creed that "God gave us the land of Israel" in Genesis -- and that ethnically 'we are the chosen people." But actually -- and I could not believe my eyes when I saw this, I checked my reading with major scholars and they confirmed it -- actually God's "covenant" in Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy with the Jewish people is NOT ABOUT AN ETHNICITY AND NOT ABOUT A CONTRACT. IT IS ABOUT A WAY OF BEHAVING.
Again and again in the "covenant" language He never says: "I will give you, ethnic Israelites, the land of Israel." Rather He says something far more radical - far more subversive -- far more Godlike in my view. He says: IF you visit those imprisoned...act mercifully to the widow and the orphan...welcome the stranger in your midst...tend the sick...do justice and love mercy ....and perform various other tasks...THEN YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND THIS LAND WILL BE YOUR LAND. So "my people" is not ethnic -- it is transactional. We are God's people not by birth but by a way of behaving, that is ethical, kind and just. And we STOP being "God's people" when we are not ethical, kind and just. And ANYONE who is ethical, kind and just is, according to God in Genesis, "God's people." And the "contract" to "give" us Israel is conditional -- we can live in God's land IF we are "God's people" in this way -- just, merciful, compassionate. AND -- it never ever says, it is ONLY your land. Even when passages spell out geographical "boundaries" as if God does such a thing, it never says this is exclusively your land. It never says I will give this land JUST to you. Remember these were homeless nomads who had left slavery in Egypt and were wandering around in the desert; at most these passages say, settle here, but they do not say, settle here exclusively. Indeed again and again it talks about welcoming "zarim" -- translated as "strangers" but can also be translated as "people/tribes who are not you" -- in your midst. Blew my mind, hope it blows yours."
~ Dr. Naomi Wolf

PSNA welcomes the government decision to continue funding UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians) but we are deeply disappointed the funding will remain unchanged from previous years despite the massive increase in need from Israel’s war on Gaza.

UNRWA is by far the most important and effective organisation at delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

On 1 March this year a wide range of aid organisations joined together to say this about UNRWA:
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“UNRWA is the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza. The plain reality is that UNRWA’s humanitarian role in this crisis is indispensable – including, but not limited to provision of health and education services, food and water provision, psychosocial support, and solid waste management – and cannot remotely be replaced by any other aid organization”

“Their role in the facilitation and delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid at scale in this crisis has been heroic. UNRWA’s supply of vital shelter, food, and basic services like sanitation, as well as the use of infrastructure by other aid organizations, is irreplaceable” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Why are UNRWA’s heroic efforts and demonstrated effectiveness not been recognised by the New Zealand Government at a time when aid is so desperately needed?

The government providing $17 million to other aid groups for Gaza just doesn’t cut the mustard. These other organisations do good work but don’t have the infrastructure, the personnel or the reach to meet the needs of Palestinians on the scale or effectiveness which UNRWA has demonstrated year after year.

It seems clear the government has succumbed to pressure from the pro-Israel lobby which for years has sought to demonise and undermine UNRWA. Their campaign aims to undermine Palestinians’ status as refugees and remove their right to return to their land and homes in Palestine from which they are being progressively ethnically cleansed by Israel.

Part of this pro-Israel campaign involved the blatant lie that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7th attack on Israel. Israel released its bogus claims within hours of the International Court of Justice finding a credible claim of genocide existed against Israel. It was a desperate, but successful, ploy with western media falling over themselves to print the phony information and downplay the ICJ ruling just as Israel intended. The Israeli claims were fact-free.

With the level of desperate need in Gaza we have urged the government to at least double and bring forward its contribution to UNRWA. The government is looking the other way.

The cost of pandering to the pro-Israel lobby is $17 million in poorly spent aid funding.