Join special book launch webinar

A Shared Struggle: Stories of Palestinian and Irish hunger strikers details the personal experiences of 24 Palestinian and 7 Irish hunger strikes in their fight to win their basic rights.

Join the free launch for this remarkable book, highlighting the plight of Palestinian and Irish hunger strikers and the intersectionality of the Palestinian-Irish struggle against settler-colonialism.

Tune in to the book launch

The stories in A Shared Struggle provide an answer as to why a prisoner might choose starvation (sometimes to death) over accepting humiliating prison conditions.

Our panellists include Richard Falk, Former UNHRC Special Rapporteur for Palestine; Hilal Jaradat, Former Political Prisoner for 27 years; Danny Morrison, Spokesperson for IRA hunger strikers; Yousef Aljamal, Translator of A Shared Struggle; Norma Hashim, Editor of A Shared Struggle. View the full line-up here.

Join this special book launch event for free on Sunday, 3 October 2021 at 6am NZ time (6pm Saturday 2 October UK time).

Register your ticket now >>

Endorsements for ‘A Shared Struggle’:

“Hunger strikes are the last desperate weapon for political prisoners denied justice. For many years, there has been solidarity between the Palestinians, South Africans fighting apartheid and the struggle for Irish unity. That mutual support is active now and needed more than ever, as the oppression of the Palestinians becomes ever more brutal. This is an important book, and I’m sure it will be widely read.”

– Ken Loach, Award-winning film director

Gaza under siege

By Eman Abuaisha, journalist from Gaza, for Kia Ora Gaza

In the context of international relations, siege has been used repeatedly with the aim of imposing a kind of isolation on a besieged area, forcing the target party to do or abstain from doing a specific action. And implementing a blockade on a territory has taken different forms depending on whether it was before or after the founding of the United Nations, while various methods have been utilized to legitimize its use. 

The Israeli government adopted a siege of Gaza as a response to Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. The Israeli government believed the siege would constitute a way out of the predicament it found itself in. The aim was to prevent the newly elected Palestinian government from implementing its plans and paying its dues on the one hand by placing the people of the Gaza Strip under very difficult living conditions that would push them to demand early elections, and thus force the departure of Hamas.

The Gaza siege constituted a further step in the saga of policies imposed by Israel against the Palestinian people which continues to leave its traces in all walks of life in the coastal enclave, which I have experienced firsthand. The siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip is comprehensive, from the land, sea, and air. Crossings leading in and out of Gaza are not controlled by Palestinians and this creates additional restrictions on the freedom of movement. Israel has followed a policy of closing these crossings to goods and services and the movement of people, often on a continuous basis, preventing basic supplies from reaching the Strip such as cement, food, and medicine.

US singer John Legend says ‘unjust’ Israeli treatment of Palestinians ‘should not be done in our name’

John Legend. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

by Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner * 21 September 2021

Award-winning singer and songwriter John Legend criticized Israel for what he called the country’s mistreatment of Palestinians during his appearance Sunday night on “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”

The “All of Me” singer told Hasan, “When I see what’s happening in Palestine to the Palestinian people, where they are clearly not being able to experience the full rights that they deserve, it’s an extremely unfair difficult life they’re forced to live. It’s not fair; it’s not just.”

Legend, who is also a judge on the singing competition “The Voice,” then called on the US to hold Israel “to a higher standard” in light of the fact that the Jewish state is “the recipient of so much American aid and support and is named one of our stronger allies.”

Everything you need to know about the closure on Gaza

By Gisha – Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, 1 September 2021

Gisha is pleased to share an updated version of Gaza Up Close – A comprehensive guide to the closure on Gaza.

Sixteen years ago, in September 2005, Israel completed its “disengagement” from Gaza – but it never really left. In 2007, after Hamas took control of the Strip, Israel announced that Gaza was a “hostile entity” and tightened existing restrictions on movement of people and goods to the point of closure – the same suffocating closure that continues to block economic activity and to violate basic rights to this day.

Reflections on the 39th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre

Dr. Swee Chai Ang, a consultant orthopedic surgeon and the founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians (UK), was on board the Freedom Flotilla boat, Al-Awda in 2018, with 22 activists from various countries across the world including Aotearoa/NZ.

By Dr Swee Chai Ang, Middle East Monitor, 19 September 2021

The steadfastness and courage of Sabra and Shatila are in all of our hearts. Today, we commemorate the cruel injustice inflicted on the Palestinians in the massacre of 1982, knowing that this is just one of the continuous assaults on Palestinians since 1948. We resolve to continue to be with you all in your difficult journey in solidarity, hope and love, knowing that one day, the freedom and peace stolen from the Palestinian people for all these years will be won back through your struggle. We commemorate with tears, but pledge our commitment to this struggle with all our strength and lives. We know that the day will come when our children’s laughter will be the reward of years of sacrifice and endurance.

Memorial posters in the Sabra and Shatila massacre graveyard [Ferdous Al-Audhali/Middle East Monitor]

In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. It bombed Lebanon by land, air and sea, and laid siege to Beirut. Israel killed and wounded thousands of innocent people and made at least 100,000 homeless within a few weeks. Beirut city was denied electricity, medicine, food and water.

I resigned from my job at a hospital in London to help the victims in Lebanon. At that time, my sympathies were with Israel, and I had not known that Palestinians existed. But I could no longer stand by and watch the wounding and killings of women, children and unarmed civilians – or watch them being made homeless as the bombs continuously fell on Lebanon.

I arrived in Beirut in August 1982, and was seconded to Gaza Hospital in Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. It was one of nine hospitals and 13 clinics of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the only one that was not flattened by the bombs.

Boycott PUMA – pass the word

Sign the Justice for Palestine (formerly Wellington Palestine)  petition to the Silver Ferns calling on them to drop their Puma sponsorship.

Please sign and SHARE widely.
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/tell-the-silver-ferns-to-drop-puma

Calls for Silver Ferns to drop partnership with Puma

By Aubrey Bloomfield, 1/200, 18 September 2012

The sporting aspect of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement – which aims to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law and Palestinian human rights – does not often reach Aotearoa. We do not have the same sporting connections with Israel that we did with South Africa. South Africa was our closest rival in our national sport, rugby, and the apartheid regime was clearly on display to the public in the racial discrimination at the heart of selection policies for both the Springbok and All Blacks teams. 

This close sporting connection and the visibility of apartheid spurred New Zealanders to stand in solidarity with South Africans forty years ago during the protests against the 1981 Springbok Tour. In doing so, Aotearoa helped to bring an end to South Africa’s 46-year-long apartheid regime. 

Israel’s apartheid regime is already at 72 years and counting. Today, despite the lack of sporting contact between Aotearoa and Israel, the sporting community in Aotearoa is being called upon to stand up for Palestinian human rights.

Saturday 18 September is the fifth international day of action by the BDS movement calling for a boycott of the global sportswear company Puma over its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). As part of this, human rights groups in Aotearoa, led by Justice for Palestine, are calling on the Silver Ferns and Netball New Zealand to drop their partnership with Puma until the company stops its sponsorship of the IFA.

My generation can liberate Palestine and end the occupation

But we cannot do this alone. For us to succeed, the international community needs to end its silence and stand with us.

Palestinian children, like all children, have a right to be safe in their homes and schools, writes Janna Jihad, 15-year-old Palestinian activist and journalist. [Samar Hazboun/ActionAid]

By Janna Jihad, Palestinian journalist, activist and student, AlJazeera, 15 September 2021

Not many people across the world know what life is like for Palestinian children, how unsafe we feel in our homes and what we go through every single day because of the Israeli occupation.

Israel unveils new armed robot amid outcry over ‘death machines’

The Rex MKII, unveiled Monday by Israel Aerospace Industries. (Photo: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

By ANDREA GERMANOS, Common Dreams, 14 September 2021

Israel unveiled a new remote-controlled killer robot on Monday at a major weapons fair in the U.K. that human rights advocates are criticizing as an event to sell “death machines” and tools of abuse.

Developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Rex MK II is a four-wheeled vehicle mounted with two machine guns to carry out remote attacks. According to a press statement from the state-owned company announcing the release, the robot has already been sold to global customers.

The weapon was unveiled Monday at Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) in London, an event that occurs every two years and is one of the world’s biggest arms fairs. The weapons expo has faced sustained condemnation from anti-war campaigners who say it’s a venue “where those who profit from war, repression, and injustice do business.”

Multi-purpose military robot

IAI describes the robot as an unmanned land vehicle that can carry a load of 1.3 tons and execute operations including intelligence gathering using “electro-optical sensors and radar.” It can also be used to launch attacks with “remotely controlled weapons systems including a 7.62mm machine gun” and “a cal 0.50 heavy machine gun,” the company says, and serve “as a multi-mission multi-purpose platform to support additional missions based on troops needs.”

The weapon represents “the most advanced of more than half a dozen unmanned vehicles developed by Aerospace Industries’ subsidiary, ELTA Systems, over the past 15 years,” and would join a similar unmanned robot weapon, the Jaguar, that Israel deploys along the Gaza border, the Associated Press reported.

International outcry

Israel has faced international outcry and demands for war crimes investigations over its repeated military attacks on Gaza. Arms sales to Israel from countries including the U.S. and U.K. have also faced ongoing criticism from human rights advocates.

“IAI’s unmanned land platforms are in use operating along Israel’s borders and in different fighting units as well as in other locations around the world,” Zvika Yarom of IAI’s land division said in a statement in which he cited “a rise in demand from clients for unmanned land platforms.”

Such demand has fueled concerns about so-called “killer robots” and spurred a global campaign to ban such weapons.

Join the global campaign to Boycott Puma

Take action now:

• The fifth International Day of Action to Boycott Puma is being held around the world this Saturday September 18^th. Post this image from BDS Australia on your social media pages.

• Sign the Justice for Palestine (formerly Wellington Palestine) petition to the Silver Ferns calling on them to drop their Puma sponsorship.

Please sign and SHARE widely.
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/tell-the-silver-ferns-to-drop-puma

PUMA claims it doesn’t support teams in illegal Israeli settlements forcing Palestinians off their land.

Ooops! Isn’t that @Puma’s logo under a map of them?

WATCH: Israeli forces attack primary school students with teargas canisters

Palestine Chronicle, 15 September 2021

Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday attacked Palestinian primary school students with teargas canisters in Tubas, in the occupied West Bank.

The Red Cross said that over 30 Palestinian students in an elementary school in the Tayasir village suffocated as Israeli forces fired teargas canisters fired towards them during a raid of the village.

Israeli forces fired teargas towards primary school students near Tubas, West Bank. (Photo: Video Grab)

Local sources said that Israeli forces fired teargas canisters directly and heavily towards the students, resulting in dozens of suffocation cases.

Video footage shows the young students crying and screaming as the teargas fired towards them caused burning and pain in their eyes, throat, lungs and skin.

(QNN, PC, Social Media. Video by Quds News Network)

Raed lit a cigarette. That’s when Israeli troops shot him and left him to die on the side of the road

IDF soldiers shot a 39-year-old Palestinian gardener, but they didn’t bother to check their handiwork. For an hour and a half he lay dying or dead on the road – until his teenage son found him.

Youssef, Raed Jidallah’s son, crouches in the spot where he found his father’s body, with the victim’s friend, Mahdi Zaidan.Credit: Alex Levac

By Gideon Levy & Alex Levac, Haaretz (Israeli daily newspaper) 11 September 2021

Youssef Jidallah walks along the trail of bloodstains and with his phone, photographs his father’s last drops of blood. Next, the 15-year-old aims the device at the edges of the road, the heap of garbage, the stones and the pair of blue rubber gloves lying there. This is where Youssef found his father last week, dead or dying, lying on the roadside. That’s how the boy found his father. Picture it.

Palestinians warn of uprising if Israel seeks to kill ‘beloved’ escapees

The dramatic escape of six Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa prison is now in its fourth day, and the story is resonating around the world. Palestinians and their supporters celebrate the escape, while Israeli authorities and media express humiliation and rage.

PALESTINIANS TAKE PART IN A PROTEST TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH PRISONERS HELD IN ISRAELI JAILS, IN KHAN YOUNIS IN THE SOUTHERN OF GAZA STRIP, ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2021. IN A STEP SEEN AS VENGEANCE FOLLOWING THE ESCAPE YESTERDAY OF SIX PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE FIGHTERS FROM GILBOA JAIL, THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION AUTHORITIES BEGAN TO IMPOSE COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AGAINST ALL PALESTINIANS INCARCERATED IN ISRAEL, TODAY SAID THE PALESTINIAN PRISONER SOCIETY (PPS). PHOTO BY ASHRAF AMRA (C) APA IMAGES.

BY MONDOWEISS EDITORS SEPTEMBER 10 2021

The dramatic escape of six prisoners from Gilboa prison in Israel is now in its fourth day with none of the prisoners captured, and the story is resonating around the world. Palestinians and their supporters celebrate an escape to rival those in Hollywood pictures. While Israeli authorities and media express humiliation and rage.

Israeli forces attack West Bank protests in support of prisoners

Thousands protest in Ramallah in support of Palestinian prisoners. (Photo: via Social Media)

Palestine Chronicle, 10 September 2021

Clashes today erupted between Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces in several locations of the occupied West Bank as Palestinians continued for the second day in a row to demonstrate n support of the prisoners, according to WAFA.

Demonstrations and clashes were reported in Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron (Al-Khalil), in the town of Dura, south of Hebron, and in al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, local sources said.

Israeli soldiers fired live bullets, tear gas canisters and concussion bombs at the protestors, who pelted the soldiers, their military jeeps and watchtowers with stones. Several people suffered suffocation from tear gas inhalation.

The protests erupted over the last two days after the Israel Prison Services (IPS) took revenge against the more than 4,000 Palestinian freedom fighters held in its prisons following the escape on Monday of six prisoners from the heavily fortified Gilboa prison in the north of Israel.

The IPS harsh measures drew strong protests from the prisoners as well as Palestinians throughout the occupied territories.

(Sources: WAFA, PC, Social Media)

Link to original post: https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-forces-attack-west-bank-protests-in-support-of-prisoners/

Israel sets up checkpoints around Gaza to catch escapees

Police officers search as they investigate an area where six Palestinian prisoners managed to escape from Gilboa prison overnight on 6 September 2021 [Amir Levy/Getty Images]

Middle East Monitor, 7 September 2021

Israeli occupation forces set up flying checkpoints around the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday fearing that the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from a high-security prison overnight may try to cross into the coastal territory, Sama news agency has reported.

How many more Palestinians must die for Israel’s ‘security’?

A demonstrator holds a Palestinian flag during a protest at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus. (Reuters)

By RAMZY BAROUD, Arab News, 7 September 2021

A large Israeli army campaign is taking social media by storm. The unstated aim of what is known as the “#Untie_Our_Hands” initiative is the desire to kill, with no accountability, more Palestinian protesters at the Gaza perimeter fence. The campaign was motivated by the killing of an Israeli sniper, Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was reportedly shot from the Palestinian side of the barrier on 21 August.

An immediate question comes to mind: What do Israeli soldiers want, considering that they have already killed over 300 unarmed Palestinian protesters, and wounded and maimed thousands more at the Gaza fence during what Palestinians referred to as the “Great March of Return” between 2018 and 2020?

Why do settlers sound like they’re from somewhere else?

VIDEO: Palestinian-US comedian, writer and activist Amer Zahr asks: What Do Settlers Sound Like? Settlers in #Palestine sound like they’re from somewhere else because they’re from somewhere else. #FreePalestine

Amer Zahr

Tell the Silver Ferns to drop PUMA.

Silver Ferns, Netball NZ, and Carole Maddix NNZ President – Please don’t renew your partnership with PUMA, until PUMA end their sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.

SIGN THE PETITION

Why is this important?

We’re signing this petition as fans of the Silver Ferns, but not fans of your partnership with PUMA. We love your commitment to sport, to fair play, diversity and inclusion. But that’s not true of your partner.

PUMA is the only international sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA) which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements built against international law on occupied Palestinian land. 

BREAKING: Under pressure, Israel agrees to release pregnant Palestinian mother

Middle East Monitor, 3 September 2021

Israel’s Ofer Military Court today agreed to release nine-month pregnant Anjhar Al-Deek, issuing 40,000 shekel ($12,500) bail and releasing her on house arrest, the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority said today.

Twenty-five-year-old Al-Deek is from the Kafr Ni’ma town west of Ramallah and has been imprisoned for five months on charges of attempting to carry out a stabbing attack near an illegal settlement outpost, however no verdict has yet been issued against her yet.

As her due date nears, an online campaign calling for her release has picked up pace, with a letter she sent her family adding to pleas for her release.

Anjhar heads home after her release [Salahdeed Aziz]

Palestinian kids talk

VIDEO: Episode Two – Palestinian kids talk. 3 September 2021.

Come with Nadine as she visits sick children and a doctor in Gaza, to learn about the impact of the medical crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Nadine – the youngest journalist in the 16th October Media Group, presents an up-close look at real life in Gaza from the eyes of a child.

Nadine interviews a hospital medic about challenging conditions faced in a children’s ward in Gaza. (A screen shot from her video report)

To view the first episode of this monthly series, go to: https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2021/08/02/palestinian-kids-talk/

For more 16 October Media reports from Gaza, follow their YouTube channel: #PalestineKidsTalk#16thOctoberGroup

Building materials allowed into Gaza after Israeli assault in May

While dozens of truckloads of construction materials were allowed into the besieged enclave, rights group says ‘more expansive opening’ is needed.

The May offensive on Gaza was marked by its intensity and the targeting of a wide range of civilian structures [File: Fatima Shbair/Getty Images]

AlJazeera report, 2 September 2021

Dozens of truckloads of construction materials were allowed into the ravaged Gaza Strip, slightly easing a crippling 14-year-old blockade on the beleaguered enclave that was further tightened since an 11-day deadly assault ended last May.

The imports came days after hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza protested along the border fence with Israel to pressure it into lifting its siege and allow the reconstruction of Gaza following its relentless offensive. It also came as Palestinians launched incendiary balloons that sparked multiple fires in Israel’s south.

Two Palestinians – including a 12-year-old boy – died of their wounds last week after being shot by Israeli gunfire, while at least 41 others were wounded. An Israeli soldier also died days after being shot at the fence by a Palestinian.