Israeli media crews were surprised by the treatment they received at the World Cup.
Fans hold a banner reading “Free Palestine” during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group D match between Tunisia and Australia at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar on November 26, 2022. Photo by Anadolu Images
As the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar kicked off on November 20, 2022, and with hundreds of thousands of football fans across the globe making their way to the Gulf country to attend the significant sports event, Israel seems to be the only loser of the tournament. Here is how Israel lost the battle of public opinion at the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The solidarity with the Palestinian people expressed both in the streets of Qatar and in the stadiums during the World Cup was remarkable. The Palestinian flag, keffiyehs, and chants for the freedom of the Palestinian people were repeatedly reported to the shock of Israeli reporters who travelled to cover the global football event.
A Netflix film depicting Zionist militias killing or displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during The Nakba (“The Catastrophe”) has caused outrage in Israel, The New Arab reported.
The film ‘Farha’, by Jordanian director Darine Sallam, has begun airing on Netflix on Thursday despite attacks from Israeli politicians.
[The full movie ‘Farha’ is now also available with English subtitles on YouTube – to view it click on image below. Ed]
The film is based on a true story, which depicts a 14-year-old girl witnessing the killing of her family through a hole in the wall of her home after her father hid her from a rampaging Zionist militia.
In interviews, Sallam has said she made the movie to shed light on the root cause of the conflict and occupation of Palestinian territories.
“The story traveled over the years to reach me. It stayed with me. When I was a child, I had this fear of closed, dark places and I kept thinking of this girl and what happened to her,” Sallam told Arab News.
The Nakba saw 750,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes by Zionist militias in a campaign that included murder, rape, and death threats.
The harrowing video capturing the Israeli border police officer shooting a Palestinian in Huwwara has circulated widely on social media and sparked outrage among Palestinians. (Video published by Middle East Eye, 3 December 2022)
STILLS OF THE EXECUTION OF AMMAR MEFLEH IN HUWWARA, JUST SOUTH OF NABLUS., DECEMBER 2, 2022. (PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA/MONDOWEISS)
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by an Israeli border police officer at point blank range on Friday evening in the northern occupied West Bank town of Huwwara in what is being described as an “execution” on social media.
The execution was captured on video and has circulated widely on social media. The incident occurred shortly before 5pm on Huwwara’s main road — a major throughway that connects dozens of villages with the city of Nablus to the north, and is used by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers.
Earlier this year, the main road of Huwwara was the site of a days-long Israeli settler rampage targeting Palestinians and their businesses with rocks, guns, axes, and other weapons.
An Israeli blockade that restricts the movement of Gazans out of the strip and limits imports — or bans them completely — has been devastating for the enclave’s fishing industry.
A Palestinian fisherman carrying his bounty after a trip out to the sea along the Gaza Strip.Credit…Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times
GAZA CITY, Gaza — Not far from the edge of the port in the Gaza Strip lies its boat cemetery: two rows of beached fishing vessels that even Gazan ingenuity cannot salvage.
Motors and propellers have been stripped. The once-bright blue, green and yellow paint on more than two dozen fishing boats is peeling. The fiberglass on some looks as if it has been eaten away.
The boats began piling up in Gaza 15 years ago after Israel, aided by Egypt, imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the small Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007. The blockade severely restricts the movement of Gazans out of the strip and limits imports or bans them completely, including medical equipment and construction material.
VIDEO: Panel discussion produced by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 15 October 2022 (Duration 1:48)
In 1948, the tiny Gaza Strip was cut off from the rest of historic Palestine, absorbing a huge number of Palestinian refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands. In 1967, it was militarily occupied by Israeli forces, its inhabitants suffering from a plethora of colonial domination techniques and movement restrictions over the subsequent decades. An unprecedented land, air, and sea blockade was imposed on Gaza since June 2007, constituting the longest siege in modern history. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 has noted in her latest report: “Israel’s apparent strategy is the indefinite warehousing of an unwanted population of two million Palestinians, whom it has confined to a narrow strip of land through its comprehensive 15-year-old air, land and sea blockade.”
The outcome has been a harrowing process of de-development resulting, as the UN Special Rapporteur notes, “in a 45 percent unemployment rate, a 60 percent poverty rate and with 80 percent of the population dependent on some form of international assistance, in significant part because of the hermetic sealing of Gaza’s access to the outside world”.
Besides this siege imposed by the Israeli state with Egyptian state collusion, the Palestinian people living in Gaza have been assaulted and bombarded by Israeli forces from land, sea, and air on a regular basis. Their cities, villages, and refugee camps have suffered from several Israeli military invasions, which have led to the killing of thousands and the maiming of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Centering the voices of Palestinian scholars and intellectuals from Gaza, this panel examines the political and historic context of this process, accounting for its enormous human toll but also highlighting the ongoing will to resist this oppressive colonial present.
Co-Sponsors: The Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston and The Jerusalem Fund
Hosted by Darwish Visiting Professor in Palestinian Studies, Abdel Razzaq Takriti
Panelists:
Jehad Abusalim, PhD candidate, History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies Joint Program, New York University Aya Al-Ghazzawi , Writer, English language teacher, Palestinian Ministry of Education Swee Chai Ang , Orthopedic surgeon, Author, and participant on Freedom Flotilla to Gaza 2018. Hadeel Assali, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Lecturer, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University Fady Joudah, Physician, Poet, Translator
Palestinian Youth Aotearoa invites supporters to join them commemorating the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people on Saturday 3 December.
The PYA website is here and the PYA Facebook event is here.
ALSO in Auckland: Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa supporters will gather at 2:00 pm on Saturday 3rd December for a rally and distribution of leaflets at Britomart, downtown Auckland CBD as usual.
Solidarity events have also taken place in other cities this weekend.
The funeral of 5-year-old Alaa Qaddum, killed by an Israeli airstrike in besieged Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
By Ilan Pappe, Palestine Chronicle, 18 November 2022
“Mankind owes to the child the best it has to give.” Preamble, UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)
More than half of the population living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are below 18; in fact, one can confidently say that half of the people of the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip are children. Anyone who wages a war against these two territories, through house demolition, arrests without trial, shoot-to-kill policy, and humiliation, is waging war against children.
At times, whole military brigades of the Israeli army, accompanied by elite units, border police, and police chase a boy and, in most cases, kill him or at best arrest him.
If there is anything that changed in the last few years in what finally the United Nations was willing to call the colonization of Palestine, it is the intensification of the Israeli shoot-to-kill policy. And although so many of us understand that the new Israeli government will not change the policies the previous governments pursued, one can expect further brutalization in the war against the children of Palestine.
As I write this column, the news has reached us of the murder by Israeli soldiers of Fulla Rasmi Abd al-Aziz al-Musalamah. She was on her way to celebrating her 16thbirthday. She was with others in a car near Beitunia, when the soldiers, without any reason, opened fire on the car and killed her. Needless to say, the Israeli newspaper reporting the “incident” blamed the driver and did not even bother to mention her name.
On 28 October this year, Tor Wennesland, Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told a United Nations Security Council quarterly meeting that 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the systematic tracking of Palestinian fatalities began in 2005. Increasing illegal settler violence and sabotage, noted during the reporting period, 17 June to 20 September 2022, is reinforcing Israeli military aggression and population-control. For Palestinians, the deaths, injuries and dispossession are creating mounting hopelessness, anger and appeals for justice.
During the period, a total of 32 Palestinians, including six children, were killed by Israeli security forces during protests, home invasions and searches, while 311 of them, including one woman and eight children, were injured. Israeli settlers and their supporters perpetrated 106 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in 63 injuries and damage to Palestinian property.
Tor Wennesland, Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace ProcessContinue reading →
The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. (Photo: via Human Rights Now TW Page)
Palestine Chronicle, 19 November 2022
The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination by an overwhelming majority, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
167 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 5 countries voted against it, and 7 countries abstained.
The draft resolution was submitted by Egypt on behalf of the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The decision is scheduled to be submitted for approval by the General Assembly in mid-December.
The resolution affirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and freedom, as guaranteed by all international laws, and considers this right a prerequisite for achieving a just and comprehensive solution to the Question of Palestine.
UN Statement 18 November 2022 (Section related to Palestine)
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved 12 draft resolutions as it concluded its work today, including texts addressing the right of peoples to self-determination, racism, xenophobia and related intolerance, and the world drug problem.
A draft on the right of Palestinian people to self-determination was approved in a recorded vote of 167 in favour to 5 against (Nauru, Marshall Islands, United States, Israel, Micronesia), with 7 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Guatemala, Palau, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Togo).
Palestinians in Gaza launched a general strike in solidarity with the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
On Monday, October 31, Palestinians in the town of Al-Eizariya, east of Occupied East Jerusalem, observed a general strike. The strike was declared to be part of the community’s mourning of 49-year-old Barakat Moussa Odeh, who was killed by Israeli forces in Jericho a day earlier.
This is not an isolated case. General strikes were observed throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories in recent weeks as a form of civil disobedience, and protest of the Israeli attacks on the cities of Nablus, Jerusalem, Jenin, and Hebron, as well as to mourn Palestinian fighters who were killed, following shooting operations against Israeli soldiers of illegal Jewish settlers.
Historically, general strikes have been declared and observed by working-class Palestinians. This form of protest often represents the backbone of popular, grassroots resistance in Palestine, starting many years before the establishment of Israel on the ruins of the historic Palestinian homeland.
Some of the international delegates at the Freedom Flotilla Coalition meeting in London last weekend
After the global pandemic pause, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is now set to resume our sailing to challenge the illegal, immoral and inhuman blockade of Gaza. We met in London between 4-6 November with representatives of our member campaigns from different countries (Norway, Malaysia, US, Sweden, Canada, France, New Zealand, Turkey and the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza), and with British and international pro-Palestine solidarity organizations (including Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), popular conference for Palestinians Abroad, Miles of Smiles), to discuss plans to reactivate and expand our work. Our goals remain full human rights for all Palestinians, and in particular, freedom of movement within historic Palestine and the right of return.
In light of the worsening political situation in apartheid Israel and the increasingly brutal repression in occupied Palestine, we are reaching out to other parts of the solidarity movement to work together towards our common goals. This work includes amplifying Palestinian voices, especially those from Gaza, and supporting our civil society partners, like the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which represents farmers and fishers in Gaza. The UAWC, along with other Palestinian civil society organizations, has been unjustly smeared and designated by the Israeli occupation in an attempt to undermine their important role in documenting human rights violations and building resilience in Palestine. While some of our partner organizations are actively involved with important programs addressing the most urgent needs of Palestinian children traumatized by the blockade and murderous Israeli attacks on Gaza, we recognize that a lasting solution requires an end to the blockade.
Solidarity movements are under attack in Palestine and around the world. Our response must reflect and amplify the urgent pleas from our civil society partners to end the blockade of Gaza. At the same time, we also work to end the media blockade by exposing the brutal reality of occupation and apartheid.
As our predecessors in the Free Gaza Movement said when they began these challenging voyages in 2008, we sail until Gaza and Palestine are free!
November 6, 2022
Some of the FFC conference delegates with a screen image of Kia Ora Gaza representative Roger Fowler who was one of the delegates who Zoomed into the London meeting.
The separation wall in occupied Palestinian territory. (UN News/Shirin Yaseen).
UN News, 27 October 2022
NEW YORK (27 October 2022) – Israel’s occupation is illegal and indistinguishable from settler-colonialism, which must end as a pre-condition for the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination, the UN’s independent expert on the occupied Palestinian territory said today.
“For over 55 years, the Israeli military occupation has prevented the realisation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, violating each component of that right and wilfully pursuing the “de-Palestinianisation” of the occupied territory,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, in areportto the General Assembly.
So far this year, at least 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian children salvage belongings from the rubble of their house which was destroyed during Israel’s attack on Gaza in August 2022 [File: Said Khatib/AFP]
AlJazeera, 25 October 2022
Amnesty International has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate possible war crimes following the “unlawful attacks” committed during Israel’s deadly assault on the Gaza Strip in August.
Israeli forces “boasted” of the precision of their attacks on Gaza in August, said Amnesty International in a new report released on Tuesday that investigates the circumstances around three specific attacks on civilians.
A Palestinian girl uses a gas lamp during a power cut in Gaza on August 18, 2020 [MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images]
By Motasem A Dalloul, Gaza, Middle EastMonitor, 22 October 2022
Since the beginning of October, news reports have mentioned a tripartite agreement between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel to develop a natural gas field off the shores of the besieged Gaza Strip. As recently as Monday, Wafa news agency reported PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh as saying that the PA had selected a group of ministers to discuss the issue of Palestinian gas with Egypt and follow up the issue with the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF).
On Tuesday, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan revealed that this trilateral agreement had been reached between Egypt, the PA and Israel, but no details were provided.
Gas exploration off the Gaza coast started in 1999. A year later, the British Gas Company (now the BG Group) discovered gas in a field known as Gaza Marine. It is about 30 kilometres west of the Gaza Strip and is estimated to contain more than 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Natural gas field off Gaza (Palestine Chronicle, file map)
The cost of development of the field is estimated at about $1.2 billion. It has remained untapped because the PIF, which is responsible for its development, has been unable to do anything due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation. Even the BG Group was obliged to terminate its contract with the PIF due to the Israeli obstacles.
A number of reports since Tuesday have claimed that Israel, the PA and Egypt will benefit from the natural gas taken from Gaza Marine. However, on the same day, Anadolu reported an unnamed Palestinian source as saying that the reports about the tripartite agreement are “inaccurate”. The source said that Israel will not get anything from “our” gas. “This is unacceptable,” he insisted. “Israel is just required not to obstruct the work.”
That is not what one Israeli journalist has told me. According to Baruch Yedid, Israel will indeed have a major share of the revenues from Gaza Marine.
Other sources reported by Al Araby Al Jadeed said that an Egyptian economic and security delegation has discussed the issue of developing Gaza Marine with Israel. A member of the PLO Executive Committee told Al Monitor that Egypt had informed the PA about Israel’s approval to start developing the Palestinian gas field off the Gaza coast. Egypt, said Al Araby Al Jadeed, held several “secret meetings” with Israeli officials to get the occupation state’s agreement to start developing Gaza Marine jointly with the PA.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid flies over the Karish gas rig off the coast of Lebanon (AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)
Egyptian efforts to get a share of the gas started last year when, according to Egypt Independent, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) began talks with the PIF and the Consolidated Contractors Company for Oil and Gas (CCC), the parties licensed to develop the field. The PIF owns 27.5 per cent of the field’s shares; the CCC owns 27.5 per cent; and 45 per cent will be for the operating company. EGAS hopes to be the developer.
A senior PA official, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that an initial agreement had been reached, but a final deal has yet to be signed. He did not mention any timeline, but reports claim that it could be by the end of this year. The official also said that Israel agreed to get involved in serious talks about the gas at the request of the EU, “hoping that this gas would end up in European storage tanks.”
The official explained that under the initial agreement Egypt and Israel will monitor operations in the gas field, with Egypt taking some of the gas by 2025, assuming everything goes smoothly. Most of the gas will be sent to Europe by Israel, which will share the resultant revenues with the PA.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has submitted her much-anticipated report to the UN General Assembly, concluding that the realization of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination requires dismantling Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid regime.
7-year-old Palestinian boy Rayan Suliman. (Photo: via Social Media)
By Ramzy Baroud, the Palestine Chronicle, 13 October 2022
Children of my Gaza refugee camp were rarely afraid of monsters but of Israeli soldiers. This is all that we talked about before going to bed. Unlike imaginary monsters in the closet or under the bed, Israeli soldiers are real, and they could show up any minute – at the door, on the roof or, as was often the case, right in the middle of the house.
The recent tragic death of a 7-year-old, Rayan Suliman, a Palestinian boy from the village of Tuqu near Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, stirred up so many memories. The little boy with olive skin, innocent face and bright eyes fell on the ground while being chased by Israeli soldiers, who accused him and his peers of throwing stones. He fell unconscious, blood poured out of his mouth and, despite efforts to revive him, he ceased to breathe.
This was the abrupt and tragic end of Rayan’s life. All the things that could have been, all the experiences that he could have lived, and all the love that he could have imparted or received, all ended suddenly, as the boy lay face down on the pavement of a dusty road, in a poor village, without ever experiencing a single moment of being truly free, or even safe.
Kia Ora Gaza is an Aotearoa/New Zealand network dedicated to support international efforts to break the inhumane and illegal Israeli siege and naval blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian aid, fostering fraternal relations, enhancing understanding of Palestine and the Middle East, and cooperating with others who have similar aims.
Kia Ora Gaza promotes human rights, and solidarity for the people of Palestine and their struggle for justice, peace and freedom.
Our website and facebook pages underscore and promote these goals, however posts do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Kia Ora Gaza or our partners.
All forms of racism and discrimination are the antithesis of justice, peace and freedom. Kia Ora Gaza social media will not tolerate any act or discourse which adopts or promotes, among others: racism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, xenophobia, or homophobia.
Kia Ora Gaza is a member of the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition - website: freedomflotilla.org and part of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. Website: www.PSNA.nz
Postal address: Kia Ora Gaza, PO Box 86022, Mangere East, Auckland, New Zealand 2158.
KIA ORA GAZA PROJECTS
Kia Ora Gaza was established from a series of public meetings to organise Kiwi participation in international efforts to end the siege of Gaza & promote practical solidarity for Palestine. This followed the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Mamara-led peace flotilla in international waters in 2010 which resulted in the deaths of 10 civilian peace activists. Since then Kia Ora Gaza has organised or supported the following projects: 1. Sent a team of 6 Kiwis on the 140-vehicle Viva Palestina international land convoy in 2010, driving and donating 3 ambulances to Gaza – part of the $7million medical aid delivered.
2. Supported Kiwi participant Harmeet Sooden to join the Canadian boat, Tahrir on Freedom Flotilla 2 to Gaza in 2011. 3. Sent a team of 4 Kiwis on the “Miles of Smiles” land convoy to Gaza with 10 tonnes of medical aid, 20124. Sent a fact-finding mission for www.kiaoragaza.net to Gaza Nov, 2012 5. Sent donations for food relief following the 2014 floods in Gaza 6. Co-organised nation-wide protests each weekend during Israel’s 50-day bombardment of Gaza in 2014 7. Transferred $25,000 to Gaza for urgent medical aid via Palestinian International Medical Aid in July 2014. 8. Sponsored an education project training young Palestinian journalists in Gaza 2015 9. Facilitated “NZ-Gaza twinning agreements” with a sports club and community centre in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza. 10. Co-sponsored 2 ambulances for Doctors Worldwide rehabilitation centre in Khan Younis (Israeli bombing in 2014 destroyed 26 ambulances in Gaza) 11. Maintains website: kiaoragaza.net and facebook pages. 12. Co-hosted the NZ Conference on Palestine, 2013 and 2016 13. Facilitated 2 Maori TV journalists on board the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in 2015 14. Co-hosted NZ speaking tours including: – Harry Fear (UK doco-maker) & Roger Fowler (Kia Ora Gaza) in 2013
– Jeff Halper (Director, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) 2013
– Miko Peled (author) 2013
– Yousef Aljamal (Palestinian commentator) 2013
– Amira Hass (Israeli Journalist, Haaretz) 2015
– Samah Sabawi (Palestinian Writer) 2015
– Emad Burnat (Palestinian Film-maker) 2016
– Ali Abunimah (founder Electronic Intifada) 2016
– Rafeef Ziadah (Palestinian poet) April 2017
– Gideon Levy (Israeli journalist) 2017
– Huwaida Arraf (Palestinian lawyer) and Justine Sachs. 2018
-Dr Ramzy Baroud (US/Palestinian author) 2018
– Dr Salman Abu-Sitta (Palestinian author) 2019
15. Aug 2016 co-hosted special Auckland screening of Emad Burnat’s documentary ‘5 Broken Cameras’
16. Sept 2016. Transferred $6000 raised in our appeal to Palestinian doco-maker Emad Burnat towards a new camera.
17. Sept 2016 facilitated Green MP Marama Davidson to join Women’s Boat to Gaza peace flotilla.
18. Feb 2017 co-hosted film screening event: “The Idol”
19. April 2017, co-hosted three-city NZ tour with Palestinian performance poet Rafeef Ziadah and musician Phil Monsour.
20. May 2017 ‘Salt Water Challenge’ solidarity actions with Palestinian hunger strikers.
21. May 2017 transferred $1000 donation to Al Ahli Sports club in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza for football equipment. 22. July 2017 transferred our EURO1000 share to the FFC Gaza fishers project via MyCare Humanitarian Care Malaysia. 23. July 2017 transferred $1000 donation to Al Ahli Sports Club, Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza. 24. Sept 2017 the Freedom Flotilla Coalition delivered fishing equipment as solidarity aid to 400 Gazan fishers via MyCare, Malaysia. 25. Kia Ora Gaza co-hosted a public lecture in Auckland on 3 December 2017, by renowned Haaretz journalist and writer, Gideon Levy. 26. January 2018, Kia Ora Gaza organiser, Roger Fowler, attends the Freedom Flotilla Coalition conference in Sweden to plan the 2018 international flotilla to break the illegal blockade of Gaza. 27. Co-organised Nationwide ‘Day of Action’ for Free Palestine on Sat 3 February 2018 demanding the release of all children held in Israeli prisons. 28. Co-hosted a public meeting at Auckland Uni with US/Palestinian writer Huwaida Arraf and Justine Sachs from Dayenu: NZ Jews against Occupation, March 2018. 29. Co-organised Auckland rallies in support of Palestinian March of Return, from April 2018. 30. Co-organised a five-city speaking tour with acclaimed US/Palestinian author, Dr Ramzy Baroud. May 2018. 31. Facilitated NZ participation in the 2018 Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. Selected veteran human rights campaigner and union leader, Mike Treen to represent NZ. Co-organised NZ speaking tour with Mike Treen.
32. The 2021 Kia Ora Gaza appeal for the ‘Miles of Smiles’ solidarity convoy of 37 ambulances and medical aid for Gaza raised $NZ35,000 to sponsor one ambulance together with our Freedom Flotilla Coalition partners. FFC has postponed the next flotilla until after Covid travel restrictions are lifted.
The ambulance the Kia Ora Gaza co-sponsored servicing the disabled community in Gaza.
CURRENT APPEALS
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is organising another international peace flotilla to challenge Israel's illegal 13 year naval blockade of Gaza and for a just future for Palestine - after the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions have been lifted.For updates visit the FFC facebook page and website: freedomflotilla.org You can support NZ participation in this project by checking the options in the 'How to donate to Kia Ora Gaza' segment below.Appeal target: $40,000 to cover costs of our share of the purchase and upgrade of the flotilla boats, airfares and accommodation for our NZ participant.
HOW TO DONATE TO KIA ORA GAZA
Make a direct payment to our bank account: Kia Ora Gaza Trust, 03-0211-0447718-000, Westpac Bank, Onehunga branch. Afterwards, email office@kiaoragaza.net with your deposit details so we can send you an e-receipt.
The Kia Ora Gaza Trust is a Charitable Trust incorporated with the Companies Office under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. Registration number 2540065 NZBN Number: 9429043214167. However we are not registered with IRD for tax deduction purposes, as Kia Ora Gaza is deemed to be mainly an advocacy group.
FREEDOM FLOTILLA TO GAZA: DOCUMENTARY
A MaoriTV media team of senior journalist Ruwani Perera and award-winning, free-lance camera operator Jacob Bryant, returned home from reporting on the 2015 Freedom Flotilla III attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
Facilitated by Kia Ora Gaza, the Native Affairs team joined other international journalists on the board the flotilla to observe and document the mission.
Thanks to all those who generously supported the Flotilla project.
Kia Ora Gaza has raised funds for many humanitarian projects, including a contribution to 10 tonnes of medical aid on Miles of Smiles convoy in 2012, $3500 for Gaza flood relief in 2013, sponsored a special education project in 2015, supported Gaza fishers project 2017 (1000Euros). Over 100,000 Palestinians were injured and over 2,100 killed during Israel’s 2014 genocidal onslaught, and their illegal siege on Gaza left the medical services without basic supplies.
Kia Ora Gaza Trust launched an urgent appeal for funds towards humanitarian relief in war-ravaged Gaza, resulting in $25,000 urgent medical aid sent to Gaza in 2014.
KIA ORA GAZA HAS CO-SPONSORED SIX AMBULANCES FOR GAZA.
Kia Ora Gaza co-sponsored two ambulances for Doctors Worlwide Gaza in 2015.
Kia Ora Gaza also donated three ambulances packed with medical aid during the 'Lifeline to Gaza' international convoy in 2010. And in 2021 KOG sent $35,000 to co-sponsor one ambulance in the Miles of Smiles solidarity convoy of 37 ambulances in 2021.
VIDEO: The manager of the Doctors World Wide Turkey services in Gaza, Mohammed Alkhatib, thanks Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) and Kia Ora Gaza donors for jointly sponsoring two new ambulances at their Khan Younis rehabilitation clinic. The video also shows the recently delivered ambulances in service. (Video by DWWT 21 October 2015.) CLICK HERE
Roger Fowler teaching Kiwi-English at Al Aqsa University, Gaza City.
COMING EVENTS
Kia Ora Gaza is planning future speaking tours & other events, in cooperation with Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa and PHRC. Watch this space.
Please note that the planned 2020 Freedom Flotilla to Gaza has been postponed until further notice due to the current Covid-19 global pandemic.
In June 2012, Kia Ora Gaza sent a four-person team to Gaza as part of an international aid convoy. Our Kiwi convoyers were (from left) Roger Fowler, Tali Williams, Gibran Janif and Hone Fowler. This land convoy, which left from Cairo, delivered ten tonnes of urgently needed medical supplies to health authorities in Gaza. In November 2012 Kia Ora Gaza sent Roger Fowler on a fact-finding mission to Gaza (see his reports posted Nov-Dec 2012 on this website). UK documentary-maker Harry Fear joined Roger on a speaking tour of NZ on his return.
In November 2010, six volunteers from Kia Ora Gaza joined an international land convoy which delivered NZ$7 million in medical aid to Gaza. The convoy, which left from London and was joined by other columns from North Africa and the Middle East, arrived at night in Gaza City to a rapturous welcome from Palestinian throngs.
Our fallen heros
We remember the ten humanitarians on board the Gaza aid vessel Mavi Marmara killed by Israeli commandos on 31 May 2010:
Ibrahim Bilgen
Ali Haydar Bengi
Cevdet Kiliçlar
Çetin Topçuoglu
Necdet Yildirim
Fahri Yaldiz
Cengiz Songür
Cengiz Akyüz
Furkan Dogan
Ugur Suleyman Soylemez
Kia Ora Gaza 