by Daphna Whitmore
Several hundred people turned out yesterday in Auckland to rally in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The vicious response of the Israeli army to the mass demonstrations at the Gaza prison fence has created a sense of urgency that the situation demands action. The rally turned into a spontaneous march to the US Consulate.
Auckland solidarity march with Gaza
by Susanne Kemp
It’s always problematic to point to this or that particular individual in the context of a massacre by state forces. All lives lost are to be mourned – and we should get angry about all of them.
But in the case of the latest murder spree by the Israeli state, I want to mention Ahmad Abdullah Abdullah al-Adaini, a Palestinian Marxist and activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This comrade was murdered while participating in the right-of-return protest near the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Comrade Ahmad was born in the Gaza Strip in 1981 and later studied in Yemen. Due to his studies and his English-language proficiency, Ahmad could have chosen a (more…)
Below we’re reprinting the official statement and itinerary for the speaking tour.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud’s NZ speaking tour itinerary – 18 to 24 May 2018.
Hosted by the NZ Palestine Solidarity Network
Ramzy Baroud brings the authentic voices of the Palestinian struggle for human rights to New Zealand, as part of a world-wide launch of his new book The Last Earth: a Palestinian Story.
Please note that signed copies of Ramzy’s book will be on sale for $35 at each venue – cash or EFTPOS (bookshop retail prices may vary). Other merchandise will be available also.
Each event is free entry and open to the public – bring your friends & workmates. There will be a collection for donations towards tour costs.
AUCKLAND: FRIDAY 18 MAY
10:30am: A special book signing event at UBIQ Auckland University Bookshop, 2 Alfred Street, Student Commons (off Princes or Symonds Street, City.)
12:00 midday: Listen to 95bFM radio for Kelly Enright’s studio interview with Ramzy Baroud on ‘The Wire’ current affairs programme.
AUCKLAND: SATURDAY 19 MAY
9:00am: Listen to Kim Hill’s face-to-face live interview with Ramzy on her popular ‘Saturday Morning’ programme, on RNZ National radio (FM 101.4)
2:00pm: Ramzy will speak at the Nakba Rally for Free Palestine, Aotea Square, Queen St, CBD.
AUCKLAND: SUNDAY 20 MAY
Free public talk: 7pm Freemans Bay Community Hall, 52 Hepburn St, Auckland.
HAMILTON: MONDAY 21 MAY
Free public talk: 7pm: Wintec, Room A2.05, City Campus, Hamilton.
Access via Gate 3 or Gate 2 on Tristram Street. Free parking.
WELLINGTON: TUESDAY 22 MAY
Book signing from 12pm to 1pm: Vic Books, Easterfield Building, 1 Kelburn Parade, Wellington 6012.
Evening event: 6pm Free Public talk: St Andrews on the Terrace, 30 The Terrace, Wellington City 6011. (Wellington event book sales by Vic Books).
CHRISTCHURCH: WEDS 23 MAY
Free public talk: 7pm Christchurch Cardboard Cathedral, 234 Hereford St, Christchurch 8011.
DUNEDIN: THURSDAY 24 MAY
Free public talk: 5:15pm Burns 2 Lecture theatre, Ground Floor Arts Building, Albany Street, University of Otago.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND ITS AUTHOR:
Gaza-born Palestinian author Ramzy Baroud is (more…)
Following the massacre committed by the Zionist army in Gaza on 14 May, when Israeli occupation forces killed 61 Palestinians as they participated in the Great Return March for their right of return and to break the siege, Comrade Khaled Barakat, leftist Palestinian writer, participated in a discussion with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine media committee.
“What happened in Gaza is a revolt to throw off the Israeli occupation and to break the siege that has continued for over 11 years,” said Barakat. “The popular classes in Palestine are reviving their role and claiming their cause as they witness a direct attempt by the United States, Israel and Arab reactionary regimes to liquidate the national rights of the Palestinian people.”
“The Palestinian people in Gaza have taken the responsibility of breaking the siege into their own hands,” Barakat said. “The role of the popular classes has also been represented by the wide participation of youth and women in the struggle, which has created a (more…)
by Daphna Whitmore
What other western country shoots demonstrators with snipers? Like a scene from Game of Thrones Israel continued its bloody killing spree on the Gaza border while celebrating the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Men, women and children protesting in Gaza against the siege, their loss of land and nationhood
As Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were opening the embassy the death toll rose to more than 60 Palestinians with an estimated 2000 maimed this week. Meanwhile fascistic religious Jewish mobs in Jerusalem went on a rampage against Palestinians, all the while protected by the Israeli state. (more…)
by Yassamine Mather
Irrespective of what the experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons say, there is no doubt that the Syrian dictator is capable of using weapons of mass destruction against his own population and it is possible that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the attack in Douma.
However, the point remains that the tripartite alliance of the US, UK and France has failed to prove that the Syrian government was responsible for this terrible act before launching a military attack. In addition, after all the fake documents produced prior to the Iraq war, can anyone trust the advice of international ‘experts’? There is a level of justified scepticism amongst ordinary people about British government claims of being certain who was behind the ‘chemical attack’ used to justify the military operations of April 14.
Chemical weapons
In the current situation, when Assad is clearly winning the eight-year civil war, why would he use chemical weapons on a small group of fundamentalist Islamists, Jaysh al-Islam (an offshoot of Al Qa’eda)? After all, his government, aided by Russia and Iran, has managed to defeat the other offshoots operating in Syria and, what is more, in Douma a deal had been reached that paved the way for the departure of the insurgents.
As late as April 12, US defence secretary James Mattis was telling reporters that the United States and its allies were “still assessing” reports of a chemical weapons attack on April 7 – days after his boss, Donald Trump, and British prime minister Theresa May had declared they knew what had happened and firmly blamed Assad.
Unlike Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and elements in the Stop the War Coalition, I have no illusions in the United Nations and the sanctity of ‘international law’. However, it is interesting to read the case made by US law professors Jack Goldsmith and Oona Hathaway against (more…)
Khaled Barakat
“The Land Day mobilization taking place under the slogan of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege in Gaza comes as a massive popular response to all of the attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, particularly the schemes and attacks of the Trump-Netanyahu alliance with the full participation of the reactionary Arab regimes, especially Saudi Arabia,” said Palestinian leftist writer Comrade Khaled Barakat.
“Trump has specifically targeted UNRWA and the rights of Palestinian refugees; as they march for return in massive numbers, it is clear that Palestinian refugees will never accept any attempt to erase their existence and that they hold fast and are actively engaged in unending struggle to return to their homes and reclaim all of their rights,” Barakat said.
“Given the strength of this mobilization, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees stream towards this march, it is clear that where the Palestinian armed resistance is strong in a place, the political movement and popular mobilization and participation is (more…)
