GLOBAL PEACE AND JUSTICE AUCKLAND NEWSLETTER #267 - January 5, 2009
Website: http://www.gpja.org.nz/

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MOBILISATION PLANNED SATURDAY JANUARY 10 TO PROTEST ATTACKS ON GAZA – ASSEMBLE 12 NOON AOTEA SQUARE
Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Palestine Human Rights Campaign are planning a major mobilisation to protest the latest Israeli outrages against Palestinians living in the Gaza strip.
We have received numerous calls asking what actions are planned for Aucklanders to register their outrage at Israel’s actions. Saturday’s mobilisation gives that opportunity.
(An organising meeting for the mobilisation and to plan immediate steps in the campaign to boycott Israel will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 6th January at the Unite Union Office at 6A Western Springs Road, Auckland)
Meanwhile like most New Zealanders we find the government’s failure to condemn the Israeli massacre an outrage. The utterances of Foreign Minister Murray McCully are obsequious and embarrassing. His fawning to the US position will be welcomed in Israel but will be condemned around the rest of the world. He is putting New Zealand well out of step with the United Nations.
United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto called the launching of the ground offensive in Gaza "a monstrosity" in an accurate reflection of international opinion. McCully on the other hand has yet to issue a single word of criticism.
Mike Treen – (09) 8452132 or 0295254744; John Minto – (09) 8463173(H) or (09) 8469496(W) - For the GPJA Committee
Janfrie Wakim – 09 5200201 or 027 629 1004 For the Palestine Human Rights Campaign
BOYCOTT ISRAELI GOODS AOTEAROA
The Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign Aotearoa

WELLINGTON MARCH TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 12.30PM
Meet at Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade 195 Lambton Quay, Wellington (cnr. Panama St). The Wellington Palestine Group has organized the following March in Wellington to protest the Israeli massacre of Palestinians currently taking place in Gaza. Please forward this information to your networks and feel free to come along to all events, with banners, placards and huge amounts of solidarity for the Palestinian people who continue to suffer under brutal Israeli Occupation.
For more info: wpgnz@hotmail.com
http://wellingtonpalestinegroup.blogspot.com/ 027 515 6685

REQUEST FOR SHAHAR PEER TO WITHDRAW FROM ASB TENNIS CLASSIC
Global Peace and Justice Auckland &Palestine Human Rights Campaign

4 January 2009
Shahar Peer (Israeli Tennis Player)
ASB Tennis Classic
Auckland
asbcentre@tennisauckland.co.nz

Kia ora Shahar,

Request for you to withdraw from ASB Tennis Classic
We are writing to request you to withdraw from the ASB Tennis Classic as part of a comprehensive international boycott of Israel.
Israel’s attacks on the Gaza strip are indefensible and just the latest chapter in a 60-year history of oppression and brutality directed towards Palestinians who were forced from their homes, villages and lands to make way for an exclusive Jewish state.
In Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel itself Palestinians are treated as second class citizens by a myriad of laws and policies which in all key respects mirror the apartheid policies of the white regime of South Africa. Just as an international consensus developed to boycott South Africa to bring pressure for change, a similar consensus is developing for a boycott of Israel.
We applaud the many Jewish human rights and civil rights groups which have called on Israel to cease its attacks on Gaza and who also support full citizenship rights for all Palestinians.
We realise as a professional tennis player this is a significant sacrifice you are being asked to make. However it is much less than the sacrifice being made by Palestinian families under siege by Israel. We therefore urge you to respect this boycott and withdraw from the ASB Tennis Classic.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,

John Minto
jbminto@xtra.co.nz
Mike Treen
mike@unite.org.nz

ANNOUNCEMENTS

2009 NATIONAL PEACE WORKSHOPS
The 2009 National Peace Workshops, the national gathering for people interested in peace, social justice and human rights, will be at the Quaker Settlement in Whanganui in mid or late March - the date is currently being finalised, and will be available soon. The theme of the 2009 NPW is 'Promoting peace through active non-violent resistance' and the main focus will be participatory discussion with Maori, Pacific and Pakeha contributors who have experience of community and individual non-violent resistance, and/or non-violent direct action in Aotearoa and overseas. Preliminary information about the National Peace Workshops, including the programme outline, venue and accommodation options, is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/npw09.htm
UPDATE ON THE UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PETITION
The Office of the House of the Clerk initially refused to accept the signatures on the UN Declaration petition to parliament (on a technicality, this is not related to it entering the premises without having gone through the security scanner!). Agreement has now been reached whereby another petition, in Peace Movement Aotearoa's name, is being lodged - urging the House of Representatives to take note of the UN Declaration petition - and it will then proceed to a Select Committee. This somewhat bizarre process will actually make it easier to add additional signatures to those presented on Human Rights Day, so please continue collecting signatures through the summer - the summer festivals would be great places to take petition forms and a pen! The form is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/declpet.pdf or from email pma@xtra.co.nz - the final deadline for return of signatures is Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day, 1 March.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." -- Noam Chomsky (1928- ) Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
BEST ON THE WEB

NEW ZEALAND
US flag burnt in Auckland protest over Gaza attacks
Palestine solidarity march (YouTube)
Editorial : Gaza First Big Test For Obama
Fran O'Sullivan: Govt Restraint On Israeli Actions Could Prove Costly
New Zealand Palestine Human Rights Campaign
Peace Movement Aotearoa: Airstrikes on Gaza, information, protests, and contact details
Open Letter to Prime Minister John Key on Gaza
John Minto: Gaza on Fire
Matt McCarten: Palestinians' fight is a struggle against 'apartheid'

PALESTINE
Daily blog from Gaza
Robert Fisk: The rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act
The Myth of Israeli Retaliation
If Hamas Did Not Exist By Jennifer Loewenstein
Top 5 Lies about Israel's Assault on Gaza
Violence against Gaza must stop immediately, World Council of Churches general secretary says
There are more than 10 million Palestinians living around the world, more than half of whom are stateless. In this year when Israel has been marking its 60th anniversary many Palestinians have been reflecting on the event that for them meant exile. The 'naqba', or catastrophe, is how they describe the destruction of many of their villages and towns and their own dispersal following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. In this BBC Assignment programme Paul Adams speaks to four Palestinians in exile

Adam Sheets: The Facts about Israel’s War on Gaza
From The Ashes of Gaza: In the face of Israel's latest onslaught, the only option for Palestinian nationalism is to embrace a one-state solution by Tariq Ali
If Gaza falls . . . by Sara Roy (LRB)
The True Story Behind this War Is Not The One Israel Is Telling By Johann Hari
US Weapons 'Killing Innocent Civilians' in Gaza
Israel's Righteous Fury And Its Victims In Gaza By Ilan Pappe
Israel Violates International Humanitarian Law By Prof. Richard Falk

WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS
End of neoliberalism? Sorry, not yet by Patrick Bond: Those who declare that the Great Crash of Late 2008 heralds the end of free market economic philosophy -- "neoliberalism" for short -- are not paying close enough attention.
Factories slash output, jobs around world: Factories in China and India joined much of Europe in slashing output and jobs at a record pace in December, another sign the biggest emerging markets were wilting under the recession gripping industrialized nations.
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh's New Beginning By Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee

CHINA
China Faces Unrest as Economy Falters - Seeking to Damp Anger, Authorities Meet Strike Leaders, Grant Concessions
The new middle class vents its anger with strikes

CUBA
Che's spirit burns on in Latin America
Cuba, 50 years on ... and the same challenge of making a revolution
FILM: 1959-2009: 50 years of the Cuban Revolution -- Fidel Castro: the Untold Story: to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed on January 1, 1959, here is Cuban filmmaker Estela Bravo's remarkable portrait of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.
Interview with Mariela Castro on the Future of Sex and Socialism in Cuba
Castro's Revolution Turns 50 - CBS News: Despite Obstacles, Communist Cuba Endures
The Long March of the Cuban Revolution by Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada

INDIA
India Sleepwalks To Total Surveillance By Binu Karunakaran

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