Stop The Violence! Ceasefire Now! Rally In Tāmaki Makaurau Sunday

Supporters of Palestine will once more be marching this Sunday 19 November in Auckland.

We are confident the majority of New Zealanders are behind our call for a ceasefire and condemnation of Israel’s genocidal slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The march will be asking our political leaders to:

· Condemn Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza

· Call for an immediate comprehensive ceasefire

· Call for the Palestinian people in Gaza to be placed under immediate United Nations protection

· Demand a swift investigation by the International Criminal Court into war crimes committed in Israel/Gaza since October 7th – including the crimes of genocide and apartheid

· Send the Israeli ambassador home

We will be protesting again at Aotea Square at 2pm on Sunday 19th. We will once again be rallying peacefully to end the violence and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. We will once again be calling for the release of all hostages, the Israeli hostages taken on October 7, and the release of the 2.2 million hostages in Gaza living under siege and Israel’s effective control. We are also calling for the release of the 4,450 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons to be released – including 160 children, 32 women, and over 1000 "administrative detainees" who are imprisoned indefinitely and held without charge. We will exercise our rights to march peacefully demanding the Government enact targeted sanctions against Israeli Government officials, divest from Israel, and apply sanctions in light of the Israeli atrocity crimes being committed in Gaza.

On Sunday it will have been 42 days of Israel’s aggression on the Gaza strip. At Least 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, most of them are women and children. Nearly 3,000 Palestinians remain missing, who may be trapped or dead under the rubble while more than 30,000 people are injured and approximately 1.4 million people internally displaced (62% of Gaza).

It has been 39 days since Israel has been withholding access to water, electricity, or humanitarian supplies and blocking border points.

As of the 13th November, the Ministry of Health has officially announced the death of all ICU patients in the Al-Shifa hospital due to the outages of electric power and oxygen. Further to this, only 700 trucks have been able to enter since October 21st, which represents just 11% of the supplies the enclave was receiving before October 7. This is a trickle of the humanitarian aid that should be entering Gaza.

37 health care facilities (including 21 hospitals) and 28 ambulances have been damaged in attacks so far and 16 health care workers on duty have been killed.

More than 200 schools, 47 mosques and 7 churches have been damaged by Israeli attacks.

"These atrocities committed against the Palestinians is nothing new. Palestine has been subject to Israel’s settler-colonial violence for the past 75 years" said Rand Hazou, a member of the Palestinian community in Aotearoa.

"There is no time to waste, New Zealand must condemn Israel for their occupation of Gaza, for committing a genocide and for undergoing a process of ethnic cleansing,"

"We ask all party leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire and to work together to apply targeted sanctions to Israeli officials for their violation of international law."

"Just as 9 countries have rightly withdrawn their ambassadors from Israel, New Zealand must likewise stand for humanity and withdraw the ambassador from Israel and close the Israeli embassy here."

"Just as the New Zealand government applied sanctions on apartheid South Africa, we must move swiftly to apply targeted sanctions and sanctions on the Israeli state to abide by international law and pressure Israel to respect humanitarian laws and human rights."

As an independent UN expert reported last year that, “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.” This expert also affirmed that Israel's endeavours in Palestine are “illegal”, amount to “gross violations of international law, including racial segregation and subjugation” and are “indistinguishable from settler-colonialism.”

Similarly, a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry into Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine concluded last year that “by continuing to occupy [Palestinian] territory by force, Israel incurs international responsibilities and remains accountable for violations of the rights of the Palestinians, both individually and as a people.”

On 7 October, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that the Palestinians of Gaza would pay an “immense price” for the actions of Hamas fighters. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, also stated that the Israeli government holds the entire Palestinian population of Gaza responsible for the actions of militant groups, and should therefore be subject to collective punishment and unrestricted use of force, saying: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”

A group of independent UN experts have repeatedly stated that Israel’s attacks on Palestinians are genocidal and constitute war crimes and violations of international law, remarking:

“We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide. The time for action is now. Israel’s allies also bear responsibility and must act now to prevent its disastrous course of action. The Israeli airstrike on a residential complex in the Jabalia refugee camp is a brazen violation of international law – and a war crime. Attacking a camp sheltering civilians including women and children is a complete breach of the rules of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians.”

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