Asia Pacific Report
New Zealand’s oldest and largest Palestine solidarity movement today called on political parties to press for “immediate expulsion” of Israeli Ambassdor Alon Roth-Snir and to suspend ties with Israel.
The call by the Palestine Solidarity Network follows two damning new United Nations reports released yesterday and also the impact of the pariah state’s Occupied West Bank ethnic cleansing operation on the family of PSNA national spokesperson Rinad Tamimi.
“My family is directly affected by the past two days of Israel’s massive ethnic cleansing operation in Hebron in the Occupied West Bank, where my family — including my 95-year-old grandfather — have been expelled from their homes,” Tamimi said in a statement today.
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The call also comes as Israelis go to the polls today to elect a new government and New Zealand faces an election on November 7. Early voting began yesterday in New Zealand.
The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has condemned Israel’s actions in the Occupied West Bank.
More than 3000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes so far, in what Turk described as action “punitive in nature and designed to instil fear”.
“Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law. Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing,” Turk said.
Damning UN report on Israel
Meanwhile, the UN Independent Commission of Palestine and Israel has released its latest report which declares: “Israel has committed war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, intentionally targeting Palestinian civilians as it continues to commit genocide in Gaza.”
The report confirms that the source of the endless violence and oppression by Israel goes back to the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and land.
“As part of a broader investigation into the root causes of recurrent tensions and protraction of conflict, the report outlines the key drivers of Israeli violence and concludes that Israel has striven to expand territorially and displace Palestinians through violence since the 1947-48 war.”
Tamimi said: “These shocking reports confirm that Israel has no intention of respecting New Zealand values or international law”.
“The argument that we need the ambassador here to keep lines of communication open is a smokescreen. There is not a scrap of evidence Israel has ever taken any notice of us. The embassy is not here to listen. It is here to propagandise, spy and infiltrate the Pacific,” she said.
“Across the country this week the Palestine solidarity movement will be highlighting these reports and demanding accountability for Israel in nationwide protests.
“The government must end its rhetoric about the Israelis in the West Bank and finally make an effective stand and cuts all ties with Israel, until the refugees can return and everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has as equal rights,” she said.
“It would be appropriate justice for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to follow the expulsion of my 95-year-old grandfather from his home.”
