Peace And Justice In Palestine - Wellington Public Meeting on March 27
Press release by Students for Justice in Palestine & the Socialist Workers Organisation,
19 March, 2002
Over 50 people gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Wellington last Friday in a mid-morning protest.
They were demonstrating against the invasion of Palestinian-controlled areas in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by 20,000
Israeli troops two days earlier.
In their latest onslaught, Israeli forces have shot dead a 9 year-old boy, a doctor as he sped to the aid of the wounded
in an ambulance and a hospital director as he drove to work.
In contrast to the protesters, the silence from the New Zealand government over Israel¹s onslaught has been deafening.
Over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the first two weeks of March, taking the death toll over the last 17 months of
the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, to more than 1,200.
The violence in Palestine is not a clash between equal forces. On the one hand stands Israel with helicopter gunships,
fighter jets and tanks supplied by the US and its allies.
On the other side are the Palestinians, living in impoverished conditions, many expelled from their homes into refugee
camps 50 years ago, their homeland occupied by Israeli forces.
Four times as many Palestinians have been killed as Israelis. A third of Palestinian casualties have been children, and
most are civilians.
More and more Palestinians are turning to desperate resistance because they do not have justice. And without justice,
there will be no peace.
The Socialist Workers Organisation and Students for Justice in Palestine want to break New Zealand¹s silence over the
injustice and violence in the Middle East. We invite all those concerned with peace and justice in Palestine to a public
meeting on March 27.
Meeting details: 7.30pm on Wednesday, March 27 at Crossways (cnr Elizabeth St and Brougham St, Mt Victoria)
Speakers will include Keith Locke (Green MP), Don Carson (Journalist and spokesperson for the Wellington Palestine
Group) and Grant Brookes (Socialist Workers Organisation). Government MPs have also been invited.
Ends