Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5:30pm outside the Israeli Embassy, 111 The Terrace, Wellington
This protest is to commemorate the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948,
which marked the start of the wholesale ethnic cleansing and sowed the seeds for today's conflict.
Further information from Students for Justice in Palestine, who are organising the protest:
On 9 April 1948 a Palestinian village was the scene of a brutal massacre. The village, Deir Yassin, not far from
Jerusalem, was targeted by Zionist terrorist gangs headed by Menachem Begin, who later became Israel's prime minister.
The gangs killed over 100 people, including women and children. Most of the villagers who survived the massacre ended up
in refugee camps around Jerusalem and in Jordan.
The massacre was designed to terrorise the Palestinian population and drive them off their land, making way for the
creation of the state of Israel in 1949.The terror still goes on. The Palestinian people remain the most dispossessed
nation in the world, expelled from their homeland, squeezed into two areas of land - the Gaza Strip and the West Bank -
which constitute nothing more than a ghetto or prison camp.
Many hundreds of thousands are scattered around the globe. While Israel talks about peace it carries on with its
policies of grabbing land off the Palestinians and jackboot repression. The peace Israel wants is one where the
Palestinians meekly accept a life in refugee camps, stateless, jobless and without hope for the future.
The Palestinian people reject this and continue their just struggle. All the while, the United States remains a key
player. It backs Israel at every turn because it acts on Washington's behalf in the Middle East. Every year the United
States gives Israel $4 billion in aid. As well, it vetoes any United Nations resolutions condemning Israel's brutality.
Join us in showing opposition to the continued subjection of the Palestinian people and Washington's role as Israel's
godfather.
Present Israeli violence in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is only one step from the ultimate Zionist
prescription for Palestine - wholesale expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. This will
come, sooner rather than later. United States' 'pressure on General Sharon is simply a concern about oil prices and an
attempt to get Arab support for a war on Iraq.
Bush will inevitably revert back to his condemnation of Palestinian resistance and endorsement of Israeli atrocities.
Then Israel will be ready for the next step. Israeli attacks on journalists mark an ominous sign of large scale
dirty-work by Israeli occupying troops. Evidence is mounting, not just of destruction of property, arbitrary arrests,
selective assassinations, vandalisation of holy sites, but random cold-blooded killings of prisoners in the street.
Israeli soldiers have rounded up thousands of men between 14 and 60 for 'interrogation. These men are not being seen
again. As horrific as this is, it is only a preparation for Transfer - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of
Palestinians. Transfer of the 'cancer within Israel', is openly advocated up to and including in the Israeli cabinet.
Our own Prime Minister has said that 'This time, Israel has gone too far.." A high level of tolerance indeed. As far as
our Foreign Minister was concerned this week the long standing United Nations endorsement of the right to return of the
millions of Palestinians who are already refugees means nothing.
Phil Goff has equated Israelis removing their illegal settlements with the Palestinians relinquishing their right to
return, as a formula for peace. He remains silent on the Jewish 'right of return'. Our own governments, and those of
most of the rest of the world, will only react to public pressure. Students for Justice in Palestine and the Wellington
Palestine Group are building a campaign against the Israeli onslaught. Israeli Embassy 111 the terace 5:30 p.m Tuesday
9/4/2002 WEAR BLACK
Ends