The Wellington Palestine Group will be holding a protest against Israel's bombing of Lebanon and Gaza tomorrow.
When: Friday, 4th August, 12:30
Where: Cenotaph on Lambton Quay
If you're outraged at what is going on in the Middle East, and the lack of action by the international community, then its a good time to show it.
Update: There is also a demonstration in Auckland on Saturday, organised by Students for Justice in Palestine. It starts at 13:00 in Aotea Square,a nd will march to the US Consulate for "a die-in and a mass flag burning".
16 comments:
Where's the march to protest Hezbollah's bombing of Israel? I'd like to go to that one too.
M'lud
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 12:55:00 AM
M'Lud: Well, nothing is stopping you from organising one yourself... the more, the merrier.
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 8/04/2006 01:26:00 AM
Well we wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that random acts of murder are only a problem if performed by Israel, would we?
M'lud
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 10:07:00 AM
Well we could just protest the death and destruction, on a pro-rata basis.
Who here is angry at only some of the death and destruction - who ever here really said that?
New Zealnders don't generally accept one side or the other have to always be the righteous victims, and insist that all morality is based on that.
Oh, and lets be clear in this even handed protest that more killing isn't the answer.
Where are the activists in Christchurch by the way? I don't
know anyone here, and nothing seems to be happening, no BDS no nothing, despite e-mails to arena and *others*, asking how I can help! If you are doing something, post it here!
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 11:15:00 AM
There is a protest against the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in Dunedin on Saturday August 5th. (Tomorrow!)
Assemble outside the Museum entrance at 1pm.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 11:26:00 AM
By the way you can advertise here too
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 11:47:00 AM
Where's the march to protest Hezbollah's bombing of Israel? I'd like to go to that one too.
Great idea - you can march to Hizbollahs embassy and present their diplomats with a list of your complaints.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 11:53:00 AM
Well, why not turn up to counter-protest at the anti-Israel protest? Myself & a few others did a similar thing at the anti-GE protest in Auckland a few years back.
Mind you, I was assaulted (technically - pretty low-level stuff) and had one of my signs stolen & torn up. And that was a bunch of anti-GE hippies :-) It'd be interested to see how the Religion of Peace(TM) would handle counter-protesters in their midst.
Anyone here keen to organise a simultaneous counter-protest in Auckland? I could even wear my Infidel t-shirt :-)
Posted by Duncan Bayne : 8/04/2006 03:03:00 PM
Counter protest? Its wrong to protest Lebanse deaths at all? Surely you dont mean to imply this? Why not come along and join in to represent and protest Israels loss, one of you for 60 odd dead, mainly military and the rest of us for 900 odd (lebanon-more in gaza), mainly civilain. Sounds good infidel. Where do we get our "pro-semite" T shirts?
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 03:30:00 PM
The Infidel t-shirt is cool, but I'd rather wear my "fag" t-shirt as it tends to piss off all those desert religions.
http://www.beddestroyers.com/images/merch/fagblacksmall.gif
Posted by Hans Versluys : 8/04/2006 05:14:00 PM
Well hell - maybe after your 'Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation' protest you could set up a 'fire is hot' or 'the ocean is wet' protest. Or maybe just a catch-all 'totally fucking obvious statements' demonstration.
The point of a protest march is to effect change. Since Israel is a democratic country with whom we have diplomatic ties and share many common values it's possible to enter into a dialogue with the Israeli government via a public demonstration like the one today (possible, but unlikely - I didn't attend since I couldn't see any point).
Hezbollah is not a democratic country that we have diplomatic ties and common values with. It's a fundamentalist muslim terror organisation on the other side of the world currently fighting for its existence. The value of demonstrating against them or their actions is absolutely zero.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 05:24:00 PM
I've done lots of bad things and I'm never the culprit. If you are rallying but not on the "proud to be an infidel" message here is another T-Shirt idea. Note there is a pdf file for screen printing linked at the bottom of the page.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 05:33:00 PM
Yet another 'anti-semitic' pedant ... okay, yes, they're 'anti-Jewish'. Bear in mind though, most people interpret the former as the latter.
And don't for a minute think that all of the people on that march, or the organisers, acknowledge that Hezbollah is a terrorist group.
Consider that the press release announcing the protest (from "Socialist Worker", posted on Scoop) explicitly denied that, and described them as "freedom fighters".
Posted by Duncan Bayne : 8/04/2006 07:08:00 PM
Hezbullah are anti Israeli. Unsurprising. They are at war with Israel. They arent fond of Israeli bedouins either. They have not declared war on NZ jews. So "anti-jewish" is inaccurate for them and anti-semitic is hardly a label you can logically use for me, even in ad-hominem argument.
This is my personal view: The armed Hezbullah have undertaken terrorist acts against civilians on the border in the prelude to the war. So did Israel. Dollar for dollar Hezbullah are skilled soldiers, and highly disciplined. They have a terrorist international branch under Mugniyah . On the other hand, there is a political wing, as the IRA has a political wing. They have a massive social development wing, running farming assistance and some of the schools and hospitals recently bombed. Hezbullah's existance does not absolve Israel's war crimes.
Once you invade a country armed resistance against your *military* targets is legitimised under the Geneva convention. Thats why resolution 1559 can no longer sensibly apply, until the invasion stops. Thats also how Israel has turned Hezbullah into heroes in the eyes of the lebanese people.
Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 08:03:00 PM
No, Hezbollah and Hamas are both in fact anti-Jewish.
Those supporting them in countries like New Zealand are typically antagonistic towards Western values; consider again the fact that the group that put out the PR advertising this protest is "Socialist Worker".
Finally, you can't argue that Hezbollah is targetting the Israeli military with their attacks; they are targetting civilians, and doing so in a manner calculated to cause as much damage as possible (e.g. augmenting the Katyusha warheads with extra shrapnel).
One last thing - what's with the anonymous posting? Why don't you feel comfortable dealing with people directly, instead of through a psuedonym?
Posted by Duncan Bayne : 8/04/2006 11:43:00 PM
The counter-protest went ahead; read about it here.
As expected, the protest itself wasn't anti-war, or about mourning Lebanon's losses. It was all about the destruction of Israel & Western values in general - to the tune of a giant and irrelevant Socialist Worker banner and chants of "down, down, Israel".
Posted by Duncan Bayne : 8/08/2006 01:33:00 PM
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