In light of current events in Palestine and Israel, several pro-Palestine organisations in Aotearoa including the Palestinian Solidarity Network, Auckland Peace Action and a few others, organised rallies for Palestine across the country. The Auckland rally was the first, taking place on Saturday the 14th in Aotea square.
It was a response to the Israeli government going through with attacks on Palestinans and cutting of power and water in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel. Israel’s actions have resulted in over 2,300 palestinian civilians dying and over 10,800 injured. The Israeli government has only restored some water supply this morning.
Last week Rawan spoke with John Minto, the national chair for Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa about how the palestinian community here is feeling, what they hoped to achieve with the upcoming rallies and what actions they feel need to be taken.
This morning Rawan also spoke with Layan Khalil, co-president of the University of Auckland Justice for Palestine group about what the Saturday rally was like. We discussed the overall turn out of the rally, including the amount of young people that came to show their support for Palestine and how they were feeling.
Rawan asked about the motivation behind the pro-palestine demonstration at the Auckland Museum last night after it was lit in support of Israel. Many palestinian supporters went to protest and blacked out the Israeli flag coloured lights by covering them with jackets and flags.
They also discussed what the Palestinian community feels about the new government’s support of Israel.
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