New Zealand protesters in Tamaki Makaurau today heralded a global demand for the freedom of thousands of Palestinians who have been unlawfully imprisoned by Israel in its illegal occupation of Palestine.

Today is the Red Ribbon Campaign’s global day of solidarity for Palestinian hostages or political prisoners.

It is the culmination of the Red Ribbon campaign that has been running globally for several weeks.

At the time of the so-called Gaza “ceasefire” declared on October 10, Israel was reported to be holding a record 11,100 Palestinians hostage, mostly innocent and without charge or due process.

In exchange for the final 20 Israeli hostages still alive held by Hamas and other resistance groups at the time of the ceasefire, almost 2000 Palestinian prisoners were freed by Israel.

This leaves more than 9100 prisoners — 400 of them children and 3544 of them held under “administrative detention” — yet to be freed.

Speaking at the solidarity rally in Ta Komititanga Square today, Palestinian academic and theatre practitioner Associate Professor Rand Hazou highlighted how Israel was the only country in the world to detain children under military law and military courts.

Denied access to parents, lawyers
“According to UNICEF, Palestinian child detainees are denied access to their parents and lawyers. They are often arrested in the middle of the night, blindfolded and beaten, threatened with torture and denied food and sleep,” he said.

“Palestinian detainees, including children, are forcibly transferred outside the occupied the Palestinian territory in contravention of Article 4 of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of children and civilian persons at the time of war.”

His comments were greeted with cries of “shame” by the crowd.

Dr Hazou also criticised the practice of mainstream media in referring to the Israeli prisoners being held by the Gaza resistance fighters as “hostages” while the Palestinians were described as “prisoners”.

This was a “quite deliberate” policy by the media to imply innocence of the Israeli hostages, while suggesting guilt by the Palestinian detainees — “who are also actually hostages”.

Former trade union advocate Mike Treen condemned the inhumane practice of administrative detention and blamed it on the British colonial administration for introducing it during the Palestine mandate prior to 1948.

Administrative detention means that those detainees have not been charged with an offence. Some of them have been detained for between one and two years, with the period of time extended repeatedly — and indefinitely — so that prisoners and their families never know when they will be freed.

Persecution of Palestinians
Amnesty International has found that Israel systematically uses administrative detention as a tool to persecute Palestinians.

Treen also condemned the global “billionaire classes” for their exploitation.

“Billionaires monopolise everything they can so that they can extort rents out of us at any price.

“The rich north countries are also the old imperialist countries and we are reverting back from the neocolonial pretence that it doesn’t exist to more open forms of it today.”

Speaking in her personal capacity, Red Ribbon campaigner Audrey van Ryn cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“When people are found guilty of a crime, what usually happens is that they go to court for a trial and a judge will decide how they should be punished,” she said.

Prisoner rights
However, people who were who sent to prison for a crime had rights under the Universal Declaration, including:

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Article 11 (1): Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

“Some states abuse these rights of prisoners,” van Ryn said.

“Some states detain people who have not even been charged with an offence. One of these states is Israel.”

Illegal colonisation
According to a Spheres of Influence article about under reported crimes against humanity, “For 77 years, indigenous Palestinians have lived under Israel’s illegal colonisation of their own land, a regime that controls every aspect of their lives.

“One of the occupation’s most brutal tools of control is the mass abduction of Palestinians, where men, women, and children are taken hostage and imprisoned to shatter communities and crush their struggle for freedom.

“Human rights organisations describe these prisons as a ‘grave for the living’.

The first thing some of the recently released Palestinians said was a desperate plea:

“Save what remains of the hostages. If you die once a day, we die a thousand times.”

The article also alleged that since 1948, Israeli occupation forces (IDF) had arrested more than 1 million Palestinians.

“Almost every Palestinian family has lived through the trauma of a loved one kidnapped, interrogated, and disappeared into prison.”

Among high profile cases of injustice against Palestinians are:

• Marwan Barghouti, a popular leader regarded as “Palestine’s Mandela”, who was imprisoned by Israel in 2004 for life on trumped up charges.
• Dr Hussam Abu Safiya is a Palestinian paediiatrician who was born in Jabalia Refugee Camp and became director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza. His hospital was bombed in December 2024 and he was seized as a prisoner. He has been held without charge by Israel in Ofer Prison since then, assaulted and tortured.

Red Cross plea to visit jails
Calls have been made by the UN and human rights experts for the release of women, children, and elected representatives, detained for activities resisting the occupation.

Resolutions have also called for allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons.

Earlier today, about 3000 people took part in a rally and march in central Auckland with the theme Toitū te Aroha, a celebration of cultural diversity and immigration.

This was a counter protest to one staged by the Destiny Church with 700 people in Victoria Park condemning immigration, but a police cordon prevented the protesters led by self-styled pastor Brian Tamaki marching on to Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indigenous support for Palestine around the world has been overwhelming — and Aotearoa New Zealand is no exception, says a leading Māori environmental and human rights advocate.

Writing on her Kia Mau – Resisting Colonial Fictions website, Tina Ngata (Ngati Porou) says that week after week, tangata whenua have been showing support for Palestine since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began last October 7.

“This alone is a mark to the depth of feeling New Zealanders have about this matter, not just that they show up, but that they KEEP showing up, every week,” she wrote.

“In an age where wrongdoers rely on the public to get bored and move on — that hasn’t happened,” said Ngata, an East Coast activist writer who highlights the role of settler colonialism in climate change and waste pollution.

“Quite the opposite, actually — with every week passing, more and more tangata whenua are committing time and effort to understanding and opposing the genocide being carried out by Israel, first and foremost as a matter of their own humanity, but also as a matter of Indigenous solidarity.”

She was responding to publicity over a counter protest earlier this month by Destiny Church members who performed a haka in the middle of a Gaza ceasefire protest in Christchurch.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have been taking part in weekly rallies across New Zealand in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an independent state of Palestine.

More than 31,000 killed
More than 31,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza so far and at least 28 people have died from malnutrition as starvation starts to impact on the besieged enclave due to Israeli border blocks on humanitarian aid trucks.

“As we’ve seen here in Aotearoa (and in so-called United States/Canada and Australia as well), there are always a few Indigenous outliers who are co-opted into colonial agendas, and try to paint their colonialism as being Indigenous,” Ngata wrote.

FARC’s Derek Tait & his gleeful public dehumanising of Palestinian protesters in the name of Destiny Church’s Tu Tangata thugs during a standoff in Ōtautahi yesterday, his racist behaviour & misappropriated haka managing to make last nights lead story on 1 News no less. pic.twitter.com/LodBTMwfNV

— Kelvin Morgan 🇳🇿 (@kelvin_morganNZ) March 3, 2024

“In Aotearoa, those outliers have names, they are Destiny Church (and their political arm, the ‘Freedom and Rights Coalition’), and the ‘Indigenous Coalition for Israel’.

“This is not Indigenous support for Israel. It is Indigenous people, recruited into colonial support for Israel. It is easily debunked by the following facts:
– Israel is a product of Western colonialism
– Both groups are centered on Euro-Christian conservatism
– Both groups are affiliated with the far-right and white supremacists
– Māori have made it very clear, on our most important political platforms, that we stand with Palestine.”

Ngata wrote that when news media profiled these groups as “Indigenous support for Israel”, it was important to note that a “hallmark of Western domination is the tendency to see Indigenous Peoples as a homogenous group”.

“Even the smallest cohort of Indigenous peoples are, within a Western colonial mind (and to Western media), cast as representative of the whole,” she said.

“Equally important to note is that Indigenous people, through the process of colonialism, are regularly co-opted into colonial agendas, and this is often platformed by media to suggest Indigenous support for colonialism.

NZ’s ‘colonial project’
“The most energy-efficient model of colonialism is Indigenous people carrying it out upon each other, and New Zealand’s colonial project has relied heavily upon a strategy of aggressive assimilation and recruitment.”

Ngata wrote that it was clear Israel’s claims of Indigeneity were “unpractised, clumsy [and] unconnected to the global Indigenous struggle and unconnected to the global Indigenous community”.

“This is a natural consequence of the fact that they are colonisers, and up until very recently, proudly claimed that title,” she said.

Unsurprisingly, she added, Israel did not participate in the 2007 UN vote to endorse the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Researching this story took me down some wild rabbit holes and the challenge was making it all make sense. Israel has been maneuvering in the Pacific for decades.

Israel and the Pacific – a surprisingly close ‘friendship’https://t.co/mUpa3qMtyb

— Indira Stewart (@Indiratweets) March 10, 2024

While 143 countries voted in favour for the declaration at the UN, four voted against — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, with 11 abstentions, including Samoa. Recent articles and video reports have highlighted some groups in the Pacific supporting Israel, including the establishment of an “Indigenous Embassy” in Jerusalem.

“You know who DOES have a record of showing up at the United Nations as Indigenous Peoples?” asked Ngata.

“Indigenous Palestinians and Bedouin, both of whom have decried the colonial oppression of Israel.”

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The Auckland Domain remained closed today to vehicles until further notice, because a small number of anti-covid protesters have set up tents there and stayed overnight.

They moved there after thousands of people crossed the harbour bridge on foot yesterday, in a march organised protest against New Zealand’s covid-19 public health measures.

The Ministry of Health reported a record 14,941 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with 305 people now in hospital — five of them in intensive care.

Camping is not permitted in the Domain, which lies between the suburbs of Parnell and Grafton.

Auckland Council director of customer and community services Claudia Wyss said it was working with event organisers on a safety-first approach.

She said there was no timeline for reopening at this stage and the council apologised for any inconvenience.

The campers include people who took part in the march over the Harbour Bridge, shutting down southbound traffic for an hour and a half.

The march was organised by Destiny Church’s Freedoms and Rights Coalition. Leaders had been in talks with the Auckland Council and police about their presence late on Saturday, and promised to leave the site by 9pm that night.

A protester in a video has claimed to have mana whenua status, and said they were occupying a pa site at the domain.

Auckland Council said it was continuing to work with police and to engage constructively with the group.

However, it has raised concerns the marchers and protesters risked spreading covid-19 by gathering.

In New Plymouth, about seven tents and about 30 people were at an anti-covid protest beside the Coastal Walkway on Sunday morning.

Fewer people at Wellington anti-covid protest
About 300 vehicles remain in the protest area inside cordons at Parliament grounds, however an RNZ reporter said some protesters appeared to be packing up this morning ready to leave.

Police are maintaining a perimeter at access routes to the area amid the sounds of reggae music and the occasional car horn. The protesters are waving flags and shouting the word “freedom”, to passing cars.

Protesters have been camping in tents and in vehicles parked in and around the protest area, which covers grounds belonging to Victoria University as well as parts of Molesworth and Hill streets.

Businesses, schools, the university and residents in the area have reported major disruption since it began on February 7.

About 200 new protesters turned up at the campsite on Saturday, but police said that was far fewer than on previous weekends.

RNZ estimates that by Sunday the number of protesters had halved from last weekend, when more than 1000 people took part.

A group called Farmers for Freedom told followers this morning via social media that a convoy it had organised would reach the protest today with a trailer of food.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Ukrainians and their supporters at a protest on the New Zealand capital Wellington say it’s agonising not being able to help those at home, but are unimpressed at a request to merge protests with supporters of the Parliament grounds occupation.

The presence of two different protest groups at Wellington’s Civic Square yesterday produced an uncomfortable situation, as supporters of Ukraine and the Destiny Church-backed anti-covid-19 mandate Freedom and Rights Coalition group found their timing had clashed.

Some of the Ukrainian protest supporters were offended when asked to merge protests with the much smaller coalition group and march to Parliament together.

It was the group’s second protest in the capital in as many days, as they oppose Russia’s invasion of the eastern European nation.

Only about 100 people were at the anti-vaccine coalition’s protest yesterday, despite more than 1000 people attending their previous two marches in the capital late last year.

This march had been planned to start at the square at 11am, and the Ukrainian protest was advertised for midday, but the coalition march did not vacate until about 12.15pm.

One of the Ukrainian protest coordinators, Tetiana Zhurba, said it would not be right to mix their protests. She came dressed in a yellow dress, with blue ribbon in her hair, to match the Ukrainian flag she was carrying.

‘It’s real war’
“We are here to support our families who are dying now and it’s terrible. It’s war — it’s real war — and this one [the Freedom and Rights Coalition march] is just batshit, I’m sorry.”

Zhurba, who is from Ukraine, said they decided to protest at Civic Square because it was a more public space than the Russian Embassy in Karori and Ukrainians were wanting to share stories with New Zealanders about what was happening to their family members in their home country.

Tanya Harper had lived in New Zealand about 20 years but her mum, brother and two nephews are still in Ukraine.

Harper had to beg her 74-year-old mother to flee her house in Kyiv.

“I said you don’t have a choice, none of us want to go. I said think of my kids, this is the only way you’re going to get through it; you can’t just lie down and decide you’re not going,” she said.

“It’s awful, awful telling your mother to do that.”

The last time Harper heard from any of them was Friday night, but she trusted her brother and nephews were still alive by checking the “last active” timestamp of messaging platforms Whatsapp and Viber.

‘He’s still alive’
“So you know an hour ago he’s still alive but you don’t know if he’s going to be alive by morning.”

Like Harper, Olena Pokydko felt “helpless” being in New Zealand. Both were wearing traditional Ukrainian shirts — vyshyvanka — and Pokydko explained the embroidery traditionally represented different regions of the country.

Pokydko was worried about her family, but particularly her sister who was a doctor at a hospital in Kyiv.

“All I can do is talk to them on the phone when they’re scared,” she said. Her sister rang her on Thursday while at work and could hear bombs.

“She needs to be thinking about how to rescue people, not about what to do and how to hide, and where to find the nearest bomb shelter … she doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her any second.”

Pokydko felt protesting was “the best we can do while living in New Zealand”.

However, she hoped the government would recognise the support they were receiving and put tighter sanctions in place against Russia.

The Ukrainian protest group planned to move to the Russian embassy, where they also protested on Friday.

Zhurba said this was to communicate their anger to Russia.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

All southbound traffic lanes on State Highway One over the Auckland Harbour Bridge have now reopened after they were closed while New Zealand anti-mandate protesters marched across the bridge.

The southbound lanes of the bridge were closed for about an hour and a half while the protesters marched from the North Shore to central Auckland.

The protesters then gathered in Victoria Park and the bridge lanes and motorway have reopened.

Thousands of anti-mandate protesters marched onto the bridge from the North Shore late this morning, chanting “mandates gone, first of March”.

The protest came as the Ministry of Health reports a record 13,606 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with 263 people in hospital — five of them in intensive care units (ICU).

In a statement, the ministry said 9262 of the new cases were in the Auckland region.

Waka Kotahi said the protesters had unlawfully entered the state highway network on foot.

This morning hundreds of people gathered at Onepoto Domain at the northern end of the bridge and then set out towards the bridge.

Māori Wardens told RNZ they were escorting the protesters for safety reasons.

Organised by Destiny Church coalition
The march had been organised by Destiny Church’s Freedoms and Rights Coalition.

In a statement, police said the safety of staff, road users and protesters was the priority.

They would actively engage with the protesters to prevent them crossing the bridge due to the significant safety risks posed.

Despite the safety concerns, protest organisers said they had worked with the police on traffic management.

The protesters support the the Parliament occupation in Wellington. Police have described that protest as “no longer safe for families”.

Tents set up in Auckland Domain
The police later said a small group of protesters remained at Auckland Domain after marching over the Harbour Bridge earlier today.

Videos on social media showed protesters in the Domain putting up a number of tents.

The police and Auckland Council have been in talks with protest leaders, who had promised to leave by 9pm.

In a video, one protester claimed to have mana whenua status, and that they were occupying a pā site at the Domain.

They expected the police to come to try to evict them.

There were children on the site.

Auckland Council said it had serious concerns the gathering could become a super-spreading event.

It said that while it respected the right to peaceful assembly, it was concerned about the health risk.

Protesters have been gathered at Parliament in Wellington for more than two weeks, and sparked similar protests around the country.

‘Go home’ petition gains 140,000 signatures
Meanwhile, the person who launched the “Tell the Wellington Protestors to Go Home — They are NOT the majority” petition which has gathered more than 140,000 signatures has spoken out about the Parliament grounds occupation.

Named as James Black (not his real name), he said in an “update” that the petition had “triggered media interest and analysis and exposure [about] the elements of the protest that are dangerous.

“As the protest has unfolded, it’s become more and more obvious to everyone that there are seriously unhinged but well-funded elements at play here using innocents and the gullible, children and whanau as puppets for their agenda of destabilisation.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand police are investigating an anti-vaccine protest attended by Destiny Church leader pastor Brian Tamaki.

A Destiny Church spokesperson confirmed Tamaki visited Christchurch over the weekend to give the Sunday sermon at the local congregation.

Tamaki also spoke at an event in a central park on Saturday, which the spokesperson described as a “picnic”, not an anti-vaccine mandate protest.

They said once they learnt of Tamaki’s visit, they asked him to speak at Saturday’s event in Hagley Park.

Canterbury police district commander Superintendent John Price said enforcement action may be taken if breaches of covid-19 rules are found.

Tamaki has been charged three times after speaking at large protests in breach of Auckland’s level three rules.

At the time of the first event, gatherings were restricted to a maximum of 10 people. There were around 1000 people at the protests.

Superintendent John Price said: “We encourage individuals attending protests to conduct themselves in a safe manner and adhere to current covid-19 orange restrictions, which are there to ensure the safety of all.”

Destiny Church regularly meets in Christchurch’s Cranmer Square for their weekend sermon.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An iwi that pastor Brian Tamaki descends from are calling him out to say he is putting Māori communities at risk.

This follows mass protests across the country on Tuesday organised by a “freedom” group set up by Tamaki opposing vaccines and lockdown restrictions.

Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Hikairo located between Kāwhia and Te Awamutu were especially concerned with the number of young tamariki involved in the rallies.

They said Tāmaki, who was one of their own, was asking Māori communities to undermine science, putting their people at risk.

They have now called on the Destiny Church leader to take a whānau-first approach.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health reported 185 new community cases of covid-19 today, including 25 in Waikato and eight in Northland.

Rūnanga chair Susan Turner said because Tamaki was a descendant of their rūnanga it was important to show leadership and encourage the right messaging and approach to combatting covid 19.

She said Tamaki needed to promote scientific advice among whānau, iwi and the wider community to protect each other against the virus.

‘Share the right messages’
“Brian as a member of Ngāti Hikairo, we wanted to encourage him to share the right messages and dispel the rhetoric that he and his followers are saying to our people.

“We want them to follow science and go with the right advice and for our people to be united in this fight against covid,” she said.

The inclusion of mixed messaging related to freedom and self-determination was particularly concerning.

It comes as the rūnanga battles to prevent an outbreak amongst Ngāti Hikairoa whānau.

Turner said it did not reflect a mātauranga Māori approach as tino rangatiratanga should be represented by a collective effort to protect whānau and those most vulnerable.

The current approach from Tamaki was promoting a colonial approach to preserving life and liberty, she said.

“The biggest concern that we’ve got is the fact that they’re giving our people the wrong information.

Tamaki message ‘opposing tikanga’
“Those sentiments simply oppose the whole concept of what we believe is our tikanga which is about protecting ourselves, protecting our whānau and the people that live in our community.

“It’s clear to us that this virus is going to spread, and we need to do all we can to protect our whānau, our rangatahi and our tamariki,” she said.

The rūnanga strongly supported vaccines and said Tamaki carried a Ngāti Hikairo name, and with that came obligations to use his platform to strengthen Māori communities by encouraging whānau to get vaccinated and comply with health restrictions.

A spokesperson for Tamaki rejected RNZ’s request for an interview but said they wished to speak to Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Hikairo face-to-face about the issues at hand.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says the actions of the Destiny Church leaders in leaving Auckland on the eve of the alert level 3 lockdown were “completely irresponsible”.

Earlier today it was revealed that church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki left Auckland on Saturday night, arriving around midnight in Rotorua, where they told a crowd gathered for the Sunday morning service they had “escaped” to avoid the level 3 lockdown.

It comes as concern mounts over some churches defying lockdown rules and spreading misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, Hannah Tamaki posted on Facebook to say the couple were now touring the country and would be in Invercargill this weekend.

In this afternoon’s daily update, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Tamakis’ actions were “completely irresponsible”.

He said he encouraged everybody to exercise their own judgment.

“Sneaking out of Auckland right at the beginning of a lockdown and having large gatherings of people is simply putting people at risk unnecessarily.”

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said any breaches of the current health order which underpinned alert levels were a wider government responsibility.

The Destiny Church is a Pentecostal fundamentalist Christian movement founded in 1998 by the Tamakis, who continue to serve as visionary and senior ministers. It is based in South Auckland and has a strong Māori and Polynesian membership.

No new community covid cases
RNZ News reports that despite more than 16,000 tests being processed yesterday, no new cases of covid-19 have been found in the community.

Dr Bloomfield said two new cases were found in managed isolation and quarantine, and one of those was a historical case.

Dr Bloomfield had said yesterday that any positive cases that may have resulted from potential exposure to the virus in Auckland last week would start to turn up today.

Hipkins said tests were still coming in, however, and “we’re still in the critical period … we’re not quite there yet” in terms of being certain the latest cluster had not spread further.

As of midnight last night, 9431 people have received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, including over half of New Zealand’s covid-19 frontline border workers, Hipkins said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz