By World BEYOND War, November 27, 2023
World BEYOND War has recently held a number of events in Hastings, New Zealand, including publicly rallying for peace in Palestine. Here are a couple of images:
Another event included erecting a peace pole. Here’s a video that includes remarks by WBW Vice President Liz Remmerswaal:
Here are a few images:
Liz is at right in the image below:
Here is the text of remarks at rally for peace in Palestine by Linda Trubridge:
WE ARE ALL ONE
Although I have a problem with my voice I have something to say This something comes from my heart.
They have a problem with their hearts, They that are stealing Palestinian land and lives.
While we, on the other side of the world spend sleepless nights wishing they would wake up.
We are all One
This is a traditional wedding dress from Ramallah in Palestine. I wore it when I was married almost fifty years ago. It was created a hundred years ago.
Before that first holocaust that somehow appears to have excused this one.
The Dress
First this white linen was spun and woven from cotton grown in a nearby field. Years were spent embroidering stitches smaller than a pin head.
Cross stitch borders of red.
Red the colour of blood, to represent the flowers, birds and plants of Palestine These side panels symbolise the tree of life.
Hopes and dreams for a future.
They remind me of the tukutuku panels in our Marae.
This dress is an example of Palestines rich culture. It must have been a cherished belonging. And I am longing to return it to her people.
We are all One
Those people are our people
Their babies look like my babies.
Their children, My children, Your children, Our children.
Those mothers love, grieve and despair.
As I would.
Their men fight back as would you, if your land, your people, family and future, had been stolen.
Those people’s hearts break at seeing a son shot, for throwing a stone at a tank. A daughter buried beneath the rubble that was her home.
We are all One
If I had grown up in Palestine.
Had been the Granddaughter of the Bride who created this dress.
I too would fight for freedom.
Palestine we hear you, and our hearts break.
That Betrayed Child, Mother, Father and old Woman could be Me, and You.
Here on the other side of the world we cry out for you.
Our voices are loud and we will not stop.
For we are all One
Here is an account of remarks by David Trubridge:
At today’s Palestine support rally in Hastings I also gave a speech. This is a précis: I asked why the G7 countries all stand behind Israel, while the G77 don’t? The G77 are mostly in the ‘global south’ and over the years Israel has supported repressive dictators in many of these countries, such as Pinochet in Chile and the Myanmar junta. Israel sells weapons of war and surveillance technology which they had developed and tested on the Palestinians. They have no morality. When it comes to the climate crisis, we see this same split between the wealthy colonising countries in the north and the colonised countries in the south. The crisis is largely caused by the G7, all of whom signed up to the 2015 Paris accord pledging to keep global warming below 1.5° increase. It has just passed 2°. This shows they have no intention of changing; they continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industries $5million EVERY minute! The ensuing environmental collapse (which has already started) will cause far more suffering that in Gaza. Those polluting countries love to see the rest of the world protesting and squabbling over issues like Palestine. Because it distracts us from protesting them. They actually feed our hysteria through the amplification of Social Media. They even sometimes try to sow dissent so that they have an excuse to crack down. And when they do, lo and behold they have the new repressive laws ready to rush through parliament. It is called the ‘Shock Doctrine’ (check it out). And don’t think we are immune. That nasty little David Seymour in our new right wing government wants to do just that: ramp up bitter arguments between far right people and Māori protestors over his planned changes to legislation surrounding the Treaty of Waitangi. And you bet they will have the laws ready to rush through in the heat of the moment, so that police will have greater control over events like this—just as in Britain. So please try not to fight each other and remember who the real enemy is. And please remember that it is the Israeli government, along with those who support them, and other terrorists that we abhor—not all Israelis, many of whom stand with us.
More rally photos:
