By Rahul Bhattarai
AUCKLAND (Asia Pacific Report/Pacific Media Watch): US/Palestinian author and a journalist Dr Ramzy Baroud vowed today that Palestinians would never be defeated by the Israelis and they would never cease to fight for their freedom.
“Sisters, brothers, comrades and friends, Gaza is under siege, their people are dying in droves, their children are denied the most basic human rights,” he told a rally of about 400 people protesting in Auckland’s Aotea Square in support of Palestinian human and land rights.
In the last 10 years of blockade, thousands of Palestinians had been killed by a “deliberate Israeli campaign of starvation, dehumanisation and disempowerment”, the author said.
LISTEN: Dr Ramzy Baroud interview with RNZ's Kim Hill
Dr Baroud, in New Zealand on a tour to promote his new book, The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story, also spoke about the Palestinian holocaust caused by the Israelis, which was seldom fairly reported by mainstream media.
The UN Human Rights Council yesterday voted to assign international war crimes investigators to probe last Monday’s killings of scores of Palestinians on the bloodiest day of protests in Gaza.
The resolution was supported by 29 countries, with only the US and Australia voting against. Fourteen countries abstained, including Britain and Germany.
Middle Eastern Eye reported that 110 Palestinians had been killed in recent weeks in a report about the UN investigation.
Holding the protest in Auckland was an attempt to gain support from the NZ government, “to impose a boycott in their [Israeli] regime, on its economy, and on its political representation,” said Mike Treen, a spokesperson for Global Peace and Justice Auckland (GPJA).
Full report and pictures at Asia Pacific Report
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