A local activist will launch a solidarity campaign for a group that has been marked as terrorists by multiple countries.
This event is being organised by the Canterbury Socialist Society, which aims to offer a platform for PFLP Solidarity Aotearoa.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), known for its violent history including plane hijackings, bombings, and shootings, is at the centre of this campaign.
The promotional efforts for the meeting prominently feature Leila Khaled, a figure notorious for her involvement in the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840. The campaign asserts, “resistance is not terrorism,” advocating for the PFLP.
PFLP Solidarity Aotearoa Coordinator and spokesperson Paul Hopkinson told Chris Lynch Media the campaign to support the PFLP started 2007 and this is a relaunch.
Hopkinson then listed the goals of the PFLP.
“The PFLP and the Liberation Movement is not “racist or hostile to the Jews”, but instead is hostile towards “Zionism as a racist aggressive movement in alliance with Imperialism.
“Its aim is to “break the Israeli military, political and economic entity”, which it believes is based upon “aggression, expansion and organic unity with the interests of Imperialism.
Leila Khaled a figure notorious for her involvement in the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840.
“The end result would be the “establishment of a national (secular) democratic state in Palestine in which the Arabs and Jews can live as equal citizens with regard to rights and duties.
“Israel is a European colony and apartheid state and just like the apartheid state of South Africa was. Israel needs to be put in the dustbin of history just like Apartheid South Africa was” Hopkinson said.
“The woman on the poster is Leila Khaled, a national hero in Palestine and a senior member of the PFLP.
“She was the first woman to hijack an airplane, to highlight the genocide and enthnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the apartheid state of Israel. Israel has been armed and politically backed by western governments, especially the US, in the dispossession and murder of the Palestinian people” Hopkinson said.
Juliet Moses from the Jewish Council said they were “deeply concerned by this event and its potential impact on both the Jewish Community, Christchurch and the country as a whole.
“While the PFLP is not designated a terrorist group in New Zealand, it is by the US, EU, Canada and other countries and is responsible for plane hijackings, bombings, and shootings around the world.
“It rejects any form of peace process and is committed to the destruction of Israel. All terrorists consider themselves to have legitimate grievances and to be “resisting” whoever they believe to be responsible for those grievances” Moses said.
“We hope that the good people of Christchurch, of all places, will understand this and reject any attempt to garner support for terrorism in their city” Moses said.
Hopkinson said “unlike Israel, the Palestinians have the right to armed resistance even under international law. The Jewish Council should be more concerned with being associated with a genocidal racist state than the picture of a Palestinian resistance hero who harmed nobody during her high profile actions.”
The meeting, to be held at a private central city music venue, elicited caution from far-left activist Byron Clark, who reflected on the personal cost of such involvement: “my advice to anyone thinking of getting involved with this campaign is to consider if you’re prepared to live the rest of your life in poverty as a result of it. When potential employers Google me, the third result is an article labeling me a ‘terrorist fundraiser’… I wonder if it was all worth it.”
The meeting is in response to the war in Gaza, which Israel said was in retaliation for attacks on Israeli territory on October the 7th, led by Hamas, which killed 1,139 people and took 250 captive.
According to the Associated Press, 33,137 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war started.
Gaza’s health ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but had previously said women and children made up around two-thirds of those killed.
A Canterbury Socialist Society spokesperson said while the society was hosting the launch, it had not adopted the project as part of its activity.
“Any specific questions about the campaign should be directed to those involved via their website.
“The Canterbury Socialist Society is a primarily educational organisation that hosts monthly talks on a vast array of topics.
“As indicated in the event on Facebook, and in all our communications, we are hosting this talk but we are not the organisation launching the campaign.
We believe in the free discussion of ideas, free speech, and freedom of association.”
