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NEHAWU TO PICKET AT THE US CONSULATE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE 

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] as part of its unwavering international solidarity with the People of Palestine shall stage a picket demonstration tomorrow, 19th October 2023 at the United States consulate in Sandton in the wake of barbaric and savage Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people.

As NEHAWU, we stand in solidarity with people of Palestine during this difficult time. The military bombardment has now entered into the eleventh day with continued airstrikes and shelling which has resulted in more than 3,000 Palestinians being killed and 12,500 injured. Israeli continues to violate all principles of international law by intentionally killing and injuring innocent civilians. The situation has now reached levels of a humanitarian crises with shortages of medicine, water, electricity, fuel amongst other essentials.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHOAPT) indicates that humanitarian agencies and personnel have faced major constraints in providing humanitarian assistance due to airstrikes and movement restrictions. 

The liberation of Palestine will not come about until the hypocrisy and double standards of the imperialist forces such as the United States is challenged. The United States continues to extend all support to the Israeli occupation and refuse to hold Israel accountable for its violent and illegal colonial policies and practices against Palestinian people.

We are appalled by the role of the current U.S. administration in solidifying and supporting the Israeli military attack and illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

As NEHAWU, we call for an end to the aggression against Palestinians. We fully support the demands for the removal of all Israeli settlements from the Palestinian lands which Israel seized after 1967 and for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital. Since 1948, Israel has carried out massive violations of Palestinian human rights, killing women and children; displacing them from their lands; violating their rights to freedom, equality and self-determination. It has carried out a series of ethnic cleansing campaigns using military attacks. Palestinians have a right to peace, justice and security and the right to an independent and sovereign state.

Details of the picket are as follows:

Date: Tomorrow, Thursday 19 October 2023

Time: 10h00

Venue: USA Consulate, 1 Sandton Drive, Sandhurst, Johannesburg, 2146

Lastly, the national union reiterates its unwavering international solidarity with the People of Palestine for a Free Palestine.

Members of the media are invited to cover the picket.

END

Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat

Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968; December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969; Lwazi Nkolonzi (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwazin@nehawu.org.za