New Zealand is failing its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people; a people who are dying from the actions of Israel.
Its responsibilities to hold Israel to account are laid out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948. States are obliged to prevent and punish the commission of genocide.
This does not require that genocide actually occurs, the obligation is to act to prevent genocide. It is a prior obligation designed to ensure that genocide never exists.
New Zealand’s lack of support for South Africa’s petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention and its unwillingness to mirror the sanctions imposed on Russia following it’s invasion of Ukraine, are two examples of inaction.
New Zealand’s passivity reflects other influences, particularly those of the US. Foreign Minister Winston Peters says as much in his recent speech to the NZ Institute of International Affairs: ``An independent foreign policy can never be unidirectional. The left and a large section of the media, they define us acting independently only when we are disagreeing with the Americans.’’
New Zealand, and the US, unlike the UK, Canada and Australia, have not formally recognised the independent and sovereign State of Palestine. Peters curiously argues this reflects an expression of New Zealand’s independence, asserting this doesn’t foreclose alignments with countries such as the US.
New Zealand’s unquestioned alignment with the US is occurring in spite of US agreement to provide a $2.8bn arms package to Israel.
A movie, now showing in New Zealand, American Doctor adds another dimension to the cruelty occurring in Gaza. It focuses on the work of three American doctors — Perlmutter (Jewish); Thaer Ahmad (Muslim of Palestinian descent); and Feroze Sidhwa (son of Zoroastrian parents.)
It is harrowing but essential viewing and brings an immediacy to the situation .
The suffering Perlmutter and his colleagues have seen in Gaza hospitals since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 2023 Hamas attack forms the core of the movie. The movie begins with the shredded bodies of tiny children lying on a medical bench – the result of US-made bombs employed by the IDF in Gaza.
The movie documents images of the Israeli military deliberately targeting civilians, hospitals, and hospital staff.
Sidhwa comments: ``People feel like they have to have a PhD in this topic to understand it, or to discuss it sensibly. The question isn't how well you know Arab-Israeli history. The question is: Do you or do you not support the murder of children? Do you or do you not support the torture of physicians? Do you or do you not support the bombing of hospitals?’’
It is puzzling that New Zealand has not been influenced by one of its closest allies, the UK, when its Foreign Secretary Miliband, says: ``The Palestinian people's suffering is a stain on the conscience of the world. We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.’’
Miliband accepts that the UK has a responsibility to do everything to end the occupation. Hence its decision to ban trade with all illegal settlements.
Such moves by the UK represent a sea change in the struggle to end Israel’s occupation and its programme of annexation of Palestinian land. New Zealand must be part of this change.
So what would a principled New Zealand foreign policy look like on Palestine?
It needs to be put on a firm foundation of the rule of law — stand with South Africa in its case against Israel at the ICJ, support the equal rights of Palestinians to self-determination with statehood recognition being a small step in this direction.
Impose sanctions against the State of Israel (not just against the illegal settler colonial settlements.) Scrutinise Israeli passport carrying arrivals into New Zealand to ensure they have not been part of
the IDF acts in Gaza and the the West Bank.
Foreign policy isn’t something New Zealand voters prioritise.
New Zealand’s shameful record on Gaza, however, should be top of mind going into the election.
While the government has failed in its response to the horror of Gaza, undermining our standing in the international community, three political parties — Greens, Labour, and Te Pāti Māori — are articulating an approach to Palestine grounded in a morally defensible foreign policy.
All support statehood recognition of Palestine, the imposition of sanctions on Israel and joining South Africa at the ICJ. Labour will require the NZ Superfund and ACC to divest from holdings in companies on the UN list of companies operating in the Occupied Territories.
Whatever shape the next government takes it must shift its approach to one which upholds international law and support the people of Palestine as their survival in their homeland is in peril.
New Zealanders and our political parties must act and be part of the global momentum to end the brutality in Gaza, to reverse the illegal occupation of the West Bank, support Palestinian self-determination and hold Israel to account.
To do otherwise represents a moral failure as citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand and it will severely damage our reputation among many of our traditional allies, trading partners, and the international community.
- John Hobbs is a doctoral student at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago.