Our political leaders have failed us and failed Palestinians

By
John Minto
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111
1583

Gaza usually seems far away from New Zealand and well outside our circle of interest. Then every few years it suddenly springs into our living rooms – looming confrontingly close and demanding our shocked attention.

Right now we are in one of those appalling “close” periods after the dramatic Hamas attack on Israel 10 days ago and the inevitable horrific Israeli retaliation which is following.

Most of us simply shake our heads. We have lived our entire lives with “violence in the Middle East” as part of the wallpaper of our existence. The cycle of fighting and bloodshed seems endless and endlessly brutal. It seems there is no possible solution.

But here we are wrong. There is a clear reason for the violence and a clear solution to this seemingly intractable issue. And despite being so far away we also need to understand that our political leaders in New Zealand, and other western countries, are the biggest part of the problem.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was right to condemn the killing of Israeli civilians and taking hostages. Killing or abducting civilians is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention and should be universally condemned.

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But for the past 75 years, successive New Zealand governments, including our outgoing Prime Minister, have been deathly silent on the myriad war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians. This has emboldened Israel to act with impunity as it bulldozes more Palestinian homes, steals more Palestinian land, builds more illegal Jewish-only settlements and casually kills more of those who resist its military occupation.

By making only whimpering noises of objection, New Zealand is betraying Palestinians and their right to human solidarity in the face of the most appalling oppression.

So why are there 2.3 million Palestinians living in a tiny, hopelessly-overcrowded place surrounded, like animals in a cage, by a highly militarised security fence, patrolled by legions of Israeli troops? The answer is simple and tragic. From 1947 to 1949 heavily armed Israeli militias attacked Palestinian towns, villages and rural communities across vast swathes of Palestine and drove everyone at gunpoint into the tiny coastal area of Gaza or into the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Israeli militias were following a detailed strategy called “Plan Dalet” – the plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from most of Palestine to artificially create a majority Jewish state. Many massacres of Palestinians took place. The 2022 film “Tantura” tells the story of one of these massacres at the small Palestinian fishing village of Tantura.

Driving indigenous people off their land because you want it for yourself is called colonisation. It happened to Māori in New Zealand, Aboriginals in Australia, to black South Africans and to first nations people in North America. It is happening to Palestinians in Palestine today.

80% of Gaza’s population are Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendants.

These refugees have the right under international law to return to their land and homes but despite numerous and repeated United Nations resolutionsdemanding they do so, Israel has refused. (New Zealand votes to support these resolutions but it is lip-service only)

Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion who oversaw the ethnic cleansing said Israel wouldn’t have to worry about Palestinian refugees because he said “The old will die and the young will forget”. Ben-Gurion’s comment, with its layers of colonial racism, was as wrong for Palestinians as it has been for any indigenous people.

Palestinian families can go to Israel’s “security fence” along the east side of Gaza and see their family and ancestral lands around their bulldozed villages to which Israel says they will never be allowed to return. On the Israeli side of the fence there are 7 people per square kilometre. On the Gaza side of the fence there are 7,000 people per square kilometre.

These Palestinians want to return to their land but when they have protested, appealed for international help, sent delegations and deputations around the world, argued their case using international law or appealed to the United Nations Security Council they have been met with sympathetic noises or embarrassed silence from western countries, New Zealand included. There are never any consequences for Israel refusing to allow these refugees to return home.

Many decades later Gaza remains the largest open-air prison in the world. A prison for Palestinian refugees who refuse to forget and continue to demand their freedom.

Is there any one of us in the same position who would not demand our right to go home and take up arms to fight for our freedom? When western countries like New Zealand turn their backs what other options do Palestinians have?

Under international law Palestinians have the right to fight for their freedom just as Ukrainians have the right to fight Russian occupation of their country.

The situation doesn’t need negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. It simply needs western countries like New Zealand to set a timeline, with accountabilities, for Israel to abide by international law and United Nations resolutions. That will bring justice to Palestinians and peace to the Middle East.

The immediate situation is a slow-motion catastrophe. “We are fighting against human animals” said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last week as he announced what he called a “complete siege” on Gaza.

Hearing racist, dehumanising language about Palestinians from Israeli politicians is nothing new but this time it was done to prepare us to accept the massive death toll which Israel is inflicting on these Palestinian refugees which Israel’s colonial policies created.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention it is a war crime to use collective punishment against civilian populations. It’s unlawful to punish a whole group for the actions of a few. It is also unlawful to withhold, food, water and the essentials of life from people living under military occupation as the people of Gaza are. But the western world is silent.

So far our Prime Minister, true to the tradition of cowardly New Zealand political leaders, has not spoken out about any of these war crimes and yet more than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed, including well over 700 children. Mr Hipkins says New Zealand will be prepared to offer humanitarian assistance but what good are bandages after the orgy of killing Israel is conducting against Gaza. Speak up and hold Israel accountable Mr Hipkins.

Once again the people of New Zealand are having to stand up and take action in solidarity with the Palestinian people because, in the words of the great Roger Fowler song, “In our thousands and in our millions, we are all Palestinians”.

There are times when I feel ashamed to be a New Zealander. This is one of them.

111 COMMENTS

      • Because Hammas locates their weapons there. And they attack from nearby. Hammas knows their civilians will die when Israel strike these targets. Hammas uses civilians as human shields. Isreal do not.

        • Either way if it was a deliberate airstrike (pro Israeli) or a blue on blue self destruction of ammo dump destroying the hospital (pro Palestinian) it doesn’t change the nature of the conflict or the view of the New Zealanders.

          Say what you will about this conflict. Fact is Isreal could destroy Gaza in an instant so they own the land. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do just that Isreal has the military might to destroy Hammas so they own the land.

          When you find yourself lost in your own lands surrounded by evil blood thirsty monsters you have to become a greater monster which is exactly what we see.

          • “Ammo dump destroyed the hospital”
            Video of the attack clearly shows there was no secondary explosion.

        • If the Israelis know exactly where the weapons are go in, with armoured support and remove them. Why bomb a hospital full of innocent civilians?

        • Fact check: False.
          Video evidence categorically shows the IDF has used Palestinians as human shields with numerous cases on YouTube.
          The IDF has it main headquarters embedded in a residential area in Jerusalem.

    • Of course there is not justification. Just like there is not justification for obliterating a hospital as the Israelis have done today. Most of those Palestinians are just trying to survive, full stop. The Israeli administration are fast becoming the very thing that drove them from Europe in the 40’s. Is there zero self awareness or recollection of history?

    • Whoever the baddies are in any conflict, they always behead babies and eat them on a spit.
      It’s part of the script.

    • There were no babies beheaded. Please give me a credible link if you still thank that is true.

      I agree no one should have been taken hostage.

      And the IDF should not be indiscriminately bombing people in the convoy to the south as requested by Israel’s government.

      And Israel should obey international law!

    • No babies were beheaded, that is an unverified claim that has become gospel thanks to our (Western) mainstream media. If you think I’m lying, then go and find the actual proof – not the unverified claim – the actual proof that proves me wrong. The power of our media to shape our views can be criminal at times. Otherwise, you are correct, there is no justification for taking anyone hostage and or killing people full stop. Hamas are villainous fools for thinking that they could do to Israel, what Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades now, and get away with it. They can’t. Now Palestinian people, especially those caged in the ‘open-air prison’ known as Gaza, their lives are even more worthless – to both Israelis and to Westerners, than they have ever been. Life ain’t fair and unfortunately for everyone that isn’t a part of the billionaire class and their chosen enablers, unfairness will soon catch up to us all! We all need to be better informed – choose independent media.

    • Last week Pat O’Dea stepped in to mediate the comment saying there is no evidence of neonazis in Ukraine (which is ridiculous), and yet he has nothing to say on this baby beheading lie, a lie perpetuated by the American president?

      • Y9u creeps can’t stop lying. Ukraine and Gaza have a lot in common. Both are the victims of imperialism.

        The difference is that Ukraine has the backing on one imperialist bloc against another, in their own interest, while Palestine has no support or any backing from anyone, even the Arab world is in bed with imperialism.

    • John condemned the Hamas attack as a war crime so you have to understand English as about a 5th language to get the warped idea that he is justifying killing babies & taking hostages.
      Stubborn minds like yours will continue to see death on both sides for eternity unless you learn about compassion as a real process & not just a word on a page/screen.

      • John Minto said Hipkins was right to condemn the actions of Hamas while at the same time talking of the “dramatic Hamas attack on Israel 10 days ago”. He could have used any number of adjectives to describe the Hamas attack, the biggest massacre of Jews anywhere since the Holocaust, yet he chose “dramatic”. What does that tell you?

  2. So are you okay with Hamas firing rockets at Israel and murdering civilians?
    As I am sure you are aware the situation in Israel is complex and issues of rightful ownership of the land dates back more than 2000 years – would you suggest Israel just handing their enemies back the limited land they have and becoming international Nomads again? Do you really think this is something the nation of Israel should consider?

    • Did he say he was ok with it? No. Stop trying to justify Israeli forces targeting hospitals, and telling the people in the middle to run. Run where?

    • Oh yes that is always the what they say ‘its complicated’ ask a Palestinian living in Gaza if it is complicated.

    • Bob, if you want to go back 2000 years then why not read the evidence
      O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate;
      For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
      I will call them My people, who were not My people,
      And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
      “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
      ‘You are not My people,’
      There they shall be called sons of the living God.
      A few quick comments, promises are conditional, read Jonah if you need reminding. All people can be saved by faith, there is no genetic requirement to be in God’s family therefore there is no need for a land-based nation of Israel since all believers are spiritual Israelites & receive the promise.
      I want to see peace in Palestine for both sides & do not support violence against Israel but it sickens me when people try to claim that the Bible supports Israel’s land theft now.

  3. Israel and their deranged war god must be deemed a terrorist group in New Zealand now after they slaughtered 500+ civilians seeking sanctuary in a hospital (and tried to blame it on Hamas). If every Palestinian citizen is responsible for the Hamas attacks then so to every Israeli around the world is now responsible for mass murder yesterday and 50 years ago. If everyone is a combatant then diplomacy and the rule of law is dead, as is god.

    • Hammas use civilians as human shields and routinely strike Israel from bases located in or near their own hospitals and schools, they have for years. This is to garner support when their civilians inevitably die in the crossfire. Hammas have, in their own broadcasts and in their own words, discouraged and even outright prevented their civilians from leaving areas that are vulnerable from attack. Not my words or the media’s, Hammas say this themselves. Videos online and not hard to find.

      • Pathetic excuse M hardly human M. Killing civilians as an act of revenge for killing civilians is wrong. To deliberately bomb a hospital is wrong. To excuse this is morally reprehensible. Hang your disgusting head in shame.

      • I remember when NZ was deciding to close their Air Force Base at Whenuapai, a whole lot of rednecks protested and said that the base should be retained.
        For heaven’s sake – that base is a nuclear target, and NZ rednecks wanted to use Auckland citizens as human shields.
        Unless they were too stupid to realise what they were doing… Quite likely.

  5. Our political leaders do not work for us – this is a plain as day example of this. NZ is a part of the club, I’ll call it the colonizers club, and we do as the leader of this club, once upon a time that was Britain but now it is the USA, we do as they say. Whether its neoliberal economic policy, banking, or supporting or demonizing whomever we are told to do this to, we do as they say. The big issues are out of our control….the small issues or any issue that does not challenge US interests, that we have free rein on.

    The US is uninterested in the plight of Palestine, hence why we are too, hence we have failed no one, but more importantly, we have pleased the power block we need to please in order to, well, not be picked on, at least…..

  6. Minto’s obsession with Palestinians is full of false interpretation of history.
    When NZ troops fought in the first second and third battles of Gaza in 1917 against the Ottoman Empire – Gaza is one of the oldest towns in the world and in early times a well defended area. Held up Alexander’s conquest of Egypt in 330 bc – and caused problems for the Romans as well!
    In 1917 the Turkish troops with a German general in charge defeated the British in the first and second battles . What protected the Gaza city from the British was the impenetrable walls of prickly pear cactus forcing a retreat . According to the British commanders there were only about 40,000 people living in the Gaza area the Turks expelled half of them about 70% muslim 15 % Jews ,12%christians + others .
    The third battle of Gaza was won by the British leading to the taking of all of Palestine in late 1917.
    There is a war cemetery with 2650 internments in Gaza – New Zealand troops included mainly cavalry an a camel corps. Nz suffered about 50 killed on the 3 battles .
    After the war the territory became a British mandated via the League of Nations. A census in 1922 had Palestine with a population of about 590000 Muslims 83000 Jews 75000 Christian’s.
    By 1947 the British fed up with warring Jews and arabs gave up the mandate and the united nations proposed a two state solution a Jewish and an Arab state . Arabs refused to accept this proposal and went to war with the Jews and lost !
    Other Arab Muslim states refused to accept any refugees from Palestine and still do today.
    Arabs who didn’t want to be citizens in Israel left many to Gaza . Today Arabs make up 21% 2.1 million of Israel’s population of 9 million and are full citizens with democratic rights.
    The fundamentalist Muslims that rule Gaza and other parts of the Arab world refuse to accept the existence of Israel and keep their women ignorant and pregnant giving rise to the big population growth in Gaza.

    • Today Arabs make up 21% 2.1 million of Israel’s population of 9 million and are full citizens with democratic

      Why do you repeated this rubbish about Israel being a democracy. google it – there are 65 laws at least that discriminate against Arabs who live in Israel!

    • That interpretation of history misses the vital point that at no point has Isreal accepted borders and has constantly encroached on Palestinian owned land.

      I’ve got another interpretation. This is a rerun of the Crusades with the imposition of rule by force. Once the West can no longer afford the cost of maintaining Isreal, it like Crusader kingdoms will succumb.

      • Interesting, but a little bit hard to see Joe Biden as Richard the Lionheart..
        But I can see Biden failing, and all we need to hope for is: no nuclear outbreak.

  7. These are the facts:

    In 2006 Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian legislative elections – the last polls to be held in Gaza.

    Hamas made the decision to intentionally kill many hundreds of Israeli (and non-Israeli) civilians and abduct almost 200 more while knowing full-well what the consequences would be.

    Hamas intentionally target civilians unlike the IDF who if they can avoid civilian casualties (giving prior warning of attacks to limit civilian casualties etc as much as they can despite realising that this also notifies Hamas of impending attacks).

    Hamas intentionally locate their facilities next to or underneath civilian infrastructure like hospitals in order to use their own civilian population as ‘human shields’.

    https://mwi.westpoint.edu/underground-nightmare-hamas-tunnels-and-the-wicked-problem-facing-the-idf/

    Some ‘liberals’ seem to be able to justify any atrocity as long as it is perpetrated against Israel.

    • So the IDF didn’t target hospital, and it was all made up.

      Every media release that I have seen has said what Hamas did was appalling and totally against international law.

      What Israel has been doing for years and years and years is also against international law. But so long as they have the American government on their side it will continue.

      • Personally I think that it is more likely that the hospital was struck by Islamic Jihad in one of their frequent misfires but yes impossible for either myself or yourself at this stage to be 100% sure.

        As to complying with international law it is one thing complying as a Swiss citizen (for instance) facing realistically no conceivable threat to your security and it is another as an Isreali surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims who have repeatedly tried to wipe your country out.

      • Personally I think that it is more likely that the hospital was struck by Islamic Jihad in one of their frequent misfires but yes impossible for either myself or yourself at this stage to be 100% sure.

        As to complying with international law it is one thing complying as a Swiss citizen (for instance) facing realistically no conceivable threat to your security and it is another as an Isreali surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims who have repeatedly tried to wipe your country out.

    • “Some ‘liberals’ seem to be able to justify any atrocity as long as it is perpetrated against Israel.”

      Who is “justify[ing]” “any atrocity… against Israel”?

      “while knowing full-well what the consequences would be.”
      That’s a fact? Hamas predicted the future? Amazing. Your statement also gives justification for actions that cannot be attributed to Hamas. If I punch you, and then you later come and kill my children, does that make the cause of you killing my children my original punch? No, it doesn’t. Because you can’t be said to be acting in self-defense. That’s how the law works.

      “unlike the IDF who if they can avoid civilian casualties”, “…to limit civilian casualties etc as much as they can”
      It’s against international law to kill civilians – okay?

      • Of course Hama’s knew how Israel would react to terrorists massacring hundreds of unarmed civilians – anyone who has any understanding whatsoever of this part of the world would have know this and Hama’s sure as shit would have known as well.

        As for justifying the Hama’s attacks read through the comments on the blog just for a start.

        • “Of course Hama’s knew how Israel would react to terrorists massacring hundreds of unarmed civilians –”

          That’s not true at all. I don’t know of anyone that can predict the future – but according to you, some people in Palestine apparently can.
          There were plenty of other possible pathways that Israel could have taken.

          “anyone who has any understanding whatsoever of this part of the world”

          That’s called an ‘ad hominem’ argument. Claiming that the person you’re arguing with doesn’t have “any understanding whatsoever” doesn’t prove what you’re saying to be true or correct in any way.

          “As for justifying the Hama’s attacks read through the comments on the blog just for a start.”

          I had done so. But you haven’t provided any evidence for your claims, making your argument insubstantial. What goes on in your head is not the truth simply because _you_ happen to be thinking it.

  9. 60 Israeli citizens, described as “public intellectuals and peace activists”, often fierce critics of the Israeli government and supporters of Palestinians’ right to a national homeland, have written an open letter expressing dismay at the “inadequate response” of their sometime “political partners on the global left” to the Hamas pogrom of October 7.

    The letter states that “Some have refused to condemn the violence, claiming that outsiders have no right to judge the actions of the oppressed. Others have downplayed the suffering and trauma, arguing that Israeli society brought this tragedy upon itself. Yet others have shielded themselves from the moral shock through historical comparisons and rationalizations. And there are even those – no small number – for whom the darkest day in our society’s history was a cause for celebration.”

    We have seen all of these responses on display on New Zealand social media over the last week. Even John Minto, while saying Hipkins was right to condemn the killing of Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages, can talk of “the dramatic Hamas attack on Israel 10 days ago.” The biggest massacre of Jews since the Nazi holocaust is a “dramatic attack”?

  12. Mintie, what home invastion, only in Gaza, get out, this is now our place. 20 odd million Russians, where slaughterd in the last monster power control,, we call world war, Jewish, people, six million,, is it their shame they crib, about what, their walk of shame to death, without a fight, excuse the children their parents did that, this is their shame now, no longer shall we allow humanity to do that, yet Gaza, flip.

  15. The people of Gaza will gain their freedom when the people of Egypt are free.

    Israel says it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza
    05:00, Oct 19 2023

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/300991914/live-israel-says-it-will-allow-egypt-to-deliver-limited-quantities-of-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza

    The word “allow” shows the subservient, master servant nature of the relationship between Israel and Egypt.

    The Rafah crossing is nowhere near Israeli territory, Israel should have no say in its operation.
    Unfortunately, Egypt is not an independent sovereign state, but a vassal of Western colonial interests, ruled by a US backed military dictatorship subservient to Israel and the West.

    Israel “allows” Egypt to supply “limited” aid to Gaza, while two million people are without water food or shelter and under continual bombing..
    It has often been said that the solution to the problems in the Middle East will be found in Egypt. The people of Egypt stood up to to Brutal US backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and overthrew him. To hold the first ever democratic elections. The Egyptian military is the second biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel. On the toppling of the Mubarak regime regime by the people of Egypt, the US Obama administration gave the Egyptian military an extra $700 million and new fighter jets. Within months the Egyptian military with US backing overthrew the first ever democratically elected Egyptian government and jailed its president Mohamed Morsi, and reinstated the US backed military dictatorship over the country. The first order of business for general Al Sisi newly installed junta was to tighten the Rafah crossing and declare the Sinai Desert bordering Gaza a no-go military zone, closed to civilian aid agencies.

    The first ever freely elected President of Egypt died in prison.

    The people of Gaza will gain their freedom when the people of Egypt are free.

  16. Fact checking Israel’s post atrocity routine:

    Wikispooks

    https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Al-Ahli_Arab_Hospital?fbclid=IwAR3A55tbhQRh93vSgdT5vpHSg4kspOeO9g3-D_I3QCJIFV8Jkz5MwMV55hY#Post-atrocity_routine

    First rocket attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital

    …At 7:30 p.m. EEST on 14 October 2023, the hospital’s Diagnostic Cancer Treatment Centre was damaged by rockets, causing four hospital staff members to be injured and severely damaging two of its upper floors, with the mammography and ultrasound departments affected the most.

    Second rocket attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital

    ….on the evening of 17 October 2023, an explosion occurred in the courtyard which was housing thousands of displaced people as a result of the conflict. This explosion led to the deaths of some 500 Palestinians and the injury of more than 600 others, according to preliminary tolls by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

    Post-atrocity routine

    ….Palestinian officials blamed the explosion on one of the many Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza since the October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict began on October 7.
    Israel, meanwhile, has predictably claimed that a misfired Palestinian rocket was responsible for the massacre at the hospital.
    Israel’s response to the hospital bombing – a war crime under international law – is consistent with its usual post-atrocity routine.
    The routine goes something like this: Israel commits a human rights atrocity, immediately denies having anything to do with it, says it has solid evidence that Palestinians committed the crime, and then just waits to see if someone manages to prove what really happened. If it eventually becomes clear that Israel did indeed carry out the atrocity, it silently accepts responsibility, but by then, the world’s focus has already moved on to other matters.
    Israel performed this exact routine just last year, after it murdered Palestinian-American journalist and Al Jazeera veteran Shireen Abu Akleh.[2]

  17. Marx, argued with Engel, for years, about violence, its need and end. Both, never seen the end,Marx, need, Engel, not.

  19. The interview by Israel State Radio Kan of Yasmin Porat who survived the attack by Al Qassam brigade soldiers on Kibbutz Be’er should be heard across the Western media frontier but it won’t because it is not the narrative the Israel/US/Western establishment could ever deal with.
    If anyone is interested the interview is on The Electronic Intifada.
    Also conjecture over who bombed Al Ahli Baptist Hospital killing almost 500 civilians and injuring many hundreds seems as though some in this world have descended to new depths of delusion.
    Honest, in the moment video evidence before the strike on the hospital proves according to ammunition experts the bomb was probably a JDAM equipped MK84 (910 kg bomb) and could only have been fired from an IDF position.
    This same hospital had been hit several days before and the cancer ward was destroyed.
    Zionist propaganda, lies and deception has always been supported by the US and their willing collaborators who have all helped to create this monstrous State that seems only capable of plumbing greater depths of depravity.
    The NZ Government is once again on the wrong side and the ramifications of the World allowing Israel to follow Zionist principles throughout its entire existence has culminated in taking the World to the brink.

  20. “Netanyahu, Biden
    You can’t hide.
    We charge you
    With genocide.”

    (protest chant at Auckland anti-war rally)

    300 thousand Israeli troops are massed to march into Northern Gaza.

    But they won’t move, until the total destruction of Gaza City and the mass murder and expulsion of its inhabitants is completed.

    Meantime the massed artillery and tank fire of this waiting army is aiding in the destruction and murder being committed by the Israeli bombs and missiles.

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