Wreaths were laid at several war memorials around the country today as part of the official wreath laying in some centres and separate events in other centres.
Pictures from Christchurch are below – the wreath is of olive branches.
The inscription speaks for itself:
John Minto – What side were the Palestinians on during World War One…the side that were killing NZers in WW1…Good grief John.
Yet at Gallipoli we morn and pay respect to the Turks as well as ANZAC solders on ANZAC day as they morn and pay respect to ours. Remind me again who the the Turks supported? The solders in the trenches were victims on both sides and in all conflicts. Moron.
Kim – We do? Palestinians were enslaved by the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinians still fought us, the British freed the Palestinians from Ottoman rule…
The Turks supported Germany, and Austro – Hungarian Empires…what is your point?
Apart from name calling, a sign your argument is a weak, what else is the point of your post?
What does that matter about today’s problems.The Japanese were on Britain’s side in WW1 .The Ottoman empire dictated who Palestine fought for as the were their rulers.
John has a certain perspective on events that sometimes defies logic. Here he is arguing that New Zealand’s intent in World War I was to liberate Palestine and the Palestinians from the Ottoman Turks, when in fact the intent was to gain Palestine as a British territory, which is precisely what happened, and is what led to the current catastrophe. Once in possession of Palestine the British handed it over to the Zionists.
I see little evidence that any Palestinians fought alongside New Zealand forces. Most of them would have had the sense to know that the British empire would be no more benevolent as a ruler than the Ottoman empire. Rather, the Palestine campaign is better remembered for the massacre of the Palestinian population of Surafend by Anzac troops in an unauthorised reprisal raid.
John wants to believe that New Zealand – the Colony of New Zealand as it was in WWI, or the Dominion of New Zealand in WWII, now the Realm of New Zealand – is a basically benevolent entity which just made a few bad decisions over its support for apartheid in South Africa, the US prosecution of the wars against Vietnam and Afghanistan, and now the genocide in Gaza, and so on but that it can be brought to make the right decisions through sound arguments and the application of a little public pressure by persons such as himself. If he was right, that would be great, but I don’t for a moment believe that he is right, and the facts of history suggest that the Realm of New Zealand is anything but a benign force in the world. The simple reality is that the Realm is a colonialist entity which walks and talks like a colonialist entity should, and to change that reality we will have to do away with the Realm altogether.
It is not surprising therefore that John should then try to suggest that the Palestinian people are or have been brothers in arms with this supposedly benevolent Realm of New Zealand. The problem is that there is no empirical historical evidence to support such a claim, and the claim is also inherently implausible.
It is good to know that in some centres people were allowed the freedom to take an anti-war stance on Anzac Day. On that day I was in Coromandel town where I was arrested and taken away in handcuffs by the New Zealand Police for silently holding up signs on which were written “LEST WE FORGET GAZA” and “REMEMBER SURAFEND”. The alleged charge was “disturbing the peace”, yet there had been no disturbance before police arrived, and there was no disturbance following their arrival if one discounts the actual arrest, to which I offered no resistance. People of the town had thanked me for taking a stand on the Gaza genocide. A returned soldier had commended me on my “bravery”. After I was arrested a local woman took the signs and laid them at the foot of the soldiers’ memorial in Coromandel, where they remained undisturbed until I was released by police later in the morning. The police had to release me because there was no case in law for arresting me in the first place. I believe that the arrest was carried out for purely political reasons in pursuance of the Luxon government’s efforts to stifle the burgeoning public backlash against the genocide in which the Realm of New Zealand is complicit. To truly honour those who “died to keep us free” we need to prevent Christopher Luxon from turning New Zealand into a police state.