The Palestine Solidarity Network’s legal challenge against the New Zealand Superfund’s investments in companies helping to build and maintain illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories opens in the Auckland High Court tomorrow (Tuesday 14 October) and is expected to run for two days.
The named plaintiffs are PSNA Co-Chairs, Maher Nazzal and John Minto, and Rawaa Elhanafy. The lawyers taking the case are Rodney Harrison KC and Frances Joychild KC.
Mahar Nazzal says the Superfund has investments in companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as providing services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The UN list was updated on 26 September 2025 and the updated database is here in a pdf.
Nazzal says the recent report by Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese ‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’ says when Israel is committing genocide in Gaza many companies such Booking.Com and AirBnB are profiting from “occupation tourism” in Palestine.
“We look forward to the court having a thorough look at the Superfund’s investments and whether they are in line with their legal obligations”
Case Summary
The New Zealand Superfund has investments in four companies listed in June 2023 by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- AirBnB
- Booking.com
- Motorola
- Alstrom
Each of these companies is deeply embedded in Israel’s illegal occupation. AirBnB and Booking.com are advertising homes for rent in illegal Israeli settlements. This encourages investors to purchase these properties and also encourages the building and expansion of these illegal settlements.
Motorola has a long lucrative history of providing technology and infrastructure to enable Israel’s mass surveillance of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as involvement in providing transport infrastructure which links the illegal settlements via racially segregated roads.
Why does this matter now?
In December 2022, Israel elected arguably its most extreme ethno-nationalist government ever. It stepped up the brutal repression of Palestinians and made clear it would not countenance a meaningful peace plan or the formation of a Palestinian state.
The new government said its “top priority” was to push ahead with more illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
In the last week of June 2023, Israeli ministers announced plans to build more than 5,000 additional houses in these illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Further expansion of these settlements in the Occupied West Bank is taking place while the world is distracted with Israel’s ongoing mass killing and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
This “green light” to illegal Israeli settlers has resulted in a massive wave of settler attacks on Palestinians towns and villages with pogroms against the Palestinian populations – attacks which have been actively supported and assisted by the Israeli Defence Forces.
A very recent case was the killing of Awdah Hathaleen who was involved in the production of the Oscar Award winning documentary ‘No Other Land’.
Within the last two weeks Israel’s Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has approved plans for another illegal Israeli settlement which would split occupied East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank – a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The case has taken on renewed urgency with the July 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, which found Israel’s occupation of the land it captured in the 1967 Six-day War is illegal and urged signatory countries to withdraw all “aid or assistance” to Israel in maintaining its illegal occupation.
On 18 September 2024 the United Nations General Assembly voted in support of the ICJ ruling (New Zealand supported the resolution) which includes the demand:
(c) To implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to settler violence;
A further United Nations General Assembly resolution (Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine) was passed in November 2024 which also called for states
“Not to render aid or assistance to illegal settlement activities”
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Haha, so the NZ Superfunds portfolio is now potentially more controversial than a poorly booklisted Airbnb in an illegal settlement! Cant wait for the court to unpack whether investing in companies that essentially help Israel build theme parks on Palestinian land aligns with their legal obligations. Its like giving a thumbs-up to occupation tourism – who knew Superfunds had a thing for profiting off genocide tourism? Maybe the judges should stay away from Booking.com listings in Apartheidville during the hearing. The worlds watching, and honestly, its more compelling than the latest financial report!
But Economics is Everything.
Dear Team, please FOCUS.
Solid stuff. It’s bad enough that every synagogue in New Zealand has ‘blue boxes’ for the ‘Jewish National Fund’ which forcibly displaces Palestinians in 1948 Palestine from the homes their families have lived in since time immemorial. It is a disgusting insult that taxpayers are being soaked by these demonic monsters for the same purpose.
Despite the ceasefire holding, Israel is blocking international news media from entering into Gaza.
Why?
The previous excuse given was that it was for their own protection in a war zone, and that Israel was concerned for the Western journalists safety.
Well that doesn’t hold true anymore, even though there has been some shootings, the bombs have stopped falling. Compared to before the ceasefire, Gaza is a relatively safe place for journalists.
Journalists will never be allowed into Gaza by the Israelis to hide the enormity of their crime from the world.
https://theconversation.com/israel-is-still-not-allowing-international-media-back-into-gaza-despite-the-ceasefire-267356
Israeli UN Envoy, Danny Danon Grilled on Gaza, “Why No Journalists in Gaza?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGWCwEyxvpQ
Danny Danon, Jul 24, 2025,(pre-ceasefire);
….. you know, when you bring journalists into a war zone, you don’t want to see any casualties. God forbid!
That is the reasoning, we don’t want to see casualties of journalists traveling inside Gaza. It’s a war zone.
But I agree with you. You know, I think if the journalists will go there, they will be able to see what’s happening. And today, you get reports from people, and from the Hamas mainly, and you can get a lot of lies. So that’s something which is being discussed. but the main concern for us that journalists might get killed in a war zone…..
>Gaza is not a war zone at the mement, it’s a ceasefire zone.
Was Danon lying when he said he wants journalists in there?
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