After what PSNA calls the shocking TVNZ interview with Minister of Defence Judith Collins on Friday, it has written to the Prime Minister today.
PSNA has requested Luxon direct Collins to withdraw approval for forthcoming Rocket Lab satellite launches for BlackSky Technology from Mahia, which could be used by Israel in Gaza.
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa Co-chair John Minto says Collins ‘can’t be trusted to uphold New Zealanders’ values’.
“She went for any excuse to justify approving the launches, and the Prime Minister must rein her in.”
“She said the UN Security Council does not encourage sanctions, so she believes New Zealand has a free hand to be militarily complicit in Israel’s resumed genocide in Gaza.”
“But New Zealand has complained for decades about the veto powers of one country in the Security Council. Then, our government uses the very same US veto, which it opposes, to justify licencing the launch of spy satellites to target Gaza.”
“In particular, the New Zealand government is ignoring the International Court of Justice, which directs countries to do what they can to prevent Israel’s occupation from continuing.”
“Signing off on delivering the technology, which the IDF uses for its bombing runs on a civilian population, can hardly be interpreted as helping Israel end its occupation of Gaza.”
Minto says Collins’ alternative excuse, that New Zealand is not at war with Israel, so can’t sanction it, is equally nonsensical.
“It may come as news to the Defence Minister, but New Zealand is not at war with Iran or Russia either. Yet the government routinely imposes sanctions on both of these countries, with putting new sanctions on Iran just a few days ago.”
“Luxon obviously thought, in the TVNZ interview, that the New Zealand Export Controls regime should apply to the satellite launches.”
“If the launches have not been tested against this legislation, then they should be, and Collins should be told to keep her pen in her pocket.”
The PSNA message to the PM says:
Tēnā koe e Christopher Luxon,
We were shocked at the interview with Minister of Defence Judith Collins on TVNZ last Friday where she justified approving satellite launches for BlackSky Technology from Mahia Peninsula despite human rights warnings from government officials.
BlackSky Technology has a lucrative contract with the Israeli Occupation Forces to provide high resolution images for use in Israel’s targeting of Palestinians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
Since the initial approvals by Ms Collins the situation in Gaza has become catastrophic for Palestinians. So bad that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for trial on charges of using starvation as a method of warfare as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
Collins’ approvals mean New Zealand is directly implicated in Israel’s Gaza genocide.
This is a moral outrage to the big majority of New Zealanders.
We are urging you as Prime Minister to direct Ms Collins to decline all future satellite launches for BlackSky Technology.
John Minto
Co-ChairPSNA.nz
John Minto
Co-ChairPSNA.nz
History tells us that impunity never lasts. Huge crimes like genocide cannot be hidden forever, eventually those who were complicit in aiding it will have to answer for their crimes..
Dr Martin Luther King once said, “The arc of history may be long but it bends towards justice”
We need to get ahead of the curve and send Luxon and Collins names to the Hague now.
Let them feel the apprehension at the inevitable legal judgement they will eventually receive, a fraction of what the children in Gaza feel right now every time they hear the buzz of an IDF drone.
And of course it still continues.
What happened Mr Humpty Trumpty the great peace maker?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360868479/gaza-ceasefire-tested-israel-and-hamas-exchange-fire-and-blame
We’re not at war with the zionist entity.
But we would be, if Collins had a soul
Assad and Putin were the second biggest killers of Palestinians after Netanyahu. Every supporter of these fascists is a betrayer of the Palestinian cause.
The disgusting Israeli fascists are at it again.
The IDF have been reordered to to continue the genocide, on the pretext that Hamas had sent them partial remains of a dead Israeli hostage, whose other body parts had already been recovered earlier in an IDF raid.
Israel had earlier prevented Qatar and Turkey with machinery and dogs and experts in cadaver recovery into Gaza, to help the Palestinians with this grisly task.
From Al Jazeera:
Israel’s PM Netanyahu orders immediate ‘powerful strikes’ on Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKNLpgKhnRU
218,396 views Oct 29, 2025 #Palestine #Gaza #Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip after accusing Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.
“Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said.
It is unclear when and where they are going to take place.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut joins us live from Amman, Jordan, and Hind Khoudary is reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, to discuss the latest developments.
Muhammad Shehada is a Political Analyst from Gaza and Visiting Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations. He joins us from Copenhagen to discuss the latest.
Beginning @2:03 minutes”
…. this seems to have escalated since the handover of the latest body which was handed overnight. Not the one that Hamas has uh found in the last few hours, but we’re talking about one, the remains, let’s say, of one of the Israeli captives that had been held after the October 7 attack.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10th, Hamas did not hand over all of the bodies of those deceased captives inside of Gaza, but said they were working on it and would do it as quickly as they could….
….Now, this is not the first time that Israel says the remains were not of an Israeli captive. It happened once before just last week, saying that one of those bodies that was handed over was actually not that of an Israeli captive. And the remains that were handed over last nighton Monday, Israel says, were remains, additional ones of a captive whose remains were already taken by Israeli forces and brought back to Israel back in December of 2023 during a military operation. So, Israel says this is a huge breach of the ceasefire already and that they want to respond to that…..
(To which I might add the Israelis have made the same error in counting the bodies of those killed on October 7, mistakenly counting many of the bodies of the Hamas fighters killed as Israelis. And they had it easy compared to the task confronting the Palestinians.)
Since this report came out more than 100 Palestinians have reportably been killed by Israeli bombings including 23 children.