Prime Minister calls out the killing of Israelis but has been deathly quiet on the killing of Palestinians
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is correct to condemn Hamas killing Israeli civilians in its attacks on Israel this week.
The killing of civilians or taking them hostage is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention and should be universally condemned.
However the Labour government has been deathly silent on the war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians under Labour’s watch these past six years.
Under his Prime Ministerial watch Chris Hipkins has looked the other way while Israel has built more Israeli settlement homes on Palestinian land; killed more than 250 Palestinian civilians; supported Israeli settler pogroms against Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank and encouraged highly-provocative Israeli ministerial and settler incursions into the Al Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
Why does he only wake up when Israelis are killed? Why does he think Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives?
The Prime Minister’s pro-Israel stance is one-sided and blatantly racist.
New Zealand, along with other western countries, bears heavy responsibility for the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis in recent days because we have never held Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people.
We have given Israel a free pass to murder and abuse Palestinians and this led to the inevitable tragedy last weekend.
It is precisely the attitude of western leaders such as our Prime Minister which has meant so many lives have been lost.
The Prime Minister has the blood of Palestinians and Israelis on his hands.
Agree with John, countries looking away, hundreds of UN Resolutions ignored, US Imperialism pouring in cash and arms, have led to the Hamas resistance actions.
The Israelis have made it clear overnight, that they are going to turn Gaza into a 21st century mid East Warsaw Ghetto, the strip addition to being bombed the shit out of, is to be blockaded, no food, water, electricity, or medical aid.
Agree .. The silence is deafening when it comes to any criticism of Israel.
For those who want a massive escalation and response from Isreal, or against them please consider the cost. This will be urban warfare, very nasty as explained here https://sonar21.com/
May calmer heads prevail.
I’d happily contribute to send john to Gaza
I have been to Gaza.
We had entered Gaza (illegally according to the Israelis) through the Rafah crossing. While we were in Gaza a part of Rafah near the tunnels was bombed by Israeli Jets. We heard the jets as they passed over our hotel. The hotel itself had signs of war damage. The lifts didn’t work so I had to use the stairwell to get to my room. Most of the public areas of the hotel had been fixed up, but in the stairwells you could see the bullet holes from the last Israeli incursion.
As a member of the Kia Ora Gaza mission. I have met the people and witnessed the devastation and destruction caused by the frequent Israeli incursions aerial bombardment.
What I also witnessed was the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people.
The Hamas government who the locals refer to as the ‘Municipality’ pay people to collect up the rubble of destroyed buildings and a bring it to a huge central area where it can be broken down and repurposed. From a slight rise I witnessed a scene find hard to describe, I felt like I was witnessing something from the Bible. A huge flat area stretching into the distance with dust rising from all the human activity. Hundreds of huge neatly stacked piles of rubble where thousands of people were labouring, picking and sorting and breaking the rubble down by hand. The difference from a biblical scene being some huge dump trucks dumping their loads, and a few rare hydraulic diggers swinging their arms as they worked to stack the piles of collected rubble. Everything is recycled. I passed an an area where a group of women were sitting using little pipe benders to straighten lengths of mangled steel reinforcing rods salvaged from the rubble to use again. I passed another workshop where new cinder blocks were being cast from what I guessed was recycled ground up concrete. All building materials are blocked from entering Gaza by the Israelis. Everything that cannot be recycled, or made, like the fuel for the trucks and diggers has to be smuggled in through the tunnels under border at Rafah in defiance of the siege and blockade imposed by Israel and enforced by the pro-Israel regime in Egypt.
I also witnessed the destruction the Israelis had wrought. A bombed cement factory with burnt out concrete trucks either side of the road leading up to it. A graveyard where all the grave stones had been crushed by Israeli tank treads. A burnt down chicken farm that had housed thousands of chickens burnt to death.
But I also witnessed the little donkey carts of the people collecting up the bits of broken concrete and masonry to take to be recycled.
I witnessed teams of men in white overalls tidying and cleaning the road sides and verges. I asked my guide, “Who pays these men to do this work?”. The answer always came back, “The Municipality” ie the government of Hamas.
No one can tell me these people will ever be defeated or subdued.
Thanks for sharing Pat – and thanks for going there in the first place.
It was a privilege.
Thanks.
I’ll throw in $100 so long as it is a one way ticket.
I read this “Gaza ‘soon without fuel, medicine and food’ – Israel authorities”
They do have a boarder with Egypt. Can’t they help?
…At roughly $1.3 billion, Egypt is the second-largest recipient of US foreign military financing after Israel. For fiscal year 2022…..
https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/why-senate-democrats-are-urging-biden-to-withhold-part-of-egypts-military-aid#
Smartarse, or ignorant?
“They do have a boarder with Egypt. Can’t they help?” ds
Either ds is completely ignorant of the reality of the situation in Egypt. Or, is knowingly making a cynical comment trying to be a smartarse.
Under the rule of the far right military dictator, General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt is a classic case study of a Far Right US backed military junta. And the second biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel.
General El-Sisi has on the orders of his US backers and on behalf of Israel ruthlessly enforced the siege on Gaza’s Southern border. General El-Sisi has decreed that the whole of the Sinai Desert bordering the Rafah border is a military no go zone, with shoot on sight orders for anyone crossing it. On General El-Sisi’s orders the siege of Gaza that is strangling the life out of the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in the enclave has never been more rigidly and violently enforced.
The thing is John actually knows what it is like in Gaza but smug self-righteous people like yourself are ignorant of the ongoing suffering of the local people. John explicitly described the Hamas attack as a war crime so that shows that he is unbiased whereas you obviously think that Israel can do no wrong. Decades ago I used to believe the MSM propaganda about the ‘evil’ PLO etc but I have seen & experienced the actual situation so while I don’t want to see harm done to the Jewish people the state can only be described as corrupt & getting worse.
You and ds obviously feel uncomfortable in the face of hard data.
I second that motion.
“We have given Israel a free pass to murder and abuse Palestinians and this led to the inevitable tragedy last weekend.”
This is typical Western behavior – we all think we are the good guys – and thanks to our captured, by State and moneyed interest, mainstream media, we will continue to think this way. Whom and what we believe to be good or bad is chiefly determined by this tainted media.
One bright note, at least some media allows us to critique this dire circumstance for time being….
You can’t blame Hipkins for the Palestine Israel conflict, he’s only responsible for destroying education, racial division, covid over reach and flip flopping on every other Labour policy in NZ.
No question Israel has its own human rights violations.
But deliberate murder and parading of dead civilians has no justification.
It’s horrific and will attract a terrible retribution that will also kill civilians, for which Hamas is also responsible.
After seeing the barbarity of Hamas against women and children circulating on social media, i think the Tankie left need to step back and see what their Hamas Palestinian “freedom fighters” are: barbaric terrorists.
Hamas want an Islamic state, they are no different to the ISIS extremists.
Under these videos there are overwhelming comments from Muslim people condemning Hamas actions against women as unIslamic.
Of course the comfortable woke white left know better, pro Palestinian demonstrations in the US and Australia at this time are wrong.
“The Prime Minister has the blood of Palestinians and Israelis on his hands.”
Crikey. Talk about a long bow!
In any event, Chris probably has quite enough on his hands on the local scene, which is where most of us live.
John is so confused its sad really.
Hipkins and his ilk are nothing more than scabs to the American empire and by default Israel. Well said JM.
With perhaps the exception of Pat O’Dea I’d wager none of the contributors here have been to Israel or even the wider Middle East so are as some have observed just pontificating from the comfort of their nice Kiwi homes.
Hamas is a murderous maniacal terrorist group fully funded and controlled by Iran. This latest tragic episode in the everlasting misery of the levant was started by Hamas and Iran to try and destabilise the Saudi / Israel peace agreement and its not beyond reason that Russia is in there too knowing full well that this will distract the US (and having seen a full carrier group being deployed towards Israel it clearly has).
Israel isn’t an innocent party but no one is in the Middle East be they Shia, Sunni, Jew, Christian or Baha’i.
I lived across the Middle East for far too long and have good friends on both sides. Those of you calling for a Free Palestine should ask yourselves what that would actually be – if it’s Hezbollah or Hamas in charge then you’re looking at a slightly less radical Taliban with better coffee. Hardly the sort of society that liberals would normally support.
Israel on the other hand is at the very least a democracy and committed to societal values much closer to those in the west.
Sadly, all that we’re going to see now for the next few years is the steady yet total destruction of Gaza. The whole thing is just so tragic and unnecessary.
At the very least it would be good to see those of you supporting the Palestinian cause (for which I have much sympathy) acknowledge the utterly inhumane and barbaric atrocities that Hamas have and are committing.
“Israel on the other hand is at the very least a democracy and committed to societal values much closer to those in the west.”
It is not a democracy, but to be fair to them, democracy is an illusion n most places anyway. You are right about their societal values aligning with the West however.
“Sadly, all that we’re going to see now for the next few years is the steady yet total destruction of Gaza. The whole thing is just so tragic and unnecessary. ”
The same old same old but perhaps, on an even greater scale then.
“At the very least it would be good to see those of you supporting the Palestinian cause (for which I have much sympathy) acknowledge the utterly inhumane and barbaric atrocities that Hamas have and are committing.”
That’s a two way street and this is to put this nicely. Hamas are rank amateurs in barbarism and inhumanity next to what has been done and is being done to the people they purportedly represent. Nonetheless, just like our own history and most Western history is steeped in blood, we only worry or take note when it is our blood being spelt. When we do it to others, nary a word is said.
Yes, I would be nice to acknowledge all sides of human suffering but that is not the way our world works.
I pretty much agree with all you said yeti. But I don’t believe Russia would be behind the attack as there are quite significant bonds between Russia and Israel (and Ukraine and Israel) because of the diaspora.
Mind you a cynical scenario would be that Russia did not want Israel to help Ukraine so it encouraged the attack. This is unlikely though. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.
It is not a democracy. There are 60plus laws that apply to Palestinians who live in Israel, I am sure you know this, how then does that make it a democracy?
And the Germans killed the Jews
and the Jews killed the Arabs
and the Arabs killed the hostages
and that is the news
Isn’t it any wonder the monkeys confused?
That great alleged anti Semite Roger Waters. Sums it all up really.
A large number of those festival goers were peacenik Germans, and Germany is the largest source of voluntary donations to Palestinian charities. So I’m guessing those funds will suddenly dry up and the AfD will get even more votes in future.
Should do.
Genocide
That is all Israel’s response can be called.
Where are Hipkins words of condemnation?
Ukraine and Russia can have hostage exchanges in the middle of a full scale war.
But Israel has no interest in rescuing the hostages. If Israel was interested in returning the hostages to their families, instead of airstrikes and cutting off the water and power they would have offered a hostage exchange.
Cutting the water, power, food for 2 million people, plus bombing them from the air, with no means of escape, no safety corridors. Trapped.
When an imperialist or colonialist power cannot subdue a subject people they try to exterminate them.
Four of the hostages are reported to have been killed in the Israeli airstrikes being rained down on the Palestinians.
Israel is carrying out a campaign of extermination.
Minto still defending the terrorists who killed young festival-goers and who then dragged the bodies of young victims through the streets so others could spit on them. Stay classy, Minto.
Minto said “Why does he only wake up when Israelis are killed? Why does he think Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives?’
For the same reason that Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Morocco and other states think it – for 70 years the so-called Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Nations, other than the medieval douchebags running Iran, tire of the death cult mentality.
And severing the Achilles tendons of those they captured, so that they couldn’t escape, and be executed later at leisure. Charming people, these Palestinians.
The difference between the IDF and Hamas: the IDF don’t and won’t intentionally kill civilians in Gaza because of ethics – Hama’s won’t kill all Isreali civilians in Tel Aviv simply because they don’t have the ability to do so.
Israel pounds Gaza neighbourhoods, as people scramble for safety in sealed-off territory
Josef Federman Issam Adwan
03:20, Oct 11 2023
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/300986650/israel-pounds-gaza-neighbourhoods-as-people-scramble-for-safety-in-sealedoff-territory
….The war began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday,
That’s a lie. The Hamas assault was a reprisal for Israel’s escalation of violence against Palestinians on the Westbank. Josef Federman and Issam Adwan who penned this lie need to be ashamed of themselves.
The undisputed Ist law of physics as written by Sir Isaac Newton – every action has an equal and opposite reaction – is not confined to the test lab and the petri dish. Talmud following jewish people slaughter & enslave Palestinian and other races with impunity since 1917 or so, there is no surprise they have pushed as far as they can go and an equal and opposite reaction ensues.
I applaud Lord Warner, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39483745
Can’t help thinking there’s a close relation of Herzl currently somewhere north of this conflict area https://socialistworker.org/2017/11/06/zionism-anti-semitism-and-lord-balfour
I don’t know anyone who thinks that the murder of civilians and the taking of hostages is okay, however it seems to have conveniently been ignored by the West when the IDF were doing it, hauling Palestinians out of their homes.
I think a few of you writing here defending to the hilt Israel and his superior power backed up by the United States should probably do some reading. Just start with this lot. Then perhaps we could have some rational conversation.
The Great War for Civilisation – Robert Fisk
The Question of Palestine – Edward Said
The biggest prison on earth – Ilane Pappe
On Palestine – Noam Chomsky
The Ethnic cleansing of Palestine – Ilane Pappe
Palestine a four thousand year history – Nurma Masalha
The Invention of the land of Israel – Shlomo Sand
Freedom Next Time – Resisting the empire – John Pilger
I met Fisk and he really was a surly old bastard even though I bought his book.
Methinks that your reading list lacks balance Michal.
“ A boot stamping on a human face forever”. Orwell’s prophetic vision of the future has been seen in ersatz Israel since1947. We now find out what happens when the boot is temporarily, whether by accident or design, on the other foot. The consequences are appalling for all but those who profit from war.