On Saturday, 24 December 2016, the New Zealand Government issued a Press Release, NZ welcomes UN resolution on Middle East Peace Process, in which Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced that, “New Zealand voted for and co-sponsored the resolution because it is consistent with long-held New Zealand policy positions on the Palestinian question”.
UNICEF frequently reports widespread, systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli Army, with armed soldiers seizing children as young as 11 years and taking them prisoner. Palestinian homes, even in UN refugee camps, can offer no security for terrified children, who are dragged from their homes, often in the middle of the night.
As Israeli Gaza ceasefire violations this year top 1,000, the International Criminal Court (ICC) exposes the “scope and degree of control” that the military Occupation exercises over Gaza.
From 29 May 29 to 1 June 2016, more than 50 New Zealand business people, led by Spark CEO Simon Moutter, were guests at a trade mission in Israel, organised by the Israel Trade Commission and Trans-Tasman Business Circle. Described as the ‘innovation mission’, the purpose was to encourage collaboration between the governments of Israel and New Zealand and their respective business interests.
New Zealand has historically tended to follow in the footsteps of Britain, the US and other Western powers (the best and most honourable exception being our anti-nuclear policy) and it is no surprise, therefore, that our country supported the imposition of Zionist control over the Palestinian homeland through partitioning and colonisation.
Next month, from 14-20 November the USS Sampson will attend the Royal New Zealand Navy’s International Naval Review, which just happens to coincide with a Weapons Conference & Expo sponsored by the NZ Defence Industry Association (NZDIA), 16-20 November.
In an article published on 7 October, Dr Paul Moon, Auckland University of Technology, called the women whose vessel was hijacked in international waters by the Israeli Navy, “fools”. Astonishingly, he accused Green MP Marama Davidson of having “little understanding of the geopolitical situation in the region”. Dr Moon called the courageous expedition “a ship of fools” and a “cheap media stunt”.
We ask you to strongly condemn the illegal Israeli hijacking of the Women’s Boat to Gaza, Zaytouna-Oliva, in international waters, 70 kilometres from the Gaza shore.
The New Zealand Government issued a Press Release on 1 October 2016 concerning what it called Education Minister Hekia Parata’s significant visit to Israel in which she extended her education visit in order to represent New Zealand at the state funeral for Shimon Peres.
In an address to the University of Otago’s 50th annual Foreign Policy School in June 2015, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully, spoke of this country’s intentions regarding its present term at the UN Security Council.