Breaking News: Government set to announce later today (Wednesday) New Zealand will formally designate Hezbollah and Houthis of Yemen as “terrorist” organisations
Breaking News: Government set to announce later today (Wednesday) New Zealand will formally designate Hezbollah and Houthis of Yemen as “terrorist” organisations.
PSNA (Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa) understands the government is set to announce later today (Wednesday) that New Zealand will formally designate Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen as “terrorist” organisations.
This decision is wrong at every level.
“New Zealand should use terrorist designations from the United Nations – not from the United States” says PSNA National Chair John Minto. “These designations will be a cowardly capitulation to US and Israeli interests”
“Hezbollah and the Houthis have made it clear they have attacked Israel to help prevent genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and will stop their attacks as soon as Israel agrees to a ceasefire. At the same time the US is providing tens of billions in weapons and munitions to Israel to continue its deadly rampage across the Middle East”
“It is the US and Israel which should be given the terrorist designation – not countries doing their best to stop the slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians – which has gone on for 76 years.”
The official death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is now almost 44,000 people – mostly women and children – with over 3,000 killed in Lebanon.
This “terror” designation is especially galling when the New Zealand government, which has condemned every act of Palestinian resistance, has refused to condemn Israel for any of its shocking war crimes across the Middle East including:
- Mass killing of civilians
- Wholesale destruction of civilian infrastructure
- Mass slaughter of journalists, doctors and nurses
- Collective punishment of the civilian population
- Denial of food, water, fuel and basic media supplies
- Use of starvation as a weapon of war
- Forced displacement of civilians
- Implementation of the “general’s” plan in northern Gaza which involves the mass killing of civilians, starvation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.
Not a word of condemnation of any of this, no sanctions, no “terror” designation. Just the silence of a morally-crippled government.
Long overdue.
They are terrorist groups. You can “what-about-ism” all you like, it doesn’t change the fact.
Your powers of observation might lead you to view a country bombing helpless civilians with bombs supplied by a big brother state. Are these terrorist states?
And there’s the “watch-about-ism” right on time.
How about a country bombing the energy infrastructure of another country as they head into winter (and killing civilians in the process) using bombs and drones supplied by another country? See Nick, we can all play this silly game.
Yes, the terrorism against the Russian people by the Zelensky regime is bad and must be ended by any means necessary.
I don’t see any equivalence Observer, except in Ukrainian propaganda. Which is quite frankly bollocks accepted only by the intellectually challenged. You however would seem to want to drop bombs on civilians
Amazing how people here think its fine for the USA to supply weapons of mass destruction and allow them to be used to kill families of children and then expect those people to say and do nothing in retaliation .No doubt those same people are knocking on McKees door to stock up on guns to use here .
I see that the usual suspects support the stupid government decisions so they obviously refuse to consider the real evidence about what is happening there. It’s a pity we could not send a mob backed by weapons supplied by a super power to remove them from their property so they can understand why the Palestinians are upset.
Winston Peters looking out for his nonce buddy Ran Yaakoby.
Martin Luther King accurately described his country, the Usa, “as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” ,,, and over 50 years later he is STILL correct.
Having the country which is the greatest cause of violence, mass murder, starvation and misery in the world designate anyone as “terrorists” is a farce and very sick joke …
Being good little 5 eyes lackeys NActFirst will have us as the small butt end of that sick joke.
The global majority knows that it is the U.s.a, Israel and their ‘white is right’ sycophants (us) who are the real terrorists…..
Mark this date down as yet another day of shame for us .
Very bad news. The Houthis have been showing practical solidarity for Palestine while most of the world just stands back like the gutless EU and does nothing to stop the Israeli butchers.
Hezbollah is a longstanding defensive organisation who the Israelis are obviously intimidated by as they choose to bomb Lebanese civilians and UN Peacekeepers rather engage them directly in military combat.
The other point is that Aotearoa NZ Palestine supporters should think about wearing hard hats, padding and boots–because the cops are likely to go in hard now they have official approval. John Minto has already had a personal assault by NZ Police while supporting Palestinians.
Everyone needs to step up their efforts to BDS the filthy zionists.
The world has always been two blocks, the “civilized West” and the rest. What has changed is that the “rest” now speak in unison. The power is shifting their way, we in Aotearoa are in danger of becoming a pariah isolated state.
Luxon stated Hamas and the Houthis have met strong levels of supporting evidence needed to be designated terrorist. Which begs the question what do Israel and USA need to do?
Stop paying off and blackmailing the traitors in the right wing parties (from ACT through Labour).
The designation of Hezbollah and Ansar al Allah expose the dangers of the present New Zealand government’s deliberate departure from the principle of rule of law. In states governed under the rule of law, neither statutes nor common law reference the specific identity of individuals and groups. The law applies to everyone equally and to no one specifically. The alternative is administrative rule, in which state officials decide to whom a law should apply, usually by means of a schedule attached to the statute.
The Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 is one such administrative law. Another is heralded in the Fast-track Approvals Bill. Yet another is the Gangs Act 2024.
The danger of abandoning the rule of law in favour of administrative rule is that it opens the way to gross abuse. Clearly the designation of Hezbollah and Ansar al Allah, two organisations which have been in the forefront of the fight against terrorism, are cases where the New Zealand state has used these administrative powers to ends which directly oppose the stated purpose of the statute.
The colonialist regime has becoming increasingly enthusiastic about administrative rule to the point where it is abandoning the rule of law across the board. Tangata motu must resist the regime’s resort to administrative rule at every point, including the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 and the Gangs Act 2024.