BREAKING: Prime Minister Luxon, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Deputy PM Seymour & Defence Minister Judith Collins referral to the International Criminal Court
PSNA refers government to International Criminal Court
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has just filed a referral to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. It accuses four New Zealand government ministers and two business leaders of criminal complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by assisting Israel’s mass killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa Co-Chairs, John Minto and Maher Nazzal say the referral carefully outlines a case that these six individuals should be investigated by the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC for the contributions they have knowingly made to Israel’s crimes in Gaza.
“The 103-page referral document was prepared by a legal team which has been working on the case for many months. It is legally robust and will provide the Prosecutor of the ICC more than sufficient documentation to begin their investigation.”
“This is a grave step which we have not taken lightly” Minto and Nazzal says. “But the government’s ongoing and meaningful support for Israel, despite its horrendous war crimes, is not only egregious to most New Zealanders, but is also criminal conduct under international law.”
Minto and Nazzal say the referral follows a ‘letter of demand’ issued to the government in 2024 outlining the actions that a reasonable government would take to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, and the actions the government should take to avoid criminal complicity with Israel.
“For 20 months these political and business leaders have supported Israel to commit crimes which have shocked the human conscience.”
“This has brought shame on the whole country.”
“Even today, Palestinians – mostly women and children, are being killed, and the key individuals who have helped to make this nightmare possible must themselves be held to account.”
“We believe this is the first time New Zealand political and business leaders have been referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. We hope it is the last.”
*Two points of explanation:
Genocide: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, top international genocide scholars and the United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israel’s practices have all condemned Israel’s actions as genocide.
Individual criminal responsibility: Under the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court these six people are individually criminally responsible for their actions and inactions irrespective of their positions as elected politicians or appointed business leaders.
The documents related to the ICC referral are here:
The six people we have referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court are:
New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Christopher Luxon:
Over the course of Israel’s war on Gaza Mr Luxon has repeatedly justified or downplayed Israel’s criminal conduct, including by describing its violence as self-defence, and only supporting a desperately needed ceasefire on Israel’s terms. He has allowed likely exports from New Zealand of missile componentry for use by Israel in striking civilians, and overseen New Zealand’s participation in air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, supporting Israel to maintain its criminal blockade on food and medicine from entering Gaza.
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Rt Hon Winston Peters:
While Israel has flagrantly breached orders by the International Court of Justice meant to prevent genocide in Gaza, Mr Peters has projected to the world New Zealand’s warm and friendly relations with Israel without any censure or criticism for its actions. He has consistently disregarded or downplayed Israel’s criminal conduct. Alongside Mr Luxon, Mr Peters is also responsible for allowing likely exports from New Zealand of missile componentry for use by Israel in striking civilians, and he has overseen New Zealand’s participation in air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, supporting Israel to maintain its criminal blockade on food and medicine from entering Gaza.
New Zealand Minister for Space and Minister of Defence Hon Judith Collins KC:
Ms Collins has approved recent Rocket Lab launches of geospatial intelligence satellites for US company BlackSky Technologies. The satellites provide high resolution images to Israel which are very likely used to assist with striking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Ms Collins allowed these launches in full knowledge of these circumstances. As Minister of Defence, she is also responsible for New Zealand’s participation in air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, supporting Israel to maintain its criminal blockade on food and medicine.
New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Hon David Seymour:
Mr Seymour, as leader of one of the three coalition partners in the New Zealand government, has firmly supported Israel’s violence against the people of Gaza under the pretext of self-defence, and unequivocally denied Israel’s breaches of international law and its commission of genocide.
Rocket Lab Chief Executive Officer Sir Peter Beck:
Rocket Lab has recently launched geospatial intelligence satellites for BlackSky Technology. These satellites provide high resolution images to Israel which are very likely used to assist with striking civilians in Gaza. Sir Peter has proceeded with these launches in full knowledge of these circumstances.
Rakon Limited Chief Executive Officer Dr Sinan Altug:
Despite vast weapons transfers from the United States to Israel since the beginning of its war on Gaza, Rakon has continued with its longstanding supply of crystal oscillators to US arms manufacturers for use in guided missiles which are then available to Israel for the bombing of Gaza, as well as Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran with consequential massive loss of life. Rakon’s claims that it has no responsibility over how these ‘dual-use’ technologies are used are not credible.
Thank goodness everyone of them are complicit just as they are in most of the Western world.
Absolutely correct. They have gone out of their way to ignore this genocide
Great work team .No doubt the money trail will get it glossed over and rail roaded out of the court .
Thank you John. These blood drenched monsters need to be held to account.
FFS Minto needs to be committed.
You made some mistakes
“Minto needs us all to be as committed to justice as he is.”
I fixed it for you
Jack – what will you tell future generations about this holocaust?
Jack needs to develop some morals.
tedious prat
Good job. I have signed and shared the letter of support. Only sociopaths oppose this initiative.
Is this a parody post??
Publicity stunt. Will get thrown out.
You presumably don’t give a toss that kids are dying of starvation you selfish bastard!
It will not get thrown out, don’t be stupid Australia have already done this.
Tell me something you have done for others Christopher, SFA I am sure.
John Minto has a track record of being on the right side of history.
The ultimate outcome of this referral is not important, as legal loopholes can let many criminals avoid accountability, but the record of the complaint will remain and the stain it leaves on the accused reputations will be permanent.
Well said
Good summary RC. That’s what it’s all about.
Minto has stuck to his principals for decades, never wavered and has come out on the right side of history. Exactly right.
This will follow those 6 people for many years and not look good on the CV. If anyone deserves a knighthood, it’s Minto. I somehow doubt he’d accept it as would put him in the same company as key and Beck.
Look at the’ Law & Order’ party shitting on international law ,,,,,,and their pretend ‘law abiding’ voters drop the pretense and show themselves to be a pack of criminals accomplices because they feel laws don’t apply to them …
Winstons a Lawyer ,,, he knows that legally they are provably guilty
,,, and this isn’t something trivial either ,,,,
ie David Seymour denies Israel is committing a genocide due to HIS definition of the word ,,,, how come he ignores the Legal Definition as clearly written in the Genocide Convention??? ,,,, because he’s clearly aiding and abetting in the commission of a crime that’s why ,,,, Good luck redefining the law should he end up in front of a judge. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf
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Did Nazi Germany have a right to exist ?
Does Germany have a right to exist ?
Did all the Germans citizens get annihilated / die when their country was forced to change itself from being the former and become the latter ?
Does Zionist Israel as it presently is,,, have a right to exist / continue ,..
If Israel is a democracy,,, then how does one explain this? https://youtu.be/KNqozQ8uaV8 perhaps they democratically selected which zionist import got to steal this lady’s home — with the fat yank being the democratically ‘chosen one’?……
According to the international Genocide Convention and ITS Legal Definition of Genocide ,,, then a hell of a lot of Zionists are Genocide Deniers https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf
The reality of presnt day Zionist Israel is just that ,Reality .
Zionists of all stripes can argue to the cows come home about how they would like Zionist Israel to be ……But the real facts don’t care about warm fuzzy imaginings.
Israeli Hasbara from Oct 7th is the true ‘Blood Libel’ of our times …
… beheaded babies,, burned babies ,,, widespread rape by Hamas,, are all lies / slander ,, spread to justify the mass murder blood lust the IDF has wrought for 20 months now….
This is the only Oct 7th rape victim that has been conclusively identified that I am aware of https://www.bitchute.com/video/hKNNLEJ0MHG7
Ilana Mercer — “One such emerged reality is that Palestinians ( in Gaza AND the West Bank ), not Israeli Jews(as Hasbara teaches), are the most imperiled people in the world”…..
Another is that Israel, with overwhelming support from the Jewish-Israeli public, has gleefully engaged in methodical, indiscriminate, industrial-scale murder and ethnic cleansing ongoing.
The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, were allowed to obliterate the fundamentals of physical, national, and economic life in Gaza,,,,turning it into an uninhabitable post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Gaza is now a mass grave along a small stretch of the Mediterranean Sea where living ghosts wander. Gaza’s soil is soaked through with a mix of millions of tons of building debris,the decaying bodies of tens of thousands of human beings, their pets, livestock, fauna and flora all dead, an inferno of garbage, open sewage, and the byproducts and contaminants of munitions like unexploded ordnance.
Said a scholar of the architecture of occupation, Israel has stolen from Gaza’s Palestinians the very ability to produce food, or receive it, or use means of exchange to get it. Banking was destroyed / dismantled. Believe it or not, but under years of medieval blockade, Gaza’s farmers had, before October 7, fed a third of their people.
Indeed, Israel has systemized the mass murder and displacement of innocent Palestinian civilians, targeting them and their habitat for total warfare.
Israel is a country in which genocide, snuff films, extrajudicial assassinations, rape, robbery, torture and starvation of the Palestinians are de facto legal. Israel is thus a criminal entity and a threat to the community of nations. ”
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Israel and ‘the rules based order’ say we CAN have Ghetto Liquidation,,,, Again.,,,,
International Law still clearly states otherwise……
Seymour may become a fugitive hiding like the sneaky dishonest twerk jerk he is
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MLK — “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
https://www.ryandawson.org/p/epic-speech-about-palestine-and-iran
Well done.
All of them are stubbornly ignorant of the scale of Israels crime against humanity.
“All of them are stubbornly ignorant of the scale of Israel’s crime against humanity.”
I think they know full well, they are just craven enough not to care.
I think they know full well, they are just a one term government such are the atrocities they bring upon NZ let alone Gaza.
Who is funding the pns..A?
Idiot who do yo think, Kiwis who have compassion and empathy and are not focused on themselves. There are quite a few of us around.
And what have you ever done you prat, other than for yourself that is?
Add killer to Seymour’s resume…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/talanoa/early-childhood-sector-leader-shocked-at-proposed-changes-to-baby-sleeping-rules-at-daycare/WJSAOH3GKJBMXMSQ7JODLIUSNY/
What the fuck would Seymour know about babies and children other than being one?
“Minto and Nazzal say the referral follows a ‘letter of demand’ issued to the government in 2024 outlining the actions that a reasonable government would take to prevent and punish the crime of genocide,….”
But that’s just it. The government doesn’t recognise that a genocide is being committed.
And so are not bound to take the actions that a reasonable government would take to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
And they are not the only ones who deny that a genocide is being committed.
“….the Labour Party’s position remains that it is for the relevant international bodies to determine whether actions by Israel are within the constraints of international law.” Labour Party leader, Chris Hipkiins, 8 December 2023
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/504190/labour-s-damien-o-connor-goes-against-party-policy-in-calling-israel-s-actions-in-gaza-genocide
It is up to a signatory country to determine that a genocide is being committed and then act to prevent it.
Why is the opposition Labour Party’s position important?
The Irish government has just voted to officialy declare that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This official declaration by the Irish parliament did not come easily, and was only made reluctantly under pressure of the Irish opposition parties. The Irish opposition parties had to push and demand and loibby the Irish government to allow a pariamentary vote on whether Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. the parliamentary opposition parties were helped in this by the mass civil society protests outside parliament.
When the motion was finally allowed, few MPs in the Irish government wanted to be recorded on the public record as being a genocide denier, and the motion was carried.
The executioner’s hand is (usually) well hidden, but when pushed into to openly declare themselves as genocide deniers,, the government MPa who had to that point backed Israel’s genocide in Gaza backed down.
Before we can get the government to declare that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, we have to get the Labour opposition party to declare it.
Unless the NZ government recognises that Israel is committing genocide they have a legal loophole to continue supporting Israel in its actions.
Amnesty International Aotearoa has just launched a petition calling on the government to officially recognise that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Every one needs to print out a copy of the amnesty petition and make an appointment to meet their local MP and ask them to sign it. If they agree to sign it ask to leave a copy on their reception desk. Also ask them to put the amnesty motion in the ballot as a members bill to be raised in parliament to be voted on.
End Israel’s genocide
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand petition calling on the government to publicly recognise that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza
https://amnesty.org.nz › end-israels-genocide
“Take action and call for Aotearoa New Zealand to publicly recognise that Israel is committing genocide….” against Palestinians in Gaza……”
Demand that the Labour Party officially recognise that a genocide is being committed by Israel
If the Labour Party MP you approach refuses to sign the Amnesty petition or refuses to agrees to change their party policy on the genocide in Gaza and feel that it is for the relevant international bodies to determine whether actions by Israel are within the constraints of international law, then point them to this:
The International Court of Justice delivering in its interim ruling, said Israel must take all steps within its power to prevent the commission of acts within the scope of Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
ICJ orders Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/26/icj-fails-to-order-ceasefire-but-says-israel-must-prevent-genocide-in-gaza#
Israel has ignored the World Court’s ruling. While the ICJ’s decisions are final and cannot be appealed, the court cannot enforce the measures. The genocide convention confers on the signatories to the convention the power to enforce measures to prevent genocide..
In 1948 New Zealand signed the Convention on the provention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
The convention requires all signatories to act to prevent the crime of genocide.
New Zealand did not ratify the genocide convention binding New Zeeland to act to prevent the crime of genocide until 1978, and only then because the UN announced that that year would be the cut off date for all remaining states that hadn’t ratified it to do so.
Why the 30 year delay?
Ratifying the genocide convention means New Zealand is legally bound by both international law and New Zealand law to take all reasonable measures to prevent the crime of genocide. But first we must recognise it.
Sign the petition and get your MP to sign it.
Thanks Pat this is practical and will do.