Under Winston Peters (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Ron Mark (Minister of Defence) government policy on the Middle East has taken a great stride to the right. It was always pro-Israeli and never pro-Palestinian but Peters and Mark have taken New Zealand further to the right and closer to the US position.
People such as newspaper editors, journalists and members of parliament are intensely pressured whenever they speak out against Israel’s brutal military occupation and apartheid policies towards Palestinians.
The only transformation in the budget is a transformation in the meaning of transformation.
“Kia ora Mr Mark,
Please cancel the proposal to buy millions of dollars of military equipment from apartheid Israel and support Palestinian calls for a boycott instead.”
Last week full-page advertisements appeared across New Zealand celebrating 71 years since Israel declared independence. They were placed by a Pastor Nigel Woodley from Hastings – a Christian Zionist – and paid for from the deep pockets of his backers.
Whatever Ngaro may offer the country as a conservative Christian leader it won’t be compassion, tolerance, justice or truth. Instead it will be a conservative straitjacket of bigotry, arrogance and injustice.
The most worrying aspect of the commission of inquiry into the Christchurch shootings is that the terms of reference give too much room for our security agencies – the SIS and GCSB – to hide.
We are appalled the government appears to be considering an even closer relationship with Israel despite the ongoing theft of Palestinian land, the ongoing brutal Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza while Israel continues to thumb its nose at international law and United Nations resolutions.
None of Labour’s arguments to explain their failure to deliver a Capital Gains Tax stack up.
Urge the Government’s representative at the United Nations to engage more actively with the United Nations Human Rights Council on the issue of war crimes and genocide of minority Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government.