John Minto: From Raglan to Palestine – let our voice be heard
During World War I, the New Zealand Government took a big area of land at Raglan from the local Tainui Awhiro people to build an airfield and bunker as part of the local war preparations.
The airfield was never built and, instead of returning the land to the people, the government used the Public Works Act in 1928 to give legal justification for the Crown keeping the land.
In 1967, local iwi were evicted from the land and forced to rebuild nearby with the Government then selling the land for the Raglan Golf Course.
In the early 1970s, Tainui Awhiro, led by Māori activist Eva Rickard, began the fight to have the land returned and after much protest, marches, petitions, lobbying, occupations and arrests on the golf links themselves they were finally successful in 1983. The land was handed back – but not until they had fought off a government “offer” requiring them to buy their land back from the Crown.
It was my first experience of being part, in a very small way, of a Māori land protest.
One of the important things I remember from Raglan, Bastion Pt and those early land protests were the messages of support and solidarity which came in from around the country and all over the world. Typically, these would be read out at the start of a protest hui and local iwi and supporters took great heart from them. They lifted spirits and warmed hearts when things sometimes seemed bleak.
We have a long way to go in decolonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand but we have come a significant way from the crude government behaviour at Raglan.
On the other side of the world, colonisation in Palestine is continuing apace since the mass expulsions of Palestinians from their land in 1948 (more than700,000 people evicted from their homes and land by Israeli militias from more than 500 villages with dozens of civilian massacres along the way).
Every day for the past 74 years, more Palestinians have been evicted from their land using all manner of spurious, creative justifications, backed by a court system run by the Israeli colonisers.
In the spotlight today are 12 Palestinian villages with more than 1000 people who face eviction from their land in an area of the South Hebron Hills called Masafer Yatta.
Israel’s Supreme Court has upheld a longstanding expulsion order against the West Bank village of Masafer Yatta. Photo / AP
An Israeli court has given the Israeli army the go-ahead to evict the people and take over their land for a “live firing range”. The range isn’t needed. The Israeli army already has close to 18 per cent of the occupied West Bank set aside for firing zones – it’s just a commonly used pretext for land theft.
If the Israeli army is able to evict these people, it will be the largest eviction of Palestinians in over 50 years.
Like the early colonists in New Zealand, Israel wants the land without the people.
Masafer Yatta is Palestine’s Raglan Golf Course, albeit on a larger scale and as part of the longest-running military occupation in modern times.
The people of Masafer Yatta are fighting back with protests and vowing not to move despite five weeks of thuggish bullying by Israeli military with vehicles racing around the land in a massive show of force to intimidate and cower the people. Live bullets ripped through roofs of houses in the Khallat Al Dabea village during this “military training”.
The local Palestinian people are organising to defend their land and homes against Israel’s aggressive colonisation.
Young people are on the frontline. Co-founder of non-violent resistance group Youth of Samud (Sumud means “steadfastness”) Sami Hurraini was detained by the Israeli army in the hot sun for eight hours without food or water last week but is undaunted. Despite receiving a demolition order for their centre in Masafer Yatta, Hurraini says, “Of course Israel won’t stop us! We will rebuild the centre every time they demolish it.”
The least we can do is add our voices of international support and solidarity to the people of Masafer Yatta. We need to let them know they are not alone – just as similar messages gave heart to Māori fighting land theft here.
And we have to let Israel know there are accountabilities for ethnic cleansing and the war crimes associated with colonisation of Palestinian land.
Palestinians are not looking for our sympathy – they are looking for practical solidarity. If enough voices are raised around the world Israel will be forced to back down.
The strongest voice we have is the Government’s. We need to insist our Government uses it on behalf of all of us.
- John Minto is a political activist and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
- First published in NZ Herald
John Minto’s connections between land ‘acquisitions’ in New Zealand and Israel-Palestine certainly recall the importance of speaking out in solidarity. Whether as punishment for ‘rebelling’, or by inducing debt only repayable by land seizures, the NZ ‘legal’ parallels are there 4 sure.
Israel’s mechanisms? In 1948, after Israel refused to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those fleeing in terror, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
The foreign-based JNF (Jewish National Fund) then acquired 10 percent of the most fertile Palestinian land through ‘sales’ by the self-declared Israeli government. Intended to relieve Israel from international pressure from Palestinian owners, these sales enabled JNF to plant 100 forests or parks on these lands, many named after overseas Jewish benefactors. Or a pro-Israel Western politician. Land thus sold is actually the property of 372 villages – whose inhabitants comprise 55 percent of more than 2, 500, 000 registered Palestinian refugees living in exile. Of the remaining village land, Israel confiscated 76 percent.
If ‘when injustice becomes law, resistance is duty’, stronger international solidarity is well overdue. We do have moral high ground, despite returns being only a fraction of unimproved value. Israel’s response is to withhold archives. (data from Geneva Red Cross records, Cabinet papers, vets’ testimonies, Dr Sitta’s The Return Journey, 2007)
Thank you John for that well written article, making the connection what happened here in Aotearoa around occupation, colonization and land theft and what happens on a daily basis in Palestine. If New Zealand has such a high regard for human rights and international law we should be condemnig strongly Israeli apartheid policies and it’s project of ethnically cleansing Masafer Yatta.
These comments seem not to have read the article right thru.
John Minto reminds us of the importance of speaking out in solidarity.
Israel’s seizure mechanisms? In 1948, after Israel refused to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those fleeing in terror, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
The foreign-based JNF (Jewish National Fund) then acquired 10 percent of the most fertile Palestinian land through ‘sales’ by the self-declared Israeli government. Intended to relieve Israel from international pressure from Palestinian owners, these sales enabled JNF to plant 100 forests or parks on these lands, many named after overseas Jewish benefactors. Or a pro-Israel Western politician. Land thus sold is actually the property of 372 villages – whose inhabitants comprise 55 percent of more than 2, 500, 000 registered Palestinian refugees living in exile. Of the remaining village land, Israel confiscated 76 percent.
If ‘when injustice becomes law, resistance is duty’, stronger international solidarity is well overdue.
Israel’s seizure mechanisms? In 1948, after Israel refused to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those fleeing in terror, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
The foreign-based JNF (Jewish National Fund) then acquired 10 percent of the most fertile Palestinian land through ‘sales’ by the self-declared Israeli government. Intended to relieve Israel from international pressure from Palestinian owners, these sales enabled JNF to plant 100 forests or parks on these lands, many named after overseas Jewish benefactors. Or a pro-Israel Western politician. Land thus sold is actually the property of 372 villages – whose inhabitants comprise 55 percent of more than 2, 500, 000 registered Palestinian refugees living in exile. Of the remaining village land, Israel confiscated 76 percent.
Israel’s seizure mechanisms? In 1948, after Israel refused to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those fleeing in terror, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
The foreign-based JNF (Jewish National Fund) then acquired 10 percent of the most fertile
Israel’s supreme court’s go-ahead for 12 Palestinian villages at Masafer Yatta to be evicted for an unnecessary “live firing range” is a reminder of original thefts.
Israel’s mechanisms? In 1948, after refusing to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those terrorised into leaving, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
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Israel’s mechanisms? In 1948, after refusing to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those terrorised into leaving, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out – mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
Israel’s mechanisms? In 1948, after refusing to comply with UN resolution 194 asserting right of return to those terrorised into leaving, the land of 675 towns and villages was put under a Custodian of Absentee (refugee) Property entity.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA).
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA)
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA), which leased refugees’ land out, mostly to Kibbutzim and Moshavs.
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA)
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA)
A ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA),
Creation of a ‘Development Authority’ then enabled further barriers. This authority transferred all land to an ‘Israel Land Administration’ (ILA),
Sorry for overkill- delay unpredicted!!
I can see from an aerial photo some cultivated fields in Janba, and a group of dwellings, clearly this is one thing you have got wrong.
What is more prior to 1940 they had 4 local shops.
300 people live here across 30 families.
The Jbarin family that has lived in the village since 1901, as Ottoman papers and documents owned by the family show proof of their ownership of the land.
This is where you fail miserably Gaby, you don’t want proper discourse or debate you want to pretend this is all simply not true.