NZ Government looking the other way on record Israeli West Bank settlement building
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) is again urging the government to uphold its long-standing policies and publicly take action against record Israeli settlement expansion.
It has just been reported that the Israeli cabinet has approved 19 more illegal settlements in the equally illegal Occupied West Bank. This decision will double the number of settlements in the West Bank since the current Israeli government came to power.
PSNA Co-Chair Maher Nazzal says past National-led governments have taken a strong rhetorical stance against such settlements.
“In 2016, the Key government co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem ‘a flagrant violation of international law’,” Nazzal says. “Yet the number of settlers has doubled since then.”
“New Zealand, along with other equally silent Western bloc countries, is paving the way for more hatred and conflict — conflict that is likely to spill beyond the region — by continuing to ignore Israeli violations,” Nazzal says.
“Not only is Israel taking land for settlers, it is openly encouraging settler violence. There have been thousands of attacks on Palestinians — many of them lethal — especially during olive harvest season over the past two years.”
Nazzal says the government should also be reminded that Israel has violated the 10 October ceasefire in Gaza 738 times, directly killing more than 400 Palestinians during that period.
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently demanding that various countries ban marches and public statements in support of Palestine,” he says.
“It is long past time for governments to tell Netanyahu that it is his genocidal government that is driving hatred and conflict.”
Embarrassingly, it is way past the time for NZ and other nations to step up and defend the Palestinians against the barbaric and murderous Netanyahu. This stat speaks for itself. ‘Israel has violated the 10/10/25 ceasefire in Gaza 738 times, directly killing more than 400 Palestinians’. This “assassination machine” has no intention, and never had any intention, of abiding by this ceasefire so where are all the kind, caring, fair-minded out there hiding or are you simply gutless? How any nation can watch and do nothing makes them as bad as the perpetrators. Of all the people in the world, the Jews should be mindful of what happened to their people and how violated and disgusted they felt along with much of the world. So strange that they don’t, so what has happened here? Surely not simply power, greed, control – but I wouldn’t bet on it.