PSNA Calls Out Government Complicity In Israeli War Crimes Through Continuing Approval Of Gaza Spy Satellites – Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has dismissed continuing government defence of its approval for Gaza surveillance satellites, as ‘an absurd fantasy of self-delusion and complicity in war crimes in Gaza’.

Rocket Lab is launching a series of satellites from Māhia for US based BlackSky Technology. BlackSky sends ground information to the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza.

Knowing this, the Minister for Space, Judith Collins, has approved these launches.

Advice to Collins, just disclosed under the OƯicial Information Act, was that no end users of BlackSky’s satellites have ‘been accused of an internationally unlawful act’, and so New Zealand is not breaching international law by approving the satellites.

However, Israel was a known customer of BlackSky.

PSNA Co-Chair Maher Nazzal says the line of dots are joined between Collins’ pen and ‘opening the ‘Gates of Hell’ on Gaza’, as Israeli war minister Israel Katz has just called it.

“Whatever the evidence against Israel was in late 2023, when Collins approved the launches, it is now overwhelming that Israel is violating international humanitarian law at every turn.”

“The International Association of Genocide Scholars has just agreed with the UN in saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“Israel is openly at this very moment purging nearly a million people out of Gaza City, to reoccupy Gaza with Jewish-only settlements and Trump casinos.”

“The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification earlier this month declared a famine in Gaza City, which is spreading south.”

“Israel is doing to Gaza, on the same scale and duration, what the Nazi Wehrmacht did to the besieged Russians in Leningrad in the Second World War.”

“New Zealand Space Agency documents show oƯicials flagging Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, but denying that any end users of BlackSky’s satellites are accused of international crimes and advising Judith Collins to approve the launches.

“Judith Collins has now told Parliament that she had no evidence of a contract between BlackSky and Israel in December 2023. But the point is, we all now know the contract exists.”

Nazzal says whatever the government knew, or chose to know, when Collins approved the satellites currently in orbit, it must cancel the two remaining scheduled launches.

“Or it must provide verifiable assurances that none of the Māhia launched satellites are, and will not be, collecting data to spy on Gaza for Israel.

“The government can’t hide behind continuing fantasies that it doesn’t even need to consider whether these launches should stop, because it can pretend the contract between BlackSky and Israel does not exist.”

“Israel’s war crimes in Gaza are undeniable. Israel now no longer tries to hide what it is doing.”

“The government can’t say it doesn’t know the real death toll, the absolute devastation and the end goal of Gaza purged of Palestinians. Judith Collins just needs to turn her TV on.”

“If the government fails to act, then it continues its direct culpability in the perpetuation of war crimes by Israel, just like Keir Starmer in Britain, and other European leaders and the US, who arm Israel.”

“No number of declarations of recognition of Palestine could ever erase this shame from this government’s record.”

References:

– New Zealand Space Agency Assessment of Consistency with New Zealand’s International Obligations (for BlackSky payload permit), 4 December 2023. See in particular page 8 including footnoted links to statements by UN officials, UN experts, and Human Rights Watch on Gaza

– MBIE advice document for Judith Collins on approval of the BlackSky payload permit, with her approval given 21 December 2023

– PSNA letter to Judith Collins, 14 November 2024, which outlines the assistance likely provided by the launch of the BlackSky satellites to Israel’s commission of international crimes

– See confirmation of the launch of two BlackSky satellites by Rocket Lab so far this year: https://rocketlabcorp.com/missions/missions-launched/