Ron Mark Would Join New Zealand At The Hip With Genocidal Israel In Defence Role – Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

PSNA is alarmed that former Defence Minister Ron Mark wants the same job again in a government after the election.

Ron Mark has just been announced as New Zealand’s First candidate for Wairarapa.

The last time Ron Mark was Defence Minister he invited the Israeli Prime Minister, and now cited war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit New Zealand.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa spokesperson, Rinad Tamimi, says the invite was part of a nauseating display of obsequiousness from Mark towards Netanyahu when they met in Israel in 2019.

Tamimi says the meeting and invitation was the basis for an even more sinister visit in Israel. – a tour of the leading Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

“Elbit is vital for Israel’s capacity to conduct its genocide in Gaza. In Britian, Palestinians supporters are languishing for up to eight years in prison for attempting to disrupt Elbit’s war drone production in the UK. Elbit is looking for safer places to make their weapons.”

“I’d like to hear Ron Mark deny he would buy Israeli war or surveillance technology from Israel, or would allow or invite Elbit, or any other Israeli arms manufacturers, to make their death machines in our country.”

“The man is singularly unsuited to be in cabinet in any capacity. On past experience, he won’t stand up for New Zealand values or our support for international law. His track record indicates he’s an extremist ‘Israel First’ politician, like American politicians Mike Hukabee and Ted Cruz, who unashamedly put Israel ahead of their own country.”

“When Mark met with Netanyahu in 2019, the Israeli government was busy building illegal Israeli settlements across Palestinian land in the Occupied Werst Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem” says Tamimi.

“Netanyahu’s forces were terrorising Palestinian communities after Netanyahu had passed his Nation State Law which specifically denies Palestinians self-determination in the land of their birth.”

“All this was lost on the hapless Ron Mark from the Wairarapa. He had eyes only for the Israeli PM and didn’t raise any objections to Israel’s racist apartheid policies against Palestinians, nor did he meet any Palestinians during his visit.”

“And visiting Elbit Systems in Israel further underlines his lack of suitability or basic common sense we might have assumed him to have.”

“European countries are getting out of supplying war materials to Israel. The NZ Superfund had divested from Elbit Systems by 2019, because the company flouted international law when it built Israel’s apartheid wall in Occupied West Bank in the early 2000’s. This was all lost on Foreign Affairs and Mark, who instead delighted in discussing Israel’s newest weapons of death – tested on Palestinians.”