Wellington City Council moves where the government remains paralysed
Wellington City Council took a small but significant step towards recognising and supporting the Palestinian struggle for human rights when they voted last week to start a sister-city relationship with Ramallah – a city in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.
The approach was organised by the Palestine solidarity group Justice For Palestine and was passed despite attempts by some in the pro-Israel lobby to claim it was somehow anti-semitic. No surprises there. These people would find anti-semitism in the words “the” and “and” if it was all they had to go on.
Wellington’s move gives heart to Palestinians and its symbolism is important. Here is the response to the move from the Palestinians in Aotearoa Co-ordinating Committee:
Palestinians in Aotearoa Co-ordinating Committee (PACC)
30 June 2023
RE: Appreciation for twinning Wellington, the Capital of Aotearoa New Zealand with the city of Ramallah in Palestine
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau and Councillors,
Tēnā koutou and marhaba,
As members of the Palestinian community in Aotearoa, we would like to acknowledge the commitment of Wellington Councillors to principles of deliberative democracy and justice as evidenced in the recent debate to establish a sister city relationshipbetween Wellington and Ramallah in Occupied Palestine.
We applaud the City of Wellington Council for taking a stand to reafLirm recognition of the Palestinian plight through the sister city relationship with Ramallah. We areespecially grateful to the principled councillors Nıkau Wi Neera, Tamatha Paul, Nureddin Abdurahman, Laurie Foon, Rebecca Matthews, Ben McNulty, Teri O’Neill,Iona Pannett, and Mayor Tory Whanau who voted for the council to pursue the relationship.
Palestinian New Zealanders felt deeply saddened and excluded when the previous Wellington Council denied requests to fly the colours of the Palestinian flag tocommemorate the Nakba or catastrophe. The Nakba saw over 700,000 Palestinians be expelled from their homes and ancestral whenua by Israeli forces in 1948. Today, members of our Palestinian community in Aotearoa, who are decedents of those refugees, work hard to be active citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand. We werehurt when our request for recognition was denied by Council, and it was difficult to reconcile the Council’s position when it has readily flown the Ukrainian flag; another country devastated by occupation. When the Palestinian community observes these double standards, it compounds our hurt and the feeling that somehow we are different, that we do not belong, that we are not of equal worth to other citizens that call Aotearoa or Wellington City their home.
Today, the Palestinian community in Aotearoa highly appreciate your stance. This recognition enhances the dignity of Palestinians living in Aotearoa and afLirms ourinclusion in civil society and democratic processes that we cherish and wish to uphold.
We look forward to working with you to advance the Wellington- Ramallah sister relationship in the future.
Nga manaakitanga,
Rand T. Hazou
Coordinator
Palestinians in Aotearoa Organising Committee (PACC)
Our government still remains paralysed in its position on Palestine. Our foreign policy is based on support for the out-dated and impossible “two-state” solution supported by an ever-decreasing number of Palestinians. Israel has buried the two-state solution under illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land and Israeli leaders refuse to negotiate on the basis there will ever be a Palestinian state.
So well done Wellington City Council and to the government: Must try harder.
So what’s involved in a sister city deal?
Who pays for who to go where and do what?
WCC should have done this without dumping negatively upon the previous WCC. That looks like using Palestine for their own virtue signalling political purposes, and as such, not really okay.
The awful tragedy of the Loafers Lodge fire may not have occurred had the poor people of Newtown had someone to watch over them and the adequacy of the pc WCC’s stewardship processes.
Well done Wellington councillors!
An important and positive idea.
Ramallah is a cultural centre for the Palestinian people. Palestinians, in my experience, want to be recognized as not just victims, but a people with history and culture: poetry, novels, music, dance, embroidery.. and also a high standard of education.
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ps Martin and I realise that we are fortunate to have been to Ramallah. We visited the Ramallah HQ of the Defence of Children International , where we learned of their NO WAY TO TREAT A CHILD Campaign. We continue to follow this campaign and have given a U-tube power point presentation about it to the Quakers here in Christchurch. We would like to share this important campaign more widely.
Indeed John, although it would be nice to see a more meaningful sister city deal. Pair with Deir Yassin, or Lifta, one of the centres of the zionist campaign of genocide that has gone on since their pestilence erupted in Palestine and which will continue until they are removed.
Congratulations to the Wellington City Council for lighting a way through the fog of Zionist myth-making and disinformation to define a path that other principled authorities, and one day even the government, might follow
It is that use of the Holocaust which is trotted out endlessly. It was criminal lets make no bones about that but Palestinians did not cause it. People are frightened to say anything because anyone who opens their mouth criticising the Israeli government is then called anti-semitic. Israel was given Palestine to make Britain and other European countries feel less guilty about what they knew about what was going on in Germany. Very few people who came out of Germany after the war went to Israel, they went to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
I see in the magazine in Saturday’s paper yet another book review of yet another person who was in a concentration camp. It just goes on and on and on.
I suggest WCC stick to their day job and fix their sewerage problem.