Why the silence?

In a Press Release on 13 June, the Act Party Leader, David Seymour, criticised changes made to Radio New Zealand reports on the Israeli military Occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as its cruel and unrelenting blockade of Gaza.

In his complaint that the description of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah as ‘militant’ groups had been changed to ‘resistance’, Seymour appeared to reject the UN-recognised concept of a people’s right to resist foreign military occupation. The Palestinian people are forced to live under daily alien oppression that includes, for example, being forced to destroy their own homes or face extortionate fines to pay the invader to do it. Radio New Zealand’s silence is depriving the public of what should be major international news stories when it comes to Palestine.

Here is just one more example of the unreported horrors the Palestinian people are forced to face: On 6 June at 13:45, Israeli Occupation forces fired live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters towards a funeral gathering near the entrance to al-Nabi Saleh village, causing stomach wounds for one mourner, Maher Mahmoud al-Tamimi. Israeli troops also severely beat up another mourner, leaving her with a head injury and broken nose. The funeral was for a two-and-a-half-year-old child, Mohammed Haitham al-Tamimi, who died of wounds sustained during the storming of the village on 2 June. The child and his father, while sitting in their car, had been shot and wounded by Israeli Occupation forces. The child was the youngest of the 27 Palestinian children killed in Gaza and the West Bank so far this year.

Why the silence? Covering for Israel can only serve the Occupying power. Silence is complicity. Hiding the truth serves not only to prolong the cruel injustices but also undermines the already severely threatened principles of universal human rights.