Justice for Palestine is appalled by the Minister of Defence’s decision to extend the NZDF deployment to the Red Sea until January 2025. The deployment supports a US-led operation targeting the Houthi blockade of shipping routes to Israel in response to Israel’s war on Gaza and its actions preventing the entry of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Justice for Palestine spokesperson Samira Zaiton says:

“New Zealand’s efforts in the international arena should be focused on bringing about a ceasefire to end the bombardment and targeted starvation of civilians in Gaza.”

“This decision demonstrates that NZ cares more about commerce and aligning itself with the US, that protecting innocent lives. This is a decision that chooses might over right, and we believe that is not how New Zealanders want to be represented internationally.”

In support of this deployment the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rt Hon Winston Peters, said the “decision demonstrates our support to the international rules-based system”. Justice for Palestine agrees that the maintenance of international law is fundamentally important, but says the NZ Government is being hypocritical in supporting the US-led operation, and ultimately Israel, which is currently disregarding international law and perpetrating war crimes in Gaza.

Israel is being allowed to flout international law and UN Security Council resolutions with impunity, due to the lack of meaningful action by the international community to enforce Israel’s obligations to the people of the occupied territories of Palestine and to hold Israel to account for its breaches of international humanitarian law.

The New Zealand government, through the actions and statements of the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs, is aligning New Zealand with the Israeli regime which is committing war crimes against the Palestinian people, and the United States, which provides billions of dollars of military aid to Israel. This alignment is evident in their decision to deploy and extend NZDF personnel to the Red Sea and participate in the RIMPAC war games.

New Zealand should cease any and all military cooperation with the US and Israel, until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and these states comply with international law. Efforts should be directed to working with the UN and other states to implement the UNSC resolutions for a ceasefire and to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid, to end the killing and targeted starvation of the people of Gaza.

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