The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is asking MPs from National, ACT and NZ First to individually speak out to condemn Israel for ditching the Gaza ceasefire agreement it signed in January.

PSNA Co-Chair, John Minto says an anaemic tweet from Foreign Minister Winston Peters this morning, continues to express a totally hollow concern, because it carefully avoids blaming Israel for any of what Peters calls ‘incomprehensible human suffering’ in Gaza.

Peters tweeted;

“New Zealand is deeply concerned about renewed fighting in Gaza. A permanent end to the fighting needs to be found. New Zealand has consistently called for a ceasefire and de-escalation of tensions in the region. This is critical for ending the incomprehensible human suffering over the past year and a half. New Zealand calls on both sides to reinstate the ceasefire and fully implement the terms of the deal”

Minto says this statement is an insult to the victims of Israel’s massacres as the minister has failed to:

• Express any concern for the Palestinians killed by Israel since Israel ended the ceasefire (at least 436 killed – including 183 children as well as nearly 200 during the ‘ceasefire’)
• Condemn Israel for this industrial-scale carnage, which the International Court of Justice found more than a year ago to be a case of ‘plausible genocide’.
• Condemn Israel for ending the ceasefire (It was Israel alone which refused to begin negotiations on stage two of the ceasefire agreement which was to lead to a permanent Israeli ceasefire and withdrawal from all of Gaza.
• Condemn Israel for its blockade on food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies getting into Gaza – a war crime by any measure of humanity

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“Mr Peters talks about the ‘incomprehensible human suffering over the past year and half’ but there is no mystery about this suffering” John Minto says.

“It stems from a brutal miliary occupation declared illegal last year by the International Court of Justice.”

“Mr. Peters pretends this is a conflict between two equal sides. But there is no balance when one side is carrying out mass slaughter and the other is fighting for survival.”

“In 2014 the then Prime Minister John Key called-in the Israeli ambassador as a diplomatic rebuke. But this government has said and done nothing about any attack by Israel on any Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank, nor the attacks or invasions of four other countries, in the past year and a half.”

“New Zealanders want sanctions on Israel for genocide but Mr Peters refuses to say anything, let alone impose any form of sanction at all. That is appeasement,” Minto says.

“If the Foreign Minister can’t, then there must be at least some MPs in the government coalition who have the conscience necessary to raise their voices.”

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