Dear Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Rt Hon Winston Peters,
I am writing to express my grave concerns about the ongoing genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israeli forces, and the ongoing failure of the New Zealand Government to impose meaningful sanctions on Israel.
Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Office stated that “at least 410 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to fetch from controversial new aid hubs in Gaza”. They have said this is “a likely war crime.”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last Friday that Israeli soldiers have been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being ordered to do so by their commanders. They have quoted one Israeli soldier saying: “It’s a killing field.”
This is the latest atrocity committed by Israel in its campaign of violence and genocide against the Palestinian people. Since October 2023, violence by Israeli authorities has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children.
Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid to Gaza has placed over two million people on the precipice of famine. Malnutrition and starvation are rife. Israel is weaponising aid, using starvation as a tool of genocide and is now shooting at civilians trying to access the scraps of aid that are available.
Prime Minister, in your own words, you have said: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.” Yet you have continued to fail to take any meaningful action in response.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, New Zealand acted swiftly: in a matter of weeks, the Russia Sanctions Act was passed, and since then, New Zealand has imposed heavy sanctions on Russia, including on 1600 individuals and entities.
But for Israel and its illegal occupation of Palestine and its flagrant and repeated breaches of international law, you have done next to nothing. You have placed one symbolic sanction on a mere two people – the most extreme individuals in the Israeli Government.
You have not even sanctioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant despite the fact that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for their arrest on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
This inaction cannot continue. You must impose meaningful sanctions on Israel immediately. I urge you to adopt the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill, which has been put forward by Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick.
It would impose some immediate sanctions on Israel now and provide the mechanism for imposing further sanctions in future. The bill is already drafted. All that is required now is the moral courage and political will of the New Zealand Government to adopt it.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory “unlawful”, and that “all States are under an obligation not to recognize” the decades-long occupation.
The Court noted that States had an obligation “to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory” and “to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Yet, your government has failed to take any concrete steps to uphold international law.
Sanctions must be imposed on Israel now. Sanctions must target all individuals and entities responsible for, or complicit in, the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, who must be prevented from transferring assets to Aotearoa or using our financial system to avoid sanctions imposed elsewhere. Assets already held here must be frozen.
That is what real action to uphold international law looks like. Symbolic gestures are not enough. Now is the time to act with integrity and leadership.
Sincerely,
Russel Norman
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