Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will not recognise Palestinian statehood yet. Photo / UN
By Ellen O’Dwyer of RNZ
A Christchurch Palestinian is in disbelief at the Government’s decision not to recognise Palestine as a state, saying New Zealand once had a proud history of standing for justice.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Winston Peters told the United Nations General Assembly that New Zealand would not join 157 other countries, including Australia, the UK and Canada, in recognising Palestinian statehood.
Only a handful of countries don’t support the two-state solution, including the United States, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.
Palestinian Christchurch resident Yasser Abdulal said his “blood is still boiling” at the decision announced on the world stage by Peters.
“His words and his speech totally focus on one side of the story and not describing the situation in Gaza, and how the genocide – and who conducted the genocide ... is happening,” Abdulal said. “He never addressed the horror that we have been witnessing for the past two years.
“He just said it’s a disaster and there is famine, but he did not say who made that famine, you know?
“Who destroyed every hospital and every school in Gaza? Who killed more than 70,000 people? He never addressed that.”
The Government retained its “when, not if” position and committed a further $10 million in humanitarian aid for emergency supplies into Gaza, where people were dying of starvation.
Abdulal said Peters’ speech focused on the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants that killed 1200 and led to 251 people being taken hostage.
Israel retaliated and the ongoing war in Gaza has killed 70,000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children.
“What he said ... is really putting New Zealand at the back of the queue, and isolating New Zealand from the United Nations and from the whole world,“ Abdulal said.
“If UK, Australia and Canada, which are our allies, recognise Palestine, I mean, what’s stopping New Zealand from doing that?”
He suggested the decision was about aligning with the United States and US President Donald Trump and said “that’s not right”.
“I mean, New Zealand, known with a very proud history of standing for justice, standing for women’s rights, standing against South Africa apartheid.
“That’s definitely putting us at the back of the queue ... keep[ing] us with those countries who ... just want to please America and what America wants and Trump wants.”
Abdulal said he had two sisters in Gaza who had been living in a tent since their house was destroyed more than a year ago.
He said 55 members of his extended family had been killed in the war and keeping track of family was difficult, because they were scattered among refugee camps, friends’ houses and anywhere they could survive. Many were missing.
Eleven members of his extended family, including seven children, were killed in a single airstrike late last year, he said.
“This is one case of hundreds of hundreds of hundreds of cases that’s happening every day.”
Abdulal said the health of those of his family who were still alive had deteriorated significantly.
“I had a video call with my two sisters two months ago maybe and, when I look to their faces, you know, I just hardly stopped myself from crying, because I can see they become very older, they become very aged and their skin colour changed.
“You can see [they look] like skeleton[s], you can see the bones in their faces, and you can see how much they are in despair and they are living [in] terrible conditions.”
His sisters had tried to shield Abdulal to stop him from worrying.
“You know, when you see their faces and their clothing and their condition.
“Just imagine living in a tent for a year, where you don’t have proper toilet[s], you don’t have proper place[s] to shower, you don’t have enough clothes, your house destroyed, everything destroyed.”
The women had no means of income, but even if they did, Israeli restrictions on movement in the Gaza Strip made it impossible to get food and humanitarian aid, Abdulal said.
“So everyone in Gaza is in despair and everyone living in terrible conditions. It’s not a humane condition at all.”
He was critical of Peters’ speech for not addressing the horrors.
“Never spoke about killing the journalists, killing the medics, doctors. Never spoke about destroying every university in Gaza.
“Every hospital destroyed, mosques, churches, even, you know, historical places.”
He questioned why Israel had not been sanctioned and why New Zealand did not recognise Palestine before now.
After the announcement, Peters told media several factors needed to be in place before New Zealand would recognise a Palestinian state and it was a case of “when, not if”.
“For all the same criteria that were laid out decades ago in Montevideo – boundaries, elected government, accepted authority – just three fundamental principles of recognition that have been going on for decades were not here.”
Recognising a Palestinian state at this time could prove counterproductive, Peters said.
Hamas had “taken enormous propaganda value” from other countries’ decisions to recognise a Palestinian state, while Israel had “snapped to worsen the situation to intolerable levels”, he said.
Peters said the question after recognising a Palestinian state always had to be: “Yes, but so what happens the day after?”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who did not attend the UN General Assembly, defended the coalition Government’s decision, saying the conflict in Gaza would not end by New Zealand recognising the state of Palestine at this time.
Luxon said New Zealand recognised Israel’s right to defend itself after October 7, but that Israel’s actions since had been “grossly disproportionate and have exacerbated and prolonged the suffering of innocent civilians”.
Hamas, which New Zealand had designated as a terrorist organisation, remained in control of significant Palestinian territory, as the de facto Government of the Gaza Strip, Luxon said.
“It continues to hold Israeli hostages, reject Israel’s right to exist, renounce terrorism or agree to disarm.”
New Zealand could not recognise a state where terrorists played a role in Government, Luxon said.
The decision was not an endorsement of Israel’s position and New Zealand opposed any actions by Israel to undermine the two-state solution, he said.
By RNZ