I want the killing to stop and I want to see the creation of a Palestinian state that will allow both Israel and Palestine to live in peace. That has beenthe bipartisan position of successive New Zealand Governments for a very long time.
I believe most Kiwis see the Israel-Palestine conflict as an unresolved injustice, they want to see the Palestinians get a fair go, and believe Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to be able to live in peace.
Almost two weeks ago New Zealand voted for a UN resolution that provides a roadmap for just that. It calls for an end to the current hostilities, access for humanitarian aid, the protection of civilians, and a just and lasting solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict in accordance with international law and on the basis of the two-state solution.
A big majority of countries at the UN voted for that.
If there is a glimmer of hope in the current carnage and misery in Israel-Palestine it will be that this awful crisis stimulates the international community to find the political will to facilitate a lasting peace in the Middle East on the basis of international law, including the right to self-determination, and international humanitarian law.
International law is one of the unsung successes of the 20th century. It includes rules of war that try to limit the damage humans are capable of inflicting on one another by requiring that civilians must be protected in war, and that acts of war must be proportionate.
If the world is going to build consensus about what is to be done in the Middle East – enough to forge a peaceful solution – I cannot see how it will be done without recourse to international law.
The thing about international law is that it applies to everybody, to all sides of a conflict. Of course that includes Israel, but it also includes Hamas.
I tried to make this point at a Palestine rally on the weekend and was booed off the stage when I condemned both Hamas and Israel’s killing of civilians. Some in the crowd may well have lost family members in Israel’s bombing of Gaza. There is a war being fought, a lot of people are being killed and unsurprisingly passions are running very high.
Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
I am sure I also bore the brunt of some people’s frustration that politicians are not doing more to stop the war.
It is not my place to tell Palestinians how to fight their corner, and I can understand the rage and desperation they feel after 75 years of dispossession. But somehow we have to find a way to have these conversations.
And those of us looking at this conflict from a distance need to find a way to talk about this most-polarised of issues where the two protagonists both believe the other poses an existential threat to them.
It is an understatement to say trust levels between opposing sides of the argument are low. Add the high feelings generated by the death and destruction currently under way and the difficulties of discussion between those who disagree. But we have to try.
Without that civil discussion in our communities, and without some shared views about what a good outcome in the Middle East looks like, it will be increasingly hard for the government to feel it has a mandate to take action on the international stage on this issue.
If we, at this distance, cannot have that civil conversation, how can we expect it of others?
Phil Twyford is the MP for Te Atatū and a former Minister for Disarmament.
