Whanganui District Council calls for immediate and permanent Gaza ceasefire

Members of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa march towards the Whanganui District Council building in Guyton St. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui district councillors have voted in support of an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza - understood to be the first council in the country to do so.

On Tuesday morning, a petition asking the council to call for the ceasefire was presented in council chambers by the Whanganui Palestine Solidarity Network (PSNA), which led a march from Majestic Square in the city’s CBD to the council building on Guyton St.

About 10 people in support of Israel were also present.

The petition was signed by 2279 people - 1928 local and 351 from outside the district - and there were letters of support from 48 local businesses and organisations.

PSNA organiser Sophi Reinholt told councillors she would speak in place of Whanganui doctor Nafiz Ghamri who could not attend.

She said he was a Kiwi-Palestinian cardiologist who had served the community for 19 years.

Ghamri’s first cousin was shot dead by an armed drone while assisting people escaping debris after a bombing and 40 members of his family were still unaccounted for, Reinholt said.

“Until there is a ceasefire there can be no end to the suffering on both sides.

“The passage of aid cannot be guaranteed and essentials such as water, food, maternity kits, antibiotics and anaesthetics will continue to be blocked from entering Gaza.

“The head of the United Nations World Food Programme has stated there is a full-blown famine in northern Gaza, moving its way south.”

She said the events in Gaza were affecting Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli citizens in the Whanganui community “and all of us who are bearing witness to the devastation”.

“Without political pressure on a nationwide and international scale, nothing will stop.”

Sophi Reinhott presented the petitions. Photo / Bevan Conley

Last month, councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay tabled the notice of motion calling for the ceasefire, which was accepted by chief executive David Langford and Mayor Andrew Tripe.

Speaking at the council meeting, Chandulal-Mackay said throughout history collective pressure had always been what drove social change.

“We saw it with the apartheid regime in South Africa and we saw it with the civil rights movement in the United States.

“While Whanganui District Council might be a small, seemingly insignificant part of this, as part of a collective we can all make a difference.”

Councillor Rob Vinsen said he thought council chambers were not “where the echo of international politics should be going on”.

“In saying that, I know an Israeli in this community whose family, two of them were murdered on the October 7 attack into Israel,” he said.

“This resolution, as it’s worded, speaks to both sides in this conflict. That’s important to me and that’s why I will be supporting it.”

Councillor Jenny Duncan said the situation in Gaza had gone beyond a war.

“Let’s take this down to just one of many, many points. Children.

“Tens of thousands of children have either been killed ... starved to death, are in the process of starving to death, have been orphaned or are missing.

“There is no political justification for that, there is no economic justification for that and there is certainly no humanity in that.”

All councillors except Michael Law voted to call to all parties in the conflict for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the Government to do the same and to condemn all acts of violence and terror against citizens and for a release of all hostages on all sides.

Law declared an expression of interest and abstained.

Speaking to the Chronicle, he said he signed the petition believing it was a call for a permanent ceasefire, not for the council to call for one.

He said he would not have signed it if he knew it involved the council and would have voted against Tuesday’s motion.

“I don’t believe it’s council’s job to be telling other states what to do,” Law said.

“Obviously, we can say what’s going on is really bad, but it’s not really not our job. We’ve got pressing issues locally.”

The council voted unanimously to receive a second petition from the PSNA requesting a change in its procurement policy by adding that the council would not contract with a “list of companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as being involved in the building or maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements”.

That petition was signed by 495 people.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.