After more than a year of talking about a visit to Palestine, and several false starts, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has finally called off a proposed trip to the Middle East before the election citing "scheduling problems".
This is deeply disappointing for this country, as well as for Palestinians.
The proposed visit was an opportunity for the Labour government to shift New Zealand policy to give greater support to Palestinians living under the longest military occupation in modern history and hold Israel to account for its breaches of international law and Palestinian human rights.
This will not happen now and with opinion polls as they are in the leadup to October’s election it is unlikely Mahuta will ever get to Palestine as Foreign Minister.
Abandoning the visit means Palestinians are being told they must once more go to the back of the queue.
The last time a New Zealand government minister went to Palestine was Ron Mark as minister of defence in 2019 when he gave the most awful display of obsequious behaviour when speaking with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Needless to say Mark never visited the Occupied Palestinian Territories — but did visit controversial Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Since his visit, nothing significant has happened to change Israel’s perception of this country as an uncritical friend.
Mahuta’s visit could have delivered a watershed moment for New Zealand foreign policy and sent a clear signal that we will no longer turn a blind eye to Israel’s policies.
This is particularly important because late last year Israel elected the most extreme government the country has ever had.
It has a prime minister, Netanyahu, who just two months ago said Israel "needs to crush the Palestinian ambition for an independent state". This new regime has stepped up the destruction of Palestinian communities, often with the support of lawless Israeli settlers, and has declared its "top priority" is to push ahead with more illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land. Recent policy announcements have followed through on this.
Israel has taken Western governments’ silence on Palestine as a green light for their takeover of all historic Palestine for Israel — a process which has been under way since 1948 and which has accelerated greatly under the current Israeli leadership.
New Zealand has stood up in the past and been counted. In December 2016 the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 2334 (UNSC2334) in a 14–0 vote. This resolution was co-sponsored by the New Zealand National government (we occupied a seat on the Security Council at the time) with John Key as prime minister and Murray McCully as foreign minister.
The resolution declares that, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israeli settlements have "no legal validity" and constitute "a flagrant violation under international law". Unfortunately, the current government has not followed up on the steps required to implement the resolution here at home. A visit by Mahuta was an opportunity to do this.
Cancellation of the visit will be quietly welcomed by many in Wellington’s government bureaucracy who want to see New Zealand policy on the Middle East mirror US policy.
In other words, they want us to be quiet as Israel continues its military occupation of Palestine and its theft of Palestinian land. They want us to give Israel ongoing impunity for its violations of international law and United Nations resolutions.
Meanwhile, there are positive moves within Israel itself where increasing numbers of Israeli groups and leading Jews are joining the international consensus of all credible human rights organisations that Israel is practising apartheid against Palestinians.
Recently, ex-Israeli attorney-general Michael Ben-Yair declared that "my country is now an apartheid regime" and an ex-Israeli Defence Force General, Amiram Levin, has accused the IDF of being a "partner in war crimes" when it stands by as Israeli settler extremists attack Palestinians. Levin describes the situation in the Occupied West Bank as "absolute apartheid" and went further when pressed in an interview whether he saw specific similarities with Nazi Germany.
Levin replied: "Of course. It hurts, it’s not nice, but that’s the reality. It’s better to deal with it, even if it is hard, than to ignore it."
And just two weeks ago, 750 "angry Jewish scholars" from across the political spectrum wrote an open letter to US Jewish communities charging that "You ignore apartheid in Israel".
We were not silent on South African apartheid and we must not be silent on Israeli apartheid. "Scheduling problems" should never be a reason for New Zealand to fail to stand up for Palestinian human rights, and to hold Israel to account. It is time we stood up now.
As the foremost international expert on apartheid, the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said "to be silent in the face of oppression is to take the side of the oppressor".
- John Minto is the national chairman of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
