Christchurch Sanction
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
(please scroll down to the text of John Minto, PSNA Chair to the Cgristchurch City Council)
23 October 2024
Media release:
Christchurch City becomes the first New Zealand city to sanction Israel
This morning Christchurch City became the first city in New Zealand to sanction Israel after passing a resolution to amend its procurement policy to exclude companies building and maintaining illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
“We are delighted the council has taken a stand against Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land”, says PSNA National Chair John Minto.
“It has been the failure of western governments to hold Israel to account which means Israel has a 76-year history of oppression and brutal abuse of Palestinians.”
“Today Israel is running riot across the Middle East because it has never been held to account for 76 years of flagrant breaches of international law,” says Minto.
“The motion passed by Christchurch City today helps to end Israeli impunity for war crimes” (Building settlements on occupied land belonging to others is a war crime under international law)
“The motion is a small but significant step in sanctioning Israel. Many more steps must follow”.
“We are particularly pleased the council rejected the red herrings and obfuscations of New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Ben Kepes who urged councillors to reject the motion”
“Mr Kepes presentation was a repetition of the tired, old arguments used by white South Africans to avoid accountability for their apartheid policies last century – policies which are mirrored in Israel today”
Before the vote PSNA National Chair John Minto and University of Canterbury lecturer Josephine Varghese spoke in favour of the motion backed by a packed public gallery displaying a “Stop the genocide” banner.
“It would be nice to think the government would pick up resolution 2334 and show leadership in sanctioning Israel rather than leaving it to local bodies”
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
johnminto@orcon.net.nz
Submission from PSNA to Christchurch City Council on Wednesday 23 October 2024
Presenter John Minto, National Chair, PSNA
E ngā mana,
e ngā reo
e ngā mana whenua o tenei rohe
e ngā hau e whā
kia ora koutou,
ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou
Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly this morning in favour of the agenda item for the council to adopt a policy in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 (2016)
This resolution 2334 was co-sponsored by the New Zealand government in 2016 with Bill English as Prime Minister and Murray McCully as Foreign Minister.
Through this resolution the United Nations Security Council states that, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli settlements had “no legal validity” and constituted “a flagrant violation under international law”. It said they were a “major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace” in the Middle East.
The resolution goes on and calls on countries to distinguish between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.
To assist with this the United Nations Human Rights Council was asked to create a database of companies complicit in building and maintaining illegal Israeli settlements. The companies concerned are listed in the notes for the resolution.
The current Aotearoa New Zealand government supports UNSC 2334, as do all the opposition parties. In other words, this resolution has bipartisan support.
Why does this matter now?
In December 2022 Israel elected its most extreme ethno-nationalist government ever and as well as stepping up brutal repression of Palestinians, they also made clear they will not negotiate peace nor agree to the formation of a Palestinian state. They have said their “top priority” is to push ahead with more illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. In the last week of June 2023 Israel’s leaders announced plans to build more than 5,000 additional houses in these illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Today, as we sit here, Palestinians are being driven off their land by Israeli settler gangs emboldened by their government’s genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians.
The expansion of these illegal settlements and the failure of Western governments to hold Israel to account is one of the reasons Palestinian resistance groups made a “prison break” on October 7th last year and resistance fighters attacked and overran six Israeli military bases.
As we all know the past year has seen many war crimes committed, including the crimes of genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, wholesale killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure, starvation used as a weapon of war and denial of humanitarian aid. All these crimes should be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.
Today Israel is running riot across the Middle East because it has never been held to account for 76 years of flagrant breaches of international law. What is happening now in northern Gaza is the starvation and industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinian civilians, as Israel tries to drive them out and seize the land through ethnic cleansing.
Palestinian have appealed to the world to support their struggle with non-violent pressure though BDS – boycotts, divestment and sanctions. This is the same request as made by black South Africans struggling against South Africa’s apartheid policies last century. It’s important to say here that every credible human rights group – such as Al Haq, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – has all declared Israel to be an apartheid state. B’Tselem for example, Israel’s largest and most respected human rights organisation, describes Israel as “a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” They say “This is apartheid”.
We are urging our mayor and city councillors today to take a small but significant step in sanctioning Israel in line with a United Nations resolution for which, as I said earlier, there is bipartisan support from our politicians.
We are pleased to say Environment Canterbury passed a similar motion earlier this year but if this motion passes today, Christchurch will be the first city in New Zealand to end Israeli impunity for war crimes. I say that because building settlements on occupied land belonging to others is a war crime under international law.
The vote at ECAN was 14 votes in favour and 2 opposed. We hope the vote here today will be 16 in favour and none against.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
johnminto@orcon.net.nz