Sorry Nanaia – your tweet doesn’t cut the mustard – it addresses the symptoms but not the cause of violence in the Middle East

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa

11 May 2021

Media Release:

Sorry Nanaia – your tweet doesn’t cut the mustard – it addresses the symptoms but not the cause of violence in the Middle East

After more than six months of silence the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, yesterday finally tweeted on Israel’s increasing violence towards Palestinians in Jerusalem and Gaza.

Mahuta tweet.jpg

“It was a tweet which focused on the symptoms rather than the problem which is Israel’s racist, apartheid policies and unbridled brutality against Palestinians” says Palestine Solidarity Network National Chair John Minto.

 “In the past five days more than 700 Palestinians have been injured (almost 500 needing hospital treatment) and dozens killed in Gaza – including 10 children – as Israel bombs the densely populated area.

 “The tweet did call for Israel to cease “demolitions and evictions” (Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies) which is welcomed, but it did not demand Israel abide by international law and United Nations resolutions.”

 “Making this demand of Israel should be the top of the government’s agenda”

 For example the government must:

  •  Demand the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 242)

  • Demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli militias (UN General Assembly resolution 194 – reaffirmed every year since 1949)

  • Demand the end of the more than 65 laws discriminating against Palestinian Israelis (illegal under the crime of Apartheid as defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court)

  • Demand Israel stop building Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 2334 which was co-sponsored by New Zealand under John Key’s National government) These settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

 The government must back up these demands with sanctions against Israel till it ends its denial of Palestinian human rights.

  

John Minto
National Chair PSNA
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Chair@PSNA.nz
www.PSNA.nz 

Neil ScottIsrael, NZ Media, Sheikh Jarrah