To sanction, or not to sanction? There is no question.

The New Zealand Government has been sitting on its hands when it comes to Palestine, leaving many wondering why it has abandoned its independent foreign policy along with its principles and robust support for international law. 

For over two years we have heard legal misrepresentations from this government, including Israel’s ‘right of self-defence’ argument. To be clear, a state cannot at the same time exercise control over territory it occupies and then militarily attack that territory over claims that is it foreign or poses a threat. In this situation, the right of a self-defence excuse does not exist under international law but rather, sits firmly in the realm of colonial settler domination.

Israel’s attempts to reinterpret international law while at the same time continuing to violate it has been supported and legitimized by this coalition. For decades there has been tepid if any condemnation from member states and little concrete action. Most of Europe, North America and Australasia continue to protect this colonial authority. 

The self-declared democratic nation has repeatedly violated UN resolutions, laws and human rights conventions, by relying on the complicity of states to disregard their obligations and turn a blind eye so it can continue to flout the law with impunity.  As a result, violations have become the new norm. 

Over the last 77 years, breaches include Israel’s unlawful use of force against, and the way it treats, Palestinian people. This includes apartheid, racial discrimination, and committing serious violations of the laws of war including starvation as a weapon of war, crimes against humanity and now genocide.

In the case of Gaza and the Palestinian people, states that are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute and International Humanitarian law have a special obligation triggered by Israel’s violation of all the fundamental rules of international law. States must bring to an end to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank and end its violation of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people. 

Israel’s violations of the fundamental rules of international law puts states in a special position that they would not be in otherwise. This triggers exceptional legal obligations to end these violations using all their available tools. Like all other signatories, this government does not have the discretion to pick and choose what actions they must take in this context, which they might discretionally have had in other circumstances.

The coalition government appears deeply confused about its actual legal obligations. Empty rhetoric about ‘doing all they can,’ claims that there is little to sanction Israel over, and the grandstanding of insubstantial travel bans fall far short of meeting the legal reality.

New Zealand has a positive obligation to take ALL steps within its power to end Israel’s violations, and not just in the way that Palestinians are treated, but the war crimes and crimes against humanity that are being committed. This includes racial discrimination apartheid, genocide, and Israel’s dominance over Gaza and the West Bank.

In discharging its obligations, the government must end any actions that support Israel. That requires full economic and political sanctions - including diplomatic, sporting, and cultural measures - against Israel and individuals, as well as a ban on products originating from illegal settlements.

This also includes recognising Palestinian statehood. The New Zealand Government has often postured that recognition of a Palestinian state must wait for negotiations or “special conditions” to be met, but that’s a political excuse, and is not based on legal realities. Recognition is a duty flowing from erga omnes obligations (owed to all humankind) to respect self-determination. 

Under international law, Palestinians are already recognised as a sovereign people with the inalienable right to self-determination. States like New Zealand are not “granting” us statehood - they are simply acknowledging an existing legal and political reality. It is a right that has been withheld from us by Isarel and its colonial allies.

Likewise, the Government’s refusal to use the word or acknowledge genocide is a political position and is not grounded in international law as it falsely claims. The ICJ has already found genocide in Gaza to be plausible - and under the Genocide Convention, that alone is enough to trigger the duty to prevent it and recognize the threat, regardless of whether a final judgment has been made. Pretending otherwise is a misrepresentation of international law.

Furthermore, Francesca Albanese recently stated that according to scholars and scientists, the actual numbers of deaths from this genocide may well exceed 680,000 Palestinians (mostly women and children). 

380,000 of these are infants under the age of five.

This alone should prompt an immediate response.

There are several reasons why our government has failed to introduce robust, concrete actions in line with its legal responsibilities, and why it has not used the appropriate language to condemn Israel.

There may be some influence from ACT and David Seymour who swore his allegiance to Israel on October 7th, 2023. He has openly aligned himself with Israel and the Zionist Federation of New Zealand, a group that promotes Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, defends Israel’s genocide, its treatment of Palestinians and opposes the two-state solution. There are numerous social media posts of him posing and speaking at the Zionist Federation gatherings and standing alongside the criminal state’s flags with his unconditional ‘support’.

New Zealand is committed to a rules-based international order, yet Seymour actively supports a regime violating international law. His alignment with a foreign lobbying group, his open support for Israel’s illegal occupation, and disregard for international law raises serious concerns about his impartiality in foreign policy and decision-making as a government leader. It also raises questions about foreign interference.

Secondly, there is a strong stench of racism in this government. Palestinian lives are consistently treated as worth less than others. For nearly a century, Zionist forces and later the State of Israel, have waged a campaign of dehumanisation against Palestinians to justify their violence, pogroms, and the ethnic cleansing of our land and people. Israel was built on the killing and expulsion of the original inhabitants, a method shared by many settler-colonial states to secure control, power, and survival. By casting Palestinians as “the other” - less than human, and described as cockroaches, beasts, terrorists, or even the devil incarnate - Israel makes the murder of our people easier for the world to accept. These views may be echoed and supported by some members of this government.

Thirdly there are political barriers. Strong resistance has come from ACT, certain members of National, and pressure from the United States. Winston Peters’ foreign policy remains tightly aligned with Washington, despite New Zealand’s duty to maintain an independent policy. Concerns have surfaced that Peters is not following the advice of his own policy team, and his views do not reflect the will of the New Zealand people.

Following international law may also highlight individual, government and corporate complicity here in New Zealand, especially when the genocide is brought into courts and before tribunals. A path that Palestinian victims in New Zealand will demand.

Lastly, there is the sinister aspect of corporate profit. Private corporations have normalised and supported economic relations with Israel in order to continue to profit from the genocide and illegal occupation.

What we need to see from this government and within mainstream media, is a change in legal terminology. ‘Conflict’, ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ and ‘apartheid ‘need to be replaced with ‘colonialism’, ‘illegal occupation,’ ‘grave violations of international law’ and ‘genocide’. The genocide must stop being seen through the lens of two equal sides. There is an occupying power, and an occupied people who are victims with no means to resist. 

MFAT must change its framing of a war between Israel and Hamas, as this dangerously implies that as Palestinians we are only suffering as an unfortunate consequence of Hamas’ actions. This narrative ignores Israel’s occupation, its blockade and apartheid policies and 77 years of systematic dispossession. It also refuses to name the Nakba, a foundational trauma for us, thereby erasing our history and our rights in favour of a simplified security frame.

The unwillingness of states like New Zealand to discharge their duties has put the legitimacy of the international legal system at stake. The world needs to finally learn from never again. We did not stop the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, or in Srebrenica.  We must stop the genocide in Gaza. 

According to a new poll, over 60 % of New Zealanders support sanctions against Israel. It should be the government that leads Aotearoa into a future where the values of humanity and law are upheld. Instead, it is the New Zealand people who stand on the right side of history alongside the unprecedented growing global pro-Palestinian solidarity movement. 

Meanwhile, governments, including this one, lose moral and political ground by standing on the wrong side, posturing with meaningless words and an absence of robust action contrary to their legal obligations.

Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab is a Palestinian New Zealand first generation Nakba survivor.