A Palestinian advocacy group has returned to the council which last year rejected its push to update a procurement policy — this time armed with a petition.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa formally presented 270 signatures to Invercargill City Council on Tuesday, asking it to boycott companies connected to “illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land”.

The group’s concerns had already led to a vote on the topic in June 2025, when a decision was made to stick with the status quo following former mayor Nobby Clark’s casting vote.

Group member Bryan Clearwater said the situation on the West Bank had become worse since 2025.

“In short, this is not a sanction, this is not a boycott of Israel.

“It’s a narrow measure to keep our backyard clean,” he said.

“We’re asking council to ensure ratepayers money isn’t spent with companies involved with settlements the United Nations and our own government consider illegal.”

Mr Clearwater said the city had a history of taking an ethical stand having flown the Ukrainian flag in 2022 and declared itself nuclear-free alongside other councils in the 1980s.

A report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting noted another report needed to be requested if any steps were to be taken over the new petition.

Mayor Tom Campbell said there were two options available — ask staff to bring another paper, or councillors could work together to bring a notice of motion to the next meeting.

He felt the paper developed by staff a year ago was still relevant and suggested a notice of motion was the better way forward.

In June 2025, the option presented to councillors was to only allow the shortlisting of organisations included in a United Nations database under exceptional circumstances for procurement purposes.

In September 2025, Environment Southland decided to bar itself from dealing with a host of Israeli-owned companies, but did not prevent itself from “occasional use” of non-Israeli suppliers included on the United Nations list.

The list was last updated in September 2025 and covers 158 companies, including Airbnb, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Motorola.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa’s 270 petition signatories were accompanied by 870 online, although only the locally collected petitions were verified, the council report noted.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.