New Zealand’s long-standing and defining foreign policy rhetoric is that it adopts an "independent" and "principled" approach to foreign policy, one where fundamental human rights are central in influencing its approach to international affairs.
Our values also supposedly inform our response to international conflict. These values have been publicly accepted as our identity as a principled nation and have been largely accepted as our defining narrative.
In support of this view we invariably invoke our bold approach to a nuclear-free Pacific, our concerted opposition to apartheid South Africa and an unwillingness to become involved in the United States’ war on Iraq in 2003.
However, the horrendous events of the past few weeks in Gaza and Israel arguably call into question how far we stray from the sentiments of our close allies. New Zealand, over the short course of recent events, has strategically aligned itself with the predictably one-sided statements coming from its English-speaking Anglosphere partners, (US, UK, Canada and Australia).
As the tragic events unfolded the New Zealand government rightly condemned the atrocities inflicted on civilians within Israel. However, like its close allies, it has on the one hand publicly stated that it firmly stands behind Israel and supports its right to defend itself, but at the same time completely ignores the rights of the people of Palestine to be free from an enduring military occupation and to live in an independent and free state of their own.
One striking dimension of the Western response to the present situation is the overwhelming support from Western leaders giving unequivocal support to Israel. Images and statements by the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the bearhug embrace between the US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are disturbing, as they, in effect, give Israel a green light to continue with its devastating attack on the civilians of Gaza.
The number of deaths in Gaza now exceeds 7000, at least half of those children.
While there is no question that the events inflicted by Hamas on Israeli citizens are unconscionable, morally unjustifiable and should be condemned, it is not enough for New Zealand to align itself exclusively with Israel and fail to acknowledge and explain to the New Zealand public the root causes of the events which have led to this crisis.
This would involve an explanation of how the Palestinian people have arrived at the situation they now endure. In particular, that the Palestinian people have been subject to a brutal and all-confining Israeli military occupation for the past 75 years.
It would reference the loss of their homeland, occupied in 1948 by Jewish military force. At the time Palestinians owned 94% of the land and accounted for 70% of the population. It would also point to the occupation of the rest of historic Palestine in 1967 (East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza) and the illegal transfer of over 750,000 Israeli settlers to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Jewish writer and political activist Amira Hass provided context when she recently wrote: "In a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing — military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up in the road, siege, fear, anxiety over loved ones, captivity, being targets of vengeance, indiscriminate lethal fire at both those involved in the fighting and the uninvolved, a position of inferiority, destruction of buildings, ruined holidays or celebrations, weakness and helplessness in the face of all-powerful armed men, and searing humiliation."
It is the responsibility of New Zealand’s politicians, and our media, to inform the public on these conditions and thus provide a modicum of balance in describing the causes for the current events. While it may be difficult and require courage to present the context to the emerging crisis, for fear of being criticised by its close allies, particularly the US, it is incumbent on a principled country such as New Zealand to be brave and to do so.
The Secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, demonstrated real leadership when he tried to do this by saying that "it is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation".
New Zealand’s foreign policy approach to the conflict has been centred on the "two-state solution", which has its roots in an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in 1993 (Oslo Accords, 1993). This agreement envisaged two independent states living side by side.
However, the delivery of a separate Palestinian state has been continually frustrated by the rapid Israeli settler expansion into what would be the future Palestinian state. Israel’s ongoing refusal to acknowledge UN Resolutions speaking to the illegality of the occupation and its rapid settler colonial expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continually undermines the delivery of a Palestinian state.
In short, New Zealand’s approach needs to acknowledge the desperate plight of the Palestinian people living under occupation, and thus the root causes of the current situation. New Zealand governments must go further than the blithe adoption of the language of the "two-state" solution (a smokescreen for doing nothing) and call for real and honest action from the international community (including itself). It must proactively support the realisation of Palestinian self-determination in its own state. This is the only long-term solution to resolving the conflict.
And at this moment, the New Zealand government must show leadership and use its public messaging and diplomatic vehicles to stop the vengeful and illegal attack on the Gazan people, which amounts to war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It must go beyond its recent statement seeking a "pause" to the hostilities, a language adopted by its English-speaking allies, and demand a complete and final ceasefire and pave the way for the resumption of talks to find a peaceful and just way forward.
- Richard Jackson is the professor of peace studies at the University of Otago; John Hobbs completed his master’s degree of arts at Otago.
