Postscript On Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide And New Zealand Recognition Of Palestine

Scoop

04-06-2025

My last Political Bytes post (28 May) discussed why New Zealand should officially recognise the state of Palestine: New Zealand should recognise Palestinian state.
The heading I gave the post was Reasons for supporting ethnic cleansing, through genocide, in Palestine. This was my attempt at irony; by exploring the reasons that underpin the support for the genocidal ethnic cleansing in order to rebut them.
Broadly speaking it appeared to work although, for some, it raised some eyebrows of initial confusion; was I actually supporting ethnic cleansing. It also generated two particularly thoughtful responses that deserve further comment.
The first concerned Jews who are horrified over, and vehemently opposed to, Israel's war against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza but also the occupied West Bank. The second involved the two-state solution proposal. Both are worthy of further consideration.
Jews against ethnic cleansing (and genocide)
Dr David Galler is a retired intensive care specialist who spent most of his medical career in Middlemore Hospital.
He was also a longstanding National Executive member of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (including as Vice President and President) while I was its Executive Director.
Today he is actively involved in Healthcare Aotearoa with its strong focus on public (population) heath and is a health commentator.
Dr David Galler outraged by genocide pursued in the name of Jews like him
Coincidentally Dr Galler emailed the Israeli Embassy in New Zealand the day before my above-mentioned post. I reprint it below (with his express permission):
I am Jewish
My parents were Polish Jews
My mother was a child in Auschwitz and survived the Death March
She lost her family in the Katowice ghetto and at Auschwitz
She arrived in Haifa in 1947
My father escaped Poland in 1939 but lost most of his family and married my mother in Tel Aviv
My great father was the Chief Rabbi of Poland
I am writing to express my utter disgust at Israel's vile and horrific genocide in Gaza
Say what you will, but there's no excuse for what you are doing there – you have destroyed any good will the world had for you and the plight of my ancestors. You have brutalised your own population and actively stoked the fires of antisemitism across the world
How dare your PM, a man who has done more damage to Israel than the Palestinians ever could, and your state accuse people like me of antisemitism for criticising your disregard for international law and human rights.
Shame on you and shame on your government.
David Galler
Jews opposed to Zionism is not new
Opposition among Jews to Zionism is not new. On 15 March I posted in Political Bytes about the relationship between apartheid and Zionism: When Apartheid met Zionism.
Jewish immigration to South Africa from the late 19th century brought two powerful competing ideas to from Eastern Europe. One was Zionism while the other was the Bundists with a strong radical commitment to justice.
It is easy to forget that historically speaking, since Palestine in the time of Jesus Christ, Zionism is a relatively new ideology. Further, Jewish opposition to Israel is as old as Zionism itself.
A critical turning point in my understanding of Palestine and Israel was reading Maxime Rodinson's Israel and the Arabs first published in 1968. Rodinson was from a Jewish family (his father was a prominent Bundist leader).
His central argument was that the Israel-Palestinian conflict was essentially
…the struggle of an indigenous population against the occupation of its normal territory by foreigners…
I was also struck by his clarifying explanation of the word 'semitic.' The common perception is that semitic refers to the Hebrew language.
In fact, it also includes the Arabic language. In other words, Palestinians are as semitic as Jews, but Zionism has monopolised the use of the term to apply exclusively to the latter.
Joseph Massad, of Christian Palestinian origin and from Jordan, is Professor of Modern Arab Politics at New York's Columbia University.
In Middle East Eye (29 February 2024) he reports that European and American Jews have been at the forefront of opposition to Zionism since its birth as a colonial-settler movement at the end of the 19th century: Jewish opposition to Zionist Israel is as old as Zionism itself.
Witness this article published in the UK Jewish News (16 April) on the critical views of some Jewish leaders to Israel's conduct in Gaza now: UK Jewish leaders oppose Israel's war in Gaza.
It is noteworthy that many Jews are at the forefront of the large protests over Israel's war against Palestinians in Gaza (and oppression of Palestinians on the West Bank) throughout the world, including New Zealand.
It is hardly surprising that David Galler is so frustrated and angry. Ethnic cleansing through genocide is being justified in the name of his ethnicity.
The extremist Israeli government has weaponised antisemitism to apply to genocide in his and many other Jews names.
Two-state solution: a delusion?
The second response came from retired journalist John Trezise who publishes on his Kiwis website.
He posted the following:
New Zealand should recognise Palestinian statehood as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for equal rights against the Zionists and their apartheid state Israel.
However, I agree with Gideon Levy that the possibility of a Palestinian state becoming a reality is long gone:
'The two-state solution died a long time ago, unfortunately, and it cannot be revived in the present circumstances. We have a government that in the last 15 years did anything possible to destroy this solution; it was destroyed. There are 7,00,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank who will never be replaced or evacuated. Without their evacuation, there is no room, no physical room for a Palestinian state, not for a viable one. Therefore, I think it's time to stop dreaming about the two-state solution. The only vision left, except for an apartheid state, is obviously a democracy between the river and the sea. I don't see any other alternative. It's a long way to go, but at least let's start talking about it. Let's start dreaming about it. Let's start realising that the only choice now is between an apartheid state between the river and the sea or a democracy between the river and the sea.'
His quote from Gideon Levy is important. Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. He writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Levy is a courageous journalist who truly practices truth to power. He has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli-occupied territories. In 2021 he won Israel's top award for journalism.
In short, I agree with what he says in the above quote forwarded by John Trezise. Levy was right to advocate starting a conversation over a democratic one-state solution from the Jordanian River to the Mediterranean.
That is what British Mandate Palestine was (minus the democratic bit) before 1948. Subsequently, but still decades ago, Fatah advocated a secular democratic Palestine on the same landmass as under the Mandate.
I agreed with this position then and still do, despite how inconceivable this appears in this moment of historical time.
Interestingly, when he was close to Fatah 'back in the day' (when this organisation was dominant among Palestinians) Palestinian intellectual Edward Said advocated a two-state solution. It was rejected by Fatah at the time.
However, Said promoted it on a more robust geographic basis than what the Oslo Accords subsequently provided for. He saw his proposal as providing the basis for discussion on transitioning to the single state idea.
Rightly so Said was a strong critic of the Oslo Accords because it was well short of this objective. Instead, they resembled the infamous and racist 'Bantustans' of apartheid South Africa.
Recognising Palestinian Territories as a sovereign country could be the starting point for a wider conversation about the future of Israel and Palestine
My support for New Zealand recognising the Palestinian Territories as the official state of Palestine, however, was in the context of a small step in the right direction towards Gideon Levy's above-mentioned conversation and the importance of solidarity with the victims of repression in one territory and genocide in the other.
Final word
I will leave the final word to Don Carson who has been persistently and cogently advocating for Palestinian rights since the 1970s.
An email he sent me after reading my post prompted this postscript. In his words:
Great piece Ian, especially the historical context and demography
Only issue I would have is that sanctions on Israel should be the priority;
IDF [Israel Defence Force] visitors
Close the Embassy
Trade and bilateral
Suspend Israel from the UN
I could not agree more.
Ian Powell
Otaihanga Second Opinion is a regular health systems blog in New Zealand.
Ian Powell is the editor of the health systems blog 'Otaihanga Second Opinion.' He is also a columnist for New Zealand Doctor, occasional columnist for the Sunday Star Times, and contributor to the Victoria University hosted Democracy Project. For over 30 years , until December 2019, he was the Executive Director of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand.