Peters on Gaza: 'The only way forward is an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire'
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
The foreign minister has called for a ceasefire in Gaza in a statement delivered in Parliament, but the opposition says more action is needed.
Winston Peters stopped short of promising further aid funding for Gaza, or promising to join efforts to prevents weapons being sold to Israel, or to recognise Palestine as an independent country until there is a representative to negotiate it with.
But he did promise a "considered answer" on whether New Zealand would support South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice, which claims Israel has committed genocide.
He concluded the debate in Parliament by noting "just how difficult it is to achieve an outcome, the control of which is not in our hands".
Peters' speech
followed New Zealand supporting a joint statement
with 27 other countries calling for a ceasefire, and condemning the "drip-feeding of aid, and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children".
He told the House the
international community was united in its revulsion to the events in Gaza
, saying too many lives had been lost. He said the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians also wanted an immediate ceasefire.
"We continue to be confronted by horrifying scenes playing out in Gaza. We have the horror of innocent Israeli families, robbed of their loved ones in October 2023 by Hamas' heinous and immoral hostage taking, still yearning and demanding for them to be freed.
"And we have the horror of more and more innocent Palestinian civilians starving, being deprived of their basic needs and being killed every day because Israel's military response to the events of October 7, 2023, long ago ceased to be proportionate, reasonable or moral; and because Hamas continues to act with complete disregard for civilian life."
Peters pointed to the actions the government has taken so far, including designating the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity, and placing travel bans on two Israeli ministers.
"The only way forward is an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Human suffering is indiscriminate. In this conflict it has been inflicted in vast quantities on Israelis and Palestinians; Jews, Muslims and Christians. Further bloodshed serves absolutely no purpose. It must stop."
He pointed to the joint statement, saying "hopefully, in time, that level of pressure will prevail".
The opposition parties took the opportunity to give their own statements on the matter, all broadly saying they supported the statement, but action needed to follow the words.
Labour's Peeni Henare said the party supported the call for a ceasefire and denounced the actions of Hamas but Israel's ongoing military campaign and blockade had "created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory" with more than 58,000 Palestinians killed in 19 months.
"Ninety percent of Gaza's population has been displaced, infrastructure, homes, hospitals and schools have been decimated. Nearly half a million people are facing catastrophic hunger, approximately 71,000 children under 5 are expected to be acutely malnourished, pregnant and breastfeeding women are starving."
However, he said there was "more that New Zealand can do and must do", urging more aid and for New Zealand to support South Africa's ICJ case.
The Green Party's Teanau Tuiono shared the story of a family he was helping to get their grandmother to New Zealand from Palestine.
"They had come from Gaza and she was here for one week before the bombs dropped on her apartment, destroying the apartment that she lived in ... I want members around the house to remember that, that when they look overseas and see their grandmothers, their daughters, their grandfathers, their brothers and sisters dying, that this is something that the house should take account."
He called for further sanctions against Israel, and for New Zealand to join the efforts of South Africa and 12 other countries on preventing the provision of weapons to Israel and urgently review public contracts to prevent public funds supporting Israel.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said millions of children were being deliberately starved with no access to food and water.
"It's not a food crisis. If food is waiting at the border,
it's deliberately starving of children
and wiping out of people ... we do not accept this government pathetic lip service calling for a ceasefire, it's your fifth time in two years. We must end this human crisis. Sanction Israel. Sanction everyone supporting them."
He also called for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled.
Under questioning from his opposition colleagues, Peters said the ICJ case against Israel had not yet been decided, and it would be wrong to prejudge the court's decisions.
Asked why New Zealand had not also frozen assets when it imposed travel bans on the Israeli ministers, Peters said the justification for that had not yet been established.
He said to recognise Palestinian statehood would be "lowering the standards of statehood" because "we need to establish who it is we're going to negotiate with before we recognise" but Palestinian statehood was a question of when, not if.
National and ACT did not speak in the debate.
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