Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand has joined Australia, Canada, the UK and Norway in placing travel bans on two extremist Israeli politicians.
The bans will prevent Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from travelling to New Zealand.
“The travel bans are targeted at two individuals who are using their leadership positions to actively undermine peace and security and remove prospects for a two-state solution,” Peters said.
Green Party co-leader, Marama Davidson, says the government should be extending sanctions to Israel’s cabinet and diplomats.
Me tokomaha ake te hunga kia aukatia
Heoi, e ai ki te Pāti Kākāriki, kua aua atu te wā e tatari ana rātou ki aukatia ngā āpiha e te Kāwanatanga.
“Mo ngā tau e rua, e noho te kawanatanga ki [runga] i o rātou ringa, i noho wahangū ahakoa te taikaha ki ngā mokopuna, whānau te whakarikiriki o Iharaira ki ngā tāngata, ngā iwi taketake o Parihitini, a, ki tāku nei whakaaro tūreiti hoki ēnei sanctions ki aua minita e rua,” hei tā Marama Davidson.
“Engari, mārama te kite ka taea tēnei kawanatanga ki te tuku sanctions ki a rāua, he aha mo ērā atu Mema Pāremata o te kāhui minita Iharaira? Nā te mea, ehara ko aua minita e rua te kino. Ehara ko aua minita anake te kino, ā, i kite tātou tēnei kawanatanga ka taea e rātou ki te mahi te mahi mo ēnei minita he aha mo ērā atu minita?”
Questions on the consistency of sanctions
Peters said the targeted sanctions are consistent with New Zealand’s approach to other foreign policy issues.
“New Zealand has also targeted travel bans on politicians and military leaders advocating violence or undermining democracy in other countries in the past, including Russia, Belarus and Myanmar.” Peters said.
However, their approaches to the conflict could be argued to be inconsistent when considering the Russia Sanctions Act 2022. This allowed for the government to impose autonomous sanctions on people, services, companies and assets associated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The act was pushed out over two rushed days without public consultation by Nanaia Mahuta, the Foreign Affairs Minister of the time. When asked in December, Peters said he had not considered pushing an Israel Sanctions Act.
“The justification for the Russian sanctions was based on the response to an act of war by one state against another. Those conditions don’t apply in the Israel situation,” he said.
Teanau Tuiono of the Green Party said if the argument boiled down to states, the response from the government could be to recognise Palestinian statehoods, as urged by UN experts.
Two-state solution conference scaled back following threats by Israel
Next week (17-20 June) will be a United Nations conference in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France on the “Two-State Solution” and its original intent was to obtain recognition of a Palestinian state.
In late May, Israel threatened the annexation of the West Bank should France and the United Kingdom recognise Palestinian statehood.
Following this, the aim of the conference changed and will not be on Palestinian state recognition but instead, hopes to agree on steps towards recognition, which has been criticised by diplomats as a weakening of ambitions.
The United Nations justified the scaling back due to the recognition of a Palestinian State being counter-productive to peace.
Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Davidson is urging other MP’s to revisit her co-leader, Chloe Swarbrick’s members bill.
Last year, a bill to sanction Israel for its “unlawful occupation of Palestine” which implements a sanctions framework, duplicating the Russia Sanctions Act, to allow sanctions to be imposed by the Government against Israel in response to Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Standing Order 288 outlines the process for Member’s Bills to bypass the member’s bill ballot (colloquially known as the ‘biscuit tin’), with the support of 61 non-executive members. With 55 Opposition members now officially in support of Swarbrick’s Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill, the support of just 6 Government MPs are necessary to get the Bill onto the floor of Parliament.
The Bill implements some initial sanctions against Israeli Ministers, Israeli MPs who have supported the occupation, and military leadership, as well as sanctions on assets and services relating to arms and assets and services that are of economic or strategic importance to Israel.
“We are able to sanction ministers and people responsible for the violence, we are able to sanction. In their visits and diplomatic visits, and also extending that to ambassadors and representatives here, so we’ve seen now the government can do this. Now is the time to step up and support the members bill of Chloe to sanction Israel,” Marama Davidson said.
‘A Graveyard of Children’ activists urge further action
Justice for Palestine spokesperson, Teirangi Klever, is urging MP’s and their constituents to put pressure in supporting the members bill to strengthen the sanctions announced today.
“We welcome any sanctions going toward a belligerent occupying state. But it’s not nearly enough to match the atrocities that have been taking place by Israel in Gaza. We need more to reflect on what we have done against Russia, for the occupation of Ukraine. We have a history of this so we know we can do it again.” Klever said.
Klever says it is crucial to not forget the reality for those in Gaza.
“It has been described as a child Holocaust. It has been described as a graveyard of children. And I think it is beyond anything that modern history has seen in a while. I implore anyone to just take 5 minutes and think about what it’s like being a Palestinian in Gaza?”
Winston Peter’s office says the position on the members bill is unchanged but said to date New Zealand has provided $29.5 million in humanitarian aid and that recognition of Palestine is a question of ‘when not if’.
“It is critical that the right to Palestinian self-determination is protected. Current Israeli actions are undermining this, and we categorically reject the de-facto annexation taking place. We remain absolutely committed to the two-state solution.” Peters said.
New Zealand has also designated Hamas as a terrorist entity.
“Their actions on October 7 were deplorable and there is no role for them in Gaza’s future.”
