Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he’s pleased with the Government’s decision not to recognise Palestinian statehood.
“Absolutely, absolutely, I’m the prime minister who designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation in its entirety,” he told TVNZ on Monday morning, in response to a question on whether he was “personally comfortable” with the decision.
He reiterated that point on Newstalk ZB, saying the decision sat comfortably with him.
“I believe very, very strongly that you can’t recognise a state when terrorists play a significant role in the government,” he said. “Equally I’ve been calling out Israel, saying, look it’s a grossly disproportionate response [to the October 7 attack].”
Asked why New Zealand wasn’t one of the more than 150 countries that had made the move to recognise Palestine, Luxon pointed out that most of those countries had made the decision “years ago”.
“It’s only in recent times, over the last three or four months, we’ve seen some others recognise,” he told TVNZ. “We’ve equally seen other countries say they’re not recognising.”
Speaking on Herald Now on Monday, Seymour said the decision was made in a “careful and respectful way”, and praised the outcome as a “triumph for reason and logic” over what he called “rule by emotion and rule by the mob”.
But he would not say whether all three coalition partners shared the same view on Palestine. “I’m not going to get into it,” he said.
The views of the US were “not a major factor,” he added. “We have actually thought through for ourselves and come to this conclusion.”
Over the weekend, Luxon said the “conditions aren’t there right now” for recognition of Palestinian statement, and said “the answer is for us to get into the ceasefire process, into a peace process”.
The Government’s decision was announced by Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who told the United Nations on Saturday morning (NZT) that the time was not right.
“There is no obvious link between more of the international community recognising the state of Palestine, and the aimed objective of protecting the two state solution,” Peters said.
The decision drew immediate condemnation from the Opposition parties, who said the Government’s position put New Zealand “on the wrong side of history”.
“Luxon had a chance to stand up for what is right, but he failed,” Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson Peeni Henare said. “There is no two-state solution or enduring peace in the Middle East, without recognition of Palestine as a state.”
The Green Party said the decision was “a stain on Aotearoa’s reputation as a voice for peace and justice internationally”, while Te Pāti Māori said the Palestinian people needed “solidarity, recognition and justice”.
Former prime minister Helen Clark told RNZ, “As more and more countries move to see that the recognition Palestine is part of a process of moving towards a solution, New Zealand is lagging behind for reasons which make very little sense at all.”
But the New Zealand Jewish Council praised Peters’ speech, saying in a statement that statehood recognition “would be portrayed as victory by Hamas”.
“Recognition should be the outcome of real progress towards peace, not a substitute for it,” Juliet Moses, spokesperson for the council, said.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, and wounded more than 167,000 others since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister, as well as a Hamas commander, accusing them of war crimes.
Israel’s attacks have destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population.
- Stuff
