Wayne Mapp fawns over Israel

The New Zealand Government has released the text of Minister of Defence Wayne Mapp's speech on 11 May to the Israeli Ambassador and diplomatic staff on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of Israel's independence. Dr Mapp began his address by reminding the assembled guests that New Zealand had supported the foundation of Israel 63 years ago. On occasions such as this, diplomacy is the keynote but, even so, our Defence Minister went overboard when he said that, "New Zealand appreciates the open, friendly and honest dialogue we have with Israel."

Our Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully also likes to speak of dialogue, implying that there is some efficacy in it in the interests of Middle East peace and security. Yet what does this much-vaunted dialogue actually achieve? In the course of 'dialogue' Mr McCully welcomed the admission of Israel to membership of the OECD, even though the Zionist state behaves in gross contradiction of the OECD's own principles. As a belligerent occupying power, Israel helps itself to 80% of Palestinian West Bank water and since April 19 this year has carried out 78 acts of agricultural, pastoral and economic sabotage against a captive population.

April 19 is important to note. Since that date and at least until May 25 there have been no missiles fired from the Gaza Strip - that is over five weeks. The missiles are Israel's only excuse for violence against the Palestinian people and yet how does Israel respond to the ceasefire and the West's continual indulgent process of dialogue and friendly co-operation? With deliberate, and what most people would consider intolerable, attempts at provocation. Two 16-year-old Palestinian boys have been killed by Israel during this period and yesterday Israeli troops beat up and hospitalised a mentally handicapped 14-year-old boy, Ashraf Suleiman Turkiyyeh, while conducting home invasions in the town of Al Khadr.

In this period of no missile fire from Gaza, on April 20, in Hebron, Israeli troops in the Old City beat up a nine-year-old child, Ihsan Shaher as Salaymeh, leaving him with severe injuries. On May 7, a four-year-old traumatised child, Marwan Mufid ash Sharabati, was rescued and admitted to hospital following an attempted abduction by settler fanatics in the Old City Ash Shuhada Street. On May 12 an explosive device, left by the Israeli Army, injured a 13-year-old boy, Hasan Hussein Uqab, when it exploded near the village of Al Farisiya. On May 14, Israeli troops surrounded the Qalandya refugee camp, firing rubber-coated bullets as well as tear gas and stun grenades at people in the streets and wounding two 16-year-old boys, Ibrahim Mahmoud Wardeh and Mahmoud Elyas Uweidhah. The same day in Northern Gaza, 17 children and two journalists were among 85 people wounded when an Israeli Army position on the Green Line shelled, opened live fire and fired tear gas grenades on a peaceful protest demonstration north of Beit Hanun. Two of the wounded were in critical condition and there were 40 tear gas casualties. On May 21, a mother and her two children were injured and admitted to hospital after Israeli Occupation troops, firing stun and tear gas grenades, raided homes in the Old City Johar Mountain area of Hebron. The above reports represent just a few of the abuses suffered on a personal level so far by ordinary Palestinians during the ceasefire. There were no missiles fired from Gaza but peaceful Palestinian protests were still brutally put down.

But on the macro scale of criminality during the period, Israel has shown no restraint. Attacks on fishing boats failed to provoke any missile retaliation from Palestinian groups while the occupying power continued to carry out many sabotage assaults on Palestinian agriculture. There were eight incursions in which the Israeli Army bulldozed crops, and a Palestinian farmer was shot in the stomach when an Israeli Army position on the Green Line opened fire on his farm near Beit Lahiya on April 22. Settler militants also set fire to Palestinian olive trees and wheat crops. Olive trees were especially hit, with the Israeli Army uprooting dozens of trees on privately-owned land taken from an An Nabi Samwil villager, and hundreds more olive trees uprooted when, on May 5, Occupation forces raided the village of Khirbet Um Nir, south-east of Yatta town, and demolished 12 homes belonging to eight families. A number of householders were beaten by Israeli soldiers for attempting to defend their homes. One person, Isa Hussein Mohammed al Jubour, was beaten so badly he was admitted to hospital. Olive trees were also targeted by illegal Israeli settlers who set fire to the trees on land belonging to the villagers of Mikhmas Hizma. Settler arson attacks were also perpetrated on crops, a mosque and a Palestinian vehicle. Israeli forces and settlers destroyed literally hundreds of olive trees during the period of the ceasefire.

Wayne Mapp proudly reminded his audience that New Zealand was a founding member of the United Nations and yet felt comfortable in effusively expressing what he called the "warmth of the relationship between our countries". Is it appropriate for New Zealand to be seen enjoying a "warm relationship" with such a state? Israel's Prime Minister was reported in The Washington Post on Friday, 22 May, as saying that calls for the dismantling of Israel's illegal settlements don't take into account "certain changes that have taken place on the ground, demographic changes that have taken place over the last 44 years." These changes have been engineered by Israel by means of belligerent military occupation of its neighbour's territory. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that, "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." In his address, Wayne Mapp said that, "New Zealand has remained committed to Israel's right to peace and security." The Palestine Human Rights Campaign invites our Minister of Defence to state that New Zealand is committed also to the Palestinian people's right to peace and security.

New Zealand shames itself and the United Nations Organisation it helped to create by pandering to a state whose Prime Minister arrogantly demands that New Zealand and the world set aside the provisions of international humanitarian law in order to legitimise a war crime.

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