Murray McCully has helped give the Palestinians under Israeli occupation a Christmas present

The New Zealand Palestine Solidarity Network says New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully has helped give the Palestinians under Israeli occupation a Christmas present.

PSN spokesperson Billy Hania says New Zealand’s co-sponsorship of a Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements ‘a flagrant violation of international law’ was nothing new in the way the international community viewed Israel occupation but “Israel needed to be reminded it is on notice and that continued Israeli land grabbing is unacceptable”.

New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal had introduced the resolution, the first critical of Israel to succeed in eight years, which was passed by 14 votes to a US abstention.

“Most of the resolution was a reiteration of the previous body of legal decisions, going back to 1967 when the Security Council told Israel that it was inadmissible to acquire territory by force, but Israel needed to be reminded that the world has not forgotten the Palestinians under occupation, and that even Israel has to obey the law,” Hania says.

“New Zealand support for conditions to allow a Palestinian state to emerge is important since it shows condemnation of Israeli actions comes from a universal range of the international community.”

“But even though New Zealand is soon to step down from the Security Council and Murray McCully will not be Foreign Minister for much longer, the real issue for our government is to do something practical to let Israel know we meant it.”

“Just a few months ago our government signed a joint movie making deal with Israel, and claimed the human rights of Israeli occupation was irrelevant to this deal. We should pull out of this deal.”

“We have easy visa access for Israelis to visit New Zealand, despite a record of hostile activities by Israeli spies in New Zealand. On the other hand we make it difficult for Palestinians to enter New Zealand because they don’t have Palestinians passports. This should change.”

“The Security Council resolution also calls for governments to distinguish in their dealings with Israel, the occupied territories and Israel itself. New Zealand should immediately follow Europe and force Israel to identify imports as coming from the occupied territories. We should also ban entry of Israelis into New Zealand if they are resident in the occupied territories.”

“If countries don’t go beyond just words,” Billy Hania concluded, “then the Palestinians will find their Christmas present from the UN Security Council is all wrapper and no content.”

Ends.

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