NZ Palestine Solidarity Network Press Release - 14 September 2018
The Palestine Solidarity Network calls on the Labour-led coalition government to condemn recent unilateral actions of
the United State of America administration towards Palestinians which contravene accepted international humanitarian
law, UN resolutions and certain Geneva Conventions. NZ Palestine Solidarity Network echoes the words of Hana Ashrawi of
the Palestine Liberation Organisation
“The United States administration’s reckless and spiteful political moves, including recognizing occupied Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel, relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, defunding Palestinian hospitals in
East Jerusalem and UNRWA, redefining the status of Palestinian refugees, refusing to refer to the 1967 borders and the
two-state solution, refraining from addressing the illegality of settlements, and most recently its closure of the
General Delegation of the PLO in Washington D.C. which all form a comprehensive and deliberate assault, not just on
Palestinian rights and the components of peace, but also on the global legal and institutional system of laws and
resolutions.”
Our government has been silent on these actions and must be challenged to take a position which reflects the values of
most New Zealanders.
We observe the daily horrors of collective punishment of Palestinians by Israel whether they are in Gaza, West Bank or
refugees exiled for decades in camps in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, even Palestinians in the diaspora who are denied the
right of return to their ancestral land.
The NZ government must denounce the menacing moves by Trump and his advisors, otherwise our silence is taken as
complicity.
ends