Rally To Parliament On Tuesday 13th February With Questions For Politicians

The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa is helping organise a rally at parliament this coming Tuesday 13th February to bring a series of questions for the leaders of the parties in the ruling coalition – National, Act and New Zealand First.

The questions are:

1. Why have they not condemned Israeli plans to invade Rafah?
2. Why have they failed to call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza?
3. Why have they failed to condemn the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as they condemned the killing of Israeli civilians? (Palestine solidarity groups condemn the killing of any civilians, Israeli or Palestinian as war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention)
4. Where is the government voice condemning Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank?
5. Why has the government not backed up the International Court of Justice decision with intense pressure on US/Israel to end the killing of Palestinians?
6. Why have they not condemned Israel’s continuing building and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land? (New Zealand moved UN Security Council resolution 2334 in 2016 which condemned these as a “flagrant violation of international law” and have “no legal validity”)
7. Why have they not condemned Israeli war crimes in Gaza which include collective punishment of civilians along with destroying 79,000 houses and 25,010 buildings (including banks, markets, bakeries…), partially damaged housing units 290,000. Destruction of 30 hospitals, 99 schools and universities (334 partially destroyed schools and universities), 161 Mosques, 3 Churches, 140 Government Buildings (including the Legislative Council building, the Gaza Municipality building, the public library and theatre, the cultural centre) water and electricity stations, 122 ambulances, and 195 heritage sites some dating back to 800 BC?
8. Why won’t the government double its funding for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) and deliver it now when it is so desperately needed? (Norway – same size as NZ and fondly quoted recently by Foreign Minister Winston Peters – has increased its funding to $26 million and brought it forward. Note also that only UNRWA has the capacity and infrastructure to deliver humanitarian aid where its desperately needed – government funding to other groups is for political cover rather than humanitarian impact)
9. Why doesn’t the government call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which would bring an end to attacks on Israel-linked ships in the Rea Sea, rather an join in the bombing of Yemen?

Despite it being 129 days on Tuesday since Israel began its wholesale slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza with over 28,000 killed – mostly women and children – our government has been a cowardly collaborator with Israel and the US against the Palestinian people.

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