Motions — Gaza—Conflict

I seek leave to move a motion without notice in relation to the situation in Gaza.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.

I move, That this House express grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza, particularly the appalling and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, and express strong support for international efforts to obtain an immediate ceasefire and end hostilities, so that both parties can return to negotiations and work towards a permanent two-State solution.

On 17 July, after 10 days of heavy shelling in response to rocket fire from Gaza-based militants, Israel launched a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. We have expressed our concern at the latest escalation of this conflict, the origins of which include the kidnapping of three Israeli teens on the West Bank in early June. Indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel by Hamas and other groups is unacceptable and must immediately cease. Israel has the right to defend itself from these attacks. Israel’s citizens who live in towns near the Gaza Strip live in daily fear of rocket fire. At the same time, the nature of Israel’s response has resulted in deep international concern at the growing number of civilian deaths. Israel is providing warnings to evacuate areas prior to striking them, but in many cases the people of Gaza, 75 percent of whom are refugees, have nowhere to go. The United Nations reports that the humanitarian conditions in parts of Gaza are dire.

It is clear that both sides have breached international law by failing to protect civilians, including firing indiscriminately into civilian populations. This challenges basic principles of acceptable international behaviour. For the sake of their people, both sides must agree to an immediate and lasting ceasefire. This is imperative. We have been deeply disappointed that, to date, ceasefire initiatives have failed. We urge all parties to continue efforts to de-escalate the situation. Last week we added our voice to the United Nations Security Council’s call for a ceasefire, but we also strongly support United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the Middle East in an effort to mediate a cessation of hostilities.

Once a ceasefire has been obtained, there is an urgent need to address the underlying causes of this conflict, to avoid a repetition of these dreadful events in another 2 years’ time. This pattern of conflict has gone on too long. We have consistently called for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiations. These latest incidents reinforce the importance of a sustainable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The New Zealand Government wants to see a permanent two-State solution, so that both parties can live in peace and security.

The Labour Party joins with this Parliament in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and, in so doing, expresses its support for the Government’s motion expressing grave concern at the ground invasion of Gaza and at the firing of rockets into Israel. To date, there have been more than 500 Palestinians killed in Gaza—most of them women, children, and non-combatants. No parent and no humanitarian could fail to be deeply moved by this tragic suffering. Twenty-five Israeli soldiers and two Israeli civilians have also been killed.

The death toll, however, reveals the disproportionate nature of this conflict. It is impossible to conduct a ground war and use F16s and missiles in such a congested area where 1.6 million people live on a strip of land without innocent people being killed. Neither should rockets simply be fired into Israeli civilian areas.

We should also not forget that this violence is symptomatic of other issues that have never been resolved. No population should live behind barbed wire fences where electricity is rationed, food controlled, and people’s ability to move in and out of Gaza constrained. What sort of future can young Gazans look forward to where unemployment is 40 percent and there is no ability to escape? The seeds of future conflict are being sown in the inability of Israel, Palestine, and the international community to make the tough decisions to end the current stand-off.

Until now no side has been willing to agree to a ceasefire. Pressure needs to be applied to ensure that that happens. Our Government should have already told the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand that although we recognise the right of both the State of Israel and the Palestinian State to exist in peaceful coexistence, we condemn the loss of many innocent lives. Our ambassadors around the world should likewise be sending an unequivocal message to their Israeli counterparts and, where possible, Palestinian ones: New Zealand wants to see a peaceful, just end to the Middle East conflict.

Yet again we have a round of mutual lethality between Israel and Hamas, except that the military asymmetry means that the death toll runs against Palestinians by a factor of several hundred to one. Some 500 Palestinian civilians have been killed, of whom 80 percent or more are children and elderly. Here are some: Hiji-ziya Hamed al-Hilu, aged 80; Saber Sukkar, aged 80; Salah Awad al-Nawasra, aged 6; Nidal Khalaf al-Nawasra, aged 5; and Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra, aged 4. Then we must mourn as well the murder of the teenagers. On the Israeli side: Eyal Yifrah, aged 19; Gilad Shaar, aged 16; Naftali Fraenkel, aged 16; and, on the Palestinian side, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, aged 16.

This is an unmitigated tragedy all round. So how should New Zealand react to the latest crisis? What should the New Zealand policy be? The fundamental issue at stake in this crisis, from 1948 to 2014, is the occupation of Palestine by Israel. Everything emanates from this: the refusal to implement the UN framework for peace under the Oslo accords, the continuing and expanding settlements, the wall, which is judged by the World Court to be illegal, and the excessive use of force by Israel. This is not to condone the firing of rockets by Hamas. We do not condone violence by anyone. But let us recognise the violence of Hamas for what it is: a desperate attempt at resistance by an oppressed people. And so following, we must recognise Israel’s violence for what it is: a continuation of oppression for an illusory kind of security.

As it happens, the UN Charter requires a member State, when exercising self-defence, to immediately report it to the Security Council. I have scrutinised the formal communications to the Security Council over the past week, by both Israel, as member State, and Palestine, as observer State. Each advances its own case. Palestine, on 14 July, appeals for all possible measures by the international community to provide immediate protection to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the occupied State of Palestine “against the ongoing savagery and military aggression being perpetrated by Israel.” On 16 July Israel calls on the international community to stop the attacks on Israeli citizens by unequivocally condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to defend its citizens.

Israel justifies its actions in Gaza in the name of self-defence. The inherent right of self-defence, sanctioned in international law for several centuries now, does not justify what Israel is currently doing in Gaza. Most jurists around the world are describing the Israeli actions as an excessive use of force and a violation of humanitarian law. If this is self-defence, it is time the principle evolved in a manner that precludes this kind of response, for we all know that whatever the principle of self-defence might justify, it does not justify the kind of collateral civilian damage to Palestinians that we have been witnessing this past week.

The Green Party is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and for Israel to withdraw its military forces. We condemn the violence and invasion of Gaza and the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military. We call on the United Nations Secretary-General to establish a fact-finding inquiry into the events and submit the report to the General Assembly and to Switzerland as the depositary Government of the Fourth Geneva Convention. We call on the New Zealand Government to call for a consideration by the UN of economic and other sanctions against Israel, as occurred with South Africa in the 1990s and 1980s. If the Security Council, in its ineffable wisdom, is unable to address the issue, perhaps the General Assembly can consider such a course of action under the Uniting for Peace precedent. We call on the Government to increase New Zealand humanitarian aid through appropriate UN agencies, targeted at relieving the human suffering in Gaza. We support the idea of Palestine acceding to the Rome Statute and referring a complaint to the International Criminal Court alleging individual leadership crimes against humanity by certain named leaders in the conflict. If Israel feels justified in referring Palestinians to the International Criminal Court, it only has to accede to the Rome Statute and join the court as well.

There will be no end in sight to this conflict as long as there is a relationship of oppressed-oppressor in Israel and Palestine. Israel has a right to exist peacefully and securely, but it will not find this in the sustained, brutal, and dehumanising oppression of Palestinians. There will be no end in sight as long as the only options open to Hamas are surrender or resistance. The accord between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas went some way to recognising the legitimacy of each. I say this not to offer support for all policies of each but to reiterate that although the struggles and opinions of some might stir distaste, the grievances of a people deserve to be heard with open ears and to be engaged with respectfully.

I do not think that power over others will ever lead to lasting peace for Israel. Work needs to be done to build mutual respect for the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians and Israelis. This will need an abundance of empathy and a re-humanising of each other in the other’s eyes. No doubt, crimes have been committed against civilians by both military groups, and both require condemnation, but in the longer term peace requires a political realignment and a refashioning of mind-set, perhaps on all our parts, before a settlement is achieved and peace is finally secured.

New Zealand First joins with other parties in this House in expressing grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Gaza. All parties to that conflict must step back from the brink of so much mutual destruction. We concur in expressing our support for international efforts to obtain an immediate ceasefire and to end hostilities. We trust that those international endeavours be both quick and effective. Both parties to the conflict must return to negotiations and work towards a permanent solution that will ensure peace and stability for all the people of that area.

Motion agreed to.