Urgent Debates — Gaza Crisis—Government Response

I move, That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now well past crisis point. Three-quarters of Gaza’s 2.2 million people are internally displaced; more than a million people are crammed into Rafah, a tiny sliver of land which now has a population five times what it was before the war. I think New Zealanders watching images of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza on a night-by-night basis could be forgiven for thinking that this is happening somewhere else in the world and that this is someone else’s problem—it isn’t.

To put into context what’s happening, the 365 square kilometre area that makes up Gaza is roughly half the size of Lake Taupō, and it currently contains 2.2 million people, three-quarters of whom have been displaced by this conflict. There is a health system in Gaza that is clearly in crisis: 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition; over 5,000 women will give birth in the next month—they have no hospitals and no health facilities in which to deliver their babies safely. People are starving; people are dying. UNICEF has now said that Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. They estimate there is one toilet per 700 children and their families. Diarrhoea, respiratory illness, and malnutrition are now widely spread.

There is no military solution to this tragedy and to this problem. As my colleague Phil Twyford pointed out in an earlier debate in this House, four generations of Palestinians are now living in refugee camps. We should absolutely acknowledge the atrocity that was the Hamas attack on Israel. We should also acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself, as I did, as our Prime Minister, when that happened. But there are limits to that right to self-defence. As I pointed out, we are very concerned that the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces are disproportionate and indiscriminate. The right to self-defence is not an unlimited one. All parties have an obligation to take all possible steps to protect civilians, and it is clear that that has not been happening.

Last year, we urged Hamas to release hostages immediately and unconditionally and to work towards peace, and we restate that now. We also called on all parties to strive to restore calm and restraint and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement, and inflammatory rhetoric.

We are still concerned that basic humanitarian supplies are not reaching those who so desperately need them. New Zealand’s position of encouraging all parties to work towards a two-State solution, within secure and recognised borders, where all citizens enjoy equal rights and freedoms, has been a longstanding one, and yet it feels such a long, long way away.

Labour called for a ceasefire back in November. It was the right thing to do then, and it is absolutely the right thing for us to be doing now. Thousands of Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed. The lives of the victims have been changed. Horrific scenes of lives destroyed—children whose parents, siblings, and grandparents have been killed—are on our TV screens on a nightly basis. There are no places for people to go for safety. I don’t think we should ever, in this House, underestimate what it must feel like to know that your home and your community are under attack and there is literally nowhere you can go to get away from that. That is something that I hope no member of this House has ever experienced, and I hope no New Zealander will ever experience it. We should not put up with it being the situation for those in Gaza. The carnage in Gaza must end. We must support an immediate and a sustainable ceasefire and the immediate release of hostages. New Zealand must show leadership on this issue.

Overnight, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan. Significantly, for the first time, the United States has not exercised its veto. This House needs to understand the New Zealand Government’s position, and it must go further than it has to date. Now the United Nations has called for an immediate ceasefire, there is simply no excuse for New Zealand’s position to remain that we call for steps towards a ceasefire. We should have been calling for an immediate ceasefire months ago, and our Government must do so now, and it must do so immediately.

We also need to understand the New Zealand Government’s position on emergency visas for Palestinians with relatives living in New Zealand. There should be no equivocation; the Government must do the right thing.

I want to quote from a Minister in a previous National Government—New Zealand, of course, has a track record of principled diplomacy in this particular area. In 2016, under the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully, New Zealand sponsored a United Nations Security Council resolution reaffirming that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, occupied by Israel since 1967, constitute a flagrant violation of international law and—I quote—“a major obstacle” to the vision of two States living side by side in peace and security within internationally recognised borders. Murray McCully said we can use our voice and it does make a difference. Now is absolutely the time for us to be using our voice.

We should be calling for an immediate, sustainable, and durable ceasefire. Waiting until the conditions for a ceasefire exist before calling for one simply lacks moral courage, and it is not consistent with the long-held principled position that New Zealand has taken. We should not wait for more people to be displaced. We should not wait for more innocent civilians to be killed. We should not tolerate the fact that we have internationally respected and recognised agencies declaring Gaza to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. We should not tolerate a system where women are having to give birth with no hospitals and no health facilities. We should not tolerate a situation where people are suffering from malnutrition, from diarrhoea, from respiratory illnesses, and are unable to get the basic help that they deserve. This is more than a humanitarian crisis. The whole world can see what is unfolding in Gaza, and the very least that we can do as a country is to take a principled stance in opposition to it.

It is now well and truly time for the New Zealand Government to take a much stronger position and a much more principled stance on the crisis that has been unfolding in Gaza. This debate is their opportunity to do that. The country is waiting for them to do that, and following the United Nations Security Council resolution, it is clear that the rest of the world are waiting for New Zealand to do that as well. It should have been done months ago, but the time is now. It is now time for the Government to add its voice to the growing international call for an immediate ceasefire.

The Labour leader’s speech contained comment in the main that few could disagree with. Labour’s call for a ceasefire last November is the view of nearly everyone in this Parliament. “New Zealand must show leadership on this issue.”, he said. And then he became, alas, inferentially accusative in insinuating powers we simply—sadly—don’t have, and anyone that understood the international circumstance would know that.

I have spoken to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, someone I know and have entertained in my own home. I was able to call him and discuss the organisation he’s leading and where they were going on this issue. I’ve spoken to Foreign Ministers all over the world. I’ve spoken to scores and scores of my counterparts on this issue on behalf of New Zealand. I’ve spoken to my counterpart in Indonesia, in person, when we visited Indonesia just recently—the biggest Muslim country in the world. She understands New Zealand’s position. How come, in this House, some don’t? That’s the point we’re making here. We’re going to be, for the second time, speaking to our counterpart in Egypt—this time in person—next week. And we’ve spoken to the Palestinian representative. We’ve spoken to everyone we can about what we can do.

But at the end of the day, what is being inferred here is that somehow something’s happened in the United Nations last night and we don’t agree with it. Nothing could be further from the truth. New Zealand has long—this Government—advocated for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, leading to a lasting, sustainable peace. We welcome the UN Security Council’s resolution, overnight, demanding an immediate ceasefire. We have called on all parties to immediately comply with this resolution. This information and these requests are all in the public domain. How come some people don’t understand that?

There must be an immediate cessation of armed conflict. Hamas must release all hostages. But we were saying that on 8 October, not when something happened later by way of retaliation. Israel must play its part in enabling a rapid, massive, and sustained increase in aid into Gaza. There is nothing, in terms of the geography or the condition that Mr Hipkins laid out, we could disagree with. But the point is: what can we do about it? And I want to set out what we have done.

The reality is we’ve got 1.1 million people—half of the population—experiencing catastrophic food insecurity. A famine is imminent in Gaza. This is appalling, and it cannot be allowed to continue. This is why we continue to strongly urge Israel to do everything in its power to facilitate rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access into Gaza, including lifesaving food, medicine, and other aid. Failure to do so is clearly risking civilian lives and risks Israel not meeting its obligations under international humanitarian law as is required by the International Court of Justice provisional measures, a judgment on which there is still progress to be made.

We remain gravely concerned by the repeated indications from senior Israel officials that it may soon launch a military offensive into Rafah, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in already dire humanitarian conditions. New Zealand has been clear from the outset that the protection of civilians is paramount in a requirement of international law. Israel must not undertake this offensive, which would have catastrophic consequences, and Israel must listen to the international community and meet its obligations under international law.

There is an urgent need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, together with the release of all hostages and a significantly increased flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians in need. New Zealand supports critical efforts by regional partners to achieve this as soon as possible. On the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) investigation, well, New Zealand did not suspend its aid. No. What we did was ensure that we funded the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and kept the funding going until the next tranche is due on 1 June.

Many of the statements that are being made by all sorts of people are simply not correct in this matter, and it’s sad, looking offshore at a tragedy, that it could be politicised by some. This is not what’s happening, and I would beg to ask them this one question: what would you do more than we’ve tried to do? What would you actually do more than we’ve tried to do?

Chlöe Swarbrick: Fund UNRWA.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, no, chanting like that. I never saw that member, after that vicious atrocity on 7 October, say a word last year.

Chlöe Swarbrick: How dare you!

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Unbelievable. How dare I? Because it’s the truth. I dare because I’m not politicising a tragedy. I dare because I am concerned for innocent Palestinian citizens and I want something to be done to solve it. That’s why I dare—not to politicise them, not to be one-sided about it—because there are terrorists on both sides, and this is the Government that deputed as terrorists Israeli settlers because of their behaviour, not just Hamas but Israeli settlers as well. Did those people not notice that? So, please, please, in the interests of humanity and in the interests of our concern for the Palestinian people, stop playing politics.

It is far more serious than that—[Interruption] No, you can sigh and groan, but the reality is we are a country that has a marvellous humanitarian record. And we’ll go on helping out here, and we’ll go on supporting what happened last night at the UN. That is precisely the present Government’s policy, and it always has been. And there was a time when, across the political divide, we all had that feeling. As two States—

Chlöe Swarbrick: This is the man who invoked Nazi Germany.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I beg your pardon?

Chlöe Swarbrick: This is the man who invoked Nazi Germany with regards to co-governance.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No, we know who invoked Nazi Germany. The person was in the shop with her at a clothing outlet at the time. She wasn’t the one that invoked Nazi Germany, and I did not hear that member call her out back then. I want to let you know, Chlöe Swarbrick, you’re not getting away with this high-handed “I am more worthy than thou” attitude, because, in this business, you’re required to put up the efforts and put up the time and, indeed, put up the money. And why does this Government want to be a successful Government?

Steve Abel: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

Chlöe Swarbrick: Just keep going.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well, I’ll keep going because the Speaker allows me to, not because you’re running the show. With the greatest of respect—

SPEAKER: Sorry, just a minute. Has there been a call for a point of order?

Steve Abel: Yes, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: Stay on your feet when you make it so I can see what’s happening.

Steve Abel: Thank you. The Minister asserted the presence of the member at the occurrence of an event, which is a conspiracy that’s going around presently, and I just want to correct that there is no suggestion that that is correct.

SPEAKER: You can’t use the point of order for that sort of purpose.

Steve Abel: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: No, no. Let’s establish it. There is no point of order, because that’s not a correct use of the point of order process. If there is offence taken by a member, then they may take a point of order for the matter to be withdrawn. It’s not an opportunity to make a political point.

Chlöe Swarbrick: The Minister, just now, has outlined a conspiracy theory, widely circulated online, with regard to my alleged presence at allegations that are currently before the courts, and I take deep offence at that. Given that the Minister knows that what he is saying is untrue, I request him to withdraw and apologise.

SPEAKER: Well, the member has made the point. The member the Rt Hon Winston Peters may choose to withdraw and apologise for that part of his speech.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Point of order. A conspiracy is when two or more agree to break the law. I never ever made that statement, did I? So if we’re going to use language, get to understand it. Therefore, Mr Speaker, I say that point of order is worthless.

SPEAKER: Yep, that’s the member’s response, and that’s the way that it is. The member can continue with his speech.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just want to conclude by saying that, sadly, this was an issue across the political divide over decades. We have always been united for a two-State solution—a permanent two-State solution—and we’re asking now for a ceasefire to be a permanent ceasefire and, again, for a two-State solution. That is still the Government’s view, and in the meantime, we’ve worked hard to ensure that we play our humanitarian role, which is respected, I might say, all around the Muslim community to whom I have spoken worldwide. We continue playing our role, because that is the New Zealand way, and we intend to continue it.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise to speak on the appalling situation in Gaza. No one can see the daily images of death and destruction and remain impassive, but nor can we overlook the truly disgusting events of 7 October, where close to 1,200 people, including babies, were murdered, where women were subjected to rape and mutilation, and the medieval attack then sparked a retaliation that has been devastating for the people of Gaza.

Both people need to come to the party. There must be an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must release all hostages—130 hostages remain unaccounted for, and they must be released—and Israel must play its part, enabling a rapid, massive, and sustained increase in aid into Gaza. The loss of life is appalling, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating further every day. We have been clear for months about Israel’s obligations to protect civilians, and the cost of this conflict is far too high.

The images on our screens are harrowing. Safe haven and the basics for survival—food, water, and fuel—are still desperately needed. The latest reports are that famine is imminent as more than 1 million people—half the population—have little or no access to food. New Zealand is committed to supporting the critical humanitarian response in Gaza, and to date we have channelled $15 million through the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Food Programme, and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The way the conflict is unfolding has the potential to make Israel less secure and will fuel the cycle of radicalisation and division, and that is why we have repeatedly said that there can be no military solution to this conflict. A lasting solution to the conflict will only be achieved by peaceful means. We continue to strongly urge Israel to do everything in its power to facilitate rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access into Gaza, including lifesaving food, medicine, and other aid.

New Zealand also remains deeply concerned by indications from senior Israeli officials that it may soon launch a military offensive into Rafah. Israel must not take this action. It must listen to the international community to meet its obligations under international law.

New Zealand has long advocated for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and will continue to do so. We welcome the UN Security Council’s resolution overnight, demanding an immediate ceasefire. We call on all parties to immediately comply with this resolution. There must be an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must release all hostages, and Israel needs to step up and enable the aid into Gaza that is so desperately needed.

In conclusion, I would send a message out to our New Zealanders of Palestinian and Jewish descent and say that we feel for you. It is not you that has done this. It is not you that undertook the attack on 7 October. It is not you who has continued the work into Gaza. We care for you, and we worry that you yourselves are under attack from people who should know better. So this just simply has to stop.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Over 32,000—that’s how many people have been killed in Gaza, with 13,000 of those people being children and around 8,400 being women. We are talking about people. We are talking about people’s mothers and fathers, grandparents, uncles, aunties, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters. The scale of the death, the scale of what is happening there, and the scale of the atrocity is appalling. Of those children that have survived, more than 13,000 of them are orphans. These are the things that we need to focus on as a House. We need to focus on it to end what is happening in Gaza and end what is happening in Palestine.

I want to acknowledge the connections that many people have with our Palestinian community. I live in Palmerston North, where we have some Palestinian whānau living there with us, some of whom have approached me to try to get their children out of Gaza—to get their relatives out of Gaza. So, yes, it might be on the other side of the world, but we are all connected, and it is important for this House to remember that. I want to acknowledge the presence of Justice for Palestine, who are with us in the gallery today, and the work that they have been doing to raise awareness about the connections with the Palestinian struggle here, within Aotearoa.

The question was asked about what the Government can do, and I agree with speakers—particularly with our friends in the Labour Party—who have called on the Government to do more, because more needs to happen. We need to use all diplomatic avenues to achieve a ceasefire, but this is something that the Minister of Foreign Affairs should do, and that includes supporting UN Security Council Resolution 2728—which was passed yesterday and was accepted as legally binding on Israel—and includes reporting back to this House on what concrete steps the Government is taking to hold Israel to account under the resolution. I note that this is the resolution that even Israel’s sole ally, the United States of America, did not veto and block—and acknowledging the role that the US has played, in particular, in funding the military machine in Israel.

What this House and this Government also need to do is to increase humanitarian aid, including maintaining aid for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. That’s important. They are on the ground, and that work needs to be supported. We need to also join the case in the International Court of Justice brought by South Africa against Israel under the Genocide Convention. More countries are joining South Africa in that case, and it would be in line with our principled place in the world to also do so and to stand with South Africa in this important moment in history. We also need to use all avenues of influence to ensure breaches of international humanitarian law are prevented, investigated, and prosecuted, including by pushing for an independent and impartial investigation by the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes being committed in Gaza.

We also need to urgently create a special visa for Palestinian New Zealanders to bring their families to safety, and to back this up with diplomatic support to get them out of Gaza. I reflect on some of the questions that were asked in this House last week about why the Government hadn’t done that, and the response was that Canada had done it and they only got 14 people out. Fourteen is better than nothing—14 is better than nothing. In our having a special visa category set up so that when people can get out and they can, that is enabled to happen. Many of these people have whānau here in Aotearoa New Zealand. They are New Zealanders—they are Palestinians, but they are New Zealanders as well.

These are important points and important initiatives that this Government can do and should do to step up—to step up—to support the Palestinians in Gaza, and the Greens will continue to bring in the voices of the people on the streets here into this House, even if this House doesn’t want to hear it. This is so important, and I support this resolution by the UN, but more needs to be done by this House, and more needs to be done by this Government. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. They killed over 1,200 people. They took hundreds hostage, of which, it is suspected, less than 100 still live in captivity, held in tunnels, held in basements, and even, we’ve learnt, held in the family living rooms of Hamas operatives in Gaza.

New Zealand has taken action in line with our allies and in relation to our size and scale. New Zealand accepts around 1,500 refugees per year, which is what we can accept with the resources we have available. We must reflect the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is caused by Hamas operating a terrorist State, using Gaza as a base to attack its neighbours, and using the people of Gaza as human shields since 2007. We should not accept Hamas is allowed to exist, and that is why I am proud the New Zealand coalition Government has declared not only Hamas’ so-called military wing but also its fake political wing to be a terrorist entity. Hamas has no political legitimacy, and they bear sole responsibility for the terrorist attack on Gaza. The State of Israel has been forced to retaliate to try to get its citizens that are held hostage back and try to create sufficient defensive conditions so that Israel is safe from further attacks.

New Zealand has frozen the assets and the ability for New Zealanders to send funds to Hamas. Now, people would ask, “Well, who in their right mind would want to send funds to Hamas?” Well, it turns out there are New Zealanders who wanted to and, in fact, had organised to. They had organised to. The only group to oppose the New Zealand Government’s decision to categorise the political wing of Hamas as a terrorist entity was a group called Palestinian Solidarity Network, led by the confused and bitter John Minto, once a freedom fighter against apartheid, now an apologist for anti-Semitic terrorists. How far that gentleman has fallen. But New Zealand has also, sadly, been slow to the party.

In terms of designating Hamas a terrorist entity, and that includes its political wing, New Zealand and Australia didn’t do this until very recently—Australia in 2022; Canada in 2022; the UK in 2003—but the US recognised the problem that Hamas was causing back in 1997. New Zealand has, and dare I say my colleagues in Labour and the Green Party, and, no doubt, Te Pāti Māori, seem to imagine we live in a world where a resolution or a declaration of ceasefire can be made and all of a sudden there are unicorns and rainbows. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. Someone has to get the hostages back. Someone has to keep the people of Israel safe.

A former Labour leader—actually, a former Prime Minister—once declared in May 2001—remember that date: May 2001—New Zealand is in an incredibly benign strategic environment. In September 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists flew two aircraft into the World Trade Center buildings, another one into the Pentagon, and passengers on another flight managed to wrestle the controls away from the terrorists and it landed in a field with all being killed. That was not a benign strategic environment then, and we do not live in one now.

When the UN called for a ceasefire today, it echoes the desire of many people in Israel and Gaza’s neighbours for an end to the conflict, an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Only Hamas can end their suffering. They can accept the deal currently offered by Israel, return the hostages, have a ceasefire. But remember, Hamas, you are not safe; you will face justice—that is clear. The Israelis will come after you. New Zealand can do its bit by helping them and making sure that we can deliver aid to the people of Gaza as soon as we can.

Kia ora. Tēnā koe e te Pīka. I arrive at this debate for urgency with a different context, having come from Taranaki, where certainly people have been persecuted for who they are and what their cultural and spiritual beliefs were. So our belief, as Te Pāti Māori, is all violence—all violence—is wrong, and all hostages, everywhere and anywhere, should be returned.

This House has an opportunity before it to take seriously and make some serious recommendations that align with what a lot of our citizens across the House out in Aotearoa have been doing for some months. They have been rallying on weekends for some months. There have been tens of millions of stories and videos shared on social media. There have been petitions handed over—thousands; there have been signatures. There have been continual examples of families that have been killed and the 32,000-plus, those who have been maimed, those who have been targeted, including media—media and their families that we have seen. In fact, it has been so brutal, I can’t remember any time in my life, and certainly my pāpā, who’s 82, has shared the same. It’s the kind of activity going on in the world that has generations within my household stunned by where the Government and this House has been. And, to be really honest, certainly from the communities that I come from, there has been a deafening silence on both sides of this House, not taking away the fact that there have been varying degrees of ceasefire called for.

This House and this Government and all Governments have the ability to trigger levers, and for some, I’ve been stunned by how fast that can happen. We saw it in COVID through a pandemic. This is a crisis and an urgency like humans have never seen before. And there have been analogies and references back to our history when they’ve seen this type of behaviour. What we have is an opportunity to really seriously talk to each other about what is it that we need to be saying to the country, to the world, to the victims, and to those who are trying to live through this revolting crisis.

And I also want to take on board that there have been—you know, we come unstuck on the basis of whether there are truly war crimes or not. We come unstuck, I think, in the House. And certainly in Aotearoa, what we are seeing is there is only one side experiencing the disproportionate scale of death and maiming, and the complete displacement. There’s only one side—

Laura Trask: Have you seen the Hamas video attacks? Have you seen it?

DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: —one side disproportionately. No one else is getting 32,000—and anyone that wants to heckle that really needs to have a conscience prick.

Also, what we have is—and we know that there’s war crimes going on because there’s been ethnic violence, there’ve been woman and children affected, there have been people with disabilities affected, and there’s been trafficking of people. Again, there’s only one side that’s committing that scale and that disproportionate side of violence. And there’s only one side that we see now that have gone way beyond the starvation of any human peoples that we should be able to consciously go to sleep and think about.

This House has influence; it has the influence to end violence. Stop getting caught up in who’s right or wrong. There is disproportionate killing of innocent women and children going on, and history will mark where we stood in this—I’m a result of that. We read what happened in Parihaka. We read how this House justified what it did. It justified the decisions it made, and it then had to err and apologise for the scale of the decisions that it turned its whole face away from. I urge that we get over ourselves and we apply some type of sanction that forces a peace and forces the end of this violence.

We have a nation’s army and military force showing and humiliating victims, going into their homes. We know this because they are sharing their videos. They are sharing and promoting how proud they are of how they’re humiliating, starving, and killing people in a way that we could never expect any other group of refugees to have to suffer. We are seeing it because we have one side that is so righteous and so sure of what it’s doing that these other human people don’t matter. I support that we do something urgently in this House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. My reaction: about bloody time. In this House today, we heard the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ calls for a permanent ceasefire—about bloody time. Do you know why? Don’t ask me; ask António Guterres; ask the growing number of Jewish people around the world who are horrified that this continues in Gaza and the West Bank under the title of “defending Jewish people”. No, it’s defending Netanyahu and a right-wing Government and their Zionist agenda, not the Jewish people. If we think, or that Government thinks, that what is going on in Gaza is going to secure the rights of the Jewish State, or peace in the Middle East, they are dreaming.

The events that took place on 7 October were horrific—but they go way back before then, and they’ve gone on since then—events that we say are unjustified, horrific, and indeed it’s not something that New Zealand has had to face. We’ve, in fact, had a proud history of being independent in our foreign policy, but we’ve sat on our hands for too long and not called for a permanent ceasefire.

I came into this place, like most people did, to build a better New Zealand, and that has to be within a better world. But there can be no prosperity without peace anywhere in the world. For some time, the Government thought that this was in the Middle East, away from us, and then we saw the actions of people in Yemen. That directly affected our trade, so we do have a direct economic interest, but that’s not the reason we should stand up.

I, quite frankly, have been horrified to think that I’m in a country that can stand back and say nothing when people are being slaughtered, when people are being starved, when hospitals and schools are being bombed. We’ve had 25,000—or thereabouts, and I’m sure it will be today—Palestinian casualties, 61,000-plus injuries. We’ve had 1,200 Jewish people killed, 5,500 injured—horrific, regardless of those people, whatever State they come from, wherever they were born, through no fault of their own, whether it was on one side of the border or to one faith or another. We have seen horrific outcomes in the Middle East that, I’m sure, unfortunately, will probably have ramifications for a long time.

We’ve been involved in a propaganda war. Some of the things we’ve heard in this House today are nothing more than propaganda from one side or from the other. Go online and look. Don’t just look at one but look at many of the posted videos or statements, as I say, from Jewish people around the world, Jewish leaders around the world who do not support the actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), do not support the slaughter of people in Gaza.

The proposed action in Rafah would be the final straw, the final step in what has not been deemed a genocide. So the International Court of Justice heard a case, made a ruling on 26 January, made some recommendations, and there has been some monitoring. The unfortunate reality is that many of the indications that might move actions towards a genocide, as set by the International Court of Justice, in fact have been carried out. I want to make the ruling here that I’d suggest to you that in the annals of history, those people who sat back and did nothing will be very embarrassed.

We live, we think, in a civilised world. How can we be civilised and not speak out when we see in front of us the slaughter of women and children who have had no role in the actions of Hamas, which also we must condemn but the disproportionate and the indiscriminate reaction by the IDF in reaction to 7 October is outrageous. This must stop. A ceasefire must be permanent.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is not a pleasure to take a call on this matter, but as my colleague the Hon Damien O’Connor has put so succinctly today, it is our duty—it is our duty as parliamentarians—to speak out on this important matter of the continued killing and slaughter that we are seeing in Gaza.

The UN Security Council has finally—finally—called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, because, finally, the United States has stopped using the veto power that it has used before to stop that from happening. That is a good thing, but we need to go further, and the point I wish to make is that language matters. When language matters—I actually want to talk first and foremost about the language of the Government at the moment, because the Government has been calling for “steps towards a ceasefire” and “for the conditions to be met for a ceasefire.”

Now, in what part of thousands of children killed in Gaza are not the conditions met for a ceasefire? This is an extremely serious matter for the world and for so many reasons, and I want to speak firstly to the conditions that have led to the UN Security Council finally calling for the ceasefire—because it is the month of Ramadan. So I acknowledge, for our Muslim community, it is the month of Ramadan. For our Christian community, of which I am a member, it is Holy Week; it is the end of Lent as we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday this weekend. For our Jewish communities, we are approaching Passover at the end of April.

But this is not a religious war. Too often we call this a “religious war”, and we allow people to hide behind religion to kill other people. This is a war about land, it is a war about power, and ultimately it’s about people, and the death of thousands and thousands of innocent people being used behind religion as an excuse to kill other people. As a Christian, as a member of one of the three great Abrahamic faiths, I say no to that.

One of the things that has really bothered me in the last few weeks is around the need for us to have a humanitarian visa coming into New Zealand. I’ve heard last week in the House the Minister of Immigration talk about why we cannot have that visa, and that is because it is so difficult to get people out of Rafah. The Labour Government put in place visas for Ukraine and Afghanistan, and members of my community—people who I helped, on Zoom calls in the middle of night, get out of Afghanistan and families I supported to get their family members out of Ukraine—had visas and it took months to get out. We did not use the excuse—that it would take months to get people out—for not issuing the visa in the first place.

It was that Minister of Immigration who called on us for the Ukrainian visa, even though we knew it would take a very long time. So I call on this Government to do the right thing and to give the people of Gaza and the people in the region the hope—and their families in New Zealand whose families are struggling—that they could get to New Zealand. It is not a matter for Immigration to get people out; that’s actually for other agencies like Defence. So I call again on this Government to actually do the right thing, as we did.

The other thing I’m calling on this Government to do is to join the International Court of Justice case that South Africa are taking against Israel in the court. They have issued an interim measure, and one of the things they have stated is that Israel must take all steps in its power to prevent the commission of all acts under article 2 of the UN’s 1948 genocide convention. Actually, it’s also for member States to follow that ruling too. We, as New Zealand, are required to uphold that ruling; we must take all steps. We must use the proud, strong, independent, small but mighty international voice that we have to put the pressure needed on Israel to end this war once and for all.

Of course we call for Hamas to release the hostages—of course we do. No matter where you were born, no matter your religion, no matter the colour of your skin, no matter your ethnicity or who your parents are, every person in this world has the right to live in freedom and safety, and we need an urgent, lasting, permanent ceasefire now.

This debate is concluded.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.