ACT appear to be stopping any declaration by New Zealand of recognition of Palestine.
POLITIK understands this much was made clear at a Monday Cabinet meeting discussion on the matter and was also evident yesterday in Parliament during a special debate on recognition.
The result is that New Zealand is now out of step with its Five Eyes partners, Australia, Britain and Canada.
It also points to the fundamental weakness at the heart of this Government, that the Prime Minister appears unable to confront his coalition partners when they dig their heels in.
What is also surprising about the situation is that the Prime Minister is the ultimate authority on foreign policy.
Christopher Luxon demonstrated that he understood that in April, when he went and spoke to leaders in the region and the EU to develop a strategy to fight what he said was President Trump’s trade war.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters objected, calling talk of a trade war “hysterical”.
But Luxon pressed ahead anyway.
But once again, it seems he and Peters are at cross purposes.
In his statement on Monday announcing that New Zealand was considering recognising Palestine, Peters set out the criteria which he was using to judge whether to recognise.
“New Zealand has long asked whether the pre-requisites for a viable and legitimate Palestinian state – in security, political, diplomatic and economic terms – exist,” Peters’ statement said.
“Fundamentally, we will need to weigh up whether sufficient progress is being made against these benchmarks in order to warrant New Zealand recognising a Palestinian state at this juncture.”
In yesterday’s special debate in Parliament, Peters made only a brief speech but specifically listed the Muslim countries he was talking to.
“All we’re asking, and when we’re saying it’s a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’, is to know what we’re going to recognise,” he said.
At no stage has Peters demanded the release by Hamas of the hostages as a condition for recognition.
But the Prime Minister has indicated that it is a criterion for recognition.
Answering a question from Greens Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick in Parliament yesterday, he repeated that recognition was a matter of when, not if.
But then he added: “But the immediate challenge for the situation in the Middle East is, of course, that Hamas must release hostages. As a terrorist organisation, they must release those hostages.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Monday called for the release of the hostages, but unlike Luxon, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not made release a pre-condition for recognition.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also agreed to recognition, but like Albanese, he has not demanded the release of the hostages before recognition can be put in place.
Instead, like Peters, he is calling for democratic reforms, particularly with respect to the existing Palestine Authority, which is in control of the West Bank settlements.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has flipped the issue on its head and said Britain will recognise Palestine next month unless Israel agrees to accept a two-state solution and agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
But in New Zealand, it seems it is ACT who are calling the shots.
When asked by POLITIK what his party’s policy towards the recognition of Palestine was, ACT Leader, David Seymour, simply said, “sceptics”.
ACT MP Simon Court, speaking in the special debate in Parliament on recognition yesterday, called for the release of the hostages.
“There cannot be progress towards recognising a Palestinian State until all Israeli hostages are returned and Hamas is dismantled,” he said.
He then said that was the position our Foreign Minister had again reiterated “today.”
But Peters did not do that; it was the Prime Minister who made that demand.
And Luxon also appeared to deny that what was happening in Palestine was genocide.
The international aid organisation Médecins sans Frontières, which is widely regarded as an authoritative voice on genocide, says quite simply on its website that the war in Gaza is genocide.
“An analysis of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical data, patients’ testimonies, and first-hand medical witnessing at two MSF clinics in Gaza, Palestine, point to both targeted and indiscriminate violence by Israeli forces and private American contractors against starved Palestinians at food distribution sites run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF),” the organisation said last week.
MSF have published a report on the activities of the US-funded GHF, saying “this is not aid, it is orchestrated killing.”
Last night, the former Irish President Mary Robinson and New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, after visiting the Rafah Border crossing between Egypt and Gaza last week, issued a joint statement saying what they saw and heard underlined their personal conviction that there was an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza.
“There is an unfolding genocide,” they said.
“We saw evidence of food and medical aid being denied entry and heard witness accounts of the killing of Palestinian civilians, including children, while trying to access aid inside Gaza.
“The deliberate destruction of health facilities in Gaza means children facing acute malnutrition cannot be treated effectively.
“At least 36 children starved to death just in the month of July.
“No shelter materials have entered Gaza since March this year, and we saw huge numbers of tents ready for delivery but blocked by the Israeli authorities.
“This leaves families already displaced multiple times without protection. 96% of households face water insecurity.”
Clark said the 1948 Genocide Convention was created in the aftermath of the Holocaust to prevent this crime from ever happening again.
“But it is being flouted in word and deed by Israel in Gaza, and by powerful UN member states who are not holding Israel’s leadership to account,” she said.
It was a theme taken up by Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick during a passionate contribution to the special debate yesterday.
“There are just the bold-faced facts: we are a laggard, we are an outlier, and it is not only appalling in the face of this genocide and of the merciless slaughter of these innocent people, after having been made refugees in their own land, but we are one of the very few countries in the world who, so far, refuse to acknowledge the absolute bare minimum,” she said.
“One hundred and forty-six UN-member States currently recognise Palestinian Statehood—that is three-quarters of the United Nations membership—and so far, over the last few weeks, we have seen that the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Australia have all moved to commit their intent.
“But so far, all our Government can seem to do is commit to a process. It utterly beggars belief.”
The problem facing observers is just what New Zealand’s policy is.
Is it what the Foreign Minister says or does what appears to be ACT’s hold on the Prime Minister trump Peters.
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