\u201cHis words and his speech totally focus on one side of the story and not describing the situation in Gaza, and how the genocide \u2013 and who conducted the genocide … is happening,\u201d Abdulal said. \u201cHe never addressed the horror that we have been witnessing for the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said it\u2019s a disaster and there is famine, but he did not say who made that famine, you know?<\/p>\n
\u201cWho destroyed every hospital and every school in Gaza? Who killed more than 70,000 people? He never addressed that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Government retained its \u201cwhen, not if\u201d position and committed a further $10 million in humanitarian aid for emergency supplies into Gaza, where people were dying of starvation.<\/p>\n
Christchurch resident Yasser Abdulal said Winston Peters did not address “the horror” Gaza is facing. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Abdulal said Peters\u2019 speech focused on the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants that killed 1200 and led to 251 people being taken hostage.<\/p>\n
Israel retaliated and the ongoing war in Gaza has killed 70,000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he said … is really putting New Zealand at the back of the queue, and isolating New Zealand from the United Nations and from the whole world,\u201c Abdulal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf UK, Australia and Canada, which are our allies, recognise Palestine, I mean, what\u2019s stopping New Zealand from doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n
He suggested the decision was about aligning with the United States and US President Donald Trump and said \u201cthat\u2019s not right\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, New Zealand, known with a very proud history of standing for justice, standing for women\u2019s rights, standing against South Africa apartheid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s definitely putting us at the back of the queue … keep[ing] us with those countries who … just want to please America and what America wants and Trump wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horrors in Gaza<\/p>\n
Abdulal said he had two sisters in Gaza who had been living in a tent since their house was destroyed more than a year ago.<\/p>\n
He said 55 members of his extended family had been killed in the war and keeping track of family was difficult, because they were scattered among refugee camps, friends\u2019 houses and anywhere they could survive. Many were missing.<\/p>\n
Eleven members of his extended family, including seven children, were killed in a single airstrike late last year, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one case of hundreds of hundreds of hundreds of cases that\u2019s happening every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdulal said the health of those of his family who were still alive had deteriorated significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a video call with my two sisters two months ago maybe and, when I look to their faces, you know, I just hardly stopped myself from crying, because I can see they become very older, they become very aged and their skin colour changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see [they look] like skeleton[s], you can see the bones in their faces, and you can see how much they are in despair and they are living [in] terrible conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
His sisters had tried to shield Abdulal to stop him from worrying.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when you see their faces and their clothing and their condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust imagine living in a tent for a year, where you don\u2019t have proper toilet[s], you don\u2019t have proper place[s] to shower, you don\u2019t have enough clothes, your house destroyed, everything destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Not humane\u2019<\/p>\n
The women had no means of income, but even if they did, Israeli restrictions on movement in the Gaza Strip made it impossible to get food and humanitarian aid, Abdulal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo everyone in Gaza is in despair and everyone living in terrible conditions. It\u2019s not a humane condition at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was critical of Peters\u2019 speech for not addressing the horrors.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever spoke about killing the journalists, killing the medics, doctors. Never spoke about destroying every university in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery hospital destroyed, mosques, churches, even, you know, historical places.\u201d<\/p>\n
He questioned why Israel had not been sanctioned and why New Zealand did not recognise Palestine before now.<\/p>\n
After the announcement, Peters told media several factors needed to be in place before New Zealand would recognise a Palestinian state and it was a case of \u201cwhen, not if\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all the same criteria that were laid out decades ago in Montevideo \u2013 boundaries, elected government, accepted authority \u2013 just three fundamental principles of recognition that have been going on for decades were not here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recognising a Palestinian state at this time could prove counterproductive, Peters said.<\/p>\n
Hamas had \u201ctaken enormous propaganda value\u201d from other countries\u2019 decisions to recognise a Palestinian state, while Israel had \u201csnapped to worsen the situation to intolerable levels\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Peters said the question after recognising a Palestinian state always had to be: \u201cYes, but so what happens the day after?\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who did not attend the UN General Assembly, defended the coalition Government\u2019s decision, saying the conflict in Gaza would not end by New Zealand recognising the state of Palestine at this time.<\/p>\n
Luxon said New Zealand recognised Israel\u2019s right to defend itself after October 7, but that Israel\u2019s actions since had been \u201cgrossly disproportionate and have exacerbated and prolonged the suffering of innocent civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hamas, which New Zealand had designated as a terrorist organisation, remained in control of significant Palestinian territory, as the de facto Government of the Gaza Strip, Luxon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt continues to hold Israeli hostages, reject Israel\u2019s right to exist, renounce terrorism or agree to disarm.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand could not recognise a state where terrorists played a role in Government, Luxon said.<\/p>\n
The decision was not an endorsement of Israel\u2019s position and New Zealand opposed any actions by Israel to undermine the two-state solution, he said.<\/p>\n
By RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHis words and his speech totally focus on one side of the story and not describing the situation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22191,7237,194,111,43,139,69,39995,14786,21485,6729,19762,19993,9345,41441,61,25275,6728],"class_list":["post-47630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ellen","tag-governments","tag-kiwi","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-odwyer","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian","tag-peters","tag-reacts","tag-slams","tag-speech","tag-stance","tag-to","tag-un","tag-winston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}