{"id":49149,"date":"2025-09-29T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T01:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/49149\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T01:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T01:00:09","slug":"priests-protest-new-zealand-governments-decision-not-to-recognise-palestinian-statehood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/49149\/","title":{"rendered":"Priests protest New Zealand Government\u2019s decision not to recognise Palestinian statehood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChristianChristian leaders protest at Erica Stanford’s electorate office in Browns Bay, Auckland, on Monday. Photo \/ Common Grace<\/p>\n

The group tried to get into Stanford\u2019s office to meet with staffers, but were denied entry, Aotearoa Christians for Peace in Palestine said. <\/p>\n

The group has refused to leave until they get a timeframe on when the Government will sanction Israel<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grieved at Cabinet\u2019s collective failure to recognise Palestinian statehood and lack of meaningful action via sanctions to end the suffering,\u201d Reverend Phillipa Young, who is also a primary school teacher, said. <\/p>\n

Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters on Saturday told the UN General Assembly in New York \u201cwe are not ready\u201d to recognise Palestinian statehood. At the same time, he said the New Zealand Government still supports a two-state solution and acknowledged recognition was \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters told the UN General Assembly in New York \u201cwe are not ready\u201d to recognise Palestine. Photo \/ United Nations<\/p>\n

Peters acknowledged the \u201cgood intentions\u201d of those countries which had recognised Palestine, such as Australia, Canada and Britain, but warned it could be counterproductive.<\/p>\n

He said New Zealand would wait to recognise Palestine until \u201cconditions offer greater prospects for peace and negotiation than at present\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is, Hamas resisting negotiation in the belief that it is winning the propaganda war, while pushing Israel towards even more intransigent military positions,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has already designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

For New Zealand to recognise Palestine, Luxon said, it would require Palestinian territory to be removed from Hamas control, a return of the hostages it took on October 7, 2023, and have established governance capacity within the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is not the time,\u201d Luxon said of recognition. \u201cReally, what we need is reasonable leadership on both sides to come together to sit down and resolve this conflict, and irrespective of the position on recognition, that is the main event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christian leaders, meanwhile, say they are praying for peace and for action from the Government. <\/p>\n

\u201cJesus fed the hungry and healed the sick. That\u2019s why I must act to stop Israel\u2019s deliberate starvation and harming of people by blocking aid and bombing hospitals,\u201d Deacon Chris Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the New Zealand Government is looking to see \u2018real actions rather than rhetoric\u2019 to help end the slaughter, then they should implement carefully targeted sanctions on Israel, as was done to peacefully help end apartheid in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from T\u0101maki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian leaders protest at Erica Stanford’s electorate office in Browns Bay, Auckland, on Monday. Photo \/ Common Grace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6727,3043,42676,14134,42678,7237,305,42677,117,111,43,139,5006,69,6270,21485,42674,25394,42675,33021,33022,27051,61,13082,80],"class_list":["post-49149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-cabinet","tag-call","tag-chained","tag-decision","tag-electorate","tag-governments","tag-have","tag-ministers","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-office","tag-palestinian","tag-priests","tag-protest","tag-protesting","tag-recognise","tag-statehood","tag-themselves","tag-to","tag-trio","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49149","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=49149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}