April 09, 2024
Peters’ Gaza blast tardy but tika
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson has welcomed Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ statement to the United Nations General Assembly condemning the Gaza war.
In his speech early this morning New Zealand time, Mr Peters accused the Security Council of failing in its responsibility and said Palestinian civilians must not be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.
He said New Zealand has grave concerns about Israel’s plans for an assault on Rafah and slammed its plans to expand illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
Ms Davidson says it’s what New Zealand should have been saying since the start of the war in which Israel has slaughtered more than 33,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children.
“We must always remember, especially as Māori, genocide did not start on Octobr 7 or 8. Oppression has been happening for decades, 75 years plus, where the people of Palestine and Gaza have kept losing their lands and territories to the state of Isreal and the UN itself has declared that illegal,” she says.
Ms Davidson says there must be an immediate unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.