- #notallmaoris
Posted by Ian M
on September 14, 2025, 11:42 pm, in reply to "Pro-Israel Maori Christians tear up Palestinian flag at far-right rally in the UK"
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https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/te_p_ti_m_ori_statement_on_gaza Te Pāti Māori Statement on Gaza Prime Minister Hipkins has been vocal in condemning HAMAS but silent on the war crimes of Israel as though Palestinian lives matter less. The bombing of hospitals, homes and churches is not self-defence. The use of white phosphorous in densely populated areas is not self-defence. Collective punishment of civilians by cutting of food, water, and medical supplies is not self-defence. The murder of 3,195 children is not self-defence. We must never buy into the narrative that peace is “unrealistic”. Global leaders, including NZ, have the ability to stop the killing of babies. It is the will that they are lack. By refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the NZ government is turning a blind eye to genocide. To turn a blind eye to injustice is to become an accomplice to that injustice. Calling for safe-zones is not enough when safe zones are being deliberately targeted – if a hospital is not safe, nowhere is safe. Aotearoa can no longer be complicit to the killing of innocent people. We can no longer provide political cover for US-funded imperialism. We can no longer act as a Pacific spy base for the Five-Eyes Alliance. The United States have poured billions of dollars into Israel’s Military and this brutal occupation will not stop as long as they continue to do so. Te Pāti Māori have called for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador until the Israel implement an immediate ceasefire. We are now adding the United States Ambassador to that list. We demand NZ do all it can to stop the killing of innocent children. Te Pāti Māori are calling on the New Zealand Government to: Demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, & expel the Israeli & United States Ambassadors until that demand is met. Recognise the State of Palestine, as we recognised the State of Israel in 1949. Demand an end the occupation, the blockade, and the continued confiscation of Palestinian land. ***** https://www.nzmaoricouncil.org/featured/appeal-for-urgent-action-on-gaza Appeal for Urgent Action on Gaza 14 May Open letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade APPEAL FOR URGENT ACTION ON GAZA Palestine Solidarity Network E te rangatira, Minister Peters, tēnā koe. The situation in Occupied Gaza has reached a further crisis point. We urge our country to speak out and join the other nations demanding humanitarian supplies into Gaza. For more than two months, Israel has blocked all aid into Gaza - food, water, fuel and medical supplies. The World Food Programme says food stocks in Gaza are fully depleted. UNICEF says children face "growing risk of starvation, illness and death". The International Committee of the Red Cross says "the humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse". Meanwhile, 3000 trucks laden with desperately needed aid are lined up at the Occupied Gaza border. Israeli occupation forces are refusing to allow them in. Starving a civilian population is a clear breach of International Humanitarian Law and a War Crime under the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court. At the International Court of Justice many countries have stood up to condemn the use of starvation as a weapon of war and to demand accountability for Israel to end its industrial-scale killing of Palestinians in Gaza. New Zealand has not joined that group. Our government has been silent to date. After 18 months facing what the International Court of Justice has described as a "plausible genocide", it is grievous that New Zealand does not speak out and act clearly against this ongoing humanitarian outrage. Minister Peters, as Minister of Foreign Affairs you are in a position of leadership to carry New Zealand's collective voice in support of humanitarian aid to Gaza to the world. We are asking you to speak on behalf of New Zealand to support the urgent international plea for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and to initiate calls for a no-fly zone to be established over the region to prevent further mass killing of civilians. We believe the way forward for peace and security for everyone in the region is for all parties to follow international law and United Nations resolutions, going back to UNGA 194 in 1948, so that a lasting peace can be established based on justice and equal rights for everyone. New Zealand has an internationally respected voice - please use it to express solidarity for humanitarian aid to Gaza, today. Nā, Ann Kendall QSM, Co-Chair NZ Māori Council & Tā Taihākurei Durie, Pou NZ Māori Council Maher Nazzal & John Minto, National Co-Chairs Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa ***** https://www.solidarity.co.nz/international-stories/defying-settler-colonialism-from-palestine-to-new-zealand Defying settler colonialism - from Palestine to New Zealand 20 Nov Far from the killing grounds of Gaza, an incredible display of defiance to settler colonialism has broken out in, of all places, New Zealand. The two projects - Israel and New Zealand’s - are linked more than many would like to think. Palestinian leaders raise their voices in support of New Zealand’s Māori people at this critical moment. New Zealand's historic week kicked off with a war cry by a wahine toa (woman warrior) in the parliament viewed by millions around the world. The trigger was a piece of legislation that had just been tabled, seeking to up-end 50 years of steady progress on legal and cross-communal understanding of indigenous Māori rights. Don’t mess with the Treaty. Uproar in the New Zealand Parliament as the Treaty Principles Bill is tabled. Dispensing with parliamentary protocol, Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke MP launched into a haka (rhythmic dance/ritual challenge) as she tore up a copy of the Treaty Principles bill. Half of New Zealand were thrilled; half were outraged. On Tuesday tens of thousands of New Zealanders of all races flooded the centre of Wellington in the largest, most colourful, song-filled protest the city has ever seen. Earlier, Palestinian leaders across Aotearoa (New Zealand) issued a joint statement calling for support for the hīkoi (march): “Over the last year, thousands of iwi Māori, Pākehā and tauiwi [non-Māori New Zealanders] have stood with us for Palestinian rights. We call on supporters of the Palestinian cause – a cause for justice, freedom and self-determination – to do what is in alignment with these values. Standing against settler colonialism in Palestine means standing against it here too.” At stake for Māori are their fundamental political, economic and social rights that are enshrined in the 1840 treaty Te Tiriti o Waitangi. These include water, fishing and land rights but also being consulted or formally represented in the nation’s major institutions. Enduring consequences for Māori of generations of land confiscations and trampling of customary rights are evidenced in significantly lower education, health, housing and social outcomes. Instead of putting the colonial period behind us, the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill suggests a continuation of settler colonial strategies. For proponents of the bill, tabled by the neo-conservative ACT party with the support of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party, this is about ensuring “all New Zealanders have equal rights” and that Parliament, not the courts, decide the fundamentals of the legal relationship between Māori and the Crown. Honour the Treaty 45,OOO people made their voices heard in the heart of Wellington. Forty-two of the King's Counsels, the country’s senior legal experts, have called on the government to abandon the bill which in their view “seeks to rewrite the Treaty itself”. Their letter states that it is not for the government of the day to reinterpret treaties, and that existing principles (including partnership, active protection, equity and redress) are "designed to reflect the spirit and intent of the Treaty as a whole and the mutual obligations and responsibilities of the parties". These principles, they say, now represent "settled law". In the words of the late Professor Whatarangi Winiata, his people face an existential challenge outlined in his book "The Survival of the Māori as a people”. He said the Crown “should pay careful attention to the development and maintenance of a respectful Tiriti-based relationship”. Using parliament to attempt to bulldoze a reinterpretation of treaty principles is quite the opposite of that. A legal agreement between an indigenous population and settlers (Crown) will be subjected to tyranny of the majority, a “popular vote” on a legal document and issues of law governing the relationship between two parties. And this is where the link to Israel is made. Local Palestinian leaders addressed New Zealand this week: “We are joined in an intergenerational and global struggle without end. Let us build the movements capable of bringing about a more just future from Aotearoa [New Zealand] to Palestine.” Noteworthy is the fact that the political parties advancing this legalistic manoeuvre are also those that are supporting fellow settler colonial Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Our government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation but has chosen not to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ even as Israel pushes into the West Bank and seeks to take part of Lebanon. Our government has sent troops to attack Yemen to help lift the Houthi blockade of Israel’s Red Sea port but it suspended funding for Palestinian victims of the US-Israel attack on Gaza (a pathetic $1 million). We exercise with the Israeli military, share intelligence, host an Israeli embassy, trade with Israel, welcome IDF soldiers for holidays but block Palestinian refugees, refuse to recognise the state of Palestine and mumble platitudes in lieu of calling genocide by its name. Wonderfully good-natured though this month's protests were, it was patently clear that Māori will not be put back in the box. One of the chants I heard throughout the day was: “Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake!” We will fight on forever and ever. It reminds me greatly of the Palestinian determination not to be erased as a people. “Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake”, was originally a defiant riposte to a call to surrender to the British and settler colonial forces at the 1864 battle of Ōrākau. Defeated, the Waikato Māori had thousands of square kilometres of land stolen from them. At Ōrākau, our white forces slaughtered Māori women and men as they attempted to flee – bayoneting the already-wounded as they lay defenceless, which I think helps partially explain the many Palestinian flags I saw during the protests. Māori in large numbers stand in solidarity with Palestine. Like the Yemeni, like the Vietnamese, like the Palestinians, like the Aborigines, like Kanaks, Africans and Native Americans, Māori know all too well what siege, slaughter and famine mean. To hear “Ka whawhai tonu matou ake ake ake” ring in Wellington’s streets is a powerful reminder that our treaty partners are not to be trod on. They are more numerous, better organised, more politicised, economically better resourced than at any time in the past 100 years – and are in absolutely no mood to be sidelined by a government that seeks to trade social cohesion for votes from the most reactionary parts of the population. If these politicians were a little smarter, they would see that imposing a “one-nation” solution is a terrible idea. Perhaps the most common placard at Māori protest events over the past 50 years has been “Honour the Treaty”. A great way to do that is to spend a decade getting us all to better understand our own history, the facts of the treaty, its nuances, the dreadful consequences for Māori of the settlers dishonouring it, and above all, to try to step outside our shoes and to understand the way our treaty partner views these things. It’s called empathy. The ACT and National Parties that govern New Zealand lack empathy for Māori, for Palestinians, for Yemeni people, for Lebanese people, for all sorts of people who do not fit within the Western worldview they grimly cling to. A better world is possible. Ka whawhai tonu matou. Ake. Ake. Ake. Eugene Doyle ***** Though there is also this organisation, further proving that it's not a unified perspective: ***** https://www.indigenouscoalition.org/articles-blog/the-mori-view-on-palestine The Māori view on Palestine The opening week of Parliament saw passionate statements from both sides of the house on the government motion on the Israel Gaza conflict. Labour MP Willie Jackson not only made clear his position on the question, but went further, claiming ownership of the Māori view on Palestine. Barely concealing his contempt, Jackson dismissed the views of hundreds of Māori who had rallied at Parliament in support of Israel. Many of “the Destiny lot”, as he called them, are in fact men and women who have turned away from abuse and dysfunction, to pursue wholesome and clean lives, living as caring parents and good citizens. They have chosen to stand with Israel for reasons of faith and alignment with values of civilisation and freedom. Thousands of Māori support Israel for the same reasons. Indeed, some Iwi have long histories of such support. In recent years, one Ngapuhi kaumatua organized several hui for Israeli ambassadors, attended by a large number of supporters. The Māori queen Dame Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu had great affection for Israel and hosted Israeli ambassadors. Further, many of the Māori prophetic movements that arose in the 19th century and early 20th centuries, including Ringatū, Iharaia, Pai Marire, the Parihaka movement, and Ratana, were inspired by the biblical Israelites and even emulated many of their religious practices. The bones of some of our tāne lie in Israel, where they fought and died to help free the land from Ottoman oppression. Yet, according to Jackson, the true Māori response was “not what you see outside”. He insists that “Māori are very much in support of the Palestinian people, always have been, always will be.” In one sense I need not dispute that. Every Israel supporter I know, Māori or otherwise, cares about the plight of the Palestinians. However, most recognise that the greatest problem in their lives is not Israel, but their own corrupt, genocidal leadership. What Jackson really espouses appears not to be support for Palestinians but rather hatred of Israel. By naming Yassir Arafat and Fidel Castro as “heroes” of Māori, we learn more about Jackson and his ilk than the issue at hand. Arafat was a mass murderer and arch-terrorist, responsible for hundreds of bombings, hijackings, assassinations and other attacks, including the 1972 Munich murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes , the 1973 murder of the American ambassador to Sudan, and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship (resulting in the murder of wheelchair-bound Jew Leon Klinghoffer). Even after he won the Nobel Peace prize (a strange choice indeed), he continued to incite, direct and fund terrorism. He launched the second intifada in which hundreds of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, were murdered in suicide bombings, ultimately leading to the erection of the infamous security fence. As for Jackson’s other “hero”, how many of his followers know that Fidel Castro established a one-party state, commonly understood to be a vicious totalitarian regime? Under Castro, hundreds of supporters of the Batista government were executed, political opponents were imprisoned and the independent media suppressed. Thousands of Cubans fled into exile. When Jackson lionizes these “heroes” and then warns of Māori “going to war”, over new government policies, is this what he has in mind? Jackson's “heroes” fit neatly with the propaganda of the Arab-Soviet alliance of the Cold War era. Indeed, the Soviets were master propagandists and developed a highly successful programme of “politically weaponized anti-Zionism”. Research Fellow, Izabella Tabarovsky writes, Many of the core tropes that animate the anti-Zionist left today are carbon copies of ideas that the KGB and the Department of Propaganda’s ideologues developed, weaponized, and popularized with particular intensity in the wake of the Six-Day War. It was most likely this latter stage of Soviet anti-Zionism that forged in popular consciousness on the far left false links between Zionism and Nazism, fascism, racism, genocide, settler-colonialism, imperialism, militarism, and apartheid. The Soviet propaganda and disinformation campaign was exported globally and found a warm reception in the Middle East and in Aotearoa New Zealand. “It built and weaponized narratives based on made-up or twisted facts. It distorted history. It employed classic propaganda tools such as deception, guilt by association, and repetition to inculcate the key messages. It shamelessly played on people’s sentiments...” (Hazan 2017: 230-93). This is an apt description of the dominant narrative of the Israel-Hamas conflict. It matters not that Israel completely left Gaza in 2005 - our Labour, Green and Māori Party MPs remain strident in their references to “occupation”. And who speaks of the offer made to Arafat in 2000: around 97 percent of the West Bank, all of Gaza and a capital in East Jerusalem? Arafat responded to the offer with a campaign of bus bombings. Hamas’s Western apologists, like Jackson, Golriz Grahaman, Marama Davidson and Debbie Ngarewa Packer, seem unwilling to acknowledge that 75 years of Palestinian rejectionism has been the primary obstacle to a peaceful resolution. Palestinian leaders simply won’t agree to living in peace with a Jewish state. Why? They want the whole of the land, from the “river to the sea”. There is no room for living Jews, much less Jewish self-determination in indigenous ancestral lands. Yes Jews are the indigenous people of the land, with more than 3,000 years of continuous presence. It was in the regions of Judea (both Jew and Judea derive from Judah, one of the twelve sons of Israel) and Samaria that the unique indigenous features of the Jewish people arose; culture, language and religious practices. Māori Party leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer also waxed lyrical in her propagation of Hamas propaganda. The lies, which included all the buzzwords - “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, even the false allegation that Israel is “using white phosphorous”, were breathtaking in their audacity. It mattered not that Hamas broke a ceasefire, started a war that it knew would provoke a massive response. Hamas could have peace tomorrow if it cared about its people more than it hated Jews, if it laid down its weapons, renounced violence and released all hostages. Rather, it prefers to pursue its genocidal agenda to annihilate all Jews. As for Willie Jackson, perhaps he should show some respect and empathy for his Jewish tupuna in view of the millennia of persecution that has been the universal experience of the Jewish people. Jackson, Ngarewa-Packer and Davidson certainly do not own the Māori view on Palestine - there is no monolithic Māori view on any subject, nor should there be. But they demean Māori by standing on the side of barbarism and depravity and by continuing to mislead their constituency. |