Today’s announcement by the government to designate Hamas a “terrorist” organisation is cowardly and wrong.
The United Nations and most of the rest of world does not give Hamas this designation and neither should New Zealand.
PSNA does not support any particular Palestinian resistance group – it is for Palestinians to decide the groups they support for the liberation of Palestine.
However, in the wake of the October 7th attack on Israel, and Israel’s genocidal response, New Zealand should be calling for an International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes committed on and since October 7th – including the crimes of genocide and apartheid rather than jumping the gun to blame Hamas.
At this point we don’t know the people responsible for war crimes on October 7th from the eight Palestinian resistance groups, and others, who took part in the attack on Israel. Killing civilians and taking civilian hostages are war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the ICC should find out and prosecute those responsible, in the same way the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and others involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The ICC should also investigate war crimes committed by Israel since October 7th, including the crimes of genocide and apartheid. On this basis arrest warrants should be issued for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and half his cabinet.
It’s important to point out that under international law Palestinian resistance groups have the right to take up arms against their colonial occupier, Israel, in the same way the French resistance had the right to take up arms against the Nazi occupiers of their country during WWII.
Today Israel is responsible for the longest military occupation in modern history – 76 years so far and counting. But the Luxon/Peters government stands with the occupiers against the victims of Israeli war crimes.
It’s also important to challenge the lies told about Hamas there are probably more lies spoken about Hamas than any other organisation in the world!
One of these is the lie that the Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews worldwide (For example this was one of the many lies in an opinion piece in the Post newspaper recently by Daniel Taub – in response to which the newspaper declined to print any letters)
The truth is that in the latest Hamas charter from 2017, the organisation says
“Hamas reiterates that its conflict is with the Zionist project and not with the Jews based on their religion.”
“Hamas is not fighting against the Jews because they are Jews, but against the Zionists who are occupying Palestine.”
“Hamas rejects the persecution of people or the undermining of their rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian ground.”
The 2017 Hamas charter also accepts the state of Israel based on 1967 borders – the precise same policy as the New Zealand government along with the US, the UK and most of the world!
The government is on the wrong side of history with this decision just as New Zealand governments were on the wrong side of history designating the ANC and PAC as terrorist groups and Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
