Source: Palestine Solidarity Network (PSNA)
The Palestine Solidarity Network has issued judicial review proceedings to challenge the New Zealand Superfund’s investments in companies helping to build or maintain illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
The case will be heard in the Auckland High Court on 14/15 October. The named plaintiffs are PSNA Co-Chairs, Maher Nazzal and John Minto, and Rawaa Elhanafy. The lawyers taking the case are Rodney Harrison KC and Frances Joychild KC.
Mahar Nazzal says the Superfund has investments in companies identified by the United Nations Human Rights Council as providing services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The UN list was updated in 2023 and the updated database is here in a pdf.
Nazzal says the recent report by Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese ‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’ says when Israel is committing genocide in Gaza many companies such Booking.Com and AirBnB are profiting from “occupation tourism” in Palestine.
“We look forward to the court having a thorough look at the Superfund’s investments and whether they are in line with their legal obligations”
John Minto
Maher Nazzal
Co-Chairs
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Case Summary
The New Zealand Superfund has investments in four companies listed in June 2023 by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- AirBnB
- Booking.com
- Motorola
- Alstrom
Each of these companies is deeply embedded in Israel’s illegal occupation. AirBnB and Booking.com are advertising homes for rent in illegal Israeli settlements. This encourages investors to purchase these properties and also encourages the building and expansion of these illegal settlements.
Motorola has a long lucrative history of providing technology and infrastructure to enable Israel’s mass surveillance of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as involvement in providing transport infrastructure which links the illegal settlements via racially segregated roads.
Why does this matter now?
In December 2022, Israel elected arguably its most extreme ethno-nationalist government ever. It stepped up the brutal repression of Palestinians and made clear it would not countenance a meaningful peace plan or the formation of a Palestinian state.
The new government said its “top priority” was to push ahead with more illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
In the last week of June 2023, Israeli ministers announced plans to build more than 5,000 additional houses in these illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Further expansion of these settlements in the Occupied West Bank is taking place while the world is distracted with Israel’s ongoing mass killing and mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
This “green light” to illegal Israeli settlers has resulted in a massive wave of settler attacks on Palestinians towns and villages with pogroms against the Palestinian populations – attacks which have been actively supported and assisted by the Israeli Defence Forces.
A very recent case was the killing of Awdah Hathaleen who was involved in the production of the Oscar Award winning documentary ‘No Other Land’.
Within the last two weeks Israel’s Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has approved plans for another illegal Israeli settlement which would split occupied East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank – a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The case has taken on renewed urgency with the July 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, which found Israel’s occupation of the land it captured in the 1967 Six-day War is illegal and urged signatory countries to withdraw all “aid or assistance” to Israel in maintaining its illegal occupation.
On 18 September 2024 the United Nations General Assembly voted in support of the ICJ ruling (New Zealand supported the resolution) which includes the demand:
(c) To implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to settler violence;
A further United Nations General Assembly resolution (Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine) was passed in November 2024 which also called for states
“Not to render aid or assistance to illegal settlement activities”
