Source: Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa – PSNA
PSNA says Minister of Defence Judith Collins’ open-letter attack on teachers, for daring to raise Palestine in their discussions with the government, says more about her own prejudices than teacher priorities.
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa Co-chair Maher Nazzal says teachers, who have devoted their lives to educating children here, would be appalled at the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian school children in Gaza.
“Teachers who are committed to the education and development of the next generation of our country would feel a special affinity with the children of another nation, who are being killed by Israeli bombing in their tens of thousands, see all their schools destroyed, and who will suffer the consequences of two years of malnutrition for the rest of their lives.”
Nazzal says, only two months ago, Collins was on television, standing next to a damaged residential building in Kiev, condemning Russia for attacks which had killed Ukrainian children.
“But not a critical word of Israel from her, or her cabinet colleagues, despite Israel just now resuming its mass bombing in Gaza.”
“Ukrainian, Palestinian and New Zealand school children all deserve protection and we should expect our government to speak up loudly in their defence, without having to have a teachers’ union raise government inaction on Gaza with them.”
“But even after 24 months of genocide, Collins won’t find the words to express New Zealand’s horror at the indiscriminate killing of school children in Gaza. But she’s in her element dog-whistling to her small choir in the pro-Israel lobby.”
“Collins has already been referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, for complicity in Israel’s genocide by facilitating the supply of military technology for Israeli use.”
“It’s more than time for Luxon to pull back his Israeli fanatic colleagues and uphold an ethical rule-based policy, and not default to blind prejudices.”
Maher Nazzal
Co-Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa – PSNA
