This week clergy (Anglican, Catholic, Baptist) have made headlines through two actions (Auckland and Wellington) seeking to press the NZ Government to extend sanctions [there are a few already against a few Israeli leaders] to press Israel to cease their war/genocide against Palestinians in Gaza (and the West Bank). Articles here, here and here.
There is a strong sense among many Christians in NZ that "enough is enough". Israel needs calling out on what it is doing, more than that, it needs pressuring against what it is doing. Hence these actions, hence our own recent diocesan synod calling for a letter to the PM and Cabinet endorsing a couple of recent statements including one which calls on sanctions: see here and here.
I am aware, of course, that such a sense of enough is enough, this must stop, is not shared by all Christians in NZ. Hamas could, for instance, surrender now - better, some months ago - in order to spare the Palestinians it professes to serve the agony, death, grief and destruction they are experiencing as Israel fulfils its intent to destroy Hamas.
Nevertheless, there is a question about what an aggressor - as Israel is in this situation - should do - ehtically - in order to pursue a particular policy goal. Are the cruel, genocidal, warring actions of the IDF the only way to destroy Hamas? That is not at all clear. Is what Israel doing, even if they do destroy Hamas, creating an environment in which present and future generations of Palestinians (to say nothing of Arab allies) will have no bitterness about their suffering, no grounds to spur future creations of new terror groups? A definite NO. Israel is sowing something which will reap future deathly consequences.
Sanctioning Israel into ending its annihiliation of Hamas, of Gaza and, in time, Palestinian life on the West Bank, could actually do Israel a favour!
Where to from here?
It will be interesting to see if the NZ Government does take some kind of new and even bold step in its response to the suffering. There are hints that a big announcement is coming when Winston Peters, our Foreign Minister, addresses the UN later this month. It may take future historians to determine whether church statements and protests have influenced the direction of our Government if there is change - other forces are at work on our Government, including other parties in our parliament, regular and sometimes massive protests on our streets, and - I suggest - a moral conscience for a Government that includes Christians.
Let's see what might happen in the next two weeks.
6 comments:
I appreciate what you've shared in this post Peter, especially as I've been off on a different tangent and not following these things. Good to hear.
I agree that it would be better for everyone for Israel to stop using violence to attack violence but I am concerned about the now general use of the word ‘genocide’. Certainly many people have been killed but trying to destroy an actual enemy who has attacked and is even now manipulating media to magnify what is happening, is not genocide in the sense of a deliberate attempt to destroy a whole people group. That happened in the Holocaust to Jews who had in no way attacked the German state or people and yet were deliberately and systematically annihilated. From what I read, the IDF makes some attempt to limit the effects of their actions even if we find that difficult to understand or accept given the amount of destruction that is occurring.
That said, maybe sanctions against Israel might work to bring an end to the war, but I seriously doubt it. It might push Israel into who knows what unimaginable decisions to preserve the only place in the world that they thought provided them with safety.
"The world's leading association of genocide scholars has declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o.amp
"UN inquiry says Israel’s war on Gaza is genocide"
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/16/first-head-of-united-nations-body-declares-israels-gaza-war-a-genocide
Rather than just single out Israel, and to some of Moya's points above, perhaps we should be focusing more attention to the much bigger threat to world peace and international law at present, and the country that keeps supplying the means by which Israel is committing genocide...
"US vetoes UN demand for ceasefire, aid access in Gaza"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/573528/us-vetoes-un-demand-for-ceasefire-aid-access-in-gaza
I've just received an emailed news article from The Washington Post (occasionally they send me a full article, this is one such):
Title: As the world frets over Palestine’s status, Israel flattens Gaza
I'll fwd it to Peter. Mark/Moya if you'd like to read it flick me an email and I'll send it to you. ~Liz
Two non-contiguous paragraphs I've selected:
"The war has inflamed public opinion in much of the world, including in Western countries with close ties to Israel. Much to Israel’s chagrin, an independent U.N. commission found there was clear evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, echoing assessments by leading international and Israeli human rights organizations."
On Wednesday, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an influential figure on the Israeli far right, touted the potential real estate “bonanza” that awaited. “We have done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal,” he said, referring to Israel’s months of bombardments of the Palestinian territory home to more than 2 million people. “Now we need to build.”
It’s such a complex situation. I agree Moya although declared a genocide by the UN I do not believe Israel’s intention is to destroy an ethnic people group from the face of the earth, such as Hamas’ M.O. to eradicate Israeli’s. However, such a description is but a label, there is little doubt currently it is a horrific situation in terms of human suffering.
While the US/Trump is definitely leading the world on a merry dance, in the case of the Israel/Palestine conflict they are not the only fuel to the fire, with Qatar harbouring and funding Hamas leadership (for years), Iran funding Hezbollah, Hammas & the Houthi’s to attack Israel (for years) and Hamas originating from the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt - there are a few people I wouldn’t mind swatting with my fly swat. Mostly Hamas I confess for what evidence have they shown that they care for the people of Gaza they claim as their own? Making money by charging residents exorbitant rates for supplies?
Ideology is a very difficult thing to combat and I doubt it can be destroyed by fighting as the Israeli Gov’t is pursuing albeit that is how the Allies ended up having to respond to Nazi ideology. And then you have newly arrived settlers in the West Bank who are purposefully attacking Arab villages and farmers with the belief they are their enemies as God gave Jews the land. Biblically as a Christian I accept God did do this yet I also reckon with the words of Jesus love your enemy, notwithstanding it doesn’t seem like many of these local Arab residents have done anything to be considered enemies. However, Jews do not believe as the followers of Jesus do so maybe indeed the words of Jesus in Matthew to the original branch of the olive tree are to have two prophetic fulfillments, ‘For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord !’”
I also fear how the ordinary Palestinian/Arab/Bedouin citizen is going to be able to forgive or recover from the sheer scale of what they have suffered without turning to violence or bitterness when this does come to a close.
While being supportive of the Palestinian cause I suspect Egypt and Jordan aren’t so keen on opening their borders to refugees because of their own security, both having previously been entangled with the Muslim brotherhood. I think you lived in Egypt +Peter is that right? Did it take Egypt a long time to extradite the Muslim brotherhood from having a strong influence over their politics?
It seems from a distance that citizens of Israel are divided about their governments approach to the conflict alongside their own grief after October 7th…
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