New Zealand rejects Palestinian recognition

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said it is regrettable that Australia needs to be “taught a lesson on foreign policy by our cousins across the pond” after New Zealand announced it will not recognise Palestine “at this time”.

NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters told the UN General Assembly last Friday that with “a war raging, Hamas remaining the de facto government of Gaza, and no clarity on next steps, too many questions remain about the future state of Palestine for it to be prudent for New Zealand to announce recognition at this time”.

The decision put the country at odds with traditional allies including Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.

“While our government has always defended its policy of recognising Palestine by pointing out that other democracies are doing it too, it is clear there is anything but unanimity on this issue,” ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said.

“Leaving aside the firm opposition of the US, which is our most vital ally, the governments of New Zealand, Belgium, Singapore, Argentina and many others have shown a capacity for clear and independent thinking. New Zealand has rightly pointed out the madness of recognising a state while the war rages on.”

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) also hailed New Zealand’s position as ” principled, sensible and firmly “rooted in empirical realities”.

“It also seems much more firmly rooted in the empirical realities on the ground – with Hamas still holding hostages and still in control of most of Gaza, while citing recognition as an achievement for its campaign of mass murder and terror of October 7, 2023 – than the approach of countries like Australia and the UK, which insist against all evidence that their recent recognition of the currently non-existent state of Palestine somehow advanced peace,” AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said.

“The moral clarity provided by Foreign Minister [Winston] Peters and PM [Christopher] Luxon only underlines the ill-advised and counter-productive nature of the decisions on recognition taken by our own leaders, who can hopefully learn from their Kiwi colleagues in their future decision-making on these issues.”

The New Zealand Jewish Council expressed strong support for its government’s decision, with spokesperson Juliet Moses stating, “Recognition should be the outcome of real progress towards peace, not a substitute for it.”

“We note and concur with the view of Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters’ comments that recognition now would be portrayed as victory by Hamas,” Moses said.

Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand, Alon Roth-Snir, praised Peters’ announcement, saying recognising Palestine would legitimise Hamas as a political entity.

“We saw what a Palestinian state in Gaza brought us to, we saw how it was used to create tunnels of terror, tunnels of death. We saw the rockets that this entity built,” Roth-Snir told Radio New Zealand.