To its credit New Zealand has abstained in the latest round of anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations. Sponsored by the Palestinians and backed by a huge bloc of nations which are mainly Islamic, Arabic, authoritarian or dictatorial, the resolution called for the case of Israel’s ongoing “occupation” of the disputed territories to be referred to the International Court of Justice for its opinion on the ongoing conflict. Most western nations which are liberal democracies voted either against it or abstained. After applying pressure on the NZ Foreign Minister many of us were pleased that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at least did not go further and vote in favor of yet another unfair and unjust resolution. We will continue to lobby for the day when our government will join our closest western allies – United States, Australia, United Kingdom and Canada, in voting with integrity and true justice.
Part of the pressure was applied through an email campaign encouraged in the previous post and supported by other advocates for Israel. Here is another email I sent to the Minister before the aforementioned one:
16 November 2022
Dear Minister Mahuta,
May this email find you well and in good health.
I would like to quickly bring to your attention a vote coming up in the General Assembly at the UN soon. The Palestinians have lobbied for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to offer an opinion regarding Israel’s “occupation” and the legal status thereof. Such a move however is contrary to the spirit of a negotiated settlement between the two sides. As Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, stated on November 11:
“By co-opting the ICJ to impose a political decision the Palestinians are given the perfect excuse to continue boycotting the negotiating table to perpetuate the conflict…The Palestinians have rejected every single peace initiative, and now they embroil an external body with the excuse that the conflict has not been resolved – but the only reason why it has not been resolved is because of their rejectionism…They claim that they are ready to negotiate, but what they fail to mention is that they are only ready to do so if they are guaranteed 100% of their demands before they even sit down at the negotiating table.”
I was glad to see that New Zealand did not vote in favour of the resolution during the preliminary voting process but abstained. I am asking that the ministry think about going a step further and joining our allies Australia, Canada and the United States, among others, in voting against this upcoming and divisive resolution which will go before the General Assemble for the vote soon.
Thank you.
Nigel Woodley
3 Responses
Thx
It has been voiced that the UN is a terrorist organization,this is disgraceful what the UN is doing, but, one thing is for sure Israel will stand strong against this evil, with our help,our govt has to stand with Israel and make their vote count.
Cheers!