Asia Pacific Report
Protesting New Zealanders donned symbolic masks modelled on a Palestinian artist’s handiwork in Auckland’s Takutai Square today to condemn Israel’s starvation as war weapon against Gaza and the NZ prime minister’s weak response.
Coming a day after the tabling of Budget 2025 in Parliament, peaceful demonstrators wore hand-painted masks inspired by Gaza-based Palestinian artist Reem Arkan, who is fighting for her life alongside hundreds of thousands of the displaced Gazans.
The “bodies” represented more than 53,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s brutal 19-month war on Gaza.
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The protest coincided with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addressing the Trans-Tasman Business Circle in Auckland.
The demonstrators said they chose this moment and location to “highlight the alarmingly tepid response” by the New Zealand government to what global human rights organisations — such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — have branded as war crimes and acts of collective punishment amounting to genocide.
“This week, we heard yet another call for Israel to abide by international law. This is not leadership. It’s appeasement,” said a spokesperson, Olivia Coote.
“The time for statements has long passed. What we are witnessing in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe, and New Zealand must impose meaningful sanctions.
“Israel’s actions, including the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, and obstruction of humanitarian aid, constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of which we are signatories.”
Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick challenged Prime Minister Luxon in Parliament over his government’s response earlier this week, saying: “We’ve had lots of words. We need action.”
Luxon claimed that sanctions were in place — but the only measure taken has been a travel ban on 12 extremist Israeli settlers from the West Bank.
“This is an action that does nothing to protect the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza who face daily bombardment, siege, and starvation,” Coote said.
The protesters are calling on the New Zealand government to act immediately by:
- Imposing sanctions on Israel; and
- Suspending all diplomatic and trade relations with Israel until there is an end to hostilities and full compliance with international humanitarian law.
“This government must not be complicit in atrocities through silence and inaction,” Coote said.
“The people of Aotearoa New Zealand demand leadership as the world watches a genocide unfold in real time.”
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli strikes have killed at least 85 people in Gaza since the early hours of Thursday, according to medical sources, and casualties are continuing to mount amid unrelenting bombardments.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 29 children and elderly people who had died in recent days in Gaza had been registered as “starvation-related deaths”, and thousands more were at risk of starving.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has said it is preparing to demolish the occupied West Bank homes of two Palestinian men, Maher Samara and Jamil Samara, it has accused of assisting in the killing of an Israeli settler earlier this month.
