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Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab: The Palestine tragedy – why it should matter to you and our world

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"These outcomes don’t just happen in a vacuum. They persist because of the silence, indifference, or complicity of those who choose not to act." Image: APR montage

COMMENTARY: By Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab

As 2024 came to a close and we have stepped into a new year overshadowed by ongoing atrocities, have you stopped to consider how these events are reshaping your world?

Did you notice how your future — and that of generations to come — is being profoundly and irreversibly altered?

The ongoing tragedy in Palestine is not an isolated event. It is a crisis that reverberates far beyond borders, threatening your safety, the well-being of your children and family.

Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab
Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab . . . a powerful address in Auckland last weekend about how people in New Zealand can help in the face of Israel’s genocide. Image: David Robie/APR

Even fragile ecosystems and creatures have been obliterated and affected by the fallout from Israel’s chemicals and pollution from its weapons.

The deliberate targeting of civilians, rampant violations of international law, and the obliteration of the rights of children are not distant horrors. They are ominous warnings of a world unravelling — consequences that are slowly seeping into the comfort of your home, threatening the very foundations of the life you thought was secure.

But here’s the hard truth: these outcomes don’t just happen in a a vacuum. They persist because of the silence, indifference, or complicity of those who choose not to act.

The question is, will you stand up for a better future, or will you look away? And how could Palestine possibly affect you and your family? Read on.

Israel acting with impunity for decades
Israel has been acting with impunity for decades, flouting the norms of our legal agreements, defying the United Nations and its rulings and requests to act within the agreed global rules set after the Holocaust and the Nazis disregard for humanity.

The Germans, under Nazi rule, pursued a racist ideology to restructure the world according to race, committing crimes against humanity and war crimes that resulted in a devastating world war and the deaths of millions of people, including millions of Jews. A set of rules were formed from the ashes of these victims to ensure this horror would never happen again. It’s called international law.

However, after the Nazis defeat, it took less than a few years before atrocities began again, perpetrated by the very people who had just been brutally massacred and targeted.

European Jews, including holocaust survivors, armed by Czechoslovakia, funded by the Nazis (Havaara agreement), aided militarily by Britain, the US, Italy and France among others, arrived on foreign shores to a land that did not belong to them.

Once there, they began to disregard the very rules established to protect not only them, but the rest of humanity — rules designed to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust, safeguard against the resurgence of ideologies like Nazism, and ensure impunity for such actions would never occur again.

These rules were a shared commitment by countries to conduct themselves with agreed norms and regulations designed to respect the right of all to live in safety and security, including children, women and civilians in general. Rules that were designed to end war and promote peace, justice, and a better life for all humankind.

Rules written to ensure the sacred understanding, implementation and respect of equal rights for all people, including you, were followed to prevent us from never returning to the lawlessness and terror of World War Two.

But the creation of Israel less than 80 years ago flouted and violated these expectations. The mass murder of children, women and men in Palestine in 1948, which included burning alive Palestinians tied to trees and running them over as they lay unable to move in the middle of town squares, was only the beginning of this disrespectful dehumanisation.

Terrorised by Jewish militia
Jewish militia terrorised Palestinians, lobbing grenades into Palestinian homes where families sheltered in fear, raping women and girls, and forcing every man and boy from whole villages to dig their own trenches before being shot in the back so they fell neatly into their graves.

Pregnant Palestinian women had their bellies sliced open, homes were stolen along with everything in it — including my families — and many family members were murdered.

This included my great grandmother who was shot, execution style, in front of my mother as she carried a small mattress from our home for her grandchildren when they were forcibly displaced. I still don’t know what happened to her body or where she is buried. I do know where our house is still situated in Jerusalem, although currently occupied.

These atrocities enabled Israel’s birth, shameful atrocities behind its creation. There is not one Israeli town or village that is not built on top of a Palestinian village, or town, on the blood and bones of murdered Palestinians, a practice Israel has continued.

As I write, plans to build more illegal settlements on the buried bodies of Palestinians in Gaza have already been drawn up and areas of land pre-sold.

These horrific crimes have continued over decades, becoming worse as Israel perfected and industrialised its ability to exterminate human souls, hearts and lives. Israel’s birth from its inception was only possible through terrorist actions of Jewish militia. These militia Britain designated as terrorist organisations, a designation that still stands today.

Jewish militia such as (Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) formed into what is now known as the Israeli Defence Force, although they aren’t defending anything; Palestine was not theirs to take in the first place.

There was never a war of independence for Israel because the state of Israel did not exist to liberate itself from anyone. Instead, Britain illegally handed over land that already belonged to the Palestinians, a peaceful existing people of three pillars of faith — Palestinian Christians Muslims and Jews. If there were any legitimate war of independence, it would be that of the Palestinian people.

Free pass to act above the law
Israel continues to rely on the Holocaust’s memory to give it a free pass to act above the law, threatening world peace and our shared humanity, by using the memory of the horrors of 1945 and the threat of antisemitism to deter people from criticising and speaking out against the state’s unlawful and inhumane actions.

Yet Israel echoes the horrors of Nazi Germany and its destruction with its behaviour, the difference being the industrialisation of mass killing, modern warfare and weapons, the use of AI as a killing machine, the creation of chemical weapons and huge concentration and death camps which far surpass Germany’s capabilities.

Jews around the world have been deeply divided by Israel’s assertion that it represents all Jewish people. Not all Jews religiously and politically support Israel, many do not feel a connection to or support Israel, viewing its actions and policies as separate from their Jewish identity. For them, Israel’s claims do not define what it means to be Jewish, nor do they see its conduct as aligned with Jewish values.

This is not a “Jewish question” but a political one and conflating the two undermines the diverse perspectives within Jewish communities globally and is harmful to Jewish people. It is important to maintain a clear distinction between Judaism and the political actions of Israel.

How does a genocide across the world affect you?
The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all. This assault weakens democracy, undermines international law, and destabilises the structures you rely on for a secure future.

The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all
“The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all.” Image: Al Jazeera headline APR

It leaves your defences crumbling, your safety compromised, and your vulnerabilities exposed to the chaos that follows such lawlessness as a global citizen of this world under the same protections and with the same equality as the Palestinians.

Palestinian children are no less deserving of safety and rights than any other children. When their rights are ignored and violated, it undermines protections for children worldwide, creating a precedent of vulnerability and injustice. If violations are deemed acceptable for some, they risk becoming acceptable for all.

Sitting safely in Aotearoa does not guarantee protection. The actions of Israel and the US, Western countries — massacring and flattening entire neighbourhoods — send a dangerous message that such horrors are only for “others”, for “brown people” who speak a different language.

But Western countries are the global minority. Many nations now view the West with growing disdain, especially in light of Israel and America’s actions, coupled with the glaring double standards and inaction of the West, including New Zealand, as they stand by and witness a genocide in progress.

When children become a legitimate target, the safety of all children is compromised. Your kids are at risk too. Just because you live on the other side of the world does not mean you are immune or beyond the reach of those who see such actions as justification for retaliation.

If such disregard for human life is deemed acceptable for one people, it will inevitably become acceptable for others. Justice and equality must extend to all children, regardless of nationality, to ensure a safer world for everyone.

But why should you care?
Because Israel and the US are undermining the framework that protects you. Israel’s violations of International and humanitarian law including laws on occupation, war crimes and bombing protected institutions such as hospitals, schools, UN facilities, civilian homes and areas of safety, undermines these and sets a dangerous precedent for others to follow. Israel does not respect global peace, civilians, human rights nor has respect for life outside of its own. This lawlessness and lack of accountability is already giving other states the green light to erode the norms that protect human rights, including the decimation of the rights of the child.

The West’s support for Israel, namely the US, the UK, Canada, much of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, despite its clear violations of international law, exposes a fundamental hypocrisy. This weakens the credibility of democratic nations that claim to champion human rights and justice.

The failure of institutions like the UN to hold Israel accountable erodes trust in these bodies, fostering widespread disillusionment and scepticism about their ability to address other global conflicts. This has already fuelled an “us versus them” mentality, deepening the divide between the Global South and the Global North.

This division is marked by growing disrespect for Western governments and their citizens, who demand moral authority and adherence to the rule of law from nations in the East and South yet allow one of their “own” to brazenly violate these principles.

This hypocrisy undermines the hope for a new, respectful world order envisioned after the Holocaust, leaving it damaged and discredited.

Israel, despite its claims, has no authentic ties to the Middle East. What was once Palestinian land deeply rooted in Middle Eastern culture, has been overtaken and reshaped into to an artificial state imposed by mixed European heritage. It now stands as a Western outpost in stark contrast and isolated from surrounding Eastern cultures.

The failure of the West and the international community to stop the Palestinian genocide has begun a new period of genocide normalisation, where it becomes acceptable to watch children being blown up, women and men being murdered, shot and starved to death.

This acceptance then becomes a part of a country’s statecraft. Palestinian genocide, while it might be a little “uncomfortable” for many, has still been tolerable. If genocide is tolerable for one, then its tolerable for another.

Bias and prejudice
If you can comfortably go about your day, knowing the horror other innocent human beings are facing then perhaps it might be time to reflect on and confront any underlying biases or prejudices you hold.

An interesting thought experiment is to transform and transfer what is happening in Palestine to New Zealand.

Imagine Nelson being completely flattened, and all the inhabitants of Auckland, plus some, being starved to death.

Imagine all New Zealand hospitals being destroyed, Wellington hospital with its patients still inside is blown up. All the babies in the neonatal unit are left to die and rot in their incubators, patients in the ICU units and those immobile or too sick to move are also left to die, this includes all children unable to walk in the Starship hospital.

Electricity for the whole country is turned off and all patients and healthcare workers are forced to leave at gunpoint. New Zealand doctors and nurses are stripped down to their underwear and tortured, this includes rape, and some male doctors are left to die bleeding in the street after being raped to death with metal poles and electrodes.

Water is then shut down and unavailable to all of you. You cannot feed your family, your grandchildren, your parents, your siblings, your best friends.

Imagine New Zealanders burying bodies of their children and loved ones in makeshift mass graves, while living in tents and then being subjected to chemical weapon strikes, quad copters or small drones’ attacks that drop bombs and exterminate, shooting people as they try to find food, but targeting mostly women and children.

Imagine every single human being in Upper Hutt completely wiped out. Imagine 305 New Zealand school buses full of dead children line the streets, that’s more than 11,000 killed so far. Each day more than 10 New Zealand kids lose a limb, including your children.

This number starts to increase with the hope to finally ethnically cleanse Aotearoa to make way for a new state defined by one religion and one ethnicity that isn’t yours, by a new group of people from the other side of the world.

These people, called settlers, are given weapons to hurt and kill New Zealanders as they rampage through towns evicting residents and moving into your homes taking everything that belongs to you and leaving you on the street. All your belongings, all your memories, your pets, your future, your family are stolen or destroyed.

Starting from January 2025, up to 15 New Zealanders will die of starvation or related diseases EVERY DAY until the rest of the world decides if it will come to your aid with this lawlessness. Or maybe you will die in desperation while others watch you on their TV screens or scroll through their social media seeing you as the “terrorist” and the invaders as the “victims”.

If this thought horrifies you, if it makes you feel shocked or upset, then so too should others having to endure such illegal horrors. None of what is happening is acceptable, as a fellow human being you should be fighting for the right of all of us. Perhaps you might think of our own tangata whenua and Aotearoa’s own history.

What could this mean for New Zealand?
We are not creating a bright future for a country like New Zealand, whose remote location, dependence on trade, and its aging infrastructure, leaves it vulnerable to changing global dynamics. This is especially concerning with our energy dependence on imported oil, our dependence on global supply chains for essential goods including medicine (Israel’s pager attack against Hezbollah has compromised supply chains in a dangerous and horrific violation that New Zealand ignored), our economic marginalisation, and our security challenges.

All of this while surrounded by rising tensions between superpowers like the US and China which will affect New Zealand’s security and economic partnerships. Balancing economic and political ties is complicated by this government’s focus on strengthening strategic alliances with Western nations, mainly the US, whose complicity in genocide, war crimes, and disrespect for the rule of law is weakening its standing and threatens its very future.

Targeting marginalised groups
The precedent set in Palestine will embolden oppressive regimes elsewhere to target minority groups, knowing that the world will turn a blind eye. Israel is a violent, oppressive apartheid state, operating outside of international law and norms and has been compared to, but is much worse than the former apartheid South Africa.

This will have a huge impact felt all over the world with the continued refugee crisis. Multicultural nations such as New Zealand will struggle to cope with the support needed for the families of our citizens in need.

An increase of the far right reminiscent of Nazi ideology and extremism
Israel is a pariah state fuelled by radicalisation and extremism with an intolerance to different races, colour and ethnicity and indigenous populations. This has created a fertile ground for extremist ideologies, destabilising regions far beyond the Middle East as we have seen in Europe with the rejuvenation of the far-right movement.

Israel’s genocidal onslaughts will continue to be the cause for ongoing instability in the region, affecting global energy supplies, trade routes, and security. The Palestinian crisis will not be answered with violence, oppression and war. We aren’t going anywhere, and neither should we.

Weaponising aid and healthcare
Israel’s deliberate restriction of food, water, and medical supplies to Gaza weaponises humanitarian aid, violating basic principles of humanity. A new weapon in the arsenal of pariah states and radical violent countries and a new Israeli tactic to be copied and used elsewhere. Targeting hospitals, healthcare workers, distribution centres, ambulances, the UN, and collectively punishing whole populations has never been and will never be acceptable.

If it is not acceptable that this happens to you in Aotearoa, then nor is it acceptable for Palestinians in Palestine. It is intolerable for other “terror regimes” to commit such acts, so why is it deemed acceptable when carried out by Israel and the US?

Undermining the rights to free speech, peaceful protest and freedoms
During the covid pandemic, many New Zealanders were concerned with government-imposed restrictions that could be used disproportionately or as pretexts for authoritarian control. This included limitations on freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and privacy.

And yet Palestinians endure military checkpoints, curfews, restricted movement within and between their own territories, and the suppression of their right to protest or voice opposition to occupation — all due to Israel’s oppressive and illegal control. This is further enabled by the political cover and tacit support provided by this government’s failure to speak out and strongly condemn Israel’s actions.

Through its failure to take meaningful action or fulfil its third-party state obligations, this government continues to maintain normal relations with Israel across diplomatic, cultural, economic, and social spheres, as well as through trade. Moreover, it wrongly asserts on its official foreign affairs websites and policies that an occupying power has the right to self-defence against a defenceless population it has systematically abused and terrorised for decades.

The silencing of pro-Palestinian activists and criminalisation of humanitarian aid also create a chilling effect, discouraging global solidarity movements and undermining the moral fabric of societies. The use of victimhood to shroud the aggressor and blame the victim is a low point in our harrowed history. As is the vilification of moral activism and those that dare to stand against the illegal and sickening mass killing of civilians.

The attempt to persecute brave students standing up to Zionist and Israeli-run organisations and those supporting Israel (including academic and cultural institutions), by both trigger-happy billionaire Jewish investors and elite families and company investors whose answer to peaceful resistance is violence, demonstrates how far we have fallen from democracy and the rights of the citizen.

I find it completely bizarre that standing up against a genocide of helpless, unarmed civilians is demonised in order to protect the thugs, criminals and psychopaths that make up the Israeli state and its criminal actors, and the elite families and corporations profiting from this war.

Even here in Aotearoa, protesters have been vilified for drawing attention to Israel’s war crimes and double standards at the ASB Classic tennis tournament. Letting into New Zealand an IDF soldier who is associated with an institution directly implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity should be questioned.

These protesters were falsely labelled as “pro-Hamas” by Israeli and Western media. They were portrayed negatively, seen as a nuisance. Their messages about supporting human rights and stopping a horrific genocide from continuing were not mentioned.

The focus was the effect their chants had on the tennis match and the Israeli tennis player, who was upset. Exercising their legal rights to demonstrate, the protesters were not a security issue. Yet Lina Glushko, the Israeli tennis player, claimed she needed extra security to combat a dozen protesters, many over the age of 60, who were never in any proximity of the controversial player nor were ever a threat.

No mention that Lina Glushko lives in an illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or that she was in service from 2018-2020 during the Great March of Return. Or that this tennis player has made public statements mocking the suffering of Palestinians, inconsistent with Aotearoa’s commitment to combating hate speech and promoting inclusivity and respect.

Her presence erodes the integrity of international sports and sends a dangerous message that war crimes and human rights violations carry no meaningful consequences despite international law and the recent UNGA (UN General Assembly) and ICJ (International Court of Justice) resolutions and advisory opinions.

Allowing IDF soldiers entry into New Zealand disregards the pain and suffering of Palestinians and the New Zealand Palestinian community, dehumanising their plight. It sends a message of complicity to the broader international community, one that was ignored by most Western media.

Similarly, Israel’s attempts to not just control the Western media but to shut down and kill journalists, is not only a war crime, but is terrifying. Journalists’ protection is enshrined in international law due to the essential nature of their work in fostering accountability, transparency, and justice. They expose corruption, war crimes, and human rights abuses. Real journalism is vital for democracy, ensuring citizens are informed about government actions and global events.

Israel’s targeting of journalists undermines the rule of law and emboldens it and other perpetrators to commit further atrocities without fear of scrutiny or consequences.

The suffering of Palestinians is a human rights issue that transcends borders. Allowing genocide and oppression to continue undermines the shared humanity that binds us all.
Israel’s actions reflect the dehumanisation of an entire population and our failure to enforce accountability for these crimes weakens international systems designed to protect your family and you.

Israel’s influence is far reaching, and New Zealand is not immune. Any undue influence by foreign states, including Israel, threatens New Zealand’s sovereignty and ability to make independent decisions in its national interest. Lobbying efforts by organisations like the Zionist Federation or the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the Jewish Council and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand push policies that do not align with New Zealand’s broader public interest.

Aligning with a state that is violating rights and in a court of law on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, leaves citizens wide open to the same controls and concerns we are now seeing Americans and Europeans face at the mercy of AIPAC and Israeli influence.

Palestine is a test of the international community’s commitment to justice, human rights, and the rule of law. If Israel is allowed to continue acting with impunity, the global system that protects us all will be irreparably weakened, paving the way for more injustice, oppression, and chaos. It is a fight for the moral and legal foundations of the world we live in and ignoring it will have far-reaching consequences for everyone.

So, as you usher in 2025, don’t sit there and clink your glasses, hoping for a better year while continuing to ignore the suffering around you. Act to make 2025 better than the horrific few years the world has been subjected to, if not for humanity, then for yourself and your family’s future. Start with the biggest threat to world peace and stability — Israel and US hegemony.

What you can do
You can make a difference in the fight against Israel’s illegal occupation and violations of human rights, including the deliberate targeting of children by taking simple yet impactful steps. Here’s how you can start today:

Boycott products supporting oppression:
Remove at least five products from your weekly supermarket shopping list that are linked to companies supporting Israel’s occupation or that are made in Israel. Use tools like the “No Thanks” app to identify these items or visit the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) website for detailed advice and information.

Hold the government accountable:
Write letters to your government representatives demanding action to uphold democracy and human rights. Remind them of New Zealand’s obligations under international law to stand against human rights abuses and violations of global norms. Demand fair and equitable foreign policies designed to protect us all.

Educate yourself:
Learn about the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict, especially the events of 1948, to better understand the roots of the ongoing crisis. Knowledge is a powerful tool for advocacy and change.

Seek alternative news sources:
Expand your perspective by accessing a wide range of news sources including from platforms such as Al Jazeera, Double Down News, and Middle East Eye.

Be a citizen, not a bystander:
Passive spectatorship allows injustice to thrive. Take a stand. Whether by boycotting, writing letters, educating yourself, or raising awareness, your actions can contribute to a global movement for justice for us all.

Together, we can challenge systems of oppression and demand accountability for crimes against humanity. Let 2025 not just be another year of witnessing suffering but one where we collectively take action to restore justice, uphold humanity, and demand accountability.
The time to act is now.

Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab is a New Zealand Palestinian advocate and writer.

CPJ condemns ban on Al Jazeera – network decries bid to ‘hide the truth’

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Pacific Media Watch

The New York-based global media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned a decision by the Palestinian Authority to suspend Al Jazeera’s operations in the West Bank and called for it to be reversed “immediately”.

“Governments resort to censoring news outlets when they have something to hide,” said CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg in a statement.

“The Palestinian Authority should reverse its decision to suspend Al Jazeera’s operations and allow journalists to report freely without fear of reprisal.”

Ginsburg also strongly condemned the PA decision in a separate interview with Al Jazeera, calling for an immediate reversal of the “temporary” ban.

She described the move as “really disturbing”, but said it was not a surprise given the PA’s track record on press freedom.

Listen to Ginsberg’s full comments here.

The Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported yesterday that the PA had suspended Al Jazeera on grounds of “inciting material”.

The ban comes after the authority criticised Al Jazeera’s last week coverage of a standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in Jenin camp, located in the West Bank, according to reports.

Israel raided Al Jazeera’s Ramallah offices in September and ordered its closure for 45 days, accusing the broadcaster’s West Bank operations of “incitement to and support of terrorism”.

Israel banned Al Jazeera’s Israel operations in May, citing national security concerns.


Palestinian Authority suspends broadcast of Al Jazeera.  Video: Al Jazeera

In a statement, the Al Jazeera network has condemned the PA closure of its offices in the occupied West Bank, calling the move “consistent” with the Israeli occupation’s “practices against its crews”.

The network “considers the Palestinian Authority’s decision an attempt to dissuade it from covering the escalating events taking place in the occupied territories”, the statement said.

It added the move “comes in the wake of an ongoing campaign of incitement and intimidation by parties sponsored by the Palestinian Authority against our journalists”.

The network further called the ban “an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories”, particularly in Jenin.

Political pressure ‘from Israel’
Political pressure from Israeli authorities on the PA is likely behind the temporary ban decision, said the network’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.

“There is no doubt pressure by the Israeli authorities to ban Al Jazeera like it was banned in Israel,” Bishara said.

“The PA is foolishly and short-sightedly trying to prove its credentials to Israeli authorities . . . because they want a role in Gaza and the only way they can do that is by appeasing the Israeli occupation.”

Bishara said the suspension would fail to curtail the channel’s coverage of events in Palestine, just as it had failed to achieve the same goal in Israel.

“This is not going to stop us, this is not going to shut us up,” he said. “We question power and that’s what we do, we question the PA and every other authority in the world.”



‘Dangerous path’, says Barghouti
Also condemning the PA ban, Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the opposition Palestinian National Initiative, said the ban was “a big mistake” and “should be reversed as soon as possible”.

“I think this is a wrong decision, especially in the light of the fact that Al Jazeera . . . has been at the avant garde in exposing the crimes against the Palestinian people, and continues to do so — especially the genocide that is taking place in Gaza,” said Barghouti, who had previously served as Palestinian minister of information.

“This is an issue of freedom of expression, an issue of freedom of press, an issue of freedom of media,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that the Palestinian Authority was taking a “dangerous path” that underlines the lack of unified Palestinian leadership.

“At the end of the day, the Israeli occupation is targeting everybody, including Fatah and Hamas and everybody else,” he said.

“So our approach should be an approach of unity, encouraging freedom of expression, because at the end of the day, freedom of expression will only support the struggle against the occupation.”

Palestinian ban follows Israeli ban, killing of journalists
The PA’s temporary ban on Al Jazeera comes months after the network was banned from operating by the Israeli government.

Israel, which has sought to disrupt Al Jazeera’s coverage multiple times throughout its 18-year history, ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s offices and a ban on its broadcasting in Israel in May.

A month earlier, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law that allowed Israel to temporarily shut down foreign media outlets deemed to be security threats.

Al Jazeera condemned the move as a “criminal act” and has stood by its coverage, particularly of Israeli operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

In September, Israeli authorities shut down Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, a move decried by Amnesty International’s MENA director as a “shameless attack on the right to freedom of expression and a crushing blow for press freedom”.

Several Al Jazeera journalists and their families have been killed while reporting in the occupied Palestinian territories in recent years, including Shireen Abu Akleh, a renowned correspondent fatally shot by Israel while reporting in Jenin in May 2022.

Amid the war in Gaza, Israeli strikes have killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi, cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, and journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh.

Pacific Media Watch and news agencies.

A ‘genocidal project’ – Dr Abu-Sittah on Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health system

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Democracy Now!

Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed that close to 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s ongoing assault, but Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah estimates the true number is closer to 300,000.

“This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project,” says Dr Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza for more than a month treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals.

Israel continues to attack what remains of the besieged territory’s medical infrastructure.

The last photograph of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, before he arrested and abducted by Israeli forces
The last photograph of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, before he was arrested and abducted by Israeli forces . . . he is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, a place notorious for the torture and deaths of detainees. Image: @jeremycorbyn screenshot APR

On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others. On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s last major functioning hospital, and set the facility on fire.

Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather.

The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown. [Editor: He is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, a place notorious for the torture and deaths of detainees].

“It’s been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable,” says Abu-Sittah.

“On October 7, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross.”


‘A genocidal project’.          Video: Democracy Now!

Transcript
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where a sixth baby has died from severe cold as the death toll tops 45,500 and Israel’s assault on medical infrastructure continues in the besieged territory.

On Sunday, an Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others.

On Friday, Israeli troops stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s last major functioning hospital.

The director of Kamal Adwan, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested, [and he is reportedly being held in the Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert, a place notorious for the torture and deaths of detainees].

Many staff and patients were reportedly forced to go outside and strip in winter weather. This is nurse Waleed al-Boudi describing Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s arrest.

WALEED AL-BOUDI: [translated] Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was arrested from Al-Fakhoura School after he had stayed with us and refused to leave. Even though they told him to and that he was free to go, he told them that he won’t leave his medical staff.

He took all of us and wanted to get us out at night. But they yelled at him and arrested him, a man of great humanity.

We appeal to the entire world, all of the world, all the human rights organiSations to stand by Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the great man, the man who planted, within us and within our hearts, patience so we can persevere in our steadfast north.

I swear we wouldn’t have left, but by force. We cried blood on the doors of Kamal Adwan Hospital when we were forced out by the occupation army.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: A person who was with Dr Hussam Abu Safiya shared testimony that, quote, “The Israeli forces whipped Dr Hussam using an electrical wire found in the street after forcing him and others from the medical staff to remove their clothes”.

This is Dr Hussam Abu Safiya in one of his final interviews before being detained, produced by Sotouries.

DR HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] I always say the situation requires one to stand by our people’s side and not run away from it.

Gaza is our homeland, our mother, our beloved and everything to us. Gaza deserves all of this steadfastness and deserves all of the sacrifices.

It is not just about Gaza, but we deserve to be a people that deserves freedom just like every other people on Earth.

I think the occupation wants us to get out and for us to ask them to get us out, so they can publicly say that the healthcare system is the one asking to leave and that it wasn’t them who asked us to, but we are aware of that.

But we will not leave, God willing, from this place, as I said, for as long as there are humanitarian services to be provided to our people in the northern Gaza Strip.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Dr Hussam Abu Safiya in one of his last interviews before Israeli forces arrested him on Friday in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital along with at least 240 others in a raid which left the hospital nonoperational.

Israel’s military alleged that Hamas militants were using Kamal Adwan Hospital [But have never provided evidence for their claims].

The World Health Organisation is calling on Israel to end its attacks on Gaza hospitals. Earlier today, the World Health Organization’s chief, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said: “People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”

Last week, World Health Organisation spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris was asked on Channel 4 News whether there was any evidence of the Israeli claim that the hospital is a Hamas stronghold.

DR MARGARET HARRIS: So, whenever we send a mission, we go and we look at the health situation.

Now, I’ve not had at any point our healthcare teams come back and say that they’ve got any concerns beyond the healthcare, but I should say that what we do is look at what the health situation is and what needs to be done.

But all we’ve ever seen going on in that hospital is healthcare.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, for more, we go to Cairo, Egypt.

AMY GOODMAN: Nermeen, thanks so much. I am here with a man who knew Dr Abu Safiya well and is in constant contact with people on the ground in Gaza, particularly the medical professionals.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is with us here, British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon. He worked last year in Gaza for almost — for over a month with Médecins Sans Frontières — that’s Doctors Without Borders (MSF) — in two hospitals. He worked at Al-Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza, as well as Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Welcome to Democracy Now! You’ve been in touch with family of Dr Abu Safiya. If you can talk about where he is right now, believed to have been arrested by the Israeli military, and then the crisis just right now on the ground with the closing of Kamal Adwan and more?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, unfortunately, the family is afraid that he has been moved to the infamous Sde Teiman torture camp, an internment camp where, before him, Dr Adnan al-Bursh was tortured, and tortured to death, Dr Iyad Rantisi was tortured to death, where there is documented evidence of not just Israeli guards taking part in torture, but even Israeli doctors taking part in the torture of Palestinians.

And so, that is the fear that not just the family has, but all of us have.

And what we’ve seen in this process, in this destruction, systematic destruction of the health system, with the total destruction of all of the hospitals in the north, so not just Kamal Adwan, before that, the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital, and, immediately after, the targeting of al-Wafa Hospital and then the targeting again of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which was the first hospital the Israelis targeted on the October 17.

The targeting of al-Wafa Hospital was intended to kill medical students from Gaza’s Islamic University who were sitting in exam in that hospital. And luckily for them, the Israelis got the wrong floor. And then the targeting of Al-Ahli Hospital, which is now the last hospital functioning in that whole arbitrarily created northern part of Gaza, is a sign that the Israelis will now move towards the Ahli Hospital for destruction.

I just want to highlight there is research that is about to be published that shows that the chances of being killed as a nurse or a doctor in Gaza during this genocidal war is three-and-a-half times that of the general population.

So it’s been obvious from the beginning that Israel has been wiping out a whole generation of health professionals in Gaza as a way of increasing the genocidal death toll but also of permanently making Gaza uninhabitable.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, you, of course, as we mentioned, as Amy mentioned in the introduction, you have worked in two Gaza hospitals. You’ve just talked a little bit about what’s recently — the recent Israeli attacks on medical infrastructure in Gaza, but if you could explain, just to give a sense of what’s happened overall since October 7, 2023.

If you could say the scale of the destruction of medical infrastructure, as well as the systematic attacks on medical personnel, as you said, this new research that’s coming out that shows that they’re three to four times more likely to be killed than the general population?

So, if you could just say, begin from October 2023 to now?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, what happened on October 12th is that the Israeli army started to call by phone medical directors of all of the hospitals, telling them that unless they evacuated the hospitals, the blood of the patients would be on their hands.

And I remember that day I was with Dr Ahmed Muhanna from Al-Awda Hospital, who’s still been arrested now for over a year, an anesthetist and a medical director, and he received a phone call from the Israeli army to tell him to evacuate Al-Awda Hospital.

Of course, we realised at that point that the destruction of the health system was going to be a prerequisite for the kind of ethnic cleansing that the Israelis wanted in Gaza.

I was in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on the day of the October 17, when the Israelis bombed that hospital, killing over 480 patients. And then we had the whole narrative about Shifa Hospital, the siege of Shifa Hospital, the destruction of three pediatric hospitals in the north, and then the first attack on Shifa Hospital.

And then, after that, 36 hospitals in Gaza have now been reduced to the three partially working hospitals in the south and only a remnant of Al-Ahli Hospital in the north. We have had over a thousand health workers — doctors, nurses, health professionals — killed, over 400 imprisoned, and then the destruction of the health infrastructure, the destruction of water and sewage, the use of water as a tool of collective punishment in order to create the public health catastrophe that exists in Gaza in terms of infectious diseases, and the intentional famine.

And so, at the moment, we have in Gaza what the doctors are referring to as the triad of death: hypothermia because of the winter, wounding because of the injuries, and malnutrition.

And with the three, what happens is that people die of at higher temperatures, people die of lesser injuries, because the coexistence of these three conditions means that the body is depleted of any physiological reserve.

And so, that’s why we’re watching over seven kids in the last week die of hypothermia, an adult nurse die of hypothermia, not because the temperatures are subzero — the temperatures are just hovering above zero — but because they’re so malnourished and they’re injured and a lot of them have infectious diseases, and so they’re dying at the same time.

Israel has created a genocidal machine that takes Palestinian lives beyond the injury, beyond the bombs, beyond the shrapnel.

And so people are dying of infectious diseases. People are dying because of the health system has collapsed, and so their chronic diseases become medical emergencies. And people are dying from the famine and the malnutrition.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, in light of that, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, if you could comment on the fact that so many people now, an increasing number of people, are questioning this death toll of 45,500, over that number who have been killed in Gaza since or who have died in Gaza since October 2023?

People are saying that is a vast undercount. From what you’re saying, that seems almost certain. If you could comment as a medical professional? You know, what do you think might be a more accurate figure?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, 45,000 are people whose bodies were taken to a Ministry of Health hospital, and they were taken by people who witnessed or who recognised them, and a death certificate was issued.

This 45,000 excludes the tens of thousands who are still under the rubble, more so in the north, where the emergency services were targeted by the Israelis and so are now completely unable to function.

And so, we see pictures of dogs eating bodies of those killed in the streets. Not only people under the rubble, people who have been killed and not reported, or their bodies have not been retrieved.

When you drop 2000-pound bombs, there’s very little of the human body that is left. And so there are people who literally pulverized by these bombs.

Then you have those whose chronic illnesses, once untreated, became deadly, so the kidney dialysis patients, the heart disease patients, the diabetics, who were no longer able to get treatment.

It doesn’t take into account the women who are dying from maternal care, from obstetric injuries during delivery, because they’re delivering in makeshift hospitals, they’re delivering in the tents, and they’re malnourished when they give birth, and so them and their babies have a higher rate of maternal mortality, of infant mortality.

And then you have those who are dying of infectious diseases, of the thousands who have hepatitis at the moment, of the polio, and those who are dying not immediately from their injuries but from the wounds that do not have access to healthcare to stop the infection setting in, and then, eventually, the infection becoming sepsis and killing them.

The number is closer to 300,000. This is around 10 to 12 percent of Gaza’s population.

France, at the end of the Second World War, 4 percent of its population were killed. This is literally and mathematically a genocidal project.

This is not a political term. This is a literal and mathematical term, where you want to eliminate the population and to ensure that whoever is left is incapable of becoming part of a society, because they’re tending to their wounds or they’ve been so severely debilitated by the injuries and the neglected injuries.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr Abu-Sittah, you have asked, “How can a live-streamed genocide continue unhindered?” What is your response to that question right now?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: Right now with the arrest of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, where is the British Medical Association? Where is the American Medical Association? Where are the royal colleges? Where is the French Medical Association?

Western medical institutions, their moral bankruptcy has become so astounding during this genocide. For them to become part of a genocidal enablement apparatus, for their silence and, in a lot of times, their collusion to silence those who speak out against the genocide.

For me, as a health professional, you’re shocked at how completely empty of any moral value these medical associations have become, when they have become complicit in a televised genocide which targets doctors.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, I’m speaking to you here in Cairo. In May, Germany did not allow you in to speak. You are a British Palestinian doctor.

Since you were in Gaza last year, you’ve been speaking out about what’s happening. Explain exactly what happened. I mean, Human Rights Watch and other groups were demanding that this ban be lifted. They banned you from where?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, I was invited to speak at a conference in Germany. I was stopped at Berlin Airport and was told that I’m banned from going into Germany for a month, and I was deported at the end of that day back to the UK.

A few months later, I had an invitation from the French Senate. When I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I discovered that the Germans, a few days after they deported me, had put in a ban for the whole of the Schengen — and Schengen is the EU plus Norway, plus Sweden, plus Switzerland — using an administrative law so that they wouldn’t have to put it in front of the judge. We then were able to challenge that and have it overturned.

But at the same time, pro-Israel groups, like UK Lawyers for Israel, submitted multiple complaints against me with the General Medical Council to have my medical licence removed, submitted complaints against me with the Charity Commission in the UK to have me banned for life from ever holding office in a UK registered charity.

This is what — this is why this genocide has continued unhindered and unchallenged for over 14 months. There are apparatus of genocide enablement that exists in the West, either through collusion or by actively targeting.

Over 60 doctors in the UK have had complaints against them with the General Medical Council to have their medical licences removed as a result of their support of the Palestinians during the genocide.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Dr Abu-Sittah, Jimmy Carter died yesterday at the age of 100. He wrote the book in the 2000s, which is quite amazing, but after he was president, Palestine: Peace [Not] Apartheid. I’m going to rejoin Nermeen for the end of the show, an interview I did with him on that issue. But your thoughts on President Carter?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: The logic of the relationship between the Zionist colonialist movement and the Palestinian indigenous population has always been that of elimination.

At a certain point — and that’s unfortunately now behind us since the 7th of October — apartheid separation was the chosen method of elimination of the Palestinians. On the 7th of October, the Israelis crossed that genocidal Rubicon that settler-colonial projects cross.

And once the genocidal Rubicon is crossed, the elimination of the indigenous population by the settler-colonial project then purely becomes genocidal.

Israel, even at the end of this genocidal war in Gaza, will not be able to deal with the Palestinians in a nongenocidal way. Once the settler-colonial project becomes genocidal, it cannot undo itself.

We’ve seen that in North America with the killing of the children in Canada. We’ve seen that in Australia. We’ve seen that everywhere.

AMY GOODMAN: And Carter, again, as we just have 30 seconds, writing the book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: Well, Carter had a historic opportunity to change the course of this struggle, had he insisted that part of the Camp David Accords was the creation of a Palestinian state. And no amount of recantation will ever change that missed opportunity.

He could have forced on the Israeli government, and the first right-wing Israeli government at that point, under Begin — he could have forced the creation of a Palestinian state, but he failed to do that.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And finally, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, we just have 30 seconds. You just said that a genocidal settler-colonial project cannot undo itself. How do you see this ending, then?

DR GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: You see, the world has a choice, because surplus populations like the Palestinians, like refugees crossing the Mediterranean, like the poor people in the favelas and in the inner-city slums, these will either be dealt with through a genocidal project, as Israel has dealt with the Palestinians in Gaza — and this kind of response or this kind of template will become part of the military doctrine that is taught to armies across the world in dealing with these surplus populations.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, thank you so much for joining us, a British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who worked in Gaza as a volunteer with Doctors without Borders treating patients at both Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Amy will rejoin us for our last segment talking about her interview with former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100.

This article/transcript is republished from Democracy Now! under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Licence.

Killing of five Gaza journalists by Israel strike highlights weak NZ media genocide response

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David Robie
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By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch

My message today is really simple but brutal.

Israel kills the journalists deliberately. This is unprecedented. The Western media — including here in Aotearoa New Zealand — kills the truth about genocide in Gaza.

On Boxing Day, an Israeli air strike killed five Palestinian journalists in a clearly marked white vehicle outside a hospital in central Gaza.

201 Palestinian journalists killed in Israel's war on Gaza
201 Palestinian journalists killed in Israel’s war on Gaza . . . an Anadolu Agency compilation of the media workers wiped out by the Israel military, many of them targeted and some with their families also becoming victims. Image: Anadolu Ajensi

The journalists from the Al-Quds Today TV channel were outside the al-Awada Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp when their satellite broadcast van was struck by a pre-dawn Israeli strike.

Video footage that went viral showed the van with the words “PRESS” clearly marked in red block letters engulfed in flames.

Middle East Eye reporter Hani Aburezeq said from the scene: “The van was entirely burnt and destroyed. It was fully engulfed in flames.”

The slain journalists were – let’s honour their names — Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.

Jadi had gone to the hospital with his wife who was giving birth to their first child. He had gone out to check on the car and his mates when it was bombed.

Baby born on day father died for ‘truth’
Imagine that, the baby was born on the very day his father died while doing his job as a journalist — reporting the truth.

It is another cruel example of the tragic lives lost in this genocide by Israel which has killed more than 45,400 people, mostly women and children.


Al Jazeera’s report on the journalist killings. Video: AJ

Just last week, four other journalists were killed over two days. And now the total is 201 Palestinian journalists killed since 7 October 2023.

This is by far the highest death toll of journalists in any war or conflict.

By comparison, in the six years of the Second World War only 69 journalists were killed.

And in 20 years of the Vietnam War, just 63 journalists were killed.

Al Jazeera reports that Israel, which has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza except on military embeds with the Israeli “Defence” Forces (IDF), which is increasingly being dubbed by critics as the Israeli “Offence” Forces (“IOF”), has been condemned by many media freedom organisations.

Samoan Palestine decolonisation activist Michel Mulipola
Samoan Palestine decolonisation activist Michel Mulipola . . . speaking at today’s Auckland rally about the 95th anniversary of the Black Saturday Mau massacre by NZ forces in Samoa. Image: APR

Gaza ‘most dangerous region’
The besieged enclave is now regarded as the “most dangerous region of the world” for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders in its annual report.

New Zealand journalist and author Dr David Robie
New Zealand journalist and author Dr David Robie . . . critical of New Zealand media’s role over the Gaza genocide. Image: Del Abcede/APR

Al Jazeera itself was banned by Israel in May from reporting within the country, and was subsequently barred from reporting within the occupied West Bank and the closure of the Ramallah bureau in mid-September.

Israel has tried to silence Al Jazeera previously in by threatening it in 2017, bombing its broadcast office in Gaza in 2021, and assassinating celebrated journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 and other reporters with impunity.

Al Jazeera, TRT News and many independent news outlets as Democracy Now!, The Intercept, Middle East Eye and The Palestine Chronicle stand in contrast to mainstream media such as BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post that have frequently been called out in investigative reports for systemic bias against Palestine.

Among the poignant messages from Palestinian journalists documenting this war are Bisan Owda, who signs on her video reports every day with “I’m still alive”.

But I would like to share this reflection from another journalist, videographer Osama Abu Rabee who says on his X news feed that he is “capturing the untold stories of resilience and hope”. He said in one post this week:

Kia Ora Gaza facilitator Roger Fowler (in hat)
Kia Ora Gaza facilitator Roger Fowler (in hat) . . . a heartyfelt tribute by Gaza survivor Dr Abdallah Gouda for his many years of support for the Palestine freedom cause, including with the Freedom Flotilla and his resistance music. Image: APR

‘Moments away from death’
“One of my most vivid memories is when three journalists and I were in Eastern Jabalia and we needed to connect our e-sims to edit and upload content of a massacre.

“We went to a room but the connection wasn’t good so I suggested we go into another room. Less than 5 minutes later, the room we had been in got bombed.

“People came over running thinking that we were killed but luckily there were only injuries.

“This was one of the many times that I was moments away from death. I know that I’m targeted as a Palestinian but also as a journalist.

“Every single day I step out of my house and put on my ‘press’ vest and I look behind at my family, I’m not sure if I’ll see them again.

“I hope you understand the risks we are taking to show you the truth.

“Even 15 month later, we continue to go out every single day  and document the horrors that people in Gaza experience.

“We do this so that when God asks what you do, we respond with ‘we did what we could’.”

David Robie's speech on X
David Robie’s media speech on X – @CrowdvBank

NZ media’s role shameful
Can journalists and the media in Aotearoa New Zealand say with hand on heart that “we did what we could” in the face of this genocide?

Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab
Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab . . . powerful address in how people in New Zealand can help in the face of Israel’s genocide. Image: APR

Of course not, the role of New Zealand media has been shameful, apart from notable exceptions such as Gordon Campbell.

It has failed to hold the Christopher Luxon coalition government to account over its pathetic inaction over the genocide.

It has failed to press the government into taking a stronger and more principled stance at the United Nations to call for sanctions against the apartheid and genocidal regime, or to even expel Israel from the global chamber — or the ambassador from Wellington.

It has failed to argue for New Zealand to join the South African-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Take Ireland, a smallish country like New Zealand, as an inspirational example. Earlier this month, Ireland responded immediately to the closure of Israel’s embassy in Dublin by opening a Palestinian museum on the premises.

Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned Israel’s genocidal actions, particularly against children and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to human rights and international law.

He said Ireland would not be silenced over Israel. He continued:

“You know what I think is reprehensible? Killing children, I think that’s reprehensible.

“You know what I think is reprehensible? Seeing the scale of civilian deaths that we’ve seen in Gaza.

“You know what I think is reprehensible? People being left to starve and humanitarian aid not flowing,”

Silence of the news media
Have we ever had such a courageous statement like this from our Prime Minister. Absolutely not.

It is shameful that our government has not taken a stand.

And it is shameful that the New Zealand media has been so silent over this most horrendous episode of our times — genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in front of our very eyes for 15 months.

To my knowledge, journalists in Aotearoa have not made even made statements of solidarity with the journalists of Gaza and their horrific sacrifice to bear witness to the truth.

I made a plea for such a stand last January and it was ignored. Australia is making a better job of challenging the status quo.

New Zealand journalists have already “normalised” the genocide. Shameful.

Dr David Robie is convenor of Pacific Media Watch and editor of Asia Pacific Report. This was first presented as an address to a Palestinian solidarity rally in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Komititanga Square in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau on 28 December 2024.

A banner condemning New Zealand media for being "silent and complicit"
A banner condemning New Zealand media for being “silent and complicit” over Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Image: APR

Gaza Christians pray for end of Israeli war’s ‘death and destruction’

By
Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Asia Pacific Report

Silent Night is a well-known Christmas carol that tells of a peaceful and silent night in Bethlehem, referring to the first Christmas more than 2000 years ago.

It is now 2024, and it was again a silent night in Bethlehem last night, reports Al Jazeera’s Nisa Ibrahim. Not because of peace. But a lack of it.

Israel’s war on Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank has frightened away visitors who would traditionally visit Bethlehem at this time of year.

Her full report is here.

Meanwhile, in Gaza City, hundreds of Christians gathered at a church on Christmas Eve, praying for an end to the war that has devastated much of the Palestinian territory.

Gone were the sparkling lights, the festive decorations and the towering Christmas tree that had graced Gaza City for decades.

The Square of the Unknown Soldier, once alive with the spirit of the season, now lies in ruins, reduced to rubble by relentless Israeli air strikes.

Amid the rubble, the faithful sought solace even as fighting continued to rage across the Strip.

“This Christmas carries the stench of death and destruction,” said George al-Sayegh, who for weeks has sought refuge in the 12th century Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius.

“There is no joy, no festive spirit. We don’t even know who will survive until the next holiday.”

‘Christ still in the rubble’
On Friday, the Palestinian theologian and pastor Reverend Munther Isaac delivered a Christmas sermon at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, in occupied West Bank — the birthplace of Jesus — called “Christ Is Still in the Rubble.” He said in this excerpt from Democracy Now!:

‘“Never again” should mean never again to all peoples. “Never again” has become “yet again” — yet again to supremacy, yet again to racism and yet again to genocide.

‘And sadly, “never again” has become yet again for the weaponisation of the Bible and the silence and complicity of the Western church, yet again for the church siding with power, the church siding with the empire.

‘And so, today, after all this, of total destruction, annihilation — and Gaza is erased, unfortunately — millions have become refugees and homeless, tens of thousands killed.

‘And why is anyone still debating whether this is a genocide or not? I can’t believe it. Yet, even when church leaders simply call for investigating whether this is a genocide, he is called out, and it becomes breaking news.

‘Friends, the evidence is clear. Truth stands plain for all to see. The question is not whether this is a genocide. This is not the debate. The real question is: Why isn’t the world and the church calling it a genocide?

‘It says a lot when you deny and ignore and refrain from using the language of genocide. This says a lot. It actually reveals hypocrisy, for you lectured us for years on international laws and human rights. It reveals your hypocrisy.

‘It says a lot on how you look at us Palestinians. It says a lot about your moral and ethical standards. It says everything about who you are when you turn away from the truth, when you refuse to name oppression for what it is. Or could it be that they’re not calling it a genocide?

‘Could it be that if reality was acknowledged for what it is, that it is a genocide, then that it would be an acknowledgment of your guilt? For this war was a war that so many defended as “just” and “self-defense.” And now you can’t even bring yourself to apologise . . .

‘We said last year Christ is in the rubble. And this year we say Christ is still in the rubble. The rubble is his manger. Jesus finds his place with the marginalised, the tormented, the oppressed and the displaced.

‘We look at the holy family and see them in every displaced and homeless family living in despair. In the Christmas story, even God walks with them and calls them his own.’


Christ is still in the Rubble – Reverend Munther Isaac’s Christms message.   Video: Reverend Isaac

Story of Jesus one of oppression
“Pastor Isaac joined journalist host Chris Hedges on a special episode of The Chris Hedges Report to revisit the story of Christmas and how it relates to Palestine then and now.

He wasted no time in reminding people that despite the usual jolly associations with Christmas, the story of Jesus Christ was one of oppression, one that involved the struggle of refugees, the rule of a tyrant, the witnessing of a massacre and the levying of taxation.

“To us here in Palestine,” Reverend Isaac said the terms linked to the struggle “actually make the story, as we read it in the Gospel, very much a Palestinian story, because we can identify with the characters.”

Journalist Hedges and Reverend Isaac invoked the story of the Good Samaritan to point out the deliberate blindness the world has bestowed upon the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza in the midst of the ongoing genocide.

The conclusion of the [Good Samaritan] story is that there is no us and them, Reverend Isaac told Hedges.

“Everybody is a neighbour. You don’t draw a circle and determine who’s in and who’s out.”

It was clear, Reverend Isaac pointed out, “the Palestinians are outside of the circle. We’ve been saying it — human rights don’t apply on us, not even compassion.”

Pope calls for ‘silence of arms’ in Gaza
In his Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address yesterday at the Vatican, Pope Francis denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza while appealing for the release of captives and a ceasefire in the war-torn coastal enclave.

He also appealed for peace in Ukraine and Sudan, reports Al Jazeera.

“I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave. May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war,” he said.

Israel has killed at least 45,361 Palestinians in its war on Gaza and wounded 107,803 since October 7, 2023, the day a Hamas-led operation was launched into Israel during which 1,139 people were killed and about 200 were taken captive.

The nativity scene on Christmas Eve in New Zealand's St Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland last night
The nativity scene on Christmas Eve in New Zealand’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland last night . . . no mention of Bethlehem’s oppression by Israel and muted celebrations, or the Gaza genocide in the sermon. Image: Asia Pacific Report

Eugene Doyle: Christ wasn’t born in a stable so that Palestinians could be born in tents

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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A recreated Christian nativity scene in Suva, Fiji
A "Christ in the Rubble" nativity scene recreated by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre (FWCC) in Suva, Fiji . . . peacefully replicating Bethlehem and representing Gaza's "hell on earth". Image: FWCC screenshot APR

COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

I have just attended a wonderful Christmas concert at St Mary of the Angels in Wellington – the Bach Choir, the Chiesa Ensemble and excellent soloists sent a thrill through my body. The final piece, Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, triggered these thoughts.

The Gloria, of course, is a traditional element of the Catholic mass, and the maestro’s version is one of the Christmas favourites. But in 2024, in the midst of the Gaza genocide, surely Christian observance means more than, for example, turning up to church, enjoying the choir, and having a cup of tea and a scone.

How then should Christians translate Gloria in excelsis Deo?

Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest.

The best way to venerate is to emulate. Which is why the American Christians like to ask themselves: “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do?) — quite a practical question. The curious part is they come up with the craziest answers.

American bombs, delivered by Israeli soldiers, have torn thousands of Palestinian children apart. Thousands today need new artificial limbs. Most, for want of Christian charity, will never get them.

A year ago, in the early days of these crimes against humanity, I heard the best and wisest sermon of my life by Palestinian minister Reverend Munther Isaac, delivered in the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. He titled his sermon “Christ in the rubble” .


Christ in the Rubble sermon, Christmas 2023.  Video: Democracy Now!

Fearing not just for Gaza but for all of Palestine and what will come next, he said:

“We are tormented by the silence of the world.

“Leaders of the so-called Free World lined up one after the other to give the green light to this genocide against a captive population.”

“Here we confront the Theology of Empire,” he said, a theology that enlists even the Bible to justify killing men, women and children on an industrial scale. A year later, hundreds are still being killed every week. All means of existence are being denied the people of Gaza.

Jurists and scholars from one end of the earth to the other say we are witnessing genocide. Do you think Jesus Christ would approve of such conduct by an all-powerful army supported by the richest Christian-majority nations?

Recall his righteous rage when he drove the moneychangers from the temple; their transgression is small-change compared to what is being done to the children of Gaza.  WWJD?

Babes of Bethlehem
Babes of Bethlehem . . . A version of this article first appeared as “Babes of Bethlehem & Gaza” in the New Zealand Catholic magazine Tui Motu. Image: www.solidarity.co.nz

Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. And peace on earth to people of good will.  

Jesus, a Palestinian, died a violent death at the hands of a colonial regime working in concert with local elites. We know where his sympathies would lie today — with the refugees, the starved, the sick, the persecuted.

When confronted with something on this scale, it is important we refrain from despair or helplessness. We can be part of building a global movement of solidarity with suffering humanity.

  1. This is a time for activism eg, join demonstrations in support of Palestine. They bring good people of all faiths and outlooks together.
  2. Tell your bank and your stockbroker (if you have one) to divest from Israel. If you are an ASB customer, check out the Don’t Bank on Apartheid campaign.
  3. Donate to organisations like Justice for Palestine.
  4. Gift books on Palestine for Christmas. I recommend The 100 Years War on Palestine by Palestinian American writer Rashid Khalidi and A Very Short History of the Israel–Palestine Conflict by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe.
  5. Expand your news sites. Al Jazeera is the best mainstream media site. Jadaliyya.com is edited by distinguished scholar Mouin Rabbani. Middle East Eye and Middle East Monitor are more informative than our major news sites.
  6. Write to Parliamentarians, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters, about your concerns, eg, that it is time to
    1. join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ;
    2. expel the Israeli ambassador in protest;
    3. take our US ally to task for their part in the genocide;
    4. call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire;
    5. withdraw NZ troops from Operation Prosperity Guardian;
    6. call on New Zealand to live up to its obligations under the International Court of Justice ruling 19th July 2024 “not to recognise as legal the unlawful presence of Israel in the Occupied Territories and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation”; and
    7. restore and massively increase funding to UNRWA and to condemn attacks on the United Nations and to call genocide by its name.

Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Thou who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

Jesus was not born in a stable so that thousands of Palestinians could be born in tents.

If God so loved the world, do we imagine God would approve of the satanic violence being meted out to 2.3 million Palestinians this Christmas?

Would God forgive the leaders of all the Western governments, including New Zealand’s, who have actively supported this daily slaughter of the Innocents?

The Babe Jesus isn’t the only baby we should be caring about this Christmas. All people of goodwill need to oppose these crimes and do all we can to bring to a close Israel’s war on Palestinians.

Miserere nobis. Have mercy upon us. 

Come on, people, let us support the Palestinian people in their hour of need.

Amen

Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz He is a lapsed Catholic who has maintained lifelong contact with some of the nuns who played an influential part in his upbringing.

The closest thing Australian cartooning had to a prophet: the sometimes celebrated, sometimes controversial Michael Leunig

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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By turns over his long career, Michael Leunig was a poet, a prophet and a provocateur
By turns over his long career, Michael Leunig was a poet, a prophet and a provocateur . . . his greatness lay in how intensely he made his audiences think and feel. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

ANALYSIS: By Richard Scully, Robert Phiddian and Stephanie Brookes

Michael Leunig — who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” — was the closest thing Australian cartooning had to a prophet. By turns over his long career, he was a poet, a prophet and a provocateur.

The challenge comes in attempting to understand Leunig’s significance: for Australian cartooning; for readers of The Age and other newspapers past; and for the nation’s idea of itself.

On this day, do you remember the gently philosophical Leunig, or the savagely satirical one? Do you remember a cartoon that you thought absolutely nailed the problems of the world, or one you thought was terribly wrong-headed?

Leunig’s greatness lay in how intensely he made his audiences think and feel.

There is no one straightforward story to tell here. With six decades of cartooning at least weekly in newspapers and 25 book-length collections of his work, how could there be?

The light and the dark
One thread is an abiding fondness for the whimsical Leunig. Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama live on in the imaginations of so many readers.

Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, Leunig’s work seemed to hold a moral and ethical mirror up to Australian society — sometimes gently, but not without controversy, such as his 1995 “Thoughts of a baby lying in a childcare centre”.

Feed the Inner Duck
Feed the Inner Duck. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

Another thread is the dark satirist.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he broke onto the scene as a wild man in Oz, the Sunday Observer and the Nation Review who deplored Vietnam and only escaped the draft owing to deafness in one ear.

Then he apparently mellowed to become the guru of The Age, still with a capacity to launch the occasional satirical thunderbolt. Decidedly countercultural, together with Patrick Cook and Peter Nicholson, Leunig brought what historian Tony Moore has called “existential and non-materialist themes to the Australian black-and-white tradition”.

The difference between a 'just war' and 'just a war'
Just War. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

By 1999, he was declared a “national living treasure” by the National Trust, and was being lauded by universities for his unique contributions to the national culture.

But to tell the story of Leunig’s significance from the mid 90s on is to go beyond the dreamer and the duck. In later decades you could see a clear distinction between some cartoons that continued to console in a bewildering world, and others that sparked controversy.

Politics and controversy
Leunig saw 9/11 and the ensuing “War on Terror” as the great turning point in his career. He fearlessly returned to the themes of the Vietnam years, only to receive caution, rebuke and rejection from editors and readers.

He stopped drawing Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama. The world was no longer safe for the likes of them.

Then there was a cartoon refused by The Age in 2002, deemed by editor Michael Gawenda to be inappropriate: in the first frame, a Jew is confronted by the gates of the death camp: “Work Brings Freedom [Arbeit Macht Frei]”; in the second frame an Israeli viewing a similar slogan “War Brings Peace”.

Rejected, it was never meant to see the light of day, but ABC’s Media Watch and Crikey outed it because of the constraint its spiking represented to fair media comment on the Middle East.

That the cartoon was later entered, without Leunig’s knowledge, in the infamous Iranian “Holocaust Cartoon” competition of 2006, has only added to its infamy and presaged the internet’s era of the uncontrollable circulation of images.

A decade later, from 2012, he reworked Martin Niemöller’s poetic statement of guilt over the Holocaust. The result was outrage, but also acute division within the Australian Jewish community.

A cartoon about Palestine.
First They Came. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

Dvir Abramovich (chairperson of the Anti-Defamation Commission) made a distinction between something challenging, and something racist, believing it was the latter.

Harold Zwier (of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society) welcomed the chance for his community to think critically about Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank.

From 2019 — a mother, distracted, looking at her phone rather than her baby. Cries of “misogyny”, including from Leunig’s very talented cartoonist sister, Mary.

Mummy was Busy
Mummy was Busy. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

Then from 2021 — a covid-19 vaccination needle atop an armoured tank, rolling towards a helpless citizen.

Leunig’s enforced retirement (it is still debated whether he walked or was pushed) was long and drawn-out. He filed his last cartoon for The Age this August. By then, he had alienated more than a few of his colleagues in the press and the cartooning profession.

Support of the downtrodden
Do we speak ill of the dead? We hope not. Instead, we hope we are paying respect to a great and often angry artist who wanted always to challenge the consumer society with its dark cultural and geopolitical secrets.

Leunig’s response was a single line of argument: he was “Just a cartoonist with a moral duty to speak”.

You don’t have to agree with every provocation, but his purpose is always to take up the cause of the weak, and deploy all the weaponry at his disposal to support the downtrodden in their fight.

“The role of the cartoonist is not to be balanced”, said Leunig, but rather to “give balance”.

Mr Curly's car pulled by a goat, he is breathalysed.
Motoring News. Image: Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-ND

For Leunig, the weak were the Palestinian civilians, the babies of the post-iPhone generation, and those forced to be vaccinated by a powerful state; just as they were the Vietnamese civilians, the children forced to serve their rulers through state-sanctioned violence, the citizens whose democracy was undercut by stooges of the establishment.

That deserves to be his legacy, regardless of whether you agree or not about his stance.

The coming year will give a great many people pause to reflect on the life and work of Leunig. Indeed, he has provided us with a monthly schedule for doing just that: Leunig may be gone, but 2025 is already provided for, via his last calendar.The Conversation

Dr Richard Scully, professor in modern history, University of New England; Dr Robert Phiddian, professor of English, Flinders University, and Dr Stephanie Brookes, senior lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Caitlin Johnstone: Where does the aggression really begin?

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone

New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month.

This news comes out at the same time as a Haaretz report titled “‘No Civilians. Everyone’s a Terrorist’: IDF Soldiers Expose Arbitrary Killings and Rampant Lawlessness in Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor.”

The report contains testimony from Israeli troops that civilians are being murdered in Gaza and are then being retroactively designated as terrorists to justify their execution.

“We’re killing civilians there who are then counted as terrorists,” a recently discharged officer told Haaretz.

These two stories together say so much about the way the label “terrorist” is used under the US-centralised power umbrella.

The guy who shot the health insurance CEO is a terrorist, but the people systematically slaughtering civilians in Gaza are not terrorists. The people fighting against those who are slaughtering the civilians are terrorists, and noncombatants are being categorized as belonging to this terrorist organisation in order to justify killing them. The al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria were terrorists, but now they’re a US puppet regime so soon they won’t be terrorists  —  but they need to be designated terrorists for a little while longer because the claim that Syria is crawling with terrorists is Israel’s justification for its recent land grabs there. The Uyghur militant group ETIM used to be a terrorist group, but now they’re not a terrorist group because they can be used to help carve up Syria and maybe fight China later on. The IRGC is a military wing of a sovereign nation, but it counts as a terrorist group because of vibes or something.

Is that clear enough?

Really the label “terrorist” is nothing more than a tool of imperial narrative control which gets moved around based on whether or not someone’s use of violence is deemed legitimate by the managers of the empire. Because Mangione’s alleged crime has ignited a public interest in class warfare, the label “terrorism” is being used to frame it as an especially heinous act of evil against an innocent member of the public.

The empire’s favourite trick is to begin the historical record at the moment its enemies retaliate against its abuses. Oh no, a health insurance CEO was victimised by an evil act of terrorism. Oh no, Israel was just innocently minding its own business when it was viciously attacked by Hamas. Oh no, Iran attacked Israel completely out of the blue and now Israel must retaliate. Oh no, Russia just launched an entirely unprovoked war on Ukraine.

Everything that led up to the unauthorised act of violence is erased from the record, because all of the violence, provocation and abuse which gave rise to the unauthorised act of violence were authorized by the empire. Authorised aggression doesn’t count as aggression.

Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. If you control the narrative you can control not only when the historical record of violence begins but what kinds of violence qualify as violence. Killing people by depriving them of healthcare because denying healthcare services is how your company increases its profit margins? That’s not violence. Inflicting tyranny and abuse upon a deliberately marginalised ethnic group in an apartheid state? That’s not violence. Violence is when you respond to those forceful aggressions with forceful aggressions of your own.

If we are to become a healthy society, we’re going to have to stop allowing some forms of violence, aggression and abuse to be redacted from the official records while others are listed and condemned. Those who care about truth and justice account for all forms of violence, aggression and abuse, not only those which inconvenience the rich and powerful.

It is an act of aggression to do things which sicken and impoverish others in order to advance your own wealth.

It is an act of aggression to pollute the biosphere we all depend on for survival in order to increase your profit margins.

It is an act of aggression to use your wealth to manipulate your nation’s politics in ways which exacerbate inequality and injustice.

It is an act of aggression to maintain an apartheid state which cannot exist without nonstop violence.

It is an act of aggression to surround the earth with military bases and encircle nations which disobey your dictates.

It is an act of aggression to try to rule the world using military violence, proxy conflicts, staged coups, threats, starvation sanctions, and financial and economic coercion.

These are all acts of aggression, and any retaliation against them will never be an unprovoked attack. As we move into the future while these abuses exacerbate, it’s going to become very important to maintain an acute awareness of this.

Caitlin Johnstone is an Australian independent journalist and poet. Her articles include The UN Torture Report On Assange Is An Indictment Of Our Entire Society. She publishes a website and Caitlin’s Newsletter. This article is republished with permission.

Vanuatu earthquake: ‘Our shop was flattened like a deck of cards’

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver in Port Vila
1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver in Port Vila . . . "searchers are racing against time to find survivors in the rubble." Image: 1News screenshot APR

By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver

A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week.

The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from the Vanuatu government.

The 7.3 magnitude quake struck on Tuesday, and more than 200 people were injured.

Searchers were racing against time to find survivors in the rubble, Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver reported for 1News Breakfast from Port Vila.

She also said that aftershocks continued to shake the country, making search efforts more difficult.

“Our team has integrated with the Australians, that is to make the most of this very small window that they have now to find survivors,” she said.

“Time is not on their side, so they’ve really got to make the most of it.

“It’s a very volatile situation still, we’ve been speaking to some very distressed people trying to get home.”

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said late last night that a flight carrying 93 passengers, almost all Kiwis and their families, had left Port Vila at about 7.45pm New Zealand time.

“A small number of foreign nationals are also being assisted on this flight,” the NZDF said.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed the flight’s arrival overnight.

He wrote on X at about 5.30am today: “We are pleased to have evacuated 93 people from Port Vila on a @NZDefenceForce flight overnight.

People about to depart Vanuatu on a RNZAF Boeing 757

People about to depart Vanuatu on a RNZAF Boeing 757. Image: NZDF

“The passengers were mostly New Zealanders and their families, but also included around 12 foreign nationals from Samoa, the United Kingdom, Singapore, France and Finland.

“Our consular team continues to assist New Zealanders affected by the earthquake in Vanuatu.”

Any Kiwis still in Vanuatu were urged to call MFAT on +64 99 20 20 20.

“New Zealand’s efforts to aid Vanuatu with its earthquake response, through the provision of personnel and relief supplies, continues,” Peters said.

NZ disaster response teams on the ground in quake-hit Vanuatu
NZ disaster response teams on the ground in quake-hit Vanuatu. Image: 1News
Rescue and recovery efforts continue after Vanuatu earthquake
Rescue and recovery efforts continue after Vanuatu earthquake. Image: 1News
The moment the quake hit a car garage in Port Vila
The moment the quake hit a car garage in Port Vila. Image: 1 News

Australian couple describe earthquake ‘mayhem’

Australian couple Susie Nailon and her partner Tony Ferreira were in the Billabong shop when the quake hit
Australian couple Susie Nailon and her partner Tony Ferreira were in the Billabong shop when the quake hit. Image 1News

Australian couple Susie Nailon and her partner Tony Ferreira told 1News about the “mayhem” of being inside the Billabong shop when the quake hit.

“It sort of started to rumble a little bit and I looked up in the ceiling and saw the ceiling start to come down on the fluorescent light. But it wasn’t just a shake, it no longer shook left or right, the whole ground started to wave,” said Ferreira.

“The whole roof had caved down . . .  It just felt like a deck of cards. [It came] straight down, flattened everything.

“And the force of it just pushed all the windows, plastered glass straight out in the road from all that weight,” he said.

He said there were about six or seven others in the shop with them at the time, and said the couple only made it out by “literally seconds”.

“If my rack had been a couple more metres in, then there’s no chance. It was that quick. There was no warning,” he said.

Nailon said the aftershocks had been really triggering, and as soon as she felt something she was “straight out the door”.

“No one has a chance if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.

Kiwi helping out in Vanuatu

Kiwi Jason Horan who lives in Port Vila
Kiwi Jason Horan who lives in Port Vila. Image: 1News

New Zealander Jason Horan, who lives in Port Vila, told 1News it was “just chaos” in the aftermath of the quake.

“There [were] people lying on the ground everywhere, buildings falling down, so it was pretty scary,” he said.

He said he watched the road move “like a wave”.

Since the quake, Horan said he had been helping others simply because he wanted to.

“I’ve been running everybody around, just trying to supply everybody with food and water. So I go around to every hotel and resort making sure they know who to talk to and stuff like that.”

He said he wanted to do his part in “making sure people are okay”.

“All the locals are pulling together though . . .  they’re resilient, so it’s really good.”

NZ High Commissioner on quake and what comes next

New Zealand High Commissioner to Vanuatu Nicci Simmonds.
New Zealand High Commissioner to Vanuatu Nicci Simmonds. Image: 1News

New Zealand High Commissioner to Vanuatu Nicci Simmonds said the commission was in the top storey of a three-storey concrete building.

“I was at my desk at the time [of the quake], so that’s about as far away from the entry/exit as you can get,” she said.

“So you follow your schoolgirl training and you just get under the table, holding on while it jumped around a lot. A lot of noise.”

She said there was dust everywhere when the shaking stopped. She tried to check on a colleague.

“Very close to her desk, the building had completely separated. There was a three-storey drop.”

Everyone managed to get out of the building, Simmonds said. Initially, communications were the biggest challenge, she added.

“Now, it’s making sure that reliable safe drinking water, power, and basic infrastructure is up and running.”

Simmonds said the impact was “highly localised”, based on aerial surveillance.

“It’s a significant, major event in Port Vila, but it doesn’t appear that there have been villages buried by landslides elsewhere, so that’s been an enormous relief.”

She said the response was “the kind of job that surges, and peaks, and changes”.

Republished from 1News with permission.

Who’s killing the Pacific? A story of lobbying, food and neocolonialism

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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REVIEW: By Keeara Ofren

Have you ever heard a comment which made you so outraged that you were compelled to debate it in your head years later?

One of my favourite shows is Unreported World, where journalists travel to cover an underreported human rights issue with an international “People vs Power” theme. I can easily pinpoint the worst episode for me, Series 33, Episode 7 (“Obesity in Paradise”).

This made me disappointed and angry at what I thought was an uncritical episode.


Unreported World: “Obesity in Paradise”.      Video: Sophie Morgan

I interpreted the presenter as having a condescending and blaming tone to the locals she had been interviewing, instead of linking the health issues back to the source of food. When health issues disproportionately affect a group fast, there is some kind of systemic issue.

Also, I felt as though the locals were portrayed as ignorant, with the presenter picking at the food, showing disgust and insensitively raising topics of death.

I felt as though the locals were being mocked and given no dignity. This has since been scrubbed from the Unreported World social media outlets and YouTube, but can be found on Vimeo and at The Coconet TV.

The matter of personal responsibility and health is raised in any conversation about minorities. For example, food related illness, childhood obesity, obesity in general, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes; all often discussed to be caused by “lazy parenting”, “poor habits”, “genetic weakness” and more.

Food for thought
But I recently read a book which provided much food for thought to challenge often simple, overgeneralising and frankly racist explanations for obesity and health issues in Pacific communities.

The book Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the South Pacific raises the fact that what food we have available is not a coincidence and that sourcing, buying and eating food is inherently political and tangled with human rights abuses in each step of production and purchase.

For example, workplace exploitation in plantations, the exploitation of migrants and undocumented workers, factory farming, environmental degradation and so on.

Cheap meat . . . flap food nations in the Pacific Islands
Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands. Image: University of California Press screenshot APR

Neocolonialism is defined as the subjugation and dehumanisation of another community through indirect economic, cultural or political pressures. The more the book progressed, this pattern became more evident.

Companies are knowingly selling items which have negative health impacts. How they determine the “disposable” communities to sell to is a human rights issue.

Enter: The world of the lobby
Flaps are a food known and shown in discussions of the Polynesian diet: they are the fatty belly parts of a sheep often sold in many Pacific Islands. The Unreported World episode stops at the disgust of the journalist, but the episode does not investigate why this food is so common and where it is coming from.

This is where New Zealand comes in. Enter: Ross Finlayson, once dubbed the “Kissinger of the meat industry”, we get the impression of a man embedded in international matters…and for whom the ends justify the means.

The UK was previously one of the biggest consumers of New Zealand lamb. In the 1970s, the meat industry was under pressure with increased competition with foreign products, dropping meat quality and changes to British import policies with the then entry into the European Union (then the European Economic Community 1973) and thus, new arrangements with European trading partners.

So, what’s going to happen to the meat?

Deborah Gewerts and Frederick Errington apply the Marxist theory of the “fetishisation of commodities” to the sale of meat flaps. The theory can be broken down like this: To create value and demand of an item, we “fetishise” it, which means we can create an artificial value to it, which can make us stop thinking about the exploitation which created the item, or the actual poor value of the item, because we feel good when we purchase it.

An example could be designer goods for instance.

Let’s apply this to meat flaps. Using case studies, the book raises how in, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga, meat is seen as a prestigious food because it is more expensive than other types of food.

A status symbol

It is also a status symbol as a foreign good from New Zealand, known for its prized food and drink. So flaps have the reputation as an affordable small luxury. But in reality, it is a waste product.

Necessity: Sales tactics and the skills of the lobby combine with cheap, meaty and foreign dinners. But we know the forgone conclusion of poor health outcomes.

So, is New Zealand complicit with this outcome? The question was raised in a 2002 article for The Independent quoting the then Health Minister, Annette King, who thought it would be inappropriate to interfere with other countries’ affairs.

There could be many reasons for this. Firstly, Pacific nations are culturally diverse, and intervention would be complex. Secondly, intervening can be seen as paternalistic and culturally inappropriate.

Thirdly, this touches on what I call the “Activist’s Dilemma” — how and when can we interfere with another nation’s sovereignty. We will need to play the long game and involve communities directly.

But thankfully, seeds have been sown for the public. There are no coincidences when it comes to what food is available and when. In New Zealand, there is a renewed sense of activism in lower-socioeconomic neighbourhoods against new fast food and liquor stores, a lot of which is led by Pasifika community groups who want to create safe and healthy environments.

There are also indications that the availability of healthy food or lack thereof is being understood in a policy level. For example, the Helen Clark Foundation, a New Zealand think tank based on the values of former Labour Prime Minster, Helen Clark, has taken an interest in the topic, with a 2022 report on “Healthy Food Environments” and the disproportional impact of unhealthy food advertising and availability in poorer neighbourhoods.

Part of New Zealand’s identity is as a protesting nation alongside friends, against nuclear testing in the Pacific. What’s to stop us now to defend against the deaths of our neighbours?

Well, with awareness, maybe the plucky little nation might just pay attention.

Post Script
Overall, Gewerts and Errington’s Cheap Meat is a good initial tool to debunk existing blaming narratives towards Pacific people. However, I would like to note that I have some criticisms of the book for prospective readers, namely the use of the term “genocide” without a provided definition or analysis of intent and total ethnic/national/religious destruction.

The book would benefit from further analysis.

Second, the book presents perspectives of unions, Pacific communities and the lobbies as having the same “weight”.

I felt that these groups are not directly comparable, for instance, advocating for human rights matters is not the same in effect or technique as corporate lobbying. Therefore, I felt that by presenting all sides as “equal”, this encouraged a false equivalency of all groups.

Please keep these in mind as you explore the topic. Happy reading!

Keeara Ofren is a New Zealand-born and based Filipina. She is a law and politics and international relations graduate who does communications for the public sector. Republished with permission from her blog K for Kindling.

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