New Zealand Vote At UNGA Needs Follow-Through With Sanctions

It’s pleasing to see New Zealand vote in favour of the United Nations General Assembly resolution reinforcing the International Court of Justice finding that Israel’s occupation in Palestine is illegal.

However, this vote will only have practical meaning if New Zealand follows through on the resolution’s requirement that we ban imports from companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The UN resolution calls on states to "take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel ... where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

We also argue that the resolution also requires the government to suspend Rakon Limited export of crystal oscillators to the US because these are almost certainly contained in the US-supplied missiles being used by Israel to genocidal effect in Gaza.

We have communicated to the Prime Minister our expectations that legislation to enact this will be brought before parliament shortly.