Month: September 2025

Radio New Zealand has done it again!

RNZ has interviewed the ambassador of a state widely recognised as conducting genocide and a well-known Zionist for a lengthy article which denigrated the Palestinian right to self-determination, with a third Jewish voice added in at the end for ‘balance’. No Palestinian was given an opportunity to respond. Palestinians were portrayed simply as the sum of Zionist-Jewish fears, as if Palestine itself is no more than a discussion between Jews.

RNZ uncritically conveyed three harmful untruths.

1. Both speakers seem to believe that they withhold or grant inalienable rights to other human beings. They are wrong in their arrogance; Palestinians have rights and their right to self-determination in their land has been affirmed by the highest court in our international system. RNZ, which other people would you denigrate by implying that they have less than a full complement of rights?
2. Both speakers conflate Palestine with Hamas, and use that as a pretext to deny Palestinian rights. They are wrong, first because Gaza is not Hamas. To imply otherwise is to discount the civilian protections of two million people against whom Israel has conducted a nightmarish campaign of annihilation for nearly two years. Beyond that, rights are not a reward and they are not conditioned on the niceness of those in government or bearing arms. Israel’s prime minister is wanted for crimes against humanity. His cabinet colleagues are banned from Aotearoa for their filthy politics, and Israel’s military is carrying out genocide. Yet your speakers have not invalidated the rights of Jewish Israelis or rescinded their recognition of Israel.
3. To reduce any people to a single attribute, as these speakers reduce Palestinians to their supposed threat, is the very essence of racism. As our Human Rights Commission published under its former commissioner, to do so with respect to Palestinians builds on our history of regarding Muslims (and those we presume to be Muslim) as threatening.

RNZ, you must stop broadcasting such racialised, dehumanising and factually incorrect views.

Our government has shown that it is intent on erasing Māori history. It acts as if settlers did not disrupt independent, sovereign Māori iwi. So we should not be surprised that yesterday, our government chose to align with Israel’s similar acts of attempted erasure.

But we still need better from our national broadcaster. Why is RNZ failing to broadcast Palestinian voices?

Alternative Jewish Voices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 27, 2025

Alternative Jewish Voices (AJV) is deeply disappointed by this government’s decision to regard Palestinian rights through the lens of politics yet again. The International Court of Justice has clearly affirmed that Palestinians have a right to self-determination in their land, that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal, and that third-party states are legally obliged to take every step possible to bring that illegal situation to a rapid end.

The states we generally follow in our foreign policy have now recognised the state of Palestine.

The United Nations and the vast majority of human rights organisations and genocide scholars have recognised a genocide being perpetrated in Gaza by its illegal occupier, Israel.

New Zealanders have turned out in our tens of thousands to demand effective action including the recognition of Palestine as a state and the sanctioning of Israel for its crimes.

Rights, law, diplomacy, fact and conscience all point in the same direction: Palestine must be free and self-determining.

Ignoring all that, our government fails to see genocide and this morning it failed to acknowledge Palestinians’ right to statehood. Our Foreign Minister has chosen instead to court the favour of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu; a convicted felon and a man wanted for war crimes. This is not merely a failure of leadership. It is a failure even of followership. It’s a disgrace.

If we want to live in a world of human dignity and rights, if we want change, we have to change this government.

Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa

Delivered at high volume on the terrace of Radio House Sept 19 2025, regarding the director of the Holocaust Centre’s co-hosting of The Panel. Image from Peace Action Wellington

Radio New Zealand, our public broadcaster, gives airtime each month to a genocide denier. Her professional title carries the moral authority of the Holocaust. And what does she do with it? On the 711th day of someone else’s Holocaust, this guest rattled off the list of things that she expects Palestinians to give up before she would talk about granting them their right to a state.

RNZ responded to complaints by saying that this person expressed her opinions and the show was balanced. D’ya think?

Dear RNZ, the International Court of Justice has affirmed that Palestinians have a right to self-determination in their state. Israel’s occupation is illegal in its entirety and again in its actions. Israel is grossly violating Palestinians’ inalienable rights. In fact and in law, Palestinians don’t need to satisfy your guest because she does not bestow their rights. No one made these factual corrections on air. RNZ did not have – again – even one Palestinian voice to assert the rights that the courts keep affirming.

Why is any person who denies the humanity and the fact of Palestinian rights a legitimate commentator on RNZ – in the very week that the UN Human Rights Commission confirmed all the other findings of genocide?

Balance, says RNZ, is found in a diversity of opinions – but human rights are not an opinion. Genocide is not an opinion. It is a fact, living, ongoing nightmare and a crime against humanity. 86% of the world’s genocide scholars recognise genocide in Gaza. Somehow, RNZ hasn’t heard about it.

If the RNZ editor-in-chief came across a lynching, would he broadcast the pros and cons in a balanced way? Would he give a torturer, a murderer the microphone to read out their manifesto? I’m sure that he would reply to me, it would be morally reprehensible and harmful. Those are crimes.

Well, here are the names of 65,000 murdered. Here are the graves of 20,000 children. Here lie 400 human beings, murdered by starvation. And here is the international warrant to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu for these crimes against humanity.

RNZ, why would you broadcast a defense of it? There are not two sides to genocide. You are betraying your mandate to bring us unbiased journalism. Unbiased journalism pursues truth, and truth does not lie at the midpoint between genocidaire and the survivor of genocide. Principled journalistic reporting on genocide takes place within the frameworks of human rights, civilian protections, and the International Court’s findings of law and justice.

RNZ, if your head of news doesn’t get that, then why is he your head of news?

I hear your audience is declining. A consultant has told you that I’m your demographic. So allow me to offer a little guidance. I want to hear from Palestinians and the Tangata Whenua who recognise and stand beside them. I want to hear their ground truth. I want them to tell us the meaning of this genocide that our government is failing to stop. I’ll be tuning in wherever I can hear them.

Friends, how do we change this? It’s not mysterious. When my book came out and RNZ cancelled its coverage, my OIA required them to disclose their reason. A producer had written to the presenter, saying ‘given the number of formal complaints’ they get from Zionists, the presenter was not allowed to do a Gaza story without promoting something – anything – about Israel. Given the number of formal complaints they anticipate, they preventatively deny Palestinians and Palestine stories access to our airwaves. They make policy by volume.

We don’t complain because we tend to have given up on such spineless media – but that leaves the airwaves to Israel’s advocates. To change this, we need to engage. Your complaint won’t change it but our thousand complaints will. Change is cumulative, so let’s accumulate some. Start writing it down.

Finally, to the journalists inside this building: the time for your silence is long past. You know that Israel has killed hundreds of your Palestinian fellow journalists. You see; you’re news junkies and you are letting yourselves be held back from covering the news. If you keep your head down now, you’ll be hanging your head forever. Speak up inside this building. Do the job that I’m sure you want to do.

With thanks to Rick Sahar for remembering to be angry enough to act.

Marilyn Garson, September 19 2025

September 17, 2025

To whom do you answer, Prime Minister?

The UN Human Rights Commission has found that Israel is committing genocide:

“The acts of Israeli political and military leaders are attributable to the State of Israel. The Commission therefore concluded that the State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish the perpetrators of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli leaders, already wanted for crimes against humanity, openly boast that ‘Gaza is burning’ while they pound a captive, defenceless community and destroy what remains of Gaza City. They are pulling a city down upon the hundreds of thousands of civilians who remain in it.

Former chief of Israel’s military acknowledges they have killed and wounded ‘over 200,000’ Palestinians, largely civilians. He boasts that legal concerns have not restrained Israel’s actions at all.

Israel and its contracted killers have slaughtered 3000 people who were seeking food in the midst of Israel’s manufactured famine, in areas under the humanitarian banner.

These are among two days of headlines; two of the 711 days of genocide that we have all watched. In those same two days, one of your cabinet ministers has trespassed priests who peacefully protested in Auckland, while another cabinet minister has denigrated the priests who peacefully protested in Wellington.

Our Five Eyes allies, who you so slavishly follow, will largely recognise a Palestinian state in the coming days. There. You needn’t even lead in conveying our outrage to the world. You can merely follow.

You say that a decision has been made but we will not be informed.

We ask, to whom are you accountable, Prime Minister – which back room? Which lobbyist? To whom do you answer, if not to the outraged, heart-broken people of this country?

We demand your condemnation of this genocide. We demand that you comply with the directions of the highest court in the United Nations system, to bring this illegal occupation and this genocide to an end. We demand that you recognise the state of Palestine before Israel swallows it as a possibility.

Grow a spine, Prime Minister. Your inaction costs lives and we are ashamed of it.

Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa

Joint Statement on Proposed Amendments to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002

Date: 1^st September 2025

Issued by: Islamic Council of New Zealand (ICONZ), Alternative Jews Voices (AJV), Palestine Forum of New Zealand (PFNZ), New Zealand Buddhist Council (NZBC), Aotearoa Alliance of Progressive Indians (AAPI), The Council of Christians and Muslims (CCM).

Aotearoa New Zealand — We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, express our deep concern regarding the New Zealand Government’s proposed amendments to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002. These changes seek to broaden the definition of terrorist activity and expand law enforcement powers, including warrantless searches and the criminalisation of planning or preparing for acts deemed as terrorism.

While we recognize the importance of safeguarding national security, we urge the government to ensure that any legislative changes are made with full transparency, meaningful public consultation, and in strict alignment with New Zealand’s domestic and international human rights obligations.

Global precedents demonstrate the dangers of vaguely defined counter-terrorism laws. Such laws have been misused to suppress legitimate dissent, advocacy, and humanitarian work. We highlight the following examples:

• United Kingdom: The proscription of the nonviolent protest group Palestine Action under terrorism legislation has led to over 700 arrests, many for peaceful actions such as holding placards. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned this move, warning of its chilling effect on freedom of expression and assembly.
• UN Global Study: Led by Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the study found systematic abuse of counter-terrorism measures across all regions, disproportionately targeting civil society actors, especially women, minorities, and human rights defenders.
• Gaza: Human rights defenders and humanitarian advocates have been targeted under vague terrorism laws, facing surveillance, smear campaigns, and even lethal attacks for documenting war crimes and advocating for relief.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 15 March 2019 terrorist attack found that an “inappropriate” level of intelligence and security resources had been directed at the Muslim community prior to the attack. This underscores the risk of discriminatory enforcement and the need for safeguards.

We emphasize that Indigenous peoples, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities are particularly vulnerable to being over-targeted by counter-terrorism strategies. Ensuring non-discrimination is essential to maintaining trust and justice in our society.

We call on the New Zealand Government to:

1. Conduct a thorough and inclusive consultation process with civil society, legal experts, and affected communities.
2. Ensure precise and narrow definitions of terrorism-related offences to prevent arbitrary enforcement.
3. Include explicit protections for freedom of speech, human rights advocacy, and peaceful protest.
4. Establish independent oversight mechanisms to monitor the application of the law and prevent abuse.

New Zealand has a proud tradition of upholding human rights and democratic values. We must not allow fear to erode the freedoms that define our society.

We stand united in urging the government to approach this process with fairness, transparency, and a firm commitment to protecting civil liberties.

List of Organizations:

Dr. Muhammad Sajjad Haider Naqvi             (ICONZ)            info@iconz.org

Marilyn Garson                                               (AJV)              contact@ajv.org.nz

Robert Hunt                                                    (NZBC)            chair@buddhistcouncil.org.nz

Dr. Sapna Samant                                           (AAPI)             kia.ora@aotearoaprogressive.org

Irfan Qureshi                                                   (CCM)             admin@theccm.org.nz

Maher Nazzal                                                 (PFNZ)            palforum.nz@gmail.com