A press statement posted on the Scoop website yesterday prompted PoO to check on the deployment of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s fleet to see if our Government could respond positively to the request.
The headline read:
Palestine Forum Of New Zealand Urges Government To Protect Gaza Freedom Flotilla
But before we read the press statement, we learned from RNZ that
a boat attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza with a New Zealander on board has reportedly been intercepted by Israeli forces off the coast of the Palestinian territory.
The boat is part of the convoy carrying 500 people – including three New Zealanders– trying to break Israel’s blockade.
RNZ said:
The group’s website showed three boats as being intercepted including Sirius, which New Zealand teenager Samuel Leason, was on.
Leason, from Otaki, posted to social media that it appeared his boat had come up to what was believed to be an Israeli military blockade.
“It looks like we’re going to be illegally intercepted by Israel,” he said in a video.
“If we made it through the night we will actually see the shores of Palestine, and I mean obviously there’s still a chance that we might,” Leason said.
“We’ve a lot of ships here and it will be very difficult to stop all of us.”
The Israel Foreign Ministry said the “sole purpose” of the flotilla was “provocation”.
“Israel, Italy, Greece, and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem have all offered and continue to offer the flotilla a way to peacefully deliver any aid they might have to Gaza. The flotilla refused because they are not interested in aid, but in provocation.
“The Israeli Navy has reached out to the Hamas-Sumud flotilla and asked them to change course. Israel has informed the flotilla that it is approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful naval blockade. Israel reiterated the offer to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.”
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) told RNZ or embassy in Ankara, Türkiye, was in contact with the Israel Foreign Ministry in regards to consular services any New Zealanders might request.
“New Zealand has a long-standing ‘do not travel’ advisory in place for Gaza,” a spokesperson said..” The advisory explicitly warns New Zealanders against any attempt to enter Gaza by sea in breach of Israeli navy restrictions, including participation in flotillas to deliver aid.”
MFAT said it had told Israel “several times” it expected New Zealanders to be “treated in a manner consistent with international law”.
But let’s get back to the press statement headed
Palestine Forum Of New Zealand Urges Government To Protect Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Protect means “to defend or guard from attack, invasion, loss, annoyance, insult…”
Is this a request for military protection? And could we provide such protection?
The flotilla happens to be much bigger than our Navy.
It comprises some 40 to 50 civilian boats and carries hundreds of activists from at least 44 countries. .
The participants include human rights observers, doctors, and other public figures. Notably, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has taken time out from campaigning to slow down climate warming to participate in the mission.
What protection could we offer, should our Government respond positively (yes, it’s highly unlikely) to the urging of the Palestine Forum of New Zealand?
It looks like we could send two frigates – HMNZ Te Kaha, which returned home to Devonport in August after a seven-month deployment in Asia and the Indian Ocean, and HMNZ Te Mana, which is back in action with a new commanding officer after undergoing major upgrades.
HMNZS Canterbury and HMNZS Aotearoa are support ships built for transport, disaster relief, and replenishment functions, not combat. But at least they could be despatched to express New Zealand’s concern that the aid convoy must come to no harm.
But relax, dear reader.
Go beyond the headline and you will find the Palestine Forum Of New Zealand is not calling for military intervention or protection.
The request is for the New Zealand Government to deliver an urgent message to Israel:
The Palestine Forum of New Zealand calls on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters to immediately issue a public demand that Israel allow the flotilla vessels safe and unhindered passage to Gaza.
The forum wants Israeli authorities to end the blockade of occupied Gaza and allow the international civilian flotilla boats safe and unhindered passage to their destination.
Supported by NGOs in Gaza and civil society organisations worldwide, and with several New Zealanders on board, the Freedom Flotillas are sailing with a message of hope and solidarity for the Palestinian struggle for peace and justice, and to end Israel’s illegal siege, genocide, and occupation of Gaza.
The statement perhaps was banged out faster than New Zealand could get a frigate into the Mediterranean because no spokesperson is named:
“These unarmed boats carry nothing but courage, dignity and the voices of millions who refuse to accept silence in the face of genocide,” said [Spokesperson Name], spokesperson for the Palestine Forum of New Zealand.
“New Zealand must not remain silent. Our government has a moral duty to demand that Israel guarantee the safe passage of the flotillas and bring an end to its unlawful blockade of Gaza.”
While still in international waters, at time of writing, the flotilla is sailing in an area where the Israeli navy has stopped other boats attempting to break its blockade in the past and which the flotilla had been warned not to cross.
About 7.25pm, the Guardian reported, roughly 20 Israeli naval ships approached the flotilla and ordered the boats to turn off their engines, according to what the activists have said on social media.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
16 comments:
My favourite sport at the moment is going into britomart auckland on a saturday to try and debate with the tea-toweller community who protest every weekend. I have yet to talk to a single one who can respond with a common sense or factual answer.
The best one I heard was one lady who told me that that the terror event at music festival never happened. It was all a set up and propaganda from the Israeli government according to her.
It is like people have become a radicalised cult. Honestly, try and debate them if you dare. It is hilarious. So sadly, those boats full of nutters will keep coming
You just keep on reading corporate MSM and stay brain dead.
Just seen a news clip on a NZ teenage 'activist' in Greta's flotilla.
I have had a total gutsfull of these 'activists', some barely out of nappies, chanting their brainless mantras like chatbots caught in a software loop.
Most of them haven't got the foggiest clue what they're on about. They love using big words like 'genocide' and 'international law' but the way they use them clearly indicates that they don't know the meaning of those magic words and phrases.
Another clip made me laugh. A Swedish guy begged the Israeli govt to keep Greta as people at home are so sick and tired of her they don't want her back.
"My favourite sport at the moment is going into britomart auckland on a saturday to try and debate with the tea-toweller community who protest every weekend."
We all know you're not actually doing that. You're really sitting at home watching Ben Shapiro tell you how Jews are persecuted for no reason and why Israel can do whatever it likes to "defend" its "right to exist."
If you are on the side of the wholesale slaughter and starvation (genocide/ethnic cleansing) of unarmed semitic men, women and children in the open air prison that is Gaza, under the Zionist psyop of "the right to defend ourselves", then you are part of humanities problem.
“Gaza Is a Slaughterhouse” – UN Expert Francesca Albanese Speaks on Sumud Flotilla Mission | AC1G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFZKKXyDWU0&list=TLPQMDMxMDIwMjUDTVSk4pdNAg&index=1
So finally Madam Blat has admitted s/he considers Israel has no right to defend its right to exist. A right exercised by every other country on the planet. That certainly puts him/her into the HAMAS camp and therefore a supporter of terrorism of the basest kind. The fact remains that HAMAS can stop the war tomorrow by returning the hostages and agreeing to Israel's right to exist. Even Donald Trump seems to currently understand that. Why can't you Madam Blat?
The government should charter a bus and drive them into Gaza and drop them off outside Hama HQ, sorry the hospital. They will get a wonderful greeting.
The rainbow ones might even thank Israel for getting rid of any tall buildings in the area.
Actually madame blat I do go and talk to the protesters. The reason is that I like to hear both sides of a story to make up my own mind. But they couldn't tell me their side which I found extremely weird.
Where does Israel's so-called "right to exist" originate? What are the limits of asserting this so-called right? Does it entail the destruction of any other nation or would-be nation which could undermine this so-called right? Besides, without the US support they extract through controlling US institutions and bribing Congress, they would be gone in 5 minutes.
As to "defending" itself, Israel has always been the aggressive entity vis a vis its non-Jewish neighbours, and the source of the Jewish-Arab-Persian antagonism. Moreover, as I make clear above, they couldn't either defend themselves nor attack other states if not for the US's weapons and taxpayer-funded aid.
To be perfectly clear - yes, the world, and particularly the Middle East, would be a much better place if Israel ceased to exist. The US would also be much better off without the liability Israel is to them.
Tell us your side then (but without the tired Zionist talking points - "right to exist" "defending itself" "irrational Jew hatred" "another holocaust" and so on). If you've actually made up your own mind, and not absorbed someone else's, this shouldn't be difficult.
Israel's right to exist stems from the UN in 1948. As such it has a right to defend itself under UN law. The expression "destruction of a ... would-be nation" is a rather silly one as you can't destroy something that doesn't exist [yet]. A pre-emptive strike is lawful providing an attack is imminent. Not that that affects the current situation as it was Hamas who started this ball rolling.
As for the "Jewish-Arab-Persian antagonism" I gather they're still kicking themselves over in Teheran for Cyrus I having liberated the Jews from enslavement in Babylon :))
Having admitted s/he supports the HAMAS objective of destroying Israel and by implication, all its inabitants, Madam Blat demands "tell us your side". Let me inform him/her that is as repugnant as suggesting there are two sides to the holocaust. Or perhaps Madam B is a holocaust denier as well as a jihadist camp follower. And as for his/her unhinged assertion that "Israel has always been the aggressive entity" the slightest study of modern Mid East history would show where the aggression originates. And that is not an attempt to take sides. Just a recitation of fact.
Sure madame blav,
Here is my side of the story using facts from.history:
1. There is historical, genealogical, archaeological and religious evidence to prove that the Israelites are the indigenous peoples of Israel and Gaza. Furthermore, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all share a common ancestor, Abraham, often referred to as the Abrahamic religion. The Israeli settlement in the region preceded the establishment of the Muslim religion in Saudi Arabia in 622 CE and the arrival of Islam in 638 CE.
2. A Hamas controlled ‘Palestinian’ State is untenable to Israel, near neighbours Egypt and Jordan and the Arab Gulf States. That being the case, how do you see a ‘free Palestinian State’ being a realistic proposition?
Hamas is a designated terrorist organisation on a mission to destroy Israel and all non Islamic religions including Christianity. NZ along with Australia, UK, US and others supported that designation for good reason.
It was Hamas that sparked the latest conflict on 7 October 2023.
1,195 Israelis and 79 foreign nationals from 30 countries were murdered, over 4,800 people were injured and more than 250 men, women and children were taken hostage. It was the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history and the bloodiest day in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
3. The Gazans live on a demolition site with no running water and sewerage. They don’t have a voice or political infrastructure and their access to humanitarian aid is controlled and extorted by Hamas.
There can be no peace or reconstruction while Hamas is in charge. Humanitarian supplies will continue to be diverted by Hamas because they provide a financial lifeline.
And you say?
Sent from Outlook for Android
The UN is calling what Israel are doing in Gaza genocide. Hamas are a terrorist organisation. I’m against genocides. I’m against terrorism. I’m against genocide. What Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. End of story.
>"There is historical, genealogical, archaeological and religious evidence to prove that the Israelites are the indigenous peoples of Israel and Gaza."
Not according to modern period scholars there isn't.
Not a scrap of evidence has ever been discovered for the mass migration of the Jews from Egypt (the so-called Exodus). This is important because the exodus is actually the foundation stone of Jewish origin mythology, extending both backwards and forwards in time. DNA evidence indicates that Middle Eastern Jews trace their genetic roots back to a number of places in the region, not just one.
The Pentateuch was compiled from various sources (some of which don't quite gel with the others) while the Jews were in exile in Babylon. It represents a merger of different aetiological myths that are similar but not identical, cobbled together by priestly scribes.
>"Furthermore, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all share a common ancestor, Abraham, often referred to as the Abrahamic religion."
Oh dear........ Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam) was not an 'ancestor' of any religion but the most important of a succession of patriarchs/'prophets' recognised by all three subsequent religions. These three, plus the Baha'i Faith, constitute the 'family of Abrahamic religions [plural]'.Sorry if I am coming across as pedantic, but when arguing a case one should at least try to get the details right.
>" The Israeli settlement in the region preceded the establishment of the Muslim religion in Saudi Arabia in 622 CE and the arrival of Islam in 638 CE."
Oh dear (again..... sigh). The Kingdoms of Israel and Judaea were established in the Iron Age II period long, LONG before Mohammed was an apple in his father's eye. This is like saying that the Celts occupied Britain before the arrival of the Romans. Gimme a break.
>"Hamas is a designated terrorist organisation on a mission to destroy Israel and all non Islamic religions including Christianity."
Christianity has been part of the Middle Eastern landscape for 2 millennia. It is accommodated by Islam, which recognises it as a bona fide, albeit misguided, Abrahamic religion. The norm in the Middle East is that each sectarian community runs its own civil affairs (e.g. marriage and inheritance law) using its own laws and courts. Hamas is no exception and does not impose Sharia law on Christians within its jurisdiction.
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