PSNA Statement 11 June 2024
New Zealand must immediately withdraw from the 2024 US-led RIMPAC military exercises due to take place from June 26th to August 2nd around Hawaii.
Israel is listed as a participating country.
“We are calling on our government to withdraw from the exercise because of Israel’s ongoing industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza” says PSNA National Chair John Minto. “Why would we want to join with a lawless, rogue state which has demonstrated the complete suite of war crimes over the past eight months”
“It’s hard to believe the government hasn’t withdrawn already”.
RIMPAC with Israel aligns New Zealand with a pariah state and its genocidal enabler, the US. Every day Israel displays flagrant disregard for international law and international humanitarian law.
Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza in eight months than were dropped on London, Hamburg and Dresden during the full six years of the Second World War. Israel is dropping these bombs on one of the most densely populated communities in the world.
Tens of thousands of people – the majority being women and children – have been indiscriminately killed.
Taking part in a military event alongside Israel will leave an indelible stain on this country. It will be a powerful symbol of New Zealand complicity with Israeli war crimes. It’s not on!
The killing fields of Gaza are in our faces everyday as are Israel’s flagrant abuses of the Genocide Convention and the rulings of the International Court of Justice.
Our government has been making only piteous noises in criticism of Israel.
Withdrawing from RIMPAC would be a signal of solidarity with the victims of Israeli genocide and show that New Zealand takes seriously its responsibility to PREVENT genocide under the Genocide Convention.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Kia Ora Gaza 
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