The state of Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza. And we are choosing to stand by and let it happen. That’s an uncomfortable statement to make.
Protesters in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Phil Mackay
It’s an incredibly challenging time in the construction industry. As a business manager it’s essential that I stay on message. The last thing I should be doing is talking about an unrelated and polarising topic that might alienate potential clients.
But it is when it’s uncomfortable that we find out how important our ‘values’ really are to us. And I have a platform of sorts, and therefore responsibility. For clarity though, these are my views and not necessarily those of PAUA Architects.
The latest news from Gaza is Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that the Israeli military will take full control of the Gaza strip, as they prepare for a significant new offensive.
The military intends to create specific distribution centres for aid, in the south of the country, to encourage starving Palestinians to relocate, and enable the ‘cleansing’ of the territory. The Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smoltrich, was quoted saying “The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the South. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation”. This is not about preventing terrorism, or even about destroying Hamas. It is ethnic cleansing, plain and simple.
It strikes me that ‘western’ democracies in the past have been willing to get involved in wars for geopolitical reasons but reluctant to do so for moral or humanitarian reasons.
And numerous times in the past we’ve looked back on situations, like the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, with regret, that we didn’t say or do more.
No doubt atrocities like this have gone on for centuries, though in the past we may not have had timely awareness or cause to feel responsible. Like it or not, however, we now live in a globalised world where our actions or inaction impact those on the other side of the globe. We rely on each other for trade, and our lifestyles impact on the planet that we all share. We therefore now have an obligation to be good global citizens.
I think kiwi generally like to think of ourselves as a fundamentally ‘good’ country. But we are only as ‘good’ as our actions. As Martin Luther King Jr said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Palestinians in Gaza are now our neighbours, and New Zealand can and should stand up and say something.
The horse and foal statue watch protesters in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
