New Zealand political establishment backs Israel’s genocidal crackdown in Gaza

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New Zealand’s political establishment and corporate media have wasted no time in joining the other imperialist powers in supporting the bloody crackdown by Israel’s extreme-right Zionist government against the Palestinian uprising launched over the weekend.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, greets New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, July 27, 2023. [AP Photo/Marty Melville]

Labour Party Prime Minister Chris Hipkins labelled the popular revolt by the Palestinian masses against decades of Israeli occupation “terror attacks” which New Zealand “condemns unequivocally.”

“New Zealand has designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and we recognise Israel’s right to defend itself,” Hipkins said in a statement.

Hipkins’s full-throated support for the criminal government of Benjamin Netanyahu while demonising the oppressed Palestinians followed virtually identical comments by the main opposition National Party leader Christopher Luxon who said “there is no justification” for the actions of the Palestinians.

The unanimity between the major capitalist parties in backing Israeli repression exposes the sham of the confected “differences” presented in the campaign ahead of Saturday’s election.

Labour has, according to Hipkins, “paused” a suggestion that it would invite the Canberra-based Palestinian ambassador to present his credentials to New Zealand, thereby joining other UN members recognising Palestine. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson declared there was “no state” to recognise.

Any deviation from full-throated vilification of the Palestinians is being quickly quashed.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta initially posted a guarded statement on X/Twitter which called for an “immediate cessation of violence.” After an immediate media backlash over her failure to explicitly blame Hamas, she released a re-worded statement condemning the “terrorist attacks led by Hamas on Israel.”

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