New Russia sanctions expose double standard towards Israel
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
14 August 2026
Media Release:
New Russia sanctions expose double standard towards Israel
PSNA is urging the government to ‘even-up’ its foreign policy going into the November election.
PSNA is responding to Foreign Minister, Winston Peters’, announcement of a new round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which is the government’s 36th sanction measure against Russia.
PSNA spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says the government’s particular justification for the new sanctions, were Russia’s forced migration of Ukrainians and the dissemination of propaganda to justify Russia’s occupation.
“Israel does the same thing and the government does nothing. It has a list of 35 Israelis it won’t allow to enter New Zealand. But this is a pathetic list against the more than two-thousand long list against Russia.”
“Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza is vast, well documented, admitted and ongoing. Our government won’t mention it, let alone take Russia-level action against it.”
“And Israel and its proxies, throughout the world, are disseminating what Israel calls ‘Hasbara’, which is propaganda and bribes to influence news media and politicians,” Tamimi says.
“Right here in this country, the Israeli embassy funds the New Zealand Holocaust Centre. The Centre’s been publicly, although fruitlessly, advocating for compulsory and exclusive study of the Holocaust in schools. They want to ignore and lessen the significance of other genocides in comparison – in particular the Gaza genocide”
“All this is intended to stifle free speech and to legitimise Israel’s illegal wars.”
“The Israeli government doesn’t like the poll results here and in most western countries.”
In September 2025, a Reid Research poll for Radio New Zealand found a ratio of three to one respondents wanting the government to do more to support Palestine, than those who wanted more support for Israel.”
“Among National voters, support for the government to do more for Israel was only 11 percent, while 17 percent of National voters thought the government should do more for Palestine.”
“The poll showed most National voters didn’t care at that time, but of those who were interested, most backed Palestine,” Tamimi says.
‘The Prime Minister would do well to work for what his party members want and stop NZ First running our foreign policy and ignoring international law. Bizarrely, an even higher percentage of NZ First voters support Palestine than the National voters do – nearly 25 percent for Palestine and just under 18 precent for Israel.”
Rinad Tamimi
National Spokesperson
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa