NZ government looking the other way on record Israeli West Bank settlement building

Media Statement
23 December 2025

NZ government looking the other way on record Israeli West Bank settlement building

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) is again urging the government to uphold its long-standing policies and publicly take action against record Israeli settlement expansion.

It has just been reported that the Israeli cabinet has approved 19 more illegal settlements in the equally illegal Occupied West Bank. This decision will double the number of settlements in the West Bank since the current Israeli government came to power.

PSNA Co-Chair Maher Nazzal says past National-led governments have taken a strong rhetorical stance against such settlements.

“In 2016, the Key government co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem ‘a flagrant violation of international law’,” Nazzal says. “Yet the number of settlers has doubled since then.”

“New Zealand, along with other equally silent Western bloc countries, is paving the way for more hatred and conflict — conflict that is likely to spill beyond the region — by continuing to ignore Israeli violations,” Nazzal says.

“Not only is Israel taking land for settlers, it is openly encouraging settler violence. There have been thousands of attacks on Palestinians — many of them lethal — especially during olive harvest season over the past two years.”

Nazzal says the government should also be reminded that Israel has violated the 10 October ceasefire in Gaza 738 times, directly killing more than 400 Palestinians during that period.

“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is currently demanding that various countries ban marches and public statements in support of Palestine,” he says.

“It is long past time for governments to tell Netanyahu that it is his genocidal government that is driving hatred and conflict.”

Maher Nazzal
National Co-Chair PSNA