Time for NZ government to call-in Israeli ambassador after bashing of NZ citizens
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
5 May 2026
Media Release:
Time for NZ government to call-in Israeli ambassador after bashing of NZ citizens
PSNA has demanded the government follow through its demands that Israel complies with international law, after New Zealanders were captured in international waters in the Mediterranean and beaten by the Israeli military.
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa Spokesperson Rinad Tamimi says the New Zealand government was very explicit in its recent warnings to Israel that New Zealand did not expect a repeat of Israeli forces brutally capturing New Zealanders in international waters while they were trying to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
“Anyone who has seen the pictures of Invercargill resident Julien Blondel’s face or the reports of Jay O’Connor suffering from concussion and a likely broken rib will know that once more Israel has called the New Zealand government’s bluff.”
Julien Blondel after beatings from Israeli soldiers
“The Global Sumud Aid Flotilla’s sole intention is to deliver aid to Palestinians still under Israeli attack and starvation in Gaza,” Rinad Tamimi says.
“The world is looking at the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Iran. But the situation for Palestinians in Gaza is no less dire than when the ceasefire there was meant to have started last October but Israel continues its daily killing of mainly women and children”
“The volume of food is insufficient and lacking nutrition. It is incredibly expensive. Promised tents haven’t arrived. Medicine has run out. Reconstruction hasn’t started. Israel is still expanding its Yellow-Line no-go zone.”
Rinad Tamimi says she knows the New Zealand government has already proved it doesn’t care about Palestinians in Gaza. But she says our government cannot avoid its responsibility to protect New Zealanders going about lawful business.
“The government can’t simply opt out of its duties to its citizens by telling them it’s too dangerous to try helping Palestinians in Gaza.”
“Israel has killed people on flotillas before. It has captured New Zealanders and brutalised them previously. Now it has done it again.”
Rinad Tamimi says the least step New Zealand can do is issue a formal rebuke by calling-in the Israeli ambassador.
“The ambassador has been informed of our government’s stated concerns, and New Zealand’s bluff has been called.”
“The ambassador should be expelled as far as I’m concerned. But if it was good enough for John Key’s government to reprimand Israel through a formal rebuke, then why can’t Winston Peters do at least the same.”
Rinad Tamimi
National Spokesperson
PSNA
Video of John Key press conference in August 2014
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-israeli-ambassador-necessary/PRJFBMHXH67LCSTMFFYMM7CSIM/