Greenpeace Aotearoa staff and volunteers have carried this banner in one of the many demonstrations taking place around the country – calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Palestine.
I’ve sent a letter to Prime Minister Christoper Luxon urging him and his new Government to join the call for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine.
We invite you to add your name to that call now. Every minute counts. Every voice counts.
Bryce Groves / GREENPEACE
As an organisation with peace in its name, we cannot stay silent on the atrocious acts being carried out in the Middle East, nor can we separate the fight for environmental justice from the fight for justice and freedom from war and oppression. While a tentative time-limited truce is in place, now is the time for the international community to push for a permanent ceasefire so that work towards a lasting peace is possible.
Greenpeace condemns the indiscriminate bombing and killing of Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli authorities, just as we condemn the attacks and abductions conducted by HAMAS against Israeli civilians on October 7. We condemn antisemitism and islamophobia.
We demand that the Israeli Government cease blockades of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies to the people in Gaza. We call for a permanent ceasefire and the immediate return of all hostages and illegally detained civilians.
We marched in Auckland to show our solidarity and support for the community organisations that are tirelessly keeping up the pressure for a total and immediate end to violence in Palestine.
We ask that you help us do all that we can from Aotearoa to put an end to this violence by adding your voice to our call on the newly formed Government to call for a permanent ceasefire.
While Israel and Palestine may feel far away, international pressure works. New Zealand has been a strong voice for peace before, let’s make sure we are again.
Please send the letter, and push our Government to be on the right side of history.
Our Letter to the Prime Minister
Congratulations on becoming Prime Minister. There is a lot of important work to do in the climate and biodiversity space, but here I am writing about an urgent matter – the violence in Palestine and Israel.
I urgently request that the New Zealand government calls for an immediate and enduring ceasefire in Palestine and Israel.
The situation that has been unfolding there for more than 50 days is grave. More than 15,000 people have been killed since October 7, and more than 1.5 million Palestinians displaced from their homes. A huge number of these dead and displaced are children.
Now is the time for the international community to support a permanent ceasefire so that work towards a lasting peace is possible.
I urge you, as the leader of New Zealand, to be on the right side of history and publicly call for a permanent ceasefire, as has already been called for by the United Nations and many other countries across the world.
According to the World Health Organisation, a child has been killed every ten minutes in this conflict – so every minute counts.
It is not too late to do what’s right, and I urge you as the leader of our country to call for a ceasefire, keep up the international pressure to end the violence, and put Aotearoa on the side of peace.
Ngā mihi,
Dr Russel Norman
Executive director
Greenpeace Aotearoa
