XPost: nz.politics, ie.politics, aus.politics
XPost: soc.culture.israel
Former 🇳🇿 PM Helen Clark, along with former 🇮🇪 President Mary Robinson, paid a visit to the Rafah crossing and witnessed first-hand Israel’s systematic blocking of desperately-needed aid shipments into
Gaza <
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360788445/after-going-gaza-border-and-seeing-aid-get-turned-back-helen-clark-had-withering-words-nz>.
Twice in the time I’ve been in NZ, I have witnessed this country take
a courageously independent stand against the wishes of the USA and our
own neighbour Australia. The last example was in 2003, when Clark was
our Prime Minister; she refused to have us jump into the disastrous
Iraq invasion that George W Bush and Tony Blair were trying to coax
everybody into joining in. Certainly the Aussies were keen on that
one.
I’ve said more than once, that Australia would like to be the US when
it grows up. But here, we have the issue of the recognition of a
Palestinian state, where for once the Aussies are ahead of us, having
already announced their decision while our own Government is still
hemming and hawing over whether it’s a good idea.
The right of self-determination of a nation is a non-negotiable right.
It is not some bargaining chip to be used to “reward” anybody for
behaving like obedient, subservient colonized subjects of repressive
and brutal colonizers.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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