The Government announced on Thursday that HAMAS is now designated a terrorist organization. Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters made the announcement on Thursday, where he also announced that Israeli settlers would be hit with sanctions.
This is welcome news and acknowledges that there is extremism happening on both the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. It completes the partial designation of HAMAS as a terrorist entity. The military wing was declared to be a terrrorist group in 2010 by the Government of Prime Minister John Key. The 2024 designation extends the original one to cover the entire organization.
It is now illegal for anyone living in New Zealand to have anything to do with HAMAS. It means:
- No monetary support
- No logistical support
- No membership
- No combat – armed or otherwise – in support of HAMAS
- No material support
- No other support not already listed
I have been hoping for a while now that HAMAS would be declared a terrorist entity. So too have the Iranian community in Christchurch, as the Iranian regime that they left to get away from is an active supporter of the organization. Iranian support for HAMAS includes funding, weapons and munitions as well as training camps. The support is sanctioned by the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei.
Iran is also known to support Hezbollah, which is active in Lebanon and Syria. It frequently launches rocket attacks from Lebanese soil and, just yesterday, has received some kind of permission from Tehran to conduct intensified attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil.
There is a third group that New Zealand would also do well to designate a terrorist organization. The Islamic Republican Guard Corps. This shadowy organization, which allegedly answers directly to the Supreme Ayatollah of Iran has been involved in wars and attacks in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. In addition, they have supported HAMAS and Hezbollah. They have also overseen Iran’s missile programme and deliberately circumvented sanctions against Iran by establishing fake businesses.
For most New Zealanders all of this changes nothing. Too few know about the intricate involvement of Iranian terrorist proxies in the Middle East, and the vast majority of people who have seen Iranian community protests in public just walk past as if the protest was not there. Except that it shows a weak – albeit continuing – commitment, despite the lack of direct pressure on Israel to stop it’s offensive, to the two-state solution.
However, with that two-state solution in mind, New Zealand has indicated to Israel that its use of settlers to violently clear Palestinian land under the watch of Israeli soldiers is not acceptable practice. Israeli settlers, long having acted with complete disregard for the welfare of Palestinians, who they do not recognize, have been marked as extremists who need to be sanctioned. They will not be able to enter New Zealand territory. New Zealand’s consistent position is that the Israeli settlements being established in Gaza are contrary to international law.
Hopefully this stance will be extended to anyone actively involved in the illegal clearance of Palestinian land. It is essential for the stability of the Middle East that Israel is made to stop the illegal occupation and dismantling of Palestine.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 