Abstract
New Zealand has been firm in its stance against Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, yet has been silent on the United States’ enabling of it.
In the last 17 months, Gaza has been the scene of what Thomas Merton once called the unspeakable – human wrongdoing on a scale and a depth that seems to go beyond the capacity of words to adequately describe.
The latest Gaza conflict began with a horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that prompted a relentless Israel ground and air offensive in Gaza with full financial, logistical and diplomatic backing from the Biden administration.
During this period, around 50,000 people – 48,903 Palestinians and 1,706 Israelis – have been reported killed in the Gaza conflict according to the official figures of the Gaza Health Ministry, as well as 166 journalists and media workers, 120 academics,and more than 224 humanitarian aid workers.
Moreover, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, signed in mid-January, seems to be hanging by a thread.