Source: Asia Pacific Report
Asia Pacific Report
A leading New Zealand advocacy group for Palestine has demanded immediate reinstatement of NZ funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the face of a humanitarian crisis for food, education and healthcare in Gaza.
In a statement today, the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) said it was “outraged” that Foreign Minister Winston Peters had reportedly suspended New Zealand funding for UNRWA at a time when the Gaza crisis was sharply escalating.
Peters appears in a video for the pro-Israel lobby to make the announcement but has not issued any release for the New Zealand public.
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“Peters has apparently caved in to pressure from New Zealand’s pro-Israel lobby which has for years run an intensive, sustained disinformation campaign about UNRWA,” said PSNA spokesperson Rinad Tamimi.
The United Nations has just held a briefing on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza last week, underscoring the grave situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, warning that “genocide continues in Gaza”, while “crimes against humanity and war crimes” are being committed in the West Bank.
The briefings examined the immediate humanitarian and human rights consequences of the ongoing crisis in Gaza, one year after the ceasefire entered into force, as well as the escalating violence linked to Israel’s unlawful occupation.
Briefers warned that the “destruction of truth” had become part of the “destruction of a people” and that Palestinians were being deprived of hope and dreams for the future.
Peters ‘betrays NZ values’
“So, while Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, Peters betrays New Zealand values in the most sick and cynical way,” Tamimi said.
“Peters wants the minority votes of the pro-Israel lobby and has gone out of his way to pander to these most racist, reactionary parts of our community.”
New Zealand faces a general election on Saturday with New Zealand’s coalition government’s policies on the Palestine genocide under scrutiny.
“Peters hopes this will pass unnoticed by New Zealanders at large but he knows it will spread widely within the pro-Israel lobby before most people cast their votes,” Tamimi said.
UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organisation for Palestinian refugees and has incomparable expertise and resources to help Palestinians in Gaza, the PSNA statement said.
It has frequently been cited by New Zealand Foreign Affairs officials as the most important and crucial aid agency for Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Exploited suffering
“Israel hates it because it holds the key to UN recognition of Palestinian refugees forced out of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba. Israel will play Winston Peters with the most outrageous horror stories about UNRWA, because Peters wants to believe them,” Tamimi said.
“Peters is also happy to use the suffering of Palestinians because he believes it will bolster his electoral chances.
“We want to see the Prime Minister override Peters immediately and reinstate and triple funding to the UNRWA to meet the desperate Palestinian needs,” Tamimi said.
New Zealand had been previously making its annual payment of $1 million to UNRWA as scheduled.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/11/04/psna-outraged-over-nz-suspension-of-unrwa-aid-calls-for-immediate-restored-funding/