Council ‘upheld human rights’ by supporting ceasefire in Gaza
The Whanganui District Council voted in favour of a call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday – the first local body to do so in New Zealand.
The vote was taken just minutes before Foreign Minister Winston Peters called for a ceasefire agreement and for both sides of the Israel-Hamas war to take a step back.
The Whanganui Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa had petitioned the council and then a motion was moved by councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay and seconded by councillor Charlotte Melser.
The petition was supported by letters from local businesses, organisations and community groups, as well as by 2279 signatures.
Mayor Andrew Tripe said citizens in Gaza were experiencing unimaginable suffering and the impact of this conflict will have generational consequences.
“We are making a compassionate local statement on an issue of global concern – the desire for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
Tripe said the voting was unanimous except for one abstention.
Whanganui network organiser Sophi Reinholt said many people were frustrated with the lack of international progress on the war in the Middle East.
“So far, there has been more rhetoric than action,” she said.
“New Zealand can and should do more to take a stand against this crisis – silence is not a neutral position.”
The motion voted on by the council also condemned “all acts of violence and terror against civilians on all sides in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict”.
Reinholt said the council had upheld human rights. “Our hope is that this will encourage other councils, organisations and businesses to follow suit,” she said.
Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay said it was an “honour” to bring the motion forward.
He acknowledged people on both sides of the conflict and those in the community who had “friends, relatives and associates” in Gaza.
He said that local connection was why the council should lobby the Government into calling for an immediate ceasefire. “As part of a collective we can make a difference,” Chandulal-Mackay said.
If it wasn’t enough that 35,000 people “had been slaughtered”, he asked fellow councillors to consider the radicalism and extremism that often came from war.
There had also been “rhetoric in the community in the past week” he wanted to address.
He said there was a “false dichotomy” that people who were pro-Palestine were also pro-Hamas. “If we keep talking past each other with this rhetoric we’ll never come together and find solutions.
“This has to stop,” Chandulal-Mackay said.
Before the motion was passed it was amended to include the words “on both sides” after some councillors raised concerns.
Councillor Glenda Brown said it was for that reason only it would have her support. She said she “detested” war and it destroyed families, economies and countries.
But the war in Gaza was “incredibly complex” and she said Hamas had a large part to play.
Councillor Rob Vinsen said the amendment had also swayed his vote, and he would not have supported the motion otherwise.
He said this was because he knew an Israeli in his community who had two relatives “murdered” on October 7.
Four of his loved ones were taken hostage and only two of them had been released. “That’s why I was motivated to add the clause ... it speaks to both sides.
“That’s important to me and that’s why I will support it as well,” Vinsen said.
Meanwhile, Peters said it was the responsibility of both Israel and Hamas to agree to the terms of a ceasefire.
“We are clear that Israel and a future Palestinian state, living peacefully sideby-side, is the only durable, realistic and fair solution.
“Everyone in the international community should be working to that end,” he said.
Peters spoke after Hamas published the full text of a ceasefire proposal mediated by Egypt and Qatar. “We commend the efforts of those, including Egypt, Qatar and the United States, seeking to broker an agreement, which must include an extended ceasefire and the release of hostages,” he said.
While the Whanganui council was the first New Zealand local body to call for a ceasefire, in March, the regional council, Environment Canterbury, voted not to work with companies that do business with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.