OPINION

A Palestinian baby, blinded in one eye by shrapnel, her parents dead. A row of children’s legs sticking out from under the collapsed walls of a school. A crying father holding his infant, wrapped
in a funeral shroud.

Is this justice?

Hamas’ raid into Israel on October 7, murdering hundreds of civilians (including noted peace activists and Arab-Israelis) and kidnapping hundreds more was not justice, either.

It was only to be expected that Israel would strike back against the perpetrators and seek to get its citizens back after October 7. But even Israel’s most steadfast allies are wavering now, as we see endless images of civilians, so many of them children, being indiscriminately massacred in their thousands by the Israeli military.

1 in 40 Gazans dead or seriously wounded. Three-quarters of the Gaza population forced from their homes. That doesn’t look like a surgical response against terrorists and to rescue hostages. It looks like terrorism. It looks like ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Israeli politicians are making wild calls to force the Palestinians to leave entirely or wipe them out, with Prime Minister Netanyahu referencing the Old Testament instruction “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants”.

It is heart-breaking that a country established to provide a safe haven for Jews after the horrendous crimes committed against them, now inflicts such horror on others.

And it is not as if this is one-sided. Hamas’ rhetoric is just as violent and its military action just as indiscriminate with intentional targeting of civilians. The main difference between Hamas and the Israeli military is firepower – neither has a moral high ground.

It’s the innocent people on both sides caught in between them who are suffering and dying.

Chris Hipkins is right. We need a lasting ceasefire, not just a temporary truce, and we need it now. Hopefully, the incoming Government will have the courage to call for one, too.

Ultimately, there needs to be a solution that delivers justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. It’s not for nothing that protestors around the world use the chant ‘no justice, no peace’. It is only through justice that permanent peace can be found.

The Israeli military knows there is no ultimate peace through violence. That’s why they call their periodic wars with Hamas ‘mowing the grass’. They know that violence will just lead to another generation of fighters.

The lesson of history is that oppressed peoples never surrender until they have justice. They will keep on fighting. But another lesson of history is that peace through justice is possible.

Look at South Africa. When I was young, it seemed Apartheid would never end, but it did – not through force but through international condemnation and visionary leaders, FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, who were willing to put aside hate to build peace together.

Look at Northern Ireland. The same thing. It seemed like the gulf between Catholics and Protestants, Republicans and Loyalists, could not be bridged. But it was, thanks to leaders who saw that everyone had more to gain from peace than endless violence.

In Aotearoa, we too, are going through a long process of righting wrongs from the past so that we can move forward together with a country built on justice, rather than conquest.

Unfortunately, Israel and Palestine are heading in the opposite direction. The Israeli far-right killed their PM, Yitzhak Rabin, when he tried to make peace. In Gaza, Hamas has displaced the more moderate PLO. Both sides’ leaderships are becoming more extreme, routinely making calls for the other side to be annihilated.

What does a lasting peace look like? I asked Helen Clark, former PM and now a member of the Elders, a group of international dignitaries offering advice on some of the world’s toughest issues:

“First: stop the fighting, start negotiating hostage release, and let the supplies in. Then, you need people who don’t like each other to talk to each other and say: ‘we can’t let the cycle of violence continue through more generations; we have to focus on the establishment of a Palestinian state that will live side by side in peace with Israel’.

“I know it sounds impossible but actually, it’s the only thing that’s going to end this once and for all”.

It seems this conflict is intractable, but it’s not. It will not be easy, but brave leaders, both in Israel and Palestine but also around the world, need to stand up and say violence is not the route to peace. Justice, both for Israelis and Palestinians, is the only path forward.

Rangimarie , Shalom , Salām : Peace