New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in New York on Friday that New Zealand will not recognize Palestinian statehood at this time but remains committed to a two-state solution.
“With a war raging, Hamas remaining the de facto government of Gaza, and no clarity on next steps, too many questions remain about the future state of Palestine for it to be prudent for New Zealand to announce recognition at this time,” Peters said in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
“We are also concerned that a focus on recognition, in the current circumstances, could complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire by pushing Israel and Hamas into even more intransigent positions,” Peters added.
New Zealand’s position puts it out of step with traditional partners Australia, Canada and Britain who all recognized a Palestinian state this past week alongside France and several other Western countries.
A handout from the New Zealand government on Friday said that it hoped to recognize a Palestinian state at a time when the situation on the ground offers greater prospects for peace and negotiation than at present.
New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party criticized the decision and claimed it would put the country on the wrong side of history.
Labour foreign affairs spokesperson Peeni Henare said New Zealand will feel let down by the government today.
“There is no two-state solution or enduring peace in the Middle East without recognition of Palestine as a state,” Henare said.
The premier of Greece, a key partner of Israel within the European Union which did not join with other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state this week, also addressed the UN General Assembly on Friday, warning that Israel risks losing its remaining friends over the destructive war in Gaza.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Israel had a right to self-defense after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught that started the war but cannot “justify the death of thousands of children.”
“Greece maintains a strategic partnership with Israel, but this does not prevent us from speaking openly and frankly,” Mitsotakis said.
“The continuation of this course of action will ultimately harm Israel’s own interests, leading to an erosion of international support,” the center-right leader added.
“I tell my Israeli friends they risk alienating all their remaining allies if they persist on a path that is shattering the potential of a two-state solution.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who in a fiery UN speech earlier Friday accused Western leaders of fanning antisemitism — flew over Greece as he took a circuitous route to New York in light of an arrest warrant he faces from the International Criminal Court.
Greece has found common interests with Israel due to tensions both have with Turkey, which has expanded influence sharply in Syria since the fall of leader Bashar al-Assad in December.
But Israel also faces wide public criticism in Greece and Mitsotakis’s left-wing predecessor Alexis Tsipras has urged recognition of a Palestinian state.
The prime minister of fellow EU member Ireland tore into Israel during his speech to the UN General Assembly, which came shortly after Netanyahu addressed the forum, claiming Israel’s actions in Gaza “an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law.”
“What is happening in Gaza cannot be justified or defended. It is an affront to human dignity and decency. It is an abandonment of all norms, all international rules and law,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
Ireland, which recognized a Palestinian state last year, has been one of the countries most critical of Israel.
Martin accused Israel of weaponizing hunger.
“Babies starving to death while aid rots at the border, people shot while desperately seeking food for their families,” he said, repeating accusations that Israel is committing genocide.
Martin said that while Hamas “must answer for its crimes” and have “no role in the future governance of Palestine, but no crime, however heinous, can justify genocide.”
Israel strenuously rejects accusations of genocide and said hunger in Gaza is caused by the failure of UN agencies to deliver it, along with Hamas looting.
Also denouncing Israel from the speaker’s podium at the General Assembly was Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who charged that “Israel’s genocidal onslaught has unleashed unspeakable terror on women and children in a manner that we have not witnessed in the annals of history.”
Sharif was among the top officials from eight Arab or Muslim countries who met with Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week to discuss strategy on ending the Israel-Hamas war and releasing the hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, amid warming relations between the United States and Pakistan.