Demonstrators gather in Aotea Square in central Auckland on Saturday. (Photo: Marama Muru-Lanning/ Additional design: Archi Banal)
Demonstrators gather in Aotea Square in central Auckland on Saturday. (Photo: Marama Muru-Lanning/ Additional design: Archi Banal)

PoliticsOctober 25, 2023

Thousands take part in pro-Palestine demonstrations across Aotearoa

Contributing writer
Demonstrators gather in Aotea Square in central Auckland on Saturday. (Photo: Marama Muru-Lanning/ Additional design: Archi Banal)
Demonstrators gather in Aotea Square in central Auckland on Saturday. (Photo: Marama Muru-Lanning/ Additional design: Archi Banal)

Thousands of protestors gathered in cities and towns around the country, demanding an end to Israeli forces’ bombardment of Gaza. Their calls have been echoed by Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party.

The streets of central Tāmaki Makaurau were transformed into a sea of red, green, black and white over the weekend. 

On Saturday, a vast crowd gathered in Aotea Square in Auckland from 2pm for the Rally for Palestine, which began with a karakia and a minute of silence. They joined demonstrators across the country and around the world rallying in solidarity with Palestinian communities and calling for an urgent ceasefire to the bombing campaign of Gaza by Israel, as well as long-lasting resolutions to the broader Israel-Palestine conflict which stretches back more than a century.

When you’re in a crowd so massive, it can be a near-impossible task to decipher exactly how many individuals make up the mass, but in Auckland the crowd was most definitely in the thousands – and potentially even more than 5,000, according to organisers. Exact numbers aside, what is certain is that there was a significant number of people expressing their solidarity with Palestinians and dissent to the stance taken by New Zealand’s government. 

The rally makes its way past Smith and Caughey’s on Queen Street. (Photo: Charlotte Muru-Lanning)

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has been running for over two weeks now in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack in which the militant group killed 1,400 Israelis, and took 222 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Following the attacks, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was at war and pledged to exact an “unprecedented price”. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 5,087 Palestinians in Gaza – 40 percent of whom are children – and 90 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials. The current situation in Gaza has been described as an “unprecedented catastrophe” – however Western political leaders, including ours, have remained, for the most part, unified in their support of Israel’s military response.

It was this context that coloured the mood of the demonstrators and those who spoke on Saturday: a mix of both sorrow and defiance. Organised by Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, speakers included members of the Palestinian community, activists and Green Party MP Darleen Tana. Joined by fellow Green Party members Marama Davidson, Ricardo Menendez March, Steve Abel and Lawrence Xu-Nan, Tana told the crowd that the party was “deeply concerned at the escalation”, and called on the international community and our own government to take stronger steps toward peace, to end apartheid and against war crimes. “For there to be peace, there needs to be justice,” she told the crowd.

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As they began their descent down Queen Street to the US Consulate office, protestors chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “we don’t want your bloody war”. Some marching wore keffiyeh scarves, while others clutched Palestinian and Tino Rangatiratanga flags or cardboard placards painted with phrases like “stop the genocide”, “ceasefire” and the most common of the bunch: “Free Palestine”. 

While the Auckland rally was the largest, thousands also gathered in Hamilton, Christchurch, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Wellington and Palmerston North. Rallies in response to the situation in Gaza had attracted thousands around New Zealand the previous weekend too. And around the world, hundreds of thousands more. An estimated 100,000 people in the United Kingdom took to the streets over the weekend to express solidarity with Palestinians. 

Following the march, some attendees expressed frustration on social media with a perceived lack of coverage of the local rallies. On the six o’clock news that night, the demonstrations were largely overshadowed by the All Blacks’ win. While footage of rugby fans celebrating victory led the news segments with an eight-minute slot, the rallies around the country were compressed into a 13-second clip and soundbite, only mentioning the Auckland demonstration and shrinking the size of the crowd down to the “hundreds”.

A demonstrator leads chants via a speaker affixed to a car. (Photo: Charlotte Muru-Lanning)

Over the weekend, as a sparse amount of humanitarian aid began trickling into Gaza, the World Health Organisation issued a statement illustrating a dire situation in the territory: hospitals overwhelmed with casualties; tens of thousands of people displaced; and civilians, including children, pregnant women and the elderly, denied their right to protection, food, water and health care. “We call for a humanitarian ceasefire, along with immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access throughout Gaza to allow humanitarian actors to reach civilians in need, save lives and prevent further human suffering,” said the statement. “Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic.” A group of UN agencies have called for a humanitarian ceasefire. However, this week, US president Joe Biden said he would not consider backing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war until all hostages kidnapped by Hamas are released.

So far, our leadership has mirrored other Western nations’ official response to the ongoing conflict. The day after the October 7 attacks, when media had begun reporting that advances from Hamas militants killed 250 Israelis and Israeli retaliatory strikes had killed at least 232 people in Gaza, prime minister Chirs Hipkins “unequivocally” condemned the “terror attacks by Hamas on Israel”, and criticised the targeting of civilians and the taking of hostages. “New Zealand has designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation, and we recognise Israel’s right to defend itself,” Hipkins said in the statement which echoed those of other Western leaders. “We are very concerned that the situation will escalate in the coming days and New Zealand again calls for restraint, the protection of non-combatants, and the upholding of international humanitarian law by all parties.”

On the same day, National leader and prime minister elect Christopher Luxon wrote: “I am shocked and saddened by the attacks overnight against Israel. We condemn these Hamas attacks on Israel and the violence and suffering being inflicted on innocent civilians. There is no justification for these attacks and Israel has a right to defend itself.”

The Act Party issued a statement expressing solidarity with Israel too, while condemning “terrorist attacks” from Hamas. “In an increasingly uncertain world, New Zealand needs a government that is committed to defence, committed to working with our allies and committed to defending freedom and democracy worldwide,” the statement said.

Last week, Hipkins announced after consultation with Christopher Luxon that the government would provide $5 million in funding to address urgent humanitarian needs in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,” Hipkins said. “New Zealand calls for rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access to enable the delivery of crucial life-saving assistance. We call on all parties to respect international humanitarian law, and uphold their obligations to protect civilians, and humanitarian workers, including medical personnel,” Hipkins said.

Today, following similar appeals by the UN, US and Canada, a joint statement from Hipkins and foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta urged for a humanitarian pause in Gaza and the immediate establishment of humanitarian corridors and safe areas to protect civilians living in the Gaza strip. The call comes a week after the US used its veto at the UN security council to block a resolution calling for Israel to allow humanitarian corridors into Gaza and an immediate humanitarian pause. A pause is generally considered less formal and shorter than a ceasefire.

On Friday last week, Labour MP Damien O’Connor broke ranks with the party; sharing a video of Israeli journalist Amira Hass outlining the situation in Gaza and firmly criticising the Israeli government with the caption: “We cannot remain silent on this tragedy”. 

The crowd on Queen Street, Auckland. (Image: Charlotte Muru-Lanning)

And both Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party have publicly called on the government to do more. In a statement last week Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador if Israel does not immediately implement a ceasefire and open safe humanitarian aid corridors for Gaza. “We condemn Hamas for murdering civilians and taking civilian hostages. We also condemn the retaliatory actions of the Israeli government,” said Waititi. 

“Western countries are wilfully in denial about the long term aggression by Israel against Palestine. They have instituted an apartheid regime and have blockaded Gaza by land, air and sea,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

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The Green Party condemned the targeting of civilians by both Hamas and the Israeli Defence Force and called on Hamas to allow the safe and immediate release of all Israeli civilian hostages in a statement. They described the withholding of access to water, electricity and humanitarian supplies while the ongoing military assault on Gaza continues as “a clear breach of international law”. 

“Together we call upon Israeli leaders for immediate cessation of the assault on Gaza and opening of aid corridors and supplies. We call on the international community to unite to support a ceasefire and a durable, just peace,” the party’s statement said. “The only sustainable path forward for peace in both Israel and Palestine is respect for the dignity and rights of both communities to self-determination, through an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, freedom of movement, equal rights, and a path to statehood for Palestine. The global community must take all steps to secure a lasting peace.”

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Image: Archi Banal
Image: Archi Banal

PoliticsOctober 25, 2023

Team-building tips for Luxon, Seymour and Peters

Editor-at-large
Image: Archi Banal
Image: Archi Banal

We collect the experts’ ideas, from escape rooms to improvisation.

New Zealanders have lately been sitting around waiting for the specials at levels not seen since Womad 2017. We know that National won the election. What we won’t know until those special votes – more than half a million of the things, accounting for 20% of the overall turnout – have been counted and processed is whether Christopher Luxon will depend on the votes of New Zealand First, as well as Act, to command a parliamentary majority. 

Either way, he seems to have resolved that the smartest course of action is to strike a deal with both. And therefore, in the serene hiatus as the specials travel through the pipes of democracy, Luxon has sought to build a working relationship with David Seymour (his former neighbour) and Winston Peters (a man whom, he said repeatedly during the campaign, he doesn’t know). 

Luxon seeks, he told media, “good alignment and good chemistry”. At another point he said: “I think chemistry and relationships are really important.” This morning he stressed the need to “build relationships”, to establish “good trust and a strong base”. Or, to put it another way, the goal of the pre-specials period is team-building. 

Given the seriousness of the project (running New Zealand) and the size of the challenge (stopping Seymour and Peters plunging their hands into one another’s chests and tearing out vital organs) we’ve gone to some of the nation’s leading experts in team building and asked: what should they be getting on with?

‘Something with a bit of mud or water’

What better place to begin than Action Matakana, an obstacle course and corporate team-building programme with a slogan that Christopher Luxon has to love: “Get your company back on track.” 

Founder Max Carpenter, a former military officer, agrees that this is a mighty challenge. “Most successful people have very big egos, and when the spotlight is on them their values and thoughts become more entrenched,” he says. “When the parties have conflicting views it is one of the more challenging feats to get them to work as a team. The trick is to find a ‘common cause’ – Christopher Luxon’s ‘chemistry’ – and get them to play that ball and not the man.”

A willingness to work together is critical, says Carpenter – and whatever we might have heard on the campaign, that has been the message from the three parties in the days since the election. The next part is crucial. “To be a successful team there must be trust,” says Carpenter. 

“Trust you will be supported when making a stance, trust that you will not be stabbed from behind and trust you will get the support you require from other team members. Trust the other team members will not ambush you when the team is surprised. No matter what happens the team will have your back. Trust allows team members to be courageous and go on to do great deeds.”

On the course at Matakana Action. (Photo: Matakana Action)

Great. Let’s get practical. Action Matakana would set Peters and Seymour “a challenge that would place them both out of their comfort zones”, says Carpenter. First, disorientation: “With those two snappy dressers something with a bit of mud or water comes to mind.” 

Next, something requiring collaboration: “A challenge they would jointly have to work together to solve, [such that] one could not succeed without the other.” And as if that isn’t sounding like compulsory viewing already, a “touch of fear” challenge, one that “if they collectively failed it would have an unpleasant outcome for them both”. 

“Having achieved or failed the task they may well come away with a better understanding of the other’s capabilities and be able to position themselves to work together for the betterment of a project they both believe in,” says Carpenter. “Whatever the outcome I believe there will be a need for a bigger bull in the paddock to keep lasting peace. If Christopher L can pull this off there will be a job waiting for him at Action Matakana.”

‘Work together to create a coherent story’

If they need the team-builders to come to them, why not try The Improvisors, a group of Wellington-based actors who have been giving corporates a theatrical lift for decades. 

“I think that the most relevant improv exercise that comes to mind would be the Word at a Time story,” says the actor and improv veteran Ian Harcourt. “It’s one that I would use in every ‘introduction to improv skills’ workshop. It’s pretty much summed up in its name – the participants work together to create a coherent story, taking turns to add a single word to the narrative.” 

A simple task, but one which can be very revealing, and probably should have been used during the televised debates. “The exercise is all about listening, yielding to the other person’s contribution and not expecting other people to be mind-readers. It’s also very much about prioritising the need to create a satisfying story, treating that goal as more important than the egos of the performers,” says Harcourt. “Pick any item from the two preceding sentences for something which could create difficulties for a Luxon/Seymour/Peters combination.”

Ian Harcourt (top right) and the Improvisors.

When that loses steam – or leads to places too terrifying to describe – try something else. “The other exercise which I would be very interested to see them play is called Sequence Dialogue,” says Harcourt. “It’s done with three or more performers. The rules are quite simple – they play out a scene (usually involving a shared goal, like buying milk or putting together a coalition, for example) in which performer B can’t speak until A has spoken, C can’t speak until A and B have spoken, A can’t speak again until C has spoken, etc etc. Again it’s all about listening, following the rules and keeping the scene going.”

Again: I would pay money to watch.

‘I would start by locking them in an escape room’

“An interesting conundrum,” says Guy Moxley, lead facilitator at Teambuilding New Zealand. “Generally a team works best when all within said team share the same risk. In a political context it was in some ways more like “poker players sitting at opposite ends of the table, [thinking] ‘what cards are they holding’.”

Those risks notwithstanding, “I would start by locking them in an escape room – let them dwell, think and share.” In such circumstances the leaders would be incentivised to “find that ‘synergy’ of goals [and] highlight and identify risks”.

Thinking outside the box of the escape room, Moxley conjures up a mass-participation team-building event: “the medieval pillory stock in the town square”. Voters could “pick your underperforming politician, hurling tomatoes (rotten cost extra)”. He says: “perhaps T-Shirt sales and ice creams would raise GDP – but the voters, the fun, the connections, the memories, now there’s a team activity all can enjoy.”

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‘Raging river rapids and wild wilderness’

Last but never least (nor last, for that matter), we turn to Steve Gurney, a champion multisport and triathlon athlete, motivational speaker and designer of team-building adventures. 

“Camaraderie, friendly support and encouragement are top hallmarks of our sport. We’re all competitive for sure, but there’s a palpable undercurrent of positivity and respect for our fellow athletes and crews,” he says. “The defeatist amongst us would throw our arms in the air and say that we’re forever doomed because politicians are drawn to politics, as flies are drawn to poo, by their out-of-control egos … Hell shall freeze over before we see teamwork and harmony between David Seymour and Winston Peters.”

Steve Gurney in the Coast to Coast, 2002. (Photo: Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

But while lesser team-builders might give up, Gurney’s record nine victories in the Coast to Coast are testament to a man who shrinks at no challenge. “Optimists like myself never give up hope that we might yet find the key to world peace, and many of us still hold rosy visions surrounded by harp-playing cherubs of our politicians shedding their juvenile tantrums and putting down their lego blocks. Turning instead to constructive debate in the house, and going on to agree on policy to make NZ the best little nation in the world.”

The Gurney plan for developing chemistry and building a coalition, therefore, goes like this: 

“Enter them as a four-person team in the GodZONE adventure race. Seymour, Peters, Luxon and Shaw. That’ll learn them! They will need to cast aside their errant egos and put all of their earnest energies into working in harmony with their fellow flesh and blood. For not doing so will mean map-reading mayhem and inevitable hypothermic death amid New Zealand’s snowy precipitous peaks, raging river rapids and wild wilderness.”

(Sadly GodZONE race has “just pulled the pin”, notes Gurney, but if all four are up for it he’ll surely find a way.)

And a second idea: “There’s nothing, absolutely nothing better to garner trust, cooperation and mutual respect than to trust the other person with your precious life on the end of a rope, dangling 300 metres over a mountain precipice. We observe the true and transparent nature of a person in times of unpredictable trauma, when their life, health and very existence is under immediate threat.”

Gurney is ready if you are: “I’ll take them on a mountaineering trip.”

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