"Blood on Our Launch Pads: How Judith Collins Armed Genocide from Māhia" - 25 October 2025

Tēnā koutou katoa,

The smoking gun: In December 2023, while United Nations experts warned of possible genocide unfolding in Gaza, Space Minister Judith Collins approved BlackSky Gen-3 satellite launches from Mahia Peninsula. Twenty-four months later, over 68,000 Palestinians lie dead - most of them women and children. BlackSky, the company Collins greenlit, operates a secret US$150 million contract supplying “high temporal frequency images and analysis” to the Israeli Defence Ministry. These aren’t weather satellites, whānau. They’re the eyes tracking targets for a genocide machine.

And Collins? She calls it “the right decision.” Says Israel “is not our enemy.” Boasts we’re “third in the world for successful vertical launches.” While Palestinian children burn alive without morphine, Collins preens about New Zealand’s space industry “rocket” success. The neoliberal death cult has a new priestess, and she’s wearing our nuclear-free legacy like a stolen korowai.

Whakapaka of Complicity: Following the Money Back to Mahia

Escalation of death toll in Gaza showing the catastrophic human cost from October 2023 to October 2025, as documented by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

This chart tells a story of industrialized slaughter. From October 2023’s Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, the death toll exploded to 23,900 by December when Collins signed her approval. By May 2024, when Intelligence Online revealed BlackSky’s $150M Israel contract, 35,000 Palestinians were dead. Today: 68,000 souls, with at least 20,000 children among the slain - 30% of all deaths. For context, that exceeds the civilian death rate of every global conflict except the Rwandan genocide, Mariupol, and Srebrenica.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials knew. Their December 2023 advice to Collins explicitly acknowledged UN experts were “warning a possible genocide could unfold in Gaza and that schools and hospitals were being bombed.” They knew BlackSky could be used by Israel. They approved it anyway, hiding behind the fig leaf that “there are no United Nations Security Council sanctions on Israel” and “no policy restrictions on New Zealand’s trading relationship with Israel.”

This is rangatiratanga in reverse - leaders abdicating authority to serve foreign military interests. It violates kaitiakitanga - our duty as guardians to prevent harm. It tramples manaakitanga - the obligation to extend care and protection. And it shreds whanaungatanga - our connections to all peoples suffering under oppression.

The Rocket Lab-BlackSky-Israel Pipeline: Naming Names and Tracing Dollars

Follow the money, whānau. Rocket Lab, founded by Sir Peter Beck, has transformed from a quirky Kiwi startup into a US$30 billion military-industrial behemoth. Its 2024 revenue hit US$436 million, turbocharged by Pentagon contracts worth over US$800 million. The company now has a dedicated “Rocket Lab National Security LLC” subsidiary “to serve the defence and intelligence community.”

BlackSky has been Rocket Lab’s customer since 2019. The companies’ symbiosis is clear: Rocket Lab provides the launch capacity from Mahia; BlackSky provides the satellites that deliver “space-based intelligence that moves at warfighter speed” enabling “vital aircraft movements, ground vehicle positioning and critical facility operations.” Translation: targeting data.

Intelligence Online - a specialized intelligence trade publication - reported in July 2024 that BlackSky holds “a secret $150m contract to supply high temporal frequency images and analysis to the Israeli defence ministry.” By October 2024, as Israel’s assault intensified, Intelligence Online confirmed Israel is BlackSky’s largest foreign revenue source, comprising 16% of total revenue. That’s US$2.42 million in Q1 2024, surging to US$4.24 million in Q2 - a tripling of sales coinciding precisely with Israel’s Rafah offensive.

BlackSky’s Gen-3 satellites - the ones Collins approved - aren’t just incremental improvements. They’re weapons-grade surveillance tools with cameras that penetrate haze and smoke, capturing higher-resolution imagery more frequently. The company explicitly advertises these to “support intelligence and security operations” and is developing laser optical links funded by the US Navy to deliver imagery “10 times faster” with “data volumes five times greater” for “warfighters” and “tactical ISR operations.”

Peter Beck has stayed silent on Gaza. When pressed about military payloads, he hides behind the “dual-use” defence, claiming GPS and weather satellites originated from military R&D. When RNZ asked in November 2024 whether BlackSky’s satellites were being used in Israeli airstrikes, Rocket Lab pointed to “other uses” like disaster response. They refused interviews. Classic obfuscation.

Judith Collins? She’s got conflicts of interest deeper than the Kermadec Trench. She holds three ministerial portfolios: Space, Defence, and Attorney-General. This concentration of power means she approves satellite launches, oversees military relationships with the Pentagon, and provides legal advice to government - all while championing the US$1.69 billion NZ space industry she helped build.

Her history screams self-dealing. Remember Oravida? Collins visited her husband’s dairy export company in China on a taxpayer-funded ministerial trip in 2013, then lied about it. She was forced to resign from Cabinet in 2014 after emails revealed she undermined the Serious Fraud Office director. She returned, but the pattern is clear: Collins serves power and profit, cloaked in plausible deniability.

The Neoliberal Logic: How “Free Trade” Became a License to Kill

MBIE’s advice is a master class in neoliberal doublespeak. Officials told Collins that launching BlackSky satellites posed “risks” but concluded “there is a net good associated with commercially available remote sensing due to the wide range of applications.” They noted Israel could use the satellites but justified approval because “there are no United Nations Security Council sanctions on Israel” and “no policy restrictions on New Zealand’s trading relationship with Israel.”

This is the core neoliberal trick: reducing moral questions to market transactions. Genocide? Not our problem - we’re just facilitating commerce. International law violations? The ICJ is still deliberating, so we’ll keep launching. The fact that the International Court of Justice found it “plausible” that Israel’s acts could constitute genocide in January 2024 - and issued binding provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts - means nothing to Collins and her officials.

New Zealand signed a Technology Innovation and R&D Treaty with Israel in March 2020. MBIE administers it. The treaty enables “business-to-business collaboration on research and development, facilitated and co-funded by the Israel Innovation Authority and Callaghan Innovation.” It specifically carves out “priority sectors” while excluding others. Guess what’s prioritized? Advanced technology and defence applications. What’s excluded? Any concern for Palestinian lives.

This is neoliberalism in its purest, most lethal form. As Greenpeace Aotearoa documented, neoliberalism in New Zealand has meant privatisation of public goods, deregulation of corporate power, and subordination of human rights to profit. Roger Douglas’s 1984 “reforms” weren’t about economic efficiency - they were about transferring wealth upward and power outward. National Party governments from the 1990s through today have accelerated this trajectory.

Collins embodies this lineage. Her political career - from cheering privatisation to defending military contractors - shows where her loyalties lie. Not with the 68,000 dead in Gaza. Not with Māori communities who oppose military launches from Mahia. Not with New Zealand’s nuclear-free legacy. But with Peter Beck’s US$2 billion fortune, Lockheed Martin’s investments in Rocket Lab, and the Pentagon’s US$800 million contracts.

Mahia Peninsula: Where Tikanga Meets Tomahawk Missiles

Let’s speak plainly about what’s happening at Mahia. This isn’t just about satellites. It’s about the militarisation of whenua Māori for American imperial aims.

Rocket Lab’s launchpad sits on Te Ātianga-a-Māhaki and Ngāti Rakaipaaka land. Local hapū were promised the facility wouldn’t be used for military purposes. That promise was broken. Since 2019, Rocket Lab has launched at least 13 payloads for US military or intelligence agencies, including the notorious “Gunsmoke-J” satellite in March 2021 designed to improve US Army targeting capabilities.

Sonya Smith of Ngāti Rakaipaaka said the consent process had “red carpet treatment” and that there was “discontent amongst hapū and iwi about arrogance and foregone conclusion.” Protesters told Green MP Teanau Tuiono about impacts on mahinga kai (food gathering areas) and pātaka kai (food storage), environmental damage, and blocked access to urupā (burial grounds) and wāhi tapu (sacred sites).

This is kaitiakitanga violated at its most fundamental level. Kaitiakitanga means guardianship - protecting land, water, and resources for future generations. It’s about maintaining mauri (life force) in all creation. Launching satellites that enable mass killing in Gaza degrades the mauri of Mahia. Every rocket that lifts BlackSky surveillance tools into orbit carries the wairua of those who will die from the intelligence it provides.

Whanaungatanga - our relationships and sense of connection - extends beyond bloodlines. It includes all peoples oppressed by colonialism and empire. When Collins approves satellites for Israel’s genocide, she severs our whanaungatanga with Palestinians. She makes us accomplices.

Manaakitanga - the ethic of care, respect, and hospitality - is incompatible with facilitating industrial slaughter. Collins shows manaakitanga to weapons manufacturers and Pentagon generals. She shows none to the 18,885 children killed in Gaza, to the doctors operating without anesthesia on burned children, to the families starving under Israel’s blockade.

Green MP Teanau Tuiono introduced a bill to ban military hardware launches from Aotearoa. It’s sitting in the ballot, waiting to be drawn. Collins opposes it. She prefers the status quo: MBIE conducts “case-by-case” assessments, rubber-stamping whatever Peter Beck and the Pentagon want.

The Nuclear-Free Facade: How Collins Exploits Legal Loopholes

New Zealand’s nuclear-free legislation - the Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 - is supposed to be sacrosanct. It bans nuclear weapons, prohibits nuclear-powered ships, and commits Aotearoa to “promote and encourage an active and effective contribution to the essential process of disarmament and international arms control.”

The 2017 Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Act added teeth, prohibiting launches that “contribute to nuclear weapons programmes or capabilities” or support “defence, security or intelligence operations that are contrary to government policy.”

But here’s the trick: Collins and MBIE interpret “contrary to government policy” as narrowly as possible. Israel’s genocide? Not contrary to policy - we don’t have sanctions! BlackSky’s targeting satellites? Not nuclear weapons - just commercial surveillance! Rocket Lab’s Pentagon contracts? Not our concern - they launch from Virginia too!

This is legalistic fraud. New Zealand has obligations under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide. The ICJ’s provisional measures in January 2024 made clear Israel must take all steps to prevent genocidal acts. By continuing to approve BlackSky launches after that ruling, Collins is facilitating conduct the world’s highest court deemed potentially genocidal.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials told RNZ in May 2025 that “New Zealand’s military participation in space-related activities with the United States are subject to express caveats to ensure that it does not contribute to nuclear command and control systems.” But these “caveats” are secret. We don’t know what they say. We don’t know if they’re enforced. And we know they don’t cover genocide.

The US Space Force is now in talks with New Zealand about launching more satellites. The Pentagon wants to use our “rapid launch capabilities” as “force multipliers.” Collins told a Colorado space symposium that “we offer a global launchpad for all things space.” She’s selling Aotearoa’s soul to STRATCOM.

International Connections: The Anglo-American War Machine

This isn’t just a Kiwi corruption story. It’s part of a global military ecosystem.

BlackSky sponsors the Ramon GeoInt360 conference in Israel in January 2025, alongside the Israel Ministry of Defence. Also sponsoring: Capella Space and HawkEye 360 - two other satellite companies Rocket Lab has launched for from Mahia. These firms are “up to their eyeballs in support for Israel,” said Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa chair John Minto.

Rocket Lab has contracts with Lockheed Martin - the world’s largest weapons manufacturer. Lockheed invested in Rocket Lab early and remains a major partner. The company is linked to In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. Peter Beck spoke at an In-Q-Tel summit in 2016 alongside then-FBI director James Comey.

The UK Ministry of Defence awarded Rocket Lab access to its £1.3 billion Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework. The US Air Force gave Rocket Lab a piece of its US$46 billion Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract for hypersonic weapons testing. These aren’t passive satellites. They’re tools for projecting lethal force globally.

New Zealand is being integrated into the US-UK-Australia AUKUS alliance through the back door. While official membership in “Pillar Two” remains undecided, Collins has been pushing hard. Defence officials held 32 meetings with AUKUS partners in 2024 on defence technology collaboration. The agenda: interoperability, data sharing, and “force multiplication.”

This is the Five Eyes military-intelligence apparatus weaponizing space. BlackSky’s satellites feed into the Pentagon’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) - a network of low-orbit satellites for missile tracking and battlefield communications that Rocket Lab is building 18 satellites for under an US$800 million contract. The PWSA connects to Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), the US military’s AI-driven kill-chain network designed to integrate sensors, shooters, and decision-makers across all domains - land, sea, air, space, and cyber.

New Zealand officials are “enthusiastic participants” in JADC2, documents show. But JADC2 is also being integrated with Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) - the system for launching nuclear weapons. The lines between conventional and nuclear systems are blurring. When the Pentagon talks about “multi-domain operations,” it means the ability to escalate from surveillance satellite to nuclear strike in minutes.

Collins won’t say if New Zealand has information linking NC3 to our territory. When RNZ asked, her office replied: “No information in scope.” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s office produced “a single document, which was not relevant.” The Defence Force says it’s “not involved” in NC3, but offers no details on what “involvement” means.

This is rangatiratanga surrendered. We’re letting the Pentagon use our land, our technology, our reputation - and we don’t even ask what for.

Rhetorical Fallacies: Deconstructing Collins’s Lies

Let’s name every logical fallacy Collins deploys:

1. Appeal to Authority Fallacy: “We don’t have sanctions on Israel.” Collins hides behind the absence of UN Security Council sanctions, ignoring that the ICJ - the UN’s highest legal body - found Israel’s acts plausibly genocidal. She substitutes procedural form for moral substance.

2. Tu Quoque (Whataboutism): When questioned about military payloads, Collins and Rocket Lab point to “dual-use” technology like GPS. This deflects from the specific harm these satellites enable. GPS helps people navigate; BlackSky satellites help armies target civilians.

3. False Dilemma: Collins frames the choice as either approving launches and being “third in the world” for space success, or rejecting them and losing economic opportunity. This ignores the option of launching satellites that don’t facilitate genocide - commercial earth observation for climate science, agricultural monitoring, disaster response.

4. Appeal to Consequences: MBIE officials justified approval because “the positives outweighed the negatives” and there’s “a net good” from remote sensing. This is utilitarian calculus applied to genocide - as if NZ$1.69 billion in space industry revenue justifies complicity in 68,000 deaths.

5. Red Herring: When pressed on BlackSky-Israel links, Rocket Lab mentioned “wildfire detection and monitoring.” Irrelevant. The question is whether BlackSky satellites are being used to enable Israeli strikes. Intelligence Online and financial analysis confirm they are.

6. Equivocation: Collins uses “commercial” to obscure “military.” BlackSky is a “commercial” company, yes - but its primary customer is the Pentagon and its second-largest is Israel’s military. Calling it “commercial remote sensing” is like calling Lockheed Martin a “commercial aviation company.”

7. Burden of Proof Reversal: Collins and MBIE demand protesters prove satellites are being used for war crimes before they’ll stop launches. Wrong. Under the precautionary principle and our Genocide Convention obligations, the government must prove launches won’t contribute to atrocities before approving them.

8. Slippery Slope (Implied): The refusal to ban military launches suggests fear that any restriction will kill the space industry. But other countries - like Sweden - maintain thriving space sectors while refusing military collaboration. It’s a choice, not inevitability.

The Stakes: Quantified Harm and Who Profits

Let’s be explicit about the toll:

• 68,000 Palestinians dead as of October 2025, with 20,000+ children killed
• 170,000+ injured
• 10,000+ buried under rubble, uncounted in official figures
• 463 deaths from starvation including 157 children, likely a vast undercount
• Over 1,000 Palestinians killed at aid distribution sites since June 2025
• 83% civilian death rate - higher than any conflict except Rwanda, Mariupol, Srebrenica
• Entire population experiencing acute food insecurity, with famine conditions in most of Gaza

Meanwhile:

• BlackSky revenue from Israel: US$150 million contract, representing 16-17% of total company revenue in 2024
• Rocket Lab 2024 revenue: US$436 million, up 36%
• Rocket Lab Pentagon contracts: US$800 million+ for satellite construction
• Peter Beck’s fortune: US$2.0 billion based on his 10.5% Rocket Lab stake
• NZ space industry GDP: NZ$1.69 billion annually

Who benefits? Shareholders. Defence contractors. Ministers who pad their CVs with “innovation” credentials. Who loses? Palestinian children. Māori kaitiaki. Aotearoa’s moral standing.

What This Means: Threatened Rights and the Path Forward

We face multiple threats:

Threat to Nuclear-Free Status: The integration of space systems into nuclear command-and-control means every satellite launch risks violating our 1987 Act. Collins is gambling our four-decade legacy for Pentagon contracts.

Threat to Tino Rangatiratanga: Hapū at Mahia are being overruled, their kaitiakitanga dismissed as inconvenient. This is colonialism 2.0 - resource extraction for empire, consequences be damned.

Threat to International Law Obligations: New Zealand is party to the Genocide Convention. We have a duty to prevent genocide. By approving launches for a company arming Israel’s military campaign, Collins makes us complicit in the ICJ’s provisional measures violations.

Threat to Democracy: The secrecy around payload approvals, the concentration of power in Collins’s three portfolios, the refusal to release NC3 information - this is authoritarian governance dressed in “national security” rhetoric.

Here’s what we demand:

1. Immediate suspension of all BlackSky launches from Mahia until an independent investigation confirms they aren’t being used in Gaza.
2. Release all communications between MBIE, Collins, Rocket Lab, BlackSky, and Israeli entities regarding satellite launches and contracts.
3. Ban military and intelligence payloads from NZ launch sites through Teanau Tuiono’s bill or equivalent legislation.
4. Independent cultural and environmental impact assessments at Mahia, conducted by hapū with power to veto launches that violate tikanga.
5. Divestment from AUKUS and Pentagon integration - New Zealand must chart an independent, non-aligned foreign policy rooted in disarmament.
6. Accountability for Collins - her conflicts of interest, her approval of potentially genocidal technology, and her contempt for Māori communities demand parliamentary inquiry and resignation.

Moral Clarity in an Age of Genocide

The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

Whānau, this is not complicated. Judith Collins approved satellite launches for a company supplying real-time targeting intelligence to a military conducting genocide. She did this while serving as Defence Minister with oversight of US military relationships and as Attorney-General providing legal cover. She did this knowing UN experts warned of genocide. She did this knowing the ICJ found Israel’s acts plausibly genocidal. She did this knowing 68,000 people - including 20,000 children - would die.

She calls it “the right decision.” History will call it complicity.

The neoliberal project has always been about subordinating life to profit. From Roger Douglas’s 1984 “reforms” through Ruth Richardson’s 1991 “mother of all budgets” to Collins’s 2025 genocide-enabling satellite approvals, the pattern is clear: enrich elites, immiserate the vulnerable, call it “economic growth.”

But tikanga Māori offers an alternative. Kaitiakitanga demands we protect life. Manaakitanga demands we care for the suffering. Whanaungatanga demands we stand with the oppressed. Rangatiratanga demands we reclaim sovereignty from the Pentagon and its local servants.

We know who Collins serves. Not Aotearoa. Not Māori. Not the children of Gaza. She serves Peter Beck’s billions, Lockheed Martin’s weapon sales, and the American empire’s bloody reach.

The question is: who do we serve?

I serve the 20,000 children who’ll never grow up.

I serve the Ngāti Rakaipaaka kaitiaki defending Mahia from militarisation.

I serve the nuclear-free legacy our tūpuna fought for.

And I serve the truth: Judith Collins has blood on her hands, and that blood was launched from Māhia.

Kia kaha. Kia mau ki te Tiriti. Free Palestine.

Ivor Jones / The Māori Green Lantern
Kaitiaki, Te Arawa/Ngāti Pikiao

HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000
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