“Cowards in Suits: How Winston Peters Betrayed Palestine for American Dollars” - 27 September 2025

Kia ora whakatōhea. Ivor Jones here, Te Arawa/Ngāti Pikiao, and I’m absolutely furious.

Our government has just committed one of the most cowardly acts in New Zealand’s diplomatic history by refusing to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly. This isn’t just a policy failure - it’s a complete moral collapse that exposes how deeply white supremacist, neoliberal, and imperialist forces have captured our so-called democracy.

Let me be crystal clear from the start: Winston Peters and this Coalition Government have sold out Palestinian liberation to keep their American and Israeli masters happy. They’ve chosen genocide profiteering over tino rangatiratanga, chosen corporate donors over human rights, and chosen cowardice over the courage that Aotearoa once showed the world.

Background: Following the Money Trail

To understand this betrayal, we need to follow the money and the ideological web that connects our politicians to Israeli interests. This isn’t about complex foreign policy - it’s about cash, Christian nationalism, and the systematic capture of our political system by far-right donors and lobby groups.

Property sector donations flowing overwhelmingly to right-wing parties that promised tax cuts and reduced regulations for landlords

The numbers tell the real story. Property developers, the biggest political donors in New Zealand, have pumped over $2.5 million into right-wing parties since 2021. These are the same corporate interests that benefit from keeping Palestinians dispossessed of their land, because land theft and property speculation go hand in hand. National received 53 percent of property industry donations, ACT got 32 percent, and New Zealand First collected 12 percent. Labour? A pathetic 2 percent. This isn’t coincidence - it’s a business model.

The Coalition’s foreign policy has been systematically aligned with American strategic interests since they took power. They’ve joined a network of military partnerships including the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience, Operation Olympic Defender for space warfare, Project Overmatch for naval integration, and NATO Indo-Pacific Four projects. Meanwhile, they’ve announced $12 billion in new defence spending over four years - money that could house every homeless whānau in Aotearoa but instead goes to American weapons manufacturers.

Genocide Denial Dressed as Diplomacy

Peters announced at the UN that New Zealand would not recognise Palestinian statehood because “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”. This is genocide denial dressed up in diplomatic language.

Let’s decode this colonial nonsense. Peters claims recognition might “complicate efforts to secure a ceasefire by pushing Israel and Hamas into even more intransigent positions”. This is victim-blaming at its most obscene - suggesting that recognising Palestinian rights would somehow make Israel more violent, as if genocide wasn’t already Israel’s explicit policy.

New Zealand’s rapid military integration with US strategic interests under the Coalition Government

The timeline shows how rapidly this government has surrendered New Zealand’s independence to American military interests. Every decision has been about serving Washington and Tel Aviv, not serving Aotearoa or our Pacific whānau.

Meanwhile, 157 of 193 UN member states already recognise Palestine. Recent weeks saw the UK, Canada, Australia, and France join this majority. But our government chose to stand with a tiny group including the United States, Israel’s closest ally, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore - essentially the American client states in the Asia-Pacific.

The Christian Zionist Web of Influence

Behind this shameful decision lies a web of Christian Zionist influence that most New Zealanders don’t even know exists. The Indigenous Coalition for Israel, founded by former National MP Alfred Ngaro and academic Sheree Trotter, opened the first “Indigenous Embassy” in Jerusalem in February 2024. This organisation claims to represent Māori and Pacific peoples in supporting Israel, despite having no mandate from tangata whenua.

The web of influence connecting New Zealand politics to Israeli interests through Christian Zionist and indigenous advocacy groups

Trotter, who has a PhD on “Zionism in New Zealand,” has been promoting the false narrative that Jews are the indigenous people of Palestine. She’s worked with Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, who describes himself as a “spiritual Jew” and has appeared on Israeli television claiming Māori support for Israel’s genocide. This is cultural appropriation weaponised for genocide apologism.

The network extends into Pacific politics through Israel’s systematic cultivation of Pacific Island support. Israel has provided millions in aid to Pacific nations, with countries like Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga consistently voting against Palestinian rights at the UN. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Pacific leaders just weeks before the October 7 Hamas attack, promising fisheries and agricultural assistance in exchange for continued support.

Peters’ History of Serving Corporate Masters

This isn’t Peters’ first rodeo serving corporate interests over working-class New Zealanders. His New Zealand First Foundation received massive donations from wealthy donors who split their payments to stay under disclosure thresholds. The Spencer family, worth $1 billion, donated $50,000 through four separate payments of $12,500 each. Andrew Bagnall donated another $50,000 through similar structured payments.

These are the same tactics used by tobacco giant Philip Morris, which specifically targeted New Zealand First in its 2017 lobbying strategy. The company wanted to get heated tobacco products embraced as part of Smokefree 2025, and they knew Peters’ party could be bought. Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, a former Taxpayers’ Union chairperson, later cut excise tax on heated tobacco products by 50 percent, costing taxpayers $216 million.

The Military-Industrial Pipeline

New Zealand’s complicity in Israeli genocide goes beyond diplomatic recognition. We’re directly involved in intelligence sharing that enables Israeli war crimes through our Five Eyes membership. The Pine Gap surveillance base in Australia, operated jointly with the US, provides real-time intelligence on Gaza that flows directly to Israeli Defence Forces.

Documents show the National Security Agency maintains “a far-reaching technical and analytic relationship with the Israeli SIGINT National Unit,” sharing information on “access, intercept, targeting, language, analysis and reporting”. This means New Zealand intelligence, gathered through Five Eyes, is being used to target Palestinians for assassination and bombardment.

Our Defence Force has also purchased military equipment from Israeli companies, including bomb-clearing robots from Roboteam in 2019. The same company now boasts about Gaza letting loose an “orchestra” of drones and describes weaponising drones as a “huge change” from when it was banned before the war. New Zealand officials admit they have “no specific process” to assess human rights violations by weapons suppliers.

Economic Interests Trump Human Rights

The real driver of this policy isn’t security - it’s economics. New Zealand’s trade with Israel was worth $194 million in 2024, with imports of $178 million far exceeding our $16 million in exports. But the deeper connections run through our integration into American economic and military systems.

The Coalition’s Defence Capability Plan will increase military spending to 2 percent of GDP, focusing on “high-tech warfighting capabilities like missiles and drones to enhance lethality”. This money flows directly to American defence contractors who profit from conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and across the Asia-Pacific. Every dollar spent on American weapons systems is a dollar that could have gone to housing, healthcare, or education for struggling whānau.

Our government has joined military partnerships that “strategically align” New Zealand with the United States and “enmesh our military with AUKUS and NATO”. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark and foreign policy expert Marco de Jong warn this “risks New Zealand’s sovereignty and security” by making us a target while serving as a “staging ground for US nuclear bombers and submarines”.

The Neoliberal Energy Scam

The same corporate forces driving our Palestine betrayal are screwing New Zealand families through electricity privatisation. Since National partially privatised Genesis, Mercury, and Meridian in 2013, the big four gentailers have paid out $8.7 billion in dividends to shareholders - $3.7 billion more than they actually earned in profits.

This asset-stripping has kept electricity prices artificially high while starving the network of investment in renewable energy. The gentailers make more money when Huntly burns coal, so they’ve squatted on renewable consents for years without building, keeping expensive fossil fuels in the system. Meanwhile, 25 percent of New Zealand households are now in fuel poverty.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, worth up to $30 million from his time as Air New Zealand CEO, represents this corporate elite perfectly. His property portfolio is valued over $21 million, and he initially claimed a $52,000 living allowance while staying in his own mortgage-free apartment. This is the man making decisions about recognising Palestinian statehood while Palestinian children die under Israeli bombs.

Winston Peters at UN delivering New Zealand’s shameful refusal to recognise Palestine

Implications: Tino Rangatiratanga vs Colonial Subservience

This Palestine decision represents everything wrong with our current government: they serve wealth over workers, empire over independence, and genocide over justice. By refusing to recognise Palestinian statehood, they’ve aligned New Zealand with the most brutal colonial project of our time.

From a Māori worldview, this betrayal violates fundamental values of manaakitanga, whakatōhea, and tino rangatiratanga. Palestinian liberation struggles mirror our own fights against colonial land theft and cultural destruction. When our government supports Israeli apartheid, they’re supporting the same colonial logic that stole Māori land and attempted to destroy Māori culture.

Te Pāti Māori has consistently stood with Palestine, understanding these connections. In April 2024, Ngāti Kahungunu became the first iwi to call for a Gaza ceasefire. But groups like the Indigenous Coalition for Israel try to hijack Māori identity to support colonisation, just as they hijack Christianity to justify genocide.

New Zealand’s sovereignty being sold to the highest bidders in Washington and Tel Aviv

The image of our sovereignty being sold to the highest bidders captures the reality perfectly. Our flag, representing tino rangatiratanga and the Treaty partnership, is being handed over to American and Israeli corporate interests. This isn’t governance - it’s colonial collaboration.

Community Impact: Complicity in Genocide

Every day this government delays Palestinian recognition, more Palestinians die. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed over 45,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including over 17,000 children. UN investigators have concluded Israel is committing genocide. Our government’s response? Worry about “complications” if they recognise Palestinian rights.

This complicity extends into our communities through intelligence sharing, weapons trading, and diplomatic support. When Pine Gap surveillance enables Israeli airstrikes on Gaza hospitals and schools, New Zealand is complicit in war crimes. When our Defence Force buys equipment from Israeli weapons manufacturers, we’re funding the machinery of genocide.

The message to Palestinian New Zealanders and their supporters is clear: your lives don’t matter to this government. The message to Māori is equally clear: your values of justice and anti-colonialism are irrelevant when they conflict with American strategic interests.

Tangata whenua solidarity with Palestine despite government cowardice

But tangata whenua haven’t remained silent. Māori protesters continue gathering outside Parliament with Palestinian flags alongside tino rangatiratanga flags, showing the solidarity this government refuses to acknowledge.

Connections to Broader Patterns

This Palestine betrayal connects directly to the Coalition’s broader assault on working-class New Zealanders and Māori rights. The same corporate donors funding their campaigns benefit from Palestinian dispossession, Māori land alienation, and worker exploitation.

Property developers who donated $2.5 million to right-wing parties profit from housing crises here and land theft in Palestine. Energy companies that fund these politicians profit from both electricity price gouging and military conflicts that drive up fossil fuel prices. Defence contractors benefit from the military spending that could house every homeless family in Aotearoa.

The Christian Zionist networks promoting Israeli apartheid are the same evangelical movements that oppose Māori sovereignty and indigenous rights globally. When Brian Tamaki claims to represent “the Māori tribe” in supporting Israel, he’s appropriating Māori identity for a white supremacist project that would destroy Māori political power if given the chance.

This government’s foreign policy “reset” is really a return to the worst colonial traditions - serving distant empires over local communities, prioritising corporate profits over human rights, and using Christianity to justify oppression.

Call to Action: Resistance and Accountability

We cannot accept this moral bankruptcy. Every New Zealander who believes in justice must demand our government immediately recognise Palestinian statehood and impose sanctions on Israeli apartheid. The tools exist - the Russia Sanctions Act 2022 provides a perfect blueprint.

We must expose the financial networks connecting our politicians to Israeli interests. Every political donation, every corporate partnership, every intelligence-sharing agreement must be scrutinised and challenged. When Casey Costello takes tobacco industry money and cuts their taxes, when Winston Peters takes property developer money and refuses Palestinian recognition, these aren’t separate issues - they’re the same corrupt system.

Māori communities must reclaim our narrative from Christian Zionist appropriators like the Indigenous Coalition for Israel. Palestinian liberation and Māori tino rangatiratanga are natural allies against colonisation - we cannot let right-wing evangelical groups hijack our identity to support genocide.

Trade unions, community groups, and progressive organisations must coordinate divestment campaigns targeting Israeli government bonds, weapons companies, and settlement-supporting businesses. If the government won’t act, communities must lead economic pressure for Palestinian liberation.

Most importantly, we must build alternative political power that serves working-class communities over corporate donors. The 2026 election must be a referendum on whether New Zealand will serve American empire or chart an independent course based on justice and tino rangatiratanga.

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

Winston Peters and this Coalition Government have committed a moral crime by refusing Palestinian recognition. They’ve chosen genocide complicity over human rights, American interests over New Zealand independence, and corporate donors over community values. This decision exposes the corrupt networks of Christian Zionism, property speculation, and military contracting that have captured our democracy.

But resistance is already growing. Māori communities continue standing with Palestine despite government betrayal. Young New Zealanders refuse to accept genocide as normal. Progressive movements are building the economic and political pressure needed for change.

The choice is clear: we can accept colonial subservience disguised as pragmatic diplomacy, or we can demand a foreign policy based on tino rangatiratanga, international law, and solidarity with all oppressed peoples. Palestine will be free, and New Zealand must choose which side of history we want to join.

To those who find value in this analysis and want to support independent Māori journalism exposing these corrupt networks: please consider a koha to HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. The MGL understands these are tough economic times for whānau, so only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Te Māori Green Lantern