Asia Pacific Report
A key Palestinian solidarity movement is urging the New Zealand government to step in and punish New Zealanders breaching international law by fighting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
“The news that New Zealanders are participating in ongoing mass killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza is abhorent,” said Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) co-chair Maher Nazzal.
“Our government must do what it can to stop these New Zealanders perpetrating genocide.”
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A report by Declassified UK, quoting from from official Israeli sources cited at the NGO Hatzlacha, shows 39 dual New Zealand/Israeli citizens, and 11 others with more than one additional passport, are serving in the Israeli “Defence” Force (IDF), which is carrying out genocide in Gaza.
The report also indicated 500 dual citizen Australians had been among the 50,000 foreign passport holders — mostly American — who have been fighting in the IDF.
Israel’s political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the state of Israel is on trial in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “plausible genocide” in a 2024 case brought by South Africa and other nations.
“As well as killing perhaps hundreds of thousands and wholesale starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel is still systematically destroying all civilian infrastructure: schools, hospitals, churches and mosques, farmland and crops,” Nazzal said in a statement.
NZ graves ‘not immune’
“Even New Zealanders’ graves in World War One cemeteries are not immune.”
Nazzal said there was “no excuse” for anyone fighting for a state committing genocide.
“Our government must step in and rigorously investigate the actions of each and every one of these 50 New Zealanders in the IDF,” he said.
“New Zealand has obligations under the international Genocide Convention to do what it can to stop a genocide.
“New Zealand charged Mark Tayor for membership of ISIS in 2004. There is ample precedent. The government must be consistent.”
Nazzal said that all of the New Zealanders serving in the IDF had various degrees of culpability in the genocide — “certainly the moment they set foot in Gaza”.
“But they would also be liable for actions at military facilities inside Israel, fuelling up bombers, for example, or calculating missile coordinates.”
Soldiers identified, examined
Nazzal said these soldiers must be identified, and their service in Israel’s army examined, alongside their social media accounts and those of the brigades and soldiers they had joined.
“The government must also collaborate with international agencies for evidence of how many of these people have already been identified for investigation of war crimes,” he said.
“The Hind Rajab Foundation is working to identify specific Israeli war criminals for referral to the International Court of Justice.”
While New Zealand law does not specifically prohibit citizens from fighting overseas, Nazzal argued the government must act in this case, where New Zealand citizens were participating in a genocide.
The government was also obliged to act under its Fourth Geneva Convention obligations, where New Zealand citizens were also enforcing an illegal occupation of Palestinian Territory.
In spite of the so-called “ceasefire”, Israel had continued its daily killing of Palestinians, destruction of infrastructure and occupation creep.
The Gaza Mortality Survey (GMS), a population-representative household study published in The Lancet Global Health, estimated 75,200 “violent deaths” between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025. Since the declaration of a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025, 603 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli breaches — mostly women and children.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.