29 October 2023
AN OPEN LETTER TO AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND POLITICAL LEADERS
The Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand, as a community of researchers, academics, educators, and students, call on New Zealand political leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s military assault on the peoples of Palestine.
As a discipline that is intellectually and politically concerned with settler colonialism, structural violence, racism and apartheid, we oppose in the strongest terms the state of Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinian peoples and its unlawful occupation of Palestinian lands. As people trained to understand the workings of occupation, land theft, and power, we recognise the current conflict as part of a much more enduring series of injustices against Palestinians.
We also recognise that framing the violent decimation of Palestinian families as Israel’s “right to defend itself” obscures this history of colonial occupation and conflict, and denies the escalating severity of Israel’s military force on Gazans this past fortnight. The language selected to describe violence enables different possibilities for action and care. We call on our political leaders and media to address what is happening in clear and accurate terms.
The world is witnessing an internationally sanctioned genocide. We stand in solidarity with Palestinians, and we ask our leaders to do the same. Over and above the ‘humanitarian pause’ already called for, we urge you to demand an immediate ceasefire, and commit long term to supporting the liberation of Palestinian people. Locally, we also wish to add volume to the calls for support and security that Islamic and Jewish communities have made, in relation to threats that these communities have received in Aotearoa.
We encourage others in our communities in Aotearoa to continue to educate themselves about the historic and current violent consequences of Israel’s expansive occupation of Palestine, to communicate with their local representatives, and to attend events that are accessible to them where these concerns are vocalised.
Signed,
The Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa New Zealand
