OPEN LETTER: By John Minto
It is hard not to feel the deepest sense of shame as a New Zealander following the United Nations Independent Commission report released last week. (UN report details the “overwhelming” scale of children killed in Gaza).
This report details Israel’s direct targeting of Palestinian children in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
Most know the shocking case of Hind Rajab but this report exposes not just the deliberate, casualised killing of children individually but its industrial scale.
- READ MORE: A UN report details the ‘overwhelming’ scale of children killed in Gaza. It raises grave legal questions
- Gaza genocide – how many UN findings will the West ignore?
- Other Gaza genocide reports
It’s easy to see how this has occurred. A study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found 62 percent to 76 percent of Jewish Israelis partially or fully agree that there are “no innocents in Gaza”.
Israeli political and military leaders have used such genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians for decades, and particularly in the last three years.
These leaders have set the tone for the behaviour of the public and the individual soldiers who do the killing.
Dehumanising a population as Israeli leaders have done is always the first step to genocide.
The most tragic aspect, however, is this would not have happened had the New Zealand government and other Western governments sanctioned Israel decades ago for the brutality of its illegal occupation in Palestine, its ethnic cleansing and its mass killing of Palestinian children as detailed in the UN report.
They are still silent even now — choosing to stand with those killing the children.
The shame of their betrayal of New Zealand values will last for generations.
John Minto is national campaign coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). This letter was first published by The Press.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
Pacific Media Watch | Radio Free (2026-07-05T11:29:20+00:00) John Minto: The shame of NZ’s betrayal of Gaza’s children. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/07/05/john-minto-the-shame-of-nzs-betrayal-of-gazas-children/
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