Helen Clark: Former Prime Minister says New Zealand should recognise Palestine as a state

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark wants New Zealand to recognise Palestine as a state. 

The United Nations calls the war a nightmare of historic proportions - as concerns are raised over aid being withheld. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined his support for a two-state-solution, recognising Palestine. 

Helen Clark told Heather du Plessis-Allan New Zealand needs to do the same - and other countries should ramp up pressure on Israel. 

She says its urgent that aid can get through to Gaza. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever do for thee ellens to Gaza and Australia's Prime
Minister Anthony Albanesi has released a statement condemning israelph for
starving the children of Gaza, in language that is much
stronger than the statement that New Zealand signed earlier this week. Unfortunately,
sees fine negotiations have again collapsed. Now former Prime Minister
and former head of the UN Development Agency Helen Clark
is with us high Helen Hi, Heather, is there any

(00:21):
chance that we can end this before those children die?
Or are the children going to die?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Children are now dying every day and you look at
those absolutely shocking, shocking images of the children. These children
are going to have permanent damage to their development, even
their mental development, if they live at all, the ones
who are so emaciated and starved. Let's remember that starvation

(00:47):
of a civilian population is a war crime and people
will be held accountable for this. But of course people
are dying while they are getting away with the use
of starvation as a war crime. So it is really
desperately urgent that the gates are open for the flow
of aid which is sitting at the border with the

(01:07):
many UN agencies from UNICEF, to the whos to many
to get it to the people, and that's just not
being allowed.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Is the world doing all it can?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
No? Not can. So the US could change this. The
US could say to Natanya, who just stop it. We're
not going to put up with people being staffed to death.
It hasn't done that. I think the meeting that's supposed
to occur presumably online between the UK, French and German

(01:40):
leaders tomorrow will be very important. They need to be
speaking with one voice to Washington, DC to stop it
and to pledge all efforts that they can make to
support the humanitarian effort. But until the US puts pressure
on Israel, nothing is going to change.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
And can we as a world put pressure on Trump?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
We can, and New Zealand really does need to come
out much more strongly. You may have noticed today that
the President of France has announced that they are recognizing
the state of Palestine. New Zealand should be following. This
is a very important signal that we want an end
to the ongoing cycles of conflict and disaster. We want

(02:23):
the Palestinians to have their state as agreed with all
those years ago in the Oslo Accords that this has
to stop and New Zealand's voice needs to be a
lot louder.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Okay, And so what do you think, Helen. I mean,
you've been around a long time, You've watched a lot
of stuff happen in the world. Do you see this
ending anytime soon or unfortunately not?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think the critical thing now is for those three
major European leaders to be on the phone to Trump
after their meeting tomorrow, to say stop it. We're poised
to throw everything at resolving this situation, but stop the siege.
It is a siege. Civilian populations are being starved as

(03:02):
a deliberate policy.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, Helen, thanks very much appreciated. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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