Labour says it would recognise Palestine and sanction Israel — here's what's going on
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says that if Labour forms the next government, New Zealand would join sanctions against Israel and officially recognise Palestine as a country. He called the current government's stance on Gaza "an embarrassment to the country" (RNZ).
Hipkins said New Zealand is "missing in action" on Gaza and that "there is an unfolding genocide happening." He said the government had been "weak for the last three years" and was not meeting New Zealand's obligations under an international agreement designed to prevent and punish genocide (RNZ).
Sanctions are penalties countries place on another country to pressure it to change its behaviour — like stopping trade or blocking imports. Under Labour's plan, New Zealand would sanction Israel alongside countries including the UK, Canada and France. Those three nations were preparing to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Israel was turning a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (RNZ).
The government's position, confirmed by a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, matches Foreign Minister Winston Peters' view that New Zealand does not normally use trade measures to deal with foreign policy issues. Peters said this in response to calls for New Zealand to ban imports from Israeli settlements (RNZ).
Waikato University law professor Alexander Gillespie said the government was wrong not to join the sanctions. He pointed to what he called a contradiction: New Zealand used trade measures against Russia over the war in Ukraine, and that move was backed by the International Court of Justice — the United Nations' top court. But it refuses to do the same thing with Israel. Gillespie said New Zealand had sided with Australia in declining to join sanctions (RNZ).
Gillespie said sanctioning Israel would take "a considerable amount of work" but was achievable, noting 12 other countries had already done so together. He also said New Zealand's refusal to recognise Palestine as a country was part of the reason it had not joined sanctions, because recognising Palestine means accepting that Palestinian people have the right to govern themselves. He warned that US President Donald Trump could make things harder by backing Israel and putting trade tariffs on countries that sanction Israeli settlements (RNZ).
ACT leader David Seymour, whose party is in government with National and NZ First, said the government was concerned about Israeli settlements that break international law. Seymour also said Hamas was "the centre and the cause of this problem" in Gaza (RNZ).
Labour has been moving in this direction since October 2023, when it pledged to recognise Palestine if re-elected (Middle East Monitor). Hipkins called recognising Palestine "the right thing to do" and framed it as a moral stand over Israel's actions in Gaza (The Conversation). A Labour Party release said recognition and sanctions would send a clear message that New Zealand will not stand by while Israel acts (Labour Party). Labour MPs have marched in support of sanctions on Israel (Labour Party), and the party backed a United Nations report accusing Israel of genocide, calling for sweeping sanctions including a full ban (NZ Labour Party, Facebook).
The National government said in August 2025 it would formally consider recognising Palestine in September of that year. Labour said this was just more delay (Labour Party). Peters has given three statements to Parliament on Gaza. During one, there was a procedural exchange between Speaker Gerry Brownlee and Hipkins (RNZ).
Public opinion matters here too. An RNZ poll found more than 40% of New Zealanders want the country to recognise Palestine (RNZ). Hipkins said the coalition was out of touch with how the public feels about the conflict (RNZ). A UN finding of genocide in Gaza has added to the pressure on New Zealand to recognise a Palestinian state (RNZ).
The broader context here is that New Zealand is falling out of step with several of its closest partners. Britain, France and Canada have moved toward actual trade measures against Israeli settlements. Hipkins wants Labour to bring New Zealand into line with that group. The coalition has stuck with Peters' view that trade measures are not a standard tool of New Zealand foreign policy, even though Gillespie points to the Russia-Ukraine sanctions as a precedent.
Gillespie's point about the International Court of Justice backing the Russia sanctions is the sharpest part of the legal argument against the government. If sanctions can be based on international legal findings in one situation, the argument goes, then doing nothing when there is a UN genocide finding looks inconsistent — and the government has not publicly addressed that. That gap is likely to come up in the election campaign, where foreign policy positions that used to be a low priority for voters are now polling above 40% on the recognition question alone.
The Trump factor Gillespie raises is a real complication. If the US imposes tariffs on countries that sanction Israeli settlements, New Zealand's trade-dependent economy would face costs that European countries already signed on may not. Peters may be reluctant partly for that reason, though he has not said so himself.
What is still unclear is whether the government's September 2025 look at Palestinian statehood will lead to a decision before the election, or whether it will be another statement in what Labour is calling a pattern of delay.
