Six Pacific Islands Vote No on Israeli Ceasefire: Exploring the Factors at Play
With many of the Pacific nations still reeling from the effects of colonisation on their communities, the 6 nations voting no begs the question: why?
On the 27th of October the United Nations (UN) called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza which received overwhelming support from 120 of 179 countries. However, to the surprise of many, six Pacific Island nations were among the 14 countries who voted no.
The death toll in Gaza continues to rise with each passing day, currenting sitting at 10,000 including over 6,400 children and women.
The UN resolution called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all civilians, the protection of civilians and international institutions, and ensuring the safe passage of humanitarian aid into the Strip.
Tonga, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Papua New Guinea joined Israel, Austria, Croatia, Guatemala, Hungary, Czechia and the United States in voting against an immediate ceasefire.
With many of the Pacific nations still reeling from the effects of colonisation on their communities, the 6 nations voting no begs the question: why?
One possible answer is that due to 90% of Pacific Islanders identifying as Christian, they may share the Zionist belief that the land at the basis of the conflict is rightfully Israel’s. Christians believe this as the land known today as Palestine (or the ‘Holy Land’) was promised to Abraham by God in the bible.
Many Christian Zionists have also argued that the genocide of the Palestinians at the hands of Israelis (or ‘war on Hamas’ as the Israeli government call it) was pre-determined by the bible as a war on Jerusalem, which is Israel today. In Zechariah 12:3–4 the bible reads:
“I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves”
Israel has long been terrorising the Palestinian people so it has been interesting to see these biblical claims used to frame the conflict and justify to genocide of the Palestininan people.
Professor Steven Ratuva from the University of Canterbury told Te Ao Maori News that “when you mix religion and politics together, humanity is out of the window, and the dead children are seen as a necessary way to get there.”
The ABC highlighted the various South Pacific connections to Israel that could have influenced their current stance, such as in West Papua New Guinea, “the Gogodala people perform Hebrew prayers” and in the Solomon Islands “some citizens also claim to have Jewish ancestors”. In Fiji, there are also claims that Fijians are a lost tribe of Jerusalem and it is not uncommon to see people casually flying the Israeli flag in their homes.
In a statement released by the Fijian Government after the UN Resolution, they reaffirmed their stance of standing in solidarity with Israel and saw fault with the resolution not specifically naming Hamas.
The statement felt very much like a frail justification to support Israel’s continued onslaught of the Palestinian people and received backlash from the Fijian community for putting their nation in an awkward position internationally.
Another possible reason that has not been lost on those questioning the no votes, are the presence of major countries in the island nations and the relationship held between these small island nations and their much bigger and richer counterparts.
The US for one, has it’s sticky hands in many of the different islands through years of ‘partnership’ and their continued ‘funding’ funneling through the South Pacific as well as military bases in various island nations including Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, American Samoa and West Papua New Guinea.
It is also important to note that although Australia abstained from voting at the UN resolution, they have made their stance very clear in the weeks leading up to the vote, even lighting up the Sydney Opera House with the colours of the Israeli flag.
The US and Australia are major financial AID partners for various pacific islands especially Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and so the islands either voting no or abstaining did not feel like a coincidence. Israel itself, also has strong relations with many islands in the form of project funding and many islands offering pilgrimages to Israel.
Climate Envoy for the Marshall Islands, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, openly condemned the Marshall Islands no vote in a letter published in the Marshall Islands Journal which detail some reasons as to why the Marshall Islands (as well as all the South Pacific Islands) should stand in solidarity with Palestinians.
“RMI has a long-standing relationship with Israel that dates back to 1986. Israel has provided support for small projects… In turn, the RMI has continually voted with Israel, a close ally of the US,” she wrote.
“Palestine is over 8,000 miles away from our country and we rightly have our own very serious problems to deal with. But I would hope that RMI would care first and foremost, because these are innocent people.
“We should also care because we’ve been forcible removed from our lands, just as the Palestinians have, and we’ve experiences our own horrors that the international community willfully turn away from.
“… When we ask for others to pay attention to the threats and trauma our islands have faced, islands they’ve never seen or heard of, why do we not extend that same grace to others?”
The rest of the letter offered great insight but the above point on how any future plights of South Pacific Islandes will be received on the world stage is especially important to note. With the South Pacific Islands at the forefront of the Climate Change crisis, voting so carelessly in the UN resolution runs the risk of their message being less receptive on the world stage.
The full effects of the six island nations vote is yet to be seen, with people already taking to social media to boycott tourism industries in the six islands.
Although nations aren’t run on morals and relations between governments play a huge role in a nations peaceful existence, the active condemnation of war crimes such as those that Israel are committing shouldn’t be as controversial as it has been.
For now, there is only hope that these six island nations vote will be used as an opportunity to rethink their stance and the importance of their relations to Israel in comparison to over 10,000 Palestininan lives lost.
Lua Ikenasio is a 26-year-old journalist based in NSW, Australia with interests in all Pasifika related issues. She currently works for two local newspapers as well as having bylines in Buzzfeed and Artshub.
 | A guest post by
|