Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): Today the Labour Party has called on the Government to use its Government procurement rules to ban Government agencies from purchasing goods and services from Israel's illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and we are also asking the Government to communicate directly to the Government of Israel that it should act immediately on the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and withdraw from the occupied territories now. Why this; why now? Because the International Court of Justice the United Nation's highest legal body has handed down an advisory opinion that is a sweeping and damning indictment of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem Gaza and the West Bank which it acquired by force in 1967 and has held ever since. It's worth a look at what the ICJ ruling actually says and I want to quote directly: The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel's presence in the Occupied … Territory unlawful."The ICJ goes on to catalogue forced evictions extensive house demolitions restrictions on residents and movement the transfer by Israel of 700000 settlers into the illegal settlements its failure to prevent or punish violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians restricting the access of the Palestinian population to water. But here's the important thing for this House: the ICJ found that all States including New Zealand are under an obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the occupied territories and not to render aid or assistance to that occupation. The ICJ ruling has changed the game. The world has watched in horror over the last eight months as Israel has killed nearly 40000 civilians in Gaza in spite of repeated calls by the United Nations General Assembly for a permanent ceasefire. Now the UN's highest court has issued a damning indictment of Israel's illegal occupation. Governments like New Zealand have a duty to act and this builds on a range of initiatives and policies that successive New Zealand Governments have held on this issue and I want to reference when Murray McCully was the foreign Minister of the National Government of the time in 2016 New Zealand then held a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council and co-sponsored a resolution that was passed in the Security Council that condemned Israel's illegal settlements and called on governments—with the force of international law—to differentiate between Israel the State and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. I note that some members some Ministers in this Government disown that resolution now and publicly have differed with it. I also want to point out that our Government in recent days has called on the Government of New Zealand to recognise Palestine to give it diplomatic recognition just as Ireland has done in recent days just as Spain and Norway have done—144 other countries in the United Nations have recognised Palestine as a way of signalling the need for a negotiated political settlement in the region. Finally I want to say that the ICJ ruling is not a suggestion; it's not a request. It is international law and this Government likes to talk a big game on the international rules - based order but it has been strangely quiet on Israel's war crimes and its multiple breaches of international law going back decades. If this Government doesn't speak out on this question that the ICJ has ruled on if it doesn't take the kind of practical actions that we are calling for today—at least in the beginning a ban on Government procurement of goods and services produced in the illegal settlements—then this Government is inviting people to accuse it of being selective inconsistent and hypocritical and undermining New Zealand's standing in the world."