Selective outrage and moral blindness: response to FIANZ’s press release on Gaza
The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ) recently issued a press release condemning Israel in the strongest terms, accusing it of “genocide” and demanding that the New Zealand Government sever diplomatic ties.
Greg Biuwer
This statement, however, is not a principled human rights critique. It is a one-sided polemic riddled with factual omissions, moral inconsistencies, and dangerous implications for intercommunal trust in New Zealand.
The most glaring flaw in FIANZ’s press release is its total silence on Hamas. The group that launched the war on October 7, 2023, through the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — committing war crimes, taking hostages, and deliberately embedding itself within civilian populations — is conspicuously absent from FIANZ’s moral calculus. Even as 58 hostages remain in captivity under inhumane conditions, FIANZ offers no call for their release. There is no condemnation of the sexual violence, the targeting of civilians, or the antisemitic incitement that has long defined Hamas’s ideology and actions.
FIANZ selectively cites the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to support its “genocide” allegation. Yet the ICJ made no finding that Israel has committed genocide — only that a case could proceed to trial. That is a legal threshold for investigation, not a conclusion of guilt. To treat this as conclusive proof is to mislead the public and weaponise international law for political purposes.
The press release also fails to mention the extensive measures Israel has taken to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza — often at great risk to its own soldiers — and the fact that Israel’s operations are conducted in the context of a war triggered by a terrorist assault on its civilian population. Even reports critical of Israel’s conduct acknowledge the complexity of urban warfare in Gaza, where Hamas has deliberately operated from hospitals, schools, and refugee camps.
FIANZ’s message, therefore, is not a call for peace, justice, or coexistence. It is a political attack that erases context, ignores atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups, and reduces a complex conflict to a simplistic narrative of villain and victim. This is not only intellectually dishonest — it is corrosive to New Zealand’s diverse and democratic fabric.
True moral leadership would demand accountability from all parties. It would affirm the dignity of all civilians — Israeli and Palestinian — and advocate for a future in which both peoples can live in peace. FIANZ’s statement does the opposite: it inflames division, obscures truth, and undermines the prospects for genuine understanding.
The Israel Institute of New Zealand has called on New Zealanders — especially those in leadership positions — to reject such partial narratives and demand a discourse grounded in facts, integrity, and universal human rights.
