The Electoral Commission has refused to take any action
against NZME’s ban on key campaign messages of the Free
Palestine Party.
NZME has refused to broadcast any of
the Free Palestine Party’s advertisements on its ZB
network.
NZME has also refused to carry any campaign
material with the wording, “From the River to the Sea”
in reference to expelled Palestinians’ Right to
Return.
Free Palestine Party President, Paul
Hopkinson, says the party was established for this election,
not to get votes, but instead to have people vote for the
political party with the best policies in support of
Palestinians’ rights.
“We aimed to raise public
awareness of the most fundamental rights of Palestinians and
how the current government was ignoring these rights and the
news media never reported on them. That’s why we called
ourselves, ‘The Free Palestine from the River to the Sea
Party.”
“There is Resolution 194 that was passed
by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, which
demanded Israel to allow the Palestinians it had just
expelled from their homes in Palestine to
return.”
“That Right of Return applies to all of
Mandate Palestine, from the River to the Sea. But NZME, and
by extension the Electoral Commission when we appealed to
them, won’t allow us to use that expression,” Hopkinson
says.
“We are only allowed to describe
Palestinians’ rights within the accepted and highly
restricted self-serving framework of the Zionist-Front NZ
Jewish Council.”
“We are not permitted to describe
a right of return which every government of New Zealand has
voted to endorse in the United Nations every year since
1948.”
“And just because some sympathisers of
genocidal Israel, use a ‘hecklers’ veto’ on NZME and
the Electoral Commission, when they claim they are
‘upset’ to hear a geographically correct description of
Palestine”.
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