Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party's Ricardo Menendez-March: 1 October, 2025

While speaking at the Eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly over the weekend, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced that New Zealand would not be recognising a Palestinian state at this point in time.

Peters’ rationale was that Hamas’s leadership in Gaza would make recognising Palestine an unwise move for New Zealand to make at this point, additionally stating that it could trigger a reaction from Israel that would lead to more aggressive policies in both Gaza and the West Bank, subsequently threatening the two state solution.

However, with more than 40% of the New Zealand public expressing support for Palestinian recognition and for stronger action to be taken against Israel for their actions in Gaza, which the The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has officially referred to as a genocide, this decision by Peters’ has been the subject of widespread controversy amongst activists, experts and a large portion of the general public.

Additionally, despite claiming to take a more balanced and calculated approach to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Winston Peters’ decision at the UN General Assembly has placed New Zealand within a small handful of western nations who have refused to recognise Palestine, with the United Kingdom, France, Canada and our close Ally Australia all announcing their recognition of Palestine shortly before.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March, Oto spoke to him about Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ decision not to recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly.

They also spoke about the government’s decision last week to resume oil and gas exploration across Aotearoa.