New Zealand on the UN Security Council
In January 2015, New Zealand took up a two-year non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council. It is anticipated that New Zealand will play an effective role at this level. It is important to note the strong support for Palestine that New Zealand has expressed. In light of New Zealand’s seat at the Security Council, the General Delegation of Palestine is presently working on a strategic document outlining areas in which Palestinian-New Zealand relations can be strengthened during their term on the Security Council.
In its voting at the United Nations, this year New Zealand continued to demonstrate support for Palestine in voting decisions made in the General Assembly. This included voting in favour of raising the Palestinian flag at United Nations premises.
In October 2015 New Zealand proposed a draft resolution in its capacity as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, which was greeted with a variety of responses. Among the proposals of the resolution was that Israel halt all illegal settlements on Palestinian territory, but also highlighted that Palestine would stop bringing cases to the International Criminal Court. The Israelis have completely rejected the proposal. While Palestine appreciated the positive intentions behind the proposal, it assessed it to be problematic in a number of ways, expressing these concerns to the Ambassador of New Zealand to the United Nations, Gerard van Bohemen. The resolution did not gain the support of the United States of America and was therefore stopped in its progress, but was indicative of the efforts that New Zealand is making on the Security Council to help resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.