Greg Bouwer
IINZ
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has finally said the quiet part out loud.
PSNA Otautahi [Christchurch] posted an image commemorating October 7, 2023 – the day Hamas launched its genocidal assault on Israel – with the caption: “The day that changed the world.” Beneath the words was an image of paragliders – the very symbol of the terrorists who flew into Israel to massacre, mutilate, rape, and burn innocent civilians.
There is no ambiguity here. This was not a message of peace or solidarity. It was a celebration of terror – a glorification of the worst antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust.
On October 7, over 1,200 people were slaughtered – babies, parents, grandparents, festivalgoers, farmers. Hundreds were taken hostage. Many are still in Gaza today, in conditions too horrific to describe. That anyone in New Zealand would mark this day with pride, rather than grief and condemnation, is a moral obscenity.
PSNA has long claimed to advocate for “human rights” and “justice” for Palestinians. But by celebrating October 7, they have shown what their brand of “solidarity” really means: standing shoulder to shoulder with genocidal murderers.
They have spent the past two years accusing Israel of genocide – while defending or excusing the very organisation that initiated a campaign of mass murder explicitly aimed at exterminating Jews. They invert morality so completely that the terrorists become heroes, and those defending themselves become villains.
Let’s be clear: Hamas’s war began on October 7. Every death since – Israeli or Palestinian – lies at their feet. PSNA’s propaganda seeks to shift that guilt onto Israel, absolving Hamas of its atrocities and whitewashing its crimes. It’s a moral contortion so grotesque it defies satire.
By celebrating October 7, PSNA hasn’t just lost credibility – it has revealed the true face of New Zealand’s pro-Hamas movement: a movement not for peace, but for the destruction of the Jewish state and the dehumanisation of Jews everywhere.
New Zealanders should be appalled. Our political leaders, journalists, and civil society voices must decide: will they stand silent as a group in our own country glorifies mass murder? Or will they finally call PSNA what it is – an apologist for terror and a stain on New Zealand’s moral conscience?
Because make no mistake: when you celebrate October 7, you celebrate rape, torture, kidnapping, and slaughter. And no amount of sloganising about “liberation” or “resistance” can wash that blood away.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
