Summarised by Centrist
Martyn Bradbury’s October 5 post on The Daily Blog attacked Winston Peters in unusually vicious terms, accusing the Deputy Prime Minister of “siding with genocide” and calling him a “sad old Zionist coward.”
Bradbury went beyond criticism of New Zealand’s foreign policy, urging readers to confront and insult National, ACT, and NZ First MPs in public, chant “war criminal,” and even “spit in their food.” Bradbury argued that since “the frontline is everywhere,” protests should continue outside Peters’ home.
Peters responded on X with characteristic bluntness. Mocking Bradbury as “Bummer,” he described the blogger’s writing as “radically unhinged, abuse-inciting, violent Marxist rants.” Peters said no “ordinary Kiwi” would find Bradbury’s comments acceptable and dismissed his audience as a “phone-box-sized echo chamber of loopy lefty losers.” He added that Bradbury’s anger simply confirmed the government was making “the right choices.”
Editor’s note: Many people across the left, right, and centre support a Free Palestine stance grounded in human rights and international law. But Bradbury’s post was not advocacy, it was incitement.
Calling for harassment or humiliation of political opponents crosses the line from protest to intimidation. By resorting to personal abuse, Bradbury weakens the moral credibility of the movement he claims to champion and hands easy victories to those he seeks to oppose.
Read more over at X
