Greg Bouwer
IINZ
So, the Trump-brokered ceasefire has been announced. After months of shouting, marching, and moral grandstanding, you might expect New Zealand’s self-anointed ‘peace’ activists to be jubilant. They finally got what they were chanting for: a ceasefire.
And yet… silence.
No celebrations in Aotea Square. No candlelight vigils for coexistence. No heartfelt messages of relief for the civilians – Israeli and Palestinian alike – who might now glimpse a pause in the horror.
Why the sudden quiet? Because the truth has always been awkward: for many of these activists, ‘ceasefire’ was never about peace. It was about politics.
It was a euphemism – a convenient slogan to mask a far darker intent. Scratch the surface of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement and the mask slips easily. Beneath the talk of human rights and justice lies a simple, chilling goal: the elimination of Israel.
Take, for example, a scene observed in Auckland this week (14 October 2025 – the day after the release of the last living hostages). A lone protester stood beside a bright red placard quoting Ilan Pappé:
“I hope for an end of Israel and the creation of Free Palestine from the River to the Sea.”
No ambiguity there. “An end of Israel”, and “From the River to the Sea” – meaning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – leaves no room for Israel, no space for the Jewish people, and no vision of coexistence. It is a call for replacement, not reconciliation.
This is what ‘ceasefire’ means to the ideological core of the movement. Not a cessation of hostilities, but a step toward the destruction of a nation – one that happens to be the world’s only Jewish state.
And that’s why, when the real ceasefire comes, they fall silent. Because their activism was never about saving lives: it was about choosing sides. And peace ruins the performance.
It’s a silence more revealing than any chant. It exposes the moral bankruptcy of those who posture as humanitarians while echoing the slogans of Hamas. It reminds us that for all their talk of justice, they cannot bring themselves to condemn a terror regime that started this war, murdered civilians, and used its own people as shields.
So, yes – the ceasefire is here. But the ‘peace’ crowd has vanished. Their purpose served, their slogans exposed, they retreat into the comfort of selective outrage.
Meanwhile, Israel will once again shoulder the burden of defending its right to exist – and, as always, to be blamed for surviving.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
