Protesters gathered outside Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ home in Auckland in support of those on board the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Several New Zealanders were on board ships taking part in the flotilla, some of who were detained by Israel when nearing Gaza.
The flotilla involving more than 500 people, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, was trying to break Israel’s blockade.
Videos from social media showed protesters outside Peters’ home on Thursday.
Footage seen by RNZ shows people chanting, banging drums, waving Palestinian flags and holding posters.
Messages had been written on the footpath in chalk, including the names of some of the New Zealanders on the flotilla.
Police officers could also be seen.
Peters said protesting outside the home of politicians was disgraceful.
In a post on social media site X, Peters said that politicians had families and children just like every other Kiwi home.
“Our families don’t deserve to be harassed and intimidated for any reason,” he wrote.
Peters said that no one had the right to take away New Zealanders’ ability to feel safe and secure inside their home.
He said that New Zealand had one of the most tolerant democracies in the world and that people have every right to express their view.
“But with that comes the responsibility to be a decent person and respect the places and times when you can exercise those rights.”
Peters said that if people thought it was okay to “harass families outside of their own homes” they had lost their “moral high ground”.
Sam Leason was one of the New Zealanders taking part in the flotilla and was detained by Israel.
On Thursday, after losing communication with the boat, Sam’s father Adi told RNZ’s Midday Report he was immensely proud of his son’s participation in the flotilla.
“I think Samuel has indicated that he is prepared to take his struggle and his witness to sort of another level and stay in jail as, I guess, a silent witness.”
Police attend protest
The Foreign Affairs Minister said politicians’ families “don’t deserve to be harassed and intimidated for any reason”. (Source: 1News)
A police spokesperson told RNZ that officers responded to a protest at 6.52pm on Thursday evening.
They said around 30 people had gathered outside an Auckland property and police staff monitored protest activity.
The spokesperson said Auckland Council noise control officers attended on two occasions and found noise levels had exceeded acceptable standards.
“The group lowered the noise levels on both occasions, before dispersing without further issue at around 10pm.”
RNZ has had contact with three of the New Zealanders on board the flotilla.
Last month Youssef Sammour told RNZ’s Saturday Morning that he had been involved in two similar flotilla missions prior to being involved in the current event.
Sammour said he was hopeful that boats from the flotilla would make it to Gaza given how many people were involved.
He said that he was on a 12.8m sailing yacht with six others onboard.
Those people included an influencer, a journalist, a medic and an MP from Spain.
Sam Leason told RNZ’s Checkpoint last week that boats that were part of the flotilla had been attacked by drones.
“I think nine boats got hit by bombs and other liquids … flammable liquids. I think 12 different things were dropped on nine different boats. …It was red alert, all crazy, it was a pretty scary time.”
Leason said he was taking part in the flotilla because children were being bombed in Gaza and the New Zealand government wasn’t doing enough to deter Israel.
He was scared but noted it did not compare to what Gazans were enduring on a daily basis.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Thursday that a New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based GP named Bianca Webb-Pullman was sailing with the flotilla.
Rana Hamida on RNZ in 2019
In 2019 Rana Hamida spoke to RNZ’s Afternoons about her and her family’s journey to New Zealand.
Hamida said she was a Palestinian born in Syria. She moved when war broke out in the city of Aleppo.
“It was getting really intense in there and at one point the building next to us where we were living got bombed.”
She said after that her family moved to Damascus, then to Egypt.
She arrived in New Zealand in 2013.
She said it was important for people to speak about their experiences for others to understand what was happening in other places.
Hamida told Afternoons that she did modelling, dancing and played music.
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