{"id":176943,"date":"2025-06-11T23:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T23:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176943\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T23:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T23:42:14","slug":"united-states-condemns-new-zealand-and-other-countries-for-sanctions-on-israeli-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176943\/","title":{"rendered":"United States condemns New Zealand and other countries for sanctions on Israeli politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s consistent and historic position has been that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are a violation of international law. Settlements and associated violence undermine the prospects for a viable two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Zealand minister said the action<\/a> wasn\u2019t \u201cagainst the Israeli people\u201d, who he acknowledged had \u201csuffered immeasurably on October 7 and who have continued to suffer through Hamas\u2019 ongoing refusal to release all hostages\u201d, nor against the wider Israeli Government.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) has condemned the decision to impose sanctions on two Israeli ministers. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has now responded with a statement saying the US condemns the countries for their sanctions.<\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war,\u201d said Rubio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organisation that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is. The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luxon, speaking to reporters this afternoon, said the sanctions were targeted at the politicians because of their \u201cextremist rhetoric\u201d, including when it came to settlements in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

He said New Zealand had \u201chuge respect\u201d for what the Americans were trying to do to achieve a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good relationship with the American Administration. We have differences in approach. The Americans are doing an excellent job behind the scenes in trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to the table to talk about an immediate ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luxon confirmed New Zealand would not roll back the sanctions as the US wanted, saying the current approach was \u201cthe right course of action for us\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Christopher Luxon is standing by New Zealand’s approach. Photo \/ Dean Purcell <\/p>\n

According to overseas reporting, Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, said the countries\u2019 sanctions were an \u201coutrageous\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discussed it earlier today with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and we will hold a special Government meeting early next week to decide on our response to this unacceptable decision,\u201d said Sa\u2019ar.<\/p>\n

According to the ABC, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the US had been contacted overnight about the sanctions.<\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are occasions on which in our alliance [with the US] we have had differences of views and differences of approach, but obviously there remains a great deal of strategic alignment across many domains,\u2019 the ABC reported.<\/p>\n

Peters, who is in Europe for meetings, said the sanctions were consistent with how New Zealand had approached other foreign policy issues, such as placing travel bans on politicians from Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crisis in Gaza has made returning to a meaningful political process all the more urgent. New Zealand will continue to advocate for an end to the current conflict and an urgent restart of the Middle East peace process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the <\/b>NZ Herald <\/b>press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s consistent and historic position has been that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[5176,73063,73061,33482,3576,1234,73064,60948,5245,9641,254,6900,73062,2663,8183,2739,49,978,659,9642],"class_list":{"0":"post-176943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-condemned","10":"tag-condemns","11":"tag-countries","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-imposed","15":"tag-israeli","16":"tag-members","17":"tag-new","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-other","20":"tag-politicians","21":"tag-sanctions","22":"tag-states","23":"tag-united","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-zealand"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667385283333895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}