They aren't us?

This government wants us to forget 15 March

The man who slaughtered 51 Muslim worshippers during the deadliest mass-shooting in New Zealand’s history hated Muslims.

In the aftermath of the horrific attacks, New Zealanders swore that his values weren’t ours. They - we - pushed back on the ‘us’ and ‘them’ rhetoric of racism and islamophobia. Stickers popped up on the bumpers of cars and in shop windows that said ‘they are us’.

Of course, not all of New Zealand believed then that ‘they are us’. Destiny Church performed their usually hateful smooth-brained race-baiting. Others lamented that Jacinda Ardern wore a hijab as a sign of respect and care.

Four years on from the attacks, our deputy prime minister tweeted misinformed conspiracy theories about the attack. The other deputy and our prime minister didn’t care.

Five years on from the attacks, The Christchurch Call, an initiative aimed at addressing online extremism, had its funding cut by the coalition government.

And in August, homes throughout Te Whanganui a Tara received pamphlets from a local hate group saying the Muslim Call to Prayer would be played by Wellington City Council across the capital. In fact the council had only been asked if 15 March could be remembered by one Call to Prayer.

A coronial inquiry has also so far failed to bring comfort or justice for survivors and victims of the terror attack and the wider Muslim community. Judith Collins directed officials to end a coordinated state response to the terror attack within weeks of taking her ministerial post. Victims and survivors are suffering under support cuts and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith also cutting grants helping families of the victims attend the inquest.

Restorative justice processes and a wrap-around support service for witnesses and survivors will no longer happen. It has taken just five years to cut support.

Muslims in Aotearoa would be forgiven for thinking ‘They Are Us’ no longer exists.

And given this government’s actions around the terror attacks but especially the devastating and deadly hypocrisy of Erica Stanford - would they be right?

For almost a full year, New Zealanders and countless human rights organisations, faith institutions, and charities have begged the government to issue humanitarian visas for Palestinians with New Zealand family.

At the beginning of the campaign, it was estimated that there are approximately 300-400 people including children in Gaza have existing family connections in New Zealand. Many have been killed by Israeli bombs and occupying forces, as well as starvation and preventable disease since then.

Fourteen days after the Russia-Ukraine war began, Erica Stanford criticised the then-Labour government for not issuing humanitarian visas. Yet she has steadfastly refused to even meet with Palestinians who are watching their family be murdered through a screen.

Minas Al-Ansari, speaking for Kiwi Palestinians with family in Gaza said on 10 March, “Right now, our families are being killed and we are helpless to save them. One member of our community has lost 120 members of their family. If Erica Stanford, this National-led government had granted special humanitarian visas early, as was done for Ukraine, there is absolutely no doubt lives would have been saved.

“Every day that goes by more people are dying. Our children, our elders, our people, have a Right to Life as defined by Article 3 of the International Declaration of Human Rights."

At the beginning of October, World Vision New Zealand called on the government to show real and tangible support for Palestinians ahead of the one-year anniversary of the beginning of this genocide.

“As the October 7 anniversary looms, [we are] calling on the Government to urgently issue humanitarian visas and provide full resettlement assistance for Palestinians with family members in New Zealand.”

”In March this year, World Vision New Zealand joined more than 30 organisations urging the government to provide emergency evacuation and visas for Palestinians in Gaza to resettle in New Zealand.”

"World Vision New Zealand’s Head of Advocacy and Justice, Rebekah Armstrong, says six months later New Zealanders are still waiting for the Government to act.”

Their call is surely one that anyone would support. And yet, comments on the World Vision Instagram reminded me that hate is alive and well in Aotearoa.

Still, why is the government pandering to racists who likely would have cheered on the mosque killer? Why are New Zealanders so quick to allow the most violent Islamophobes of this country to inform their government policy? What happened to ‘They are us'?

On the weekend, a memorial plaque was cemented outside Immigration Minister Erica Stanford’s East Coast Bays office. It marked a year since eighteen Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City. Not all of the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of Palestinians murdered by Israel in the genocide are Muslim. But we know that when we see the odd Zionist celebration of the genocide it’s full of the worst people you can imagine who loathe Muslims and love to see their agony.

We know they don’t represent the majority of New Zealanders - we know these (mostly Christian Zionist) hate groups aren’t ‘us’. The thousands of people who rally across the motu every single week without fail and have done for the last year are ‘us’.

But does this government know that?

Will we let them decide who ‘us’ is?