Brodie Kane (like the rest of us) is standing with Chloe Swarbrick after the Green’s co-leader was barred for the week from Parliament for asking for six government MPs ‘with a spine’. Our Government, writes Brodie HAS been completely spineless…
Welcome to TBH – To Be Honest – Capsule’s monthly column with columnist and old pal, Brodie Kane!
For her previous columns, click here!
This spineless world.
This week, Green-Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick was kicked out of Parliament, and barred for the rest of the week after her speech about Gaza.
She and the Green Party have been vocal, impassioned and have relentlessly demanded action over the Genocide in Gaza.
Our Government, on the other hand, in my opinion, has been completely spineless.
So when Chloe Swarbrick was kicked out of the house by Speaker Gerry Brownlee for asking, “if we can find six of 68 government MPs with a spine” to support a Green Party bill imposing sanctions on Israel for its deplorable, illegal, murderous behaviour, she was speaking my language.
I wrote my first open letter to Chris and Chris (Hipkins was outgoing, Luxon was incoming, and this was in November 2023.) And I have continued to watch in horror as our Government has done nothing.
So, the fact that Chloe being kicked out of the house has become the news angle, gone all around the world while at the same time highlighting her BRILLIANT speech – makes me proud of her, and at the same time, yet again, utterly embarrassed about our Government.
Our spineless Government. Too afraid to put a foot wrong, piss off allies, muddy the trade and international relations waters, too afraid to stand up for something so many are crying out for.
To stand up for children being deliberately starved by Israel.
To stand up for journalists being targeted and killed by Israel.
To stand up for a population trapped in the most inhumane conditions aid agencies and experts have ever seen.
To stand up against women and children being killed. Snipered even. By Israel.
To stand up to aid being denied entry to Palestinians by Israel.
To stand up for all the doctors, nurses aid workers, and volunteers who have been killed by Israel.
To stand up for Palestinians being deprived of their human rights by Israel.
To stand up for people who’ve had their land stolen by Israel.
To stand up against international laws which have been shattered by Israel.
To stand up against war crime after war crime war crime after war crime committed by Israel.
We are, shamefully, circling back in September with a decision on whether to recognise a Palestinian state. We are lagging behind the rest of the world and I couldn’t be more incensed by our pathetic leaders.
For anyone who tells me it’s complex and complicated – just know my eyes have rolled so far back in my head I’ve just about fallen over.
I studied Middle Eastern Politics right through University. I have since then kept a keen interest in this part of the world. I understand the history, the complexities of the region.
And I can tell you that putting a stop to an evil man, backed by far-right MPs who have openly said they want to “annihilate Gaza” is not complex and complicated. Putting a stop to the deliberate starving of an entire population, whose homes, hospitals, schools and livelihoods have been completely blown apart is not complex and complicated.
Putting a stop to a controlled, cruel, human catastrophe is not complex and complicated.
Oh yeah, and putting a stop to all the above isn’t anti-Semitic, either.
But the world has helped create this barbaric mess.
Western countries still arm Israel, still trade with Israel, still are influenced by Israel.
Western countries have sat by and watched this happen for far too long.
Western countries have shown they are spineless.
Like I said before of our Government, our Western mates are too afraid to put a foot wrong, piss off allies, muddy the trade and international relations waters,
The hypocrisy of the West is nothing new.
The behaviour of the West in the Middle East has been deeply problematic for a very very long time.
The world has been a bad place where bad things have happened over the course of history.
But never before has it been live-streamed. Never before have we watched it unfold every single day. Never before have we thought it could possibly be allowed to get worse. And yet every day it does.
Because the world has completely lost its spine.
So don’t apologise to Gerry, Chloe about needing six MPs with a spine to support your Bill to sanction Israel.
Because we have seen how spineless the world really is.
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