Wellington: A new political party in New Zealand is seeking to transform pro-Palestine solidarity into an electoral movement, with its leader saying Palestine has been pushed to the margins of political debate despite being what he calls the country's "most pressing issue."
According to Anadolu Agency, the Free Palestine Party is seeking registration ahead of New Zealand's November general election, campaigning on support for a single Palestinian state, accountability for alleged Israeli war crimes, and a broader overhaul of Wellington's foreign policy.
"The Palestinian issue has disappeared from public space," party leader Paul Hopkinson told Anadolu in a video interview, vowing that his party will 'make sure that the Palestinian issue is front and center in this election.'
Rather than focusing solely on winning seats in Parliament, Hopkinson said registering a party would give the group access to public funding and provide a platform to challenge established political parties during the election campaign.
"It gives us the ability to hold our politicians to account and show them, because the majority of New Zealanders . believe that Palestine is a central issue and that Palestinians don't have justice," he said.
"You can't rely on the people in power. It's us, the people, who must hold them to account, and we believe this is a great vehicle for doing it."
Although centered on Palestine, Hopkinson said the party's platform extends beyond solidarity with Gaza to broader questions of international law and New Zealand's role in global affairs.
He described the party as a single-issue movement rooted in international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly regarding what it describes as Israel's apartheid system.
According to Hopkinson, countries that fail to uphold international law ultimately undermine their own international credibility. He described Palestine as "the most important issue facing New Zealand" politically and "the biggest issue facing the world" economically.
He argued that instability in the Middle East, triggered by joint Israeli-US attacks on Iran earlier this year, has contributed to rising energy prices and worsening cost-of-living pressures around the world.
"The oil prices have shot up, and prices for us are skyrocketing in the supermarkets, and we already had a cost-of-living crisis before that," he said. "We're saying that our issue may be a single issue, but it's the most important issue facing the world today."
The party is also calling for a major overhaul of New Zealand's foreign and security policy, including withdrawing from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia.
Hopkinson argued that membership makes New Zealand "complicit in American and Israeli actions around the world."
He pointed to New Zealand's participation in military exercises alongside the United States and Israel, as well as the deployment of New Zealand personnel to military facilities in the Middle East since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.
"We believe the only way for us as a nation to not be complicit in this is to get out of those alliances, which don't serve us or the people of New Zealand or the people of the Middle East," he said.
Hopkinson said the party has already secured more than the 550 members required to register with New Zealand's Electoral Commission and expects the process to take another two to three months.
The next stage will involve a public consultation period during which objections to the registration can be submitted. He said any attempt to block the party's registration would most likely come then.
"We know the Zionists will be moving . because we've seen some of the stuff they've already written, and they're already lobbying the government, as I'm sure is the Israeli ambassador," he said.
He argued that any attempt to block the party's registration would itself become evidence that political debate around Palestine is being constrained.
"That will be a really good issue for us to fight, around whether we have democracy here or whether we're actually ruled from somewhere else," he said.
The party is currently applying for registration under the name Free Palestine but later intends to change its name to Palestine Free from the River to the Sea, which Hopkinson said better reflects the party's support for a single state across historic Palestine.
"The party is about drawing attention to the ongoing Holocaust to the Palestinian people since 1948 and that the only solution, the only lasting solution for the Middle East and for the world, and the only justice for the Palestinian people, is a single-state solution," he said.
He also described the slogan as a defense of free expression, arguing that similar pro-Palestinian phrases have faced legal restrictions or criminal investigations in countries including the UK, Germany, and the Australian state of Queensland.
Hopkinson, who also serves as a national spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the organization is not linked to the political party beyond sharing support for Palestinians' right to self-determination and "all forms of resistance, including armed resistance under international law."
He argued that Palestine supporters should seize the moment, saying Israel has become increasingly isolated internationally.
"I think we are in dangerous times, but also in times when I don't think Israel has been as weak as it is now, even though it doesn't look that way," he said.
"All of us in Palestinian solidarity around the world need to remain active and keep pushing, because I think the Zionists have overstretched themselves. They've burned their biggest backers, the Americans, by dragging them into a war with Iran, which they've lost."
He also pointed to Israel's genocide in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 people, injured over 173,000, and destroyed the vast majority of the enclave since October 2023.