A Demand for an Immediate Gaza Ceasefire – Join Me in an Open Letter

Explanation/Preamble:

Like many of you, I have watched with increasing anger and despair the horrific actions being taken against the people of Gaza by the Israeli government, and the corresponding tip-toeing around the issue by our own government here in Aotearoa. As someone whose father was a refugee from Hitler’s atrocities, and whose family suffered at the hands of the Nazis, I can no longer remain silent on the genocide taking place in Gaza. We ask ourselves why ordinary people in WWII did not speak out against the genocide inflicted upon the Jewish people, and now we must ask the same question of ourselves regarding Palestinians in Gaza. Let me be clear, this is not about amplifying antisemitic rhetoric, it is about upholding the human rights of innocent people everywhere and calling out the war criminals who currently control the Israeli government.

In May 2025, 380 UK and Irish writers signed an open letter calling for an end to this. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qgpve3qzgo  They have kindly allowed me to use their wording, which, in turn, was adapted from a similar open letter drafted by France’s writers.  

If you are a New Zealand writer or publisher (or similar) who feels the same, please add your name in the comments and, once we have a convincing number of signatories, I will prepare a press release and send a copy to our Prime Minister. If you can’t access comments for some reason, feel free to email me at mandy@mandyhager.com

I urge you to join me.

Ngā  mihi,

Mandy Hager

UPDATE FRIDAY 25TH JULY: As of 3pm today, we have 170 signatures and rising and a copy has been emailed to PM Christopher Luxon and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters. Unsurprisingly, we are yet to receive a response.

UPDATE FRIDAY 1 AUGUST: Still no reply from either Luxon or Peters. Currently 180 signatures.

UPDATE 10 SEPTEMBER 2025: Still not even an acknowledgement. Still no significant government action. Despicable.

Aotearoa’s Writers Demand Immediate Gaza Ceasefire

We, the undersigned writers of Aotearoa New Zealand, ask our government and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror.

Eighteen months ago, the Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada was killed by Israeli airstrikes. In her poem “A Star Said Yesterday,” she imagined for the people of Gaza a cosmic refuge — something utterly unlike the constant lethal danger they now face:

“And if one day, O Light
All the galaxies
Of the entire universe
Had no more room for us
You would say: “Enter my heart,
There you will finally be safe.”

The government of Israel has renewed its assault on Gaza with unrestrained brutality, including the recent abhorrent killing of hundreds of people as they queue up for food in a mockery of humanitarian aid. Public statements by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir openly express genocidal intentions. The use of the words “genocide” or “acts of genocide” to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations. Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and many other specialists and historians have clearly identified genocide or acts of genocide in Gaza, enacted by the Israel Defence Force and directed by the government of Israel.

On behalf of the UN, and published by the office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, over 40 Special Rapporteurs and independent experts recently concluded: “While States debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity,” the experts said. “No one is spared — not the children, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, journalists, health professionals, aid workers, or hostages. Since breaking the ceasefire, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians, many daily — peaking on 18 March 2025 with 600 casualties in 24 hours, 400 of whom were children.”

Palestinians are not the abstract victims of an abstract war. Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible. Too often, too, the right words — the ones that mattered — have been eradicated, along with those who might have written them.

The term “genocide” is not a slogan. It carries legal, political, and moral responsibilities. Just as it is true to call the atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent civilians on 7 October 2023 crimes of war and crimes against humanity, so today it is true to name the attack on the people of Gaza an atrocity of genocide, with crimes of war and crimes against humanity, committed daily by the Israeli Defence Forces, at the command of the government of the State of Israel.

Recently, Alexis Deswaef, vice-president of International Federation of Human Rights and a lawyer at the International Criminal Court, recalled the concept of the “bystander-approver,” drawn from the special tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It refers to a senior official who looks on, remains silent, and whose silence is interpreted as a green light by the perpetrators.

We refuse to be a public of bystander-approvers. This is not only about our common humanity and all human rights; this is about our moral fitness as the writers of our time, which diminishes with every day we refuse to speak out and denounce this crime.

In taking this stand, we assert without reservation our absolute opposition to and loathing of antisemitism, of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli prejudice. We reject and abhor attacks, hate and violence — in writing, speech and action — against Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish people in all and any form. We stand in solidarity with the resistance of Palestinian, Jewish, and Israeli people to the genocidal policies of the current Israeli government.

We ask all people to join in our call for compassion, for reason and for mediation. For Hiba, for the over 57,000 Gazans killed, and for the survivors — starving, wounded, and scarred for life:

1. We demand the immediate unrestricted distribution of food and medical aid throughout Gaza by the UN.

2. We demand that sanctions be imposed on the State of Israel if the Israeli government does not heed this call, which is also the world’s call, for an immediate ceasefire.

3. We demand a ceasefire which guarantees safety and justice for all Palestinians, the release of all Israeli hostages, and the release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners arbitrarily held in Israeli jails.

This genocide implicates us all. We bear witness to the crimes of genocide, and we refuse to approve them by our silence.

Signed:

Dame Fiona Kidman

Dr Patricia Grace

Harriet Allan

Marilyn Duckworth

Fleur Beale

Dr Pip Adam

Catherine Chidgey

Tina Makereti

Lawrence Patchett

Brannavan Gnanalingam

Elspeth Sandys

Kapka Kassobova

Bill Manhire

Laurence Fearnley

Claire Mabey

Emma Neale

James Norcliffe

Kirsten McDougall

Marian Evans

Jo Randerson

Tim Corballis

Gavin Strawham

Courtney Sina Meredith

Chris Tse

Emma Hislop

Damien Wilkins

Briar Grace-Smith

Rebecca Macfie

Eirlys Hunter

Catherine Robertson

Whiti Hereaka

Jane Arthur

Phillipa Werry

Mandy Hager

Dr Debbie Hager

Nicky Hager

Chris Price

Nadine Hura

Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

Paul Maunder

Tusiata Avia

Hinemoana Baker

Dr Thom Conroy

Dr. Kirsty Baker

Andrea Bosshard

Rebecca Priestley

Gayna Veter

Mia Farlane

Kristen Phillips

Jared Davidson

Bill Nagelkerke

Maria Gill

Mark Derby

Lucy Wilson

Angelique Praat

Romesh Dissanayake

Pamela Gordon

Sylvan Spring

Lois Cox

Hilary Lapsley

Saige England (Palestinian Solidarity Network of Aotearoa)

Sacha Cotter

Kathleen Gallagher

Anne Bennett-Eustace

Josh Morgan

Gail Ingram

Tim Jones

Latika Vasil

Harvey Molloy

Roly Andrews

Jordan Hamel

Brigid Feehan

Freya Daly Sadgrove

Always Becominging

Ash Davida Jane

Joan Fleming

Cello Forrester

Rose Lu

Nic Low

Olive Nuttall

Lynn Jenner

Sarah Jane Barnett

Toby Boraman

Geoff Palmer

Gina Cole

Michelle Elvy

Alison Glenny

Ingrid Horrocks

Tom Doig

Kate Duignan

Lynn Davidson

Tihema Baker

Carolyn McCurdie

Madeleine Slavick

Marilyn Garson

Cybèle Locke

Sally Blundell

Kim Hunt

Emma Barnes

Anna Jackson

Michaela Kebble

Peter J King

Andrea Christofidou

Vana Manasiadis

Sue Wootton

Ya-Wen Ho

Kanya Stewart

Paul Panckhurst

A.J. Ponder

Janet Charman

Paula Green

Bridie Lonie

Ariana Tikao

Marty Smith

Sue Fitchett

Miriam Saphira CNZM

Dr Miriam Larsen-Barr

Diane Brown

Philip Temple

Margo Montes de Oca

Tracey Slaughter

Gregory O’Brien

Jenny Bornholdt

Amanda Hunt

Loren Taylor

Cherllisha Silva

Fiona Lovatt

Christine Leunens

Claire Orchard

Melanie Koster

Miriama Gemmell

Sharon Lam

Ian Wedde

Nola Borrell

Jiaqiao Liu

Tokorima Taihuringa

Kate Evans

Modi Deng

Erik Kennedy

Melinda Szymanik

Ronnie Smart

Eva Wyles

Trevor Hayes

Elena de Roo

Michelle Duff

Michalia Arathimos

Caren Wilton

Mark Forman

Kyle Mewburn

Craig Cliff

Johnny Crawford

Shelley Burne-Field

Cilla McQueen

Maire Leadbeater

Leonard Lambert

Jan Fitzgerald

Trish Gribben

Annemarie Florian

Lesley Marshall

Trish Harris

Tania Roxborogh

Deb E. Howell

Chaz Harris

John Summers

James McNaughton

Carole Beu

Swapna Haddow

Tracy Farr

Beverley Smith

Tom Baragwanath

Alison Wong

David Howard

Ruth Hanover

Simone Kaho

Angelique Kasmara

Mikaela Nyman

Kelly Malone

Tessa Duder

Leonie Agnew

Maria McMillan