New Zealand's PM, 3 Cabinet ministers and 2 business leaders referred to ICC

A 103-page referral document lists individual contributions to Israel's commission of war crimes and genocide in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. (Photo: ICC)

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and three of his Cabinet ministers have been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accused of complicity in the Gaza genocide.

Two business leaders have also been named in the 103-page referral document, which lists evidence after accusing the six individuals of criminal responsibility in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by assisting Israel’s mass killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

The document, submitted this week by lawyers acting on behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), contends they should be investigated by the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC for individual material contributions they knowingly made to Israel’s commission of crimes in Gaza.

“The document was prepared by a legal team, which has been working on the case for many months,” PSNA co-chairs, John Minto and Maher Nazzal said in the statement to In Context this afternoon (Thursday, July 3).

“It is legally robust and will provide the Prosecutor of the ICC more than sufficient documentation to begin their investigation.”

The referral follows a ‘letter of demand’ issued to the government in 2024 outlining the actions the government should be taking to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, and to avoid criminal complicity with Israel under international law.

Because these steps were not undertaken, the document argues that, under the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Luxon, his Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Defence Minister Judith Collins, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, Rocket Lab CEO, Peter Beck and Rakon Limited CEO Dr Sinan Altug, are criminally responsible.

Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck (Photo: Photo by Kimberly White/Tech Crunch vua Flickr CC BY 2.0)

“For 20 months these political and business leaders have supported Israel to commit crimes which have shocked the human conscience. This has brought shame on the whole country,” Minto and Nazzal said.

The New Zealand Ministry for Foreign Affair and Trade (Mfat) and the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet have been approached for comment.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, top international genocide scholars, including UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and a United Nations Special Committee, have all condemned Israel’s actions as genocide over the past 20 months.

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that there was a plausible case of genocide against Israel and ordered it to take steps to ensure protect the Palestinian people against harm. Those orders were disregarded as Israel subsequently intensified its siege and blockade of Gaza and attacks on civilian infrastructure.

An Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip was brought by South Africa on December 29, 2023 accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention. Several countries joined the application, while New Zealand refused to do so.

Nearly 55,000 Gazans have been reported killed by Israel since October 7, 2023, a figure thought to be a significant undercount.

The PSNA document said Luxon had repeatedly justified or downplayed Israel’s criminal conduct, including by its description of Israeli violence as “self-defence”, and that it only supported a ceasefire on Israel’s terms.

The document argues Luxon likely allowed exports from New Zealand of missile componentry for use by Israel in targeting civilians, while also overseeing New Zealand’s participation in air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen in support of Israel maintaining its criminal blockade on food and medicine from entering Gaza. It argues Collins and Peters were culpable in this respect too.

It contends that Peters projected New Zealand’s “warm and friendly relations with Israel without any censure or criticism for its actions” while the Zionist state flagrantly breached orders by the International Court of Justice meant to prevent genocide in Gaza.

A PSNA protest in Auckland on Friday, July 4. (Photo: PSNA)

“He has consistently disregarded or downplayed Israel’s criminal conduct,” it said.

Defence Minister Collins has approved recent Rocket Lab launches of geospatial intelligence satellites for US company BlackSky Technologies and the document argues the satellites provide high resolution images to Israel and were likely used to assist with striking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

“Ms Collins allowed these launches in full knowledge of these circumstances,” it said.

The document argues that Seymour, as leader of one of the three coalition partners in the New Zealand government, had “firmly supported Israel’s violence against the people of Gaza under the pretext of self-defence, and unequivocally denied Israel’s breaches of international law and its commission of genocide”.

Rocket Lab boss Sir Peter Beck is accused of assisting Israel in military targeting by launching geospatial intelligence satellites for BlackSky Technology, which then likely supplied high resolution images to Israel. It argues Beck had proceeded with the launches in full knowledge this would happen.

Rocket Lab launches geospatial intelligence satellites from its spaceports in New Zealand’s Mahia Pennisula and in Virginia in the United States.

A New Zealand Space Agency Payload Permit shows Defence Minister Collins signed off a payload launch for Blacksky on 21 December 2023, while imposing a number of conditions, including that no entity or individual on New Zealand’s designated terror list be sold imagery or any sanctioned individual or entity. There were no conditions set on supplying imagery to Israel, which at that point was already being accused of targeting civilians and war crimes.

The previous Labour and Labour-led Governments had signed off on three payload permits amounting to 12 global satellites - in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Rakon CEO Dr Sinan Altug is accused of knowingly supplying military-grade crystal oscillators to US arms manufacturers for use in Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) that were then made available to Israel for the bombing of Gaza, as well as in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran with consequential massive loss of life.

It argues Rakon’s claims that it has no responsibility over how these ‘dual-use’ technologies are used are not credible. Rakon refuses to make public its list of clients, only its sales agents.

Documents released under New Zealand’s Official Information Act show an exchange by a Mfat official and a Rakon representative over Teams chat in May 2024, where the company acknowledged its crystal oscillators were not captured by the government’s Strategic Good List - items that are controlled for export to stop the proliferation of weapons and related technologies. The official asks Rakon to demonstrate due diligence carried out before supplying its oscillators, which he pointed out fell under New Zealand’s under Catch All Controls.

The Rakon representative replied: “Potentially. We can’t share right now over Teams, but this is something we could go away and look at… We don’t broadly sell to just anyone, we ask questions about end use via direct account managers.”

There was no subsequent indication in the documents of due diligence being demonstrated.

The PSNA communique to the ICC said: “PSNA believes it is highly likely that New Zealand-linked companies Rakon Limited (‘Rakon’) and Rocket Lab USA Incorporated (“Rocket Lab”) have materially contributed towards Israel’s devastating air attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, thereby contributing towards Israel’s commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. New Zealand politicians have allowed these likely material contributions to Israel’s commission of international crimes, and in this way are also implicated.”

The PSNA said it understood the ICC was a court of last resort and that it unsuccessfully tried to have the New Zealand authorities investigate.

“The absence of domestic criminal investigations or prosecutions for the outlined conduct means that the cases raised by this communiqué are admissible before the Court.”

The PSNA has maintained weekly protests across New Zealand since October 2023 and lobbied media, politicians and civil society organisations on sovereignty and human rights issues regarding Palestine.

In December 2023 In Context was told by a New Zealand government spokesperson that Crown Law had not briefed ministers on whether or not they were fulfilling the country’s international obligations regarding Gaza and its relationship with Israel.

Luxon joins his colleague across the Tasman, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was referred to the ICC as an accessory to genocide in Gaza in March last year.

A team of Australian lawyers from Birchgrove Legal, led by King’s Counsel Sheryn Omeri, drew up a 92-page document of evidence over individual criminal responsibility, endorsed by more than 100 Australian lawyers and barristers.

The document was accepted into the evidence of the broader allegations of war crimes gathered as part of the ICC’s investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine and is being reviewed.

It means Albanese a now faces potential prosecution, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity after an arrest warrant was issued on November 21 last year.

The PSNA communique could now be added on to ICC’s broader investigation too.