Less than two months ahead of the New Zealand general elections, a PFLP-linked party running entirely on a pro-Palestine platform is raising questions about the normalization of Israel and Jew hate in the southwestern Pacific nation.
The Palestine Free from the River to the Sea Party was almost not allowed to register after over 200 submissions opposing it; however, the Electoral Commission ultimately decided to allow it to pass on August 5. This means it has at least 500 members, as that is the threshold needed to secure registration.
Not only will the party feature on the ballot paper, but it has also been allocated nearly NZ$79,000 in taxpayer-funded election broadcasting money.
According to its website, the Palestine Free from the River to the Sea Party has three main aims: Building a democratic party that unites supporters of Palestine from all traditions; pressuring the New Zealand government to support the prosecution of war crimes and genocide; and recognizing that Palestinian liberation is bound up with the broader struggle against imperialism.
It also calls for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland and the dismantling of the State of Israel.
The party was founded and is led by Paul Hopkinson, who also serves as the national spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) campaign in New Zealand.
Hopkinson told the New Arab on June 23 that he plans to use his position as a registered political party to hold other parties to account on the issue of Palestine.
“Successive New Zealand governments have failed to take any steps to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law or to support UN resolutions related to Palestine,” he said.
“As is clear from the party’s principles, we offer unconditional support for all forms of Palestinian resistance, including armed resistance.”
Therefore, he said, Hamas and other Palestinian groups (such as the PIJ) should not have been placed on the terrorism list in NZ. The PFLP itself is not designated.
Interestingly, this is the same Hopkinson who was at the center of a relatively well-known NZ court appeal in 2003.
On 10 March, 2003, between 500 and 1,000 people protested the Australian Government’s support for the United States-led invasion of Iraq. During the protest, Hopkinson – at the time a schoolteacher – held the New Zealand flag on a pole upside down and another activist lit it on fire, resulting in a column of flame.
Hopkinson became the first person to be prosecuted under the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981. He appealed, and a judge later ruled that “the prohibition of flag burning under the act was a breach of the right to freedom of expression, and such a limit was not justified under s5 of the Bill of Rights.”
In February this year, Hopkinson was arrested for attempting to burn an American flag, as well as for assaulting a police officer. He appears to have been arrested on several occasions in relation to his pro-Palestine protesting. He also ran as a Workers Party candidate for Christchurch East in 2008.
Zionism becomes an election issue
Israel Institute of New Zealand spokesperson Greg Bouwer told the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) that “If ‘From the River to the Sea’ becomes the formal identity of a registered political movement, we should expect the meaning of Zionism, Israel’s continued existence and Jewish national self-determination, to become election issues.”
“That makes it especially important that other parties do not respond by competing for the same constituency through increasingly inflammatory rhetoric.”
In a separate piece on the IINZ website, Bouwer raised the question of why any party should make a foreign policy position its only ethos.
“That raises a legitimate question for a party seeking representation in New Zealand’s Parliament. Why should determining the constitutional future of Israelis and Palestinians be the organizing purpose of a New Zealand political party?” he asked.
And it is not as if other parties in NZ don’t have Palestine on their list of campaign issues.
The Green Party, for example, is openly hostile toward Israel, as is Te Pati Maori. Labour has also moved toward a more anti-Israel position.
New Zealand Jewish Council (NZJC) President Juliet Moses told AIJAC that Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins “seems reasonable” but that Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Vanushi Walters “has said a genocide is unfolding in Gaza, and that if Labour was in power it would have recognized Palestine, sanctioned Israel, and looked to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ.”
New Zealand sees ongoing rise in antisemitism
The anti-Israel messaging throughout the parties is significant due to the way in which it provokes a rise in antisemitism in the country.
According to the NZJC, 2025 saw the highest number of antisemitic incidents ever recorded in a single year in New Zealand.
The incidents included five assaults (the most in any year), two threats, and 15 incidents of desecration or damage to Jewish sites.
According to NZ Police, New Zealand Jews are disproportionately targeted compared with other ethnic and religious groups – and Jews are only 0.2% of the population.
Geopolitical incidents involving Israel are often associated with an increase in antisemitic incidents in New Zealand, particularly from far-left and Islamist-motivated individuals.
In the same report, NZJC warned that antisemitism has become “tolerated or even endorsed by persons of social and political importance and other leaders.”
“It is concerning that members of our parliament feel free to participate in online forums that routinely express vile antisemitism, or join rallies promoted by groups that have been widely condemned for their racism, let alone participate in the hateful chants of “From
the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or endorse “intifada,” it said.
The fact that a party’s name is that very slogan is cause for concern.
