Statement On World Habitat Day

On this World Habitat Day, we reflect on the universal right of every human being to live in dignity, with secure shelter, access to land, and a safe environment to call home.

For Palestinians, this right is systematically denied. Since the Nakba of 1948, millions of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes and lands. In Gaza, entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, with families left homeless and deprived of the basic means to rebuild. In the West Bank, home demolitions, land confiscation, and the expansion of illegal settlements continue to strip Palestinians of their right to a safe and secure habitat. Refugees scattered across the region and the world remain denied the right to return to their ancestral homes.

World Habitat Day calls us to remind the international community that shelter and land are not privileges—they are human rights. The ongoing destruction and dispossession in Palestine are not natural disasters, but deliberate policies of occupation and apartheid.

We stand in solidarity with Palestinians struggling to protect their homes, villages, and lands. We call on the New Zealand Government and civil society to support international law, oppose the destruction of Palestinian habitats, and affirm the inalienable right of Palestinians to live freely and securely in their homeland.

Because a just and peaceful world can only be built when every family, in every nation, has a place to call home.

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