For the United Nations Security Council to stop the violence between Israel and Palestine it needs to look closer at the root of the problem, a political academic says.
Photo: AFP
Foreign Minister Murray McCully told the Security Council in New York it had to put more pressure on Israel and Palestine to jump-start peace talks between them.
Mr McCully said while those guilty of violent acts must take responsibility for them, the council had to take responsibility for the failure of the diplomatic and political process to end the violence.
Murray McCully Photo: RNZ
Massey University senior politics lecturer Nigel Parsons was pleased to see the Foreign Minister putting pressure on the UN, but said there were many causes for the violence, and those need attention.
"The violence is but a symptom which has much deeper causes that are much more difficult to address, but which absolutely need addressing if the violence is to stop.
"And that means dealing with settlement construction, it means dealing with the racist policies of the State of Israel and the de-Arabisation of the city."
He said action from the Security Council should be encouraged because they can achieve a fairer outcome for Palestinians than the United States.