Israel’s inclusion into the Pacific region’s main political body has drawn sharply contrasting reactions across the region.
While the official diplomatic tone from Pacific leaders, including New Zealand, has been welcoming and focused on consensus, civil society groups have described the move as wrong and demanded a review.
Others, such as Kiwi media academic Professor David Robie, have called it “shameful”, while veteran Solomon Islands diplomat Collin Beck said it puts into question the “credibility” of the Pacific Islands Forum’s (PIF) partnership mechanism.
Israel announced its acceptance into the Forum via a news release last Wednesday, which swiftly attracted a range of reactions – both for and against the move.
The announcement coincided with Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) head Eynat Shlein’s visit to the region.
Fijian Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka offered a biblical justification for Israel’s inclusion, speaking for the “entire Pacific Islands”, while the Pacific Conference of Churches demanded the PIF review its decision.
The 18-member PIF has just over two dozen dialogue and development partners, which include countries such as the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Indonesia, that support the development priorities of the region.
Israel has been added to the list as a sectoral partner and will offer support in the areas of water management, desalination, agriculture and climate change adaptation.
“Strengthening ties with the Pacific Island nations is one of my objectives. Earlier this year, I opened Israel’s Embassy in Fiji, which also serves nine other Pacific Island nations, all friendly to Israel,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said.
“Under the current government, three of these countries, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Nauru, have opened embassies in Jerusalem.”
The PIF Secretariat, which is headed by former Nauru President Baron Waqa, has not publicly confirmed Israel’s status yet. However, the New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the decision by PIF leaders should be respected and described criticism of Israel’s inclusion as an “insult” to Pacific Island nations.
“Pacific support a rules-based international system, respect for international law,” Beck, who is a Solomon Islands career diplomat and senior government official, said in a comment on a Facebook post on RNZ.
“We must engage with all peaceful countries,” he wrote.
However, he added that the PIF’s “mechanism on partnership now lacks credibility”.
He said the review of how the PIF works with its partners “must come with criteria that [have] humanity at its centre, international law, respect for lives will surely place the Pacific on the right side of history”.
He also noted that there should be respect for the Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration adopted by Pacific leaders in September 2025.
Professor Robie, who has decades of experience researching and writing on the region, said the move undermines the Forum’s founding commitment in 1971 to regional decolonisation.
“In what is probably one of its most shameful acts ever, the Pacific Islands Forum has betrayed one of its founding principles in admitting Israel – already a global rogue pariah state – as a development partner in the middle of the genocide of an Indigenous people, the Palestinians,” he wrote as editor of Asia Pacific Report.
“As decisions of this nature are made by consensus, it means that all 18 member states of the region’s main political body – including Australia and New Zealand – have given their blessing.”
He pointed out that Israel, alongside the United States, had also voted against decolonisation at the UN Decolonisation Committee (C-24) meeting earlier this month.
“Six Pacific countries and territories – American Samoa, French Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), Guam (Guåhan), New Caledonia (Kanaky), Pitcairn and Tokelau – are still on the UN Decolonisation list,” he wrote.
He said that a “perception of arrogance and deceit” about Israel’s PIF partnership process had also angered many in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, the region’s premier ecumenical organisation is calling for Israel’s new partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to be reviewed.
The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), which represents Christian churches and national councils across 18 countries and territories in the region, also wants all engagement with Israel suspended until it complies with international court rulings and United Nations resolutions.
PCC’s general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan told Pacific Waves that the announcement came as a surprise, particularly as PIF had not issued a statement on the partnership.
He said Pacific leaders should review the arrangement and ensure local communities are consulted before decisions are made on their behalf.
Bhagwan told Pacific Waves that the region needed to apply consistent standards to its international relationships.
“We cannot invoke the [International Court of Justice] for our islands and ignore the fact that the ICJ, in 2024, stated that Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian territory as soon as possible,” he said.
Bhagwan said the Pacific’s own history of colonisation, nuclear testing and environmental destruction should inform how it engages with other countries.
“This is the test of regionalism and our commitment for our sisters and brothers in the Pacific,” he said.
“We cannot talk about the suffering of one community only without ignoring what others are going through. That’s not the Pacific way at all.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said criticising Israel’s inclusion in PIF is an insult to Pacific Island countries, adding that the decision by the Pacific leaders should be respected.
As a PIF partner, Israel will support Pacific development priorities in areas such as water management, desalination, agriculture and climate change adaptation.
Bhagwan stressed that the PCC’s concerns were not directed at Jewish people, nor at communities’ needs for water, food security and climate adaptation.
He said the PCC rejects anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, adding that the organisation mourns the loss of civilian lives on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bhagwan is urging the PIF Troika, which comprises Solomon Islands, Palau and New Zealand, to consider PCC’s concerns as the partnership arrangements are developed.
He also wants regional leaders to continue advocating for the right to self-determination of the six Pacific territories on the United Nations list which are yet to achieve self-government.
He said the same principles should apply to all countries the region partners with, including Indonesia, which he wants pressed to allow a visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
n KELVIN ANTHONy is RNZ Pacific’s digital/social lead. SUSANA SUISUIKI is the presented for Pacific Waves, the daily current affairs radio program and podcast produced by RNZ Pacific. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.
PIF secretary-general Baron Waqa welcomed Israel’s Ambassador to Fiji and Pacific Island Countries Maya Yaron and Head of MASHAV Ambassador Eynat Shlein, who travelled from Israel to the Pacific for engagements across the region this week. Picture:Pacific Islands Forum
