Sir James McNeish
By Miriam Bell
Frenzied, virulent crowds of protestors. Placards accusing Israel of genocide, apartheid and terrorism. Screaming demands to “free Gaza” and support the Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement.
These are the images that spring to mind when thinking about New Zealand demonstrations in support of the Palestinians in recent times. While there has long been a pro-Palestinian movement in New Zealand, and it has always included raucous elements, the fervour surrounding it seems to have ramped up significantly of late.
Back in 2014, at the height of the Israel-Gaza conflict, I wrote about the extreme nature of anti-Israel protests and public pronouncements. I pondered whether there might perhaps be a stream of antisemitism, disguised as anti-Israel sentiment, growing in New Zealand.
These concerns are shared by other New Zealanders, non-Jewish as well as Jewish.
One prominent example is Sir James McNeish, a critically acclaimed novelist, playwright and biographer. One of his books, Lovelock, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1986 and in 2011 he was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.
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