NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
While Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970, for indigenous peoples, living in close connection with the environment and being caretakers of the land is part of the culture, hence Māori are called tangata whenua, people of the land.
A special event organized by a Māori tribe in the north of Aotearoa New Zealand to welcome the new Israeli Ambassador also provided a unique opportunity to mark Earth Day.
Heartwarming stuff!
–NZ Friends of Israel
Stuff ran an opinion piece written by Donna Mills-Mojab today. It is an example of Iranian propaganda. It weaves a narrative that makes Iran seem like it is doing no wrong. Her article makes no mention of:
Instead, it lays down a smokescreen of false information which should be corrected here:
Iran has demonstrated that it does not act in good faith. Which leaves Israel deeply skeptical of a successful diplomatic outcome. What good is a treaty when it’s highly likely that Iran does not intend to comply with it?
Uranium 235 enrichment to less than 20% is suitable for commercial power generation. Anything beyond that sends a clear signal of Iran’s intentions.
Read Mills-Mojab’s article.
Israel will reopen the country to vaccinated foreign tourists in May, more than a year after closing its borders to most international visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Tourism Ministry said a limited number of tourist groups will be allowed to enter the country starting May 23, with individual visitors allowed at a later stage. All foreign tourists entering the country will be tested for coronavirus before boarding flights to Israel and must present a serological test to prove they have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
Israel suffered a major economic blow due to the coronavirus pandemic. In recent months, it has carried out a highly successful vaccination programme that has allowed it to reopen most sectors of the economy. But the tourism industry, limited only to serving Israelis, remains blighted.
Israel on Thursday said it would formally reject the International Criminal Court’s decision to launch a probe into potential war crimes against the Palestinians, denying that it has committed such crimes and saying the court lacks the jurisdiction to investigate.
A panel of judges at the ICC ruled in February that the court does have jurisdiction, allowing the investigation to proceed. Israel’s response to a formal notification sent out last month is not expected to reopen that debate, though judges may reconsider the issue of jurisdiction later in the process.
The court is expected to look at possible war crimes committed by Israelis forces and Palestinian militants during and after the 2014 Gaza war, as well as Israel’s establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem that now house over 700,000 settlers. International law prohibits the transfer of civilians into occupied territory.
Benjamin Steiner died in Auckland last week at the age of 81, and as Mark Jennings writes, his life story was unique in many ways
Benjamin Steiner cut a distinctive figure with his dapper clothes, trilby hat and twinkly eyes. But belying that appearance, his body covered in scars and the number A-421734 tattooed on his left forearm, was a terrible truth.
Steiner was a survivor of Auschwitz, and the subject of the notorious Dr Josef Mengele’s experiments.
The small, softly-spoken man lived in New Zealand most of his life. He was a professional and passionate saxophonist and worked as chief purser for the airline that became Air New Zealand.
Born in 1935 in Budapest, he was 8 years old when he was transported to Auschwitz – Birkenau in a railway wagon. By 1944, 12,000 Jews were being delivered to Auschwitz on an average day.
Winston Churchill once described the treatment of Hungarian Jews as the “greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world…”.
NZFOI: Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah
My Zayde told us about his childhood in Kazimierz, and about burying half-alive bodies in Buchenwald. What it means to be the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and to lose them.
He and his father were imprisoned in Plaszow concentration camp, where he said every day brought a new tragedy. He would tell us, in unadorned language, that he saw young boys being hanged for stealing bread, and that’s when he learned you say the Shema prayer before you die. He piled earth over bodies, after they were shot dead, and was haunted by watching the soil shiver – the victims were still alive, and slowly suffocating.
The Guardians of New Zealand’s Superannuation Fund have recently decided to divest from Israeli banks in apparent breach of legal requirements.
The Superannuation Fund, known as the Super Fund, was set up in 2001 to secure funding for universal pensions for New Zealand’s aging population with a fair sharing of the cost between present and future taxpayers.
The Guardians’ statutory mandate is to invest the Fund on a prudent, commercial basis and manage it in a manner consistent with:
International financial markets lawyer, Dan Harris, has pointed out:
Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UKLFI commented: “As well as being an improper purpose, the Guardians’ political aims discriminate against Israel. At the same time as divesting from Israeli banks, they are investing in companies operating in Western Sahara and probably in other disputed territories”.
Israel was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic – it reported over 831,000 infections. But in just a few months, after launching a mass vaccination campaign, life is “back to normal”.
As of March 15, according to the World Health Organisation, 9.7 million vaccine doses had been administered in Israel. A total of 5.18m people, which is over half the population, have received at least one dose. A “green pass” has since been introduced allowing vaccinated people exclusive access to gyms, hotels and theatres and concerts.
Kiwi expat Jeremy Ross, who moved to Israel in 2007, received his second vaccine dose in January, a month after the programme launched.
“This is the end of the road for us … we’re at the end of the tunnel, this is it, the light is here,” Ross said.
To all our friends and supporters in New Zealand and around the world, many of whom are still in various forms of lockdown because of COVID-19, who are observing Pesach: Hag Pesach sameach!
