NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
New Zealand’s Jewish community is outraged and revolted after a prominent mosque leader blamed Mossad for being behind the Christchurch terror attack.
On Saturday, a group called Love Aotearoa Hate Racism organised a rally for the victims in Auckland’s Aotea Square.
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
Juliet Moses answers questions about the Jewish Community’s relations with the Islamic Community on Sean Plunket’s Magic Talk show.
The rabbis from the Auckland Hebrew Congregation and the Wellington Jewish Community Centre sent the following joint letter to the Christchurch Mosques:
NZ Bless Israel has morphed into Nations Bless Israel with events happening all over the world.
This year the event has been scheduled for May 12.
Nations Bless Israel is a Christian organisation and is the event manager.
NZFOI: Strange Associated Press hasn’t picked up on this…
Violent riots protesting Hamas’ use of funds gathered for aid to the Gaza Strip took place on Thursday, with protesters beaten by the ruling terror group’s security forces and live rounds used.
In response to the protests, Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli prime minister’s Arabic media spokesman, tweeted, “Today it became clear for the umpteenth time Hamas is a terrorist gang that kidnapped 2 million Palestinians & oppresses them. Thousands of Gazans protested today against it.”
“Hamas leaders have everything while Gazans have nothing. And only Hamas is to blame for that,” he added.
MEDIA RELEASE
Christchurch, 15 March 2019.
The NZ Friends of Israel Association strongly condemns the attack on the Christchurch mosque and the Islamic community.
“Our hearts go out to all those who have suffered the loss of loved ones, who have been seriously and even gravely wounded, and those who experienced such a traumatic nightmare,” said the President of the Society, Tony Kan.
“We hope that a spirit of forgiveness prevails over any desire for revenge and hate.
May the people Christchurch show the world that even in this, it can respond with grace, compassion and dignity.
May there be no ongoing ethnic or religious conflict arising from this tragedy.
May all New Zealanders show their repugnance for what has been done today.”
New Zealand Friends of Israel Association Inc (www.nzfoi.org) was formed nearly fifty years ago. It fights racial and religious intolerance through raising awareness of Jewish history and culture.
Any enquiries may be made to Tony Kan, 027 433 9745.
Former Mayor of Wellington Ian Lawrence has died at the age of 82.
Lawrence died on Friday in Jerusalem, where he has been living for about five years since being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Lawrence won the Wellington mayoralty in 1983 and served a single term before losing on the back of Sir James Belich’s campaign to end the practice of discharging raw sewage into the sea along the south coast.
Prior to becoming mayor, he served as a Wellington City Councillor for 12 years, working as Michael Fowler’s deputy from 1974 to 1983. He worked closely with mayor Sir Michael Fowler, and was considered by many as a ‘driving force’ behind building what would become the Michael Fowler Centre.
Since his death, the physical remnants of my father’s mania have been kept in several plastic storage boxes marked “Family”.
The boxes are cracked and crazed, and some of the documents inside are so old they fall apart when touched. But I know what’s in there pretty well by heart. It was ingrained into my brother and me from childhood, like a slow-release poison, until we were old enough to run away.
For decades after that, I thought running away was the same as escaping. In recent years, though, there have been times – triggered by some memory or association – when the poison wells up anew and I imagine my father’s commanding tones delivering snatches of the terrible stuff he tried to make us believe in.
The most intense of these experiences occurred just a few months ago, while I was looking at photographs of Nazi war atrocities in a Berlin museum.
In one picture, a Jewish woman and her son are being dragged from their home by Gestapo thugs. The son, about 10, is straining against the meaty hand gripping his arm, his thin face captured in the moment when defiance succumbs to fear. It’s far from the worst scene on display, yet something about the frightened boy – perhaps a passing resemblance to my brother at that age – won’t let me move on.
When the Nazi soldiers came to take her away to Treblinka camp and be gassed, Lena Goldstein managed to hide under a pile of German uniforms in a laundry.
It wasn’t the first or last time Lena had tricked the Nazis or watched them take someone she loved off to the extermination camps.
But the day remains seared in her mind, and as she tells her story, having just celebrated her 100th birthday in Sydney, it is with a freshness and an urgency to ensure the atrocities are not forgotten.
A group of French lawmakers will meet on Tuesday to discuss how to penalise anti-Zionism following a recent rise in anti-Semitic incidents, including a verbal assault on philosopher Alain Finkielkraut at a yellow vest demonstration at the weekend.
“Anti-Zionism must be punished the same way that anti-Semitism is punishable,” Sylvain Maillard, an MP with President Emmanuel Macron’s political party The Republic on the Move (LREM), told RFI.
Maillard chairs a 30-member cross-party study group on anti-Semitism in the French National Assembly, which will decide Tuesday what kind of legislation to use to make anti-Zionism an offence.
While anti-Semitism refers to prejudice or discrimination against Jews, anti-Zionism is defined as opposition to Zionism, the ideological basis for the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the historic Land of Israel.
Since the nineteenth century, anti-Zionism has referred to opposition to the political movement of Jews to self-determination, and also to opposition to the State of Israel founded in 1948.
Many contemporary debates on anti-Zionism revolve around what distinguishes it from anti-Semitism. One view is that the former has become a cover for the latter, a position that critics say is a tactic to silence scrutiny of Israeli policies.
“It is crucial to say that what is forbidden is to deny the existence of Israel. That has to be made a criminal offence. Just like you do not have the right to deny the existence of France or of Germany,” Maillard said.
“However, you obviously have the right to say you do not agree with the policy of the Israeli government. That is normal in a democracy.”
