NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
Two New Zealanders are being sued for allegedly convincing Lorde to cancel her performance in Israel.
Jewish New Zealander Justine Sachs and Palestinian New Zealander Nadia Abu-Shanab wrote an open letter to the Kiwi pop sensation asking for her to boycott her Israeli tour dates.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Monday that there was no institutionalized participation by Poland or its people in the Holocaust, but acknowledges that individual Poles took “wicked” actions against Jewish neighbors.
President Andrzej Duda said that he would never allow Poland and Poles in general to be “vilified” though “false accusations.”
Duda seemed to be reacting to anger in Israel over a bill that would outlaw public statements assigning to “the Polish nation” responsibility for crimes committed by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of Poland.
Violations of the proposed law would be punishable by fines or prison terms of up to three years. A section of the bill exempts prohibited statements made “within artistic or scientific activity.”
Some six million Polish citizens, half of them Jews, died under the Nazi occupation of Poland. In Israel, the legislation has been interpreted as an attempt to undermine scholarly research and deny facts about the Holocaust.
Many of our members host Israelis travelling through New Zealand and many of our website users are Israelis who may be investigating travelling to New Zealand or who are already travelling through New Zealand.
Over the last few Summers, Freedom Camping has been a hotly debated issue.
This article gives an update on one New Zealander’s experience as a Freedom Camper:
Tourist season is in full swing and with it comes the inevitable coverage of hordes of freedom campers, descending on some of our prized beauty spots and turning them into a giant rubbish dump and public toilet.
It’s a far cry from the idyllic scenes shared globally of solitary motorhomes nestled at the foot of snow-capped mountains, or sun-kissed couples toasting one another outside a camper van at the edge of a secluded beach.
Contrary to popular belief, freedom campers are not all young overseas tourists. There are thousands of New Zealanders of all ages and backgrounds living on the road all year round who routinely use freedom camps also.
Pope Francis said on Monday (Tuesday NZ Time) that countries have a responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and the “virus of indifference” that threatens to erase the memory of the Holocaust.
Francis’ comments to an international conference on anti-Semitism came as the largely Roman Catholic Poland considers legislation that would outlaw blaming Poles for the crimes of the Holocaust. The proposed legislation has sparked an outcry in Israel.
Francis didn’t mention the dispute but he did speak of his 2016 visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in German-occupied Poland, saying he remembered “the roar of the deafening silence” that left room for only tears, prayer and requests for forgiveness.
Esteemed American lawyer, academic and dynamic speaker, Professor Alan Dershowitz will present at an exclusive event in Auckland next month.
Proudly presented by MinterEllisonRuddWatts and the Raye Freedman Trust, the one-off lecture will explore the erosion of civil liberties in ‘liberal’ societies and examine how extremism is undermining law.
A scholar of United States constitutional law and criminal law, and a leading defender of civil liberties, Professor Dershowitz spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there from 1993 until his retirement in December 2013. Today he is a regular CNN and Fox News contributor and political analyst.
Dershowitz was involved in several legal cases, and is a commentator on the Arab-Israeli conflict. As a criminal appellate lawyer, he won 13 of the 15 murder and attempted murder cases he handled, and has represented a series of celebrity clients, including Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, and Jim Bakker. His most notable cases include his role in overturning the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of his wife, and as the appellate adviser for the defense in the OJ Simpson murder trial in 1995.
A political liberal, Professor Dershowitz has authored a number of books about politics and law, including the best-selling The Case for Israel.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from one of America’s pre-eminent legal minds.
What: An audience with leading litigator Professor Alan Dershowitz
Where: Fisher & Paykel Lecture Theatre, Owen Glenn Building, University of Auckland, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland
When: 6pm – 7pm, Wednesday 14 February (registration opens at 5.45pm)
Click here to reserve your seat at this free event.
Dame Susan Devoy, NZ Race Relations Commissioner
The Race Relations Commissioner has published and condemned a series of antisemitic social media posts as New Zealand’s Jewish community renews calls to curb racism ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Friday marks United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day, with public ceremonies to be held across the country.
Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy this week called for Kiwis to “recognise the seeds of hate and to call them out” and on Friday backed up the call by releasing a series of recently posted antisemitic Facebook messages, many from New Zealanders.
The Church of the Nativity and the 19th century mosque of Omar ibn al-Khattab Photo by Najeh Hashlamoun flash90
Following American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, thirteen of the city’s prominent Christian leaders, representing a variety of denominations, signed a joint letter condemning the decision. Amit Barkat explains that they did so more out of fear of the Palestinian Authority (PA) than of animosity toward the Jewish state.
Most of the political activity of the Christian community [is undertaken] in response to pressure from the Palestinian Authority. The denominations centered in Jerusalem also have churches and monasteries in the PA, Gaza, and Jordan, and additional ties throughout the Middle East. Figures in the PA successfully exploit this fact and use the Christians for their propaganda purposes to cover for the injustices they commit against Christians in Judea and Samaria.
But as much as [Palestinians] try to hide [the reality of persecution of Christians], it’s difficult to debate numbers. . . . The best example of their disappearance on the ground is Bethlehem, the city of the birthplace of David and Jesus. Bethlehem was once a clearly Christian city where Christian residents formed an 86-percent majority. Today, that figure stands at fewer than 10 percent, and the negative trend is not stopping. The situation is even worse in Gaza, where among the thousands of Christians who used to live there, only a few hundred remain under the constant threat of persecution, with serious limitations on Christian ceremonies and holidays, and effectively without rights. . . .
Steps like the [Christian leaders’ letter about Jerusalem] are aimed against Israel to protect the security of religious figures in the PA, and Israel for its part gives its silent consent on the matter. Official publications of heads of churches and Christian parties in the PA and the world generally portray Israel in a negative light, with politics and fear serving as the main factors in this distortion of reality and transformation of lies into truth. . . .
While the PA and in fact the entire Middle East are restricting the moves of Christians and harming their freedom of religion, the situation is different in Israel. Alongside the corrupt and violent PA, which is systematically erasing Christians from its territory, the Jewish and democratic state of Israel [allows] a safe life for all religious minorities.
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Almost a million Jews were expelled from Arab lands in the 40s and 50s. Few advocate for their repatriation or even compensation. Those guilty of their ethnic cleansing have never been brought to justice. This documentary reminds us of what happened and we believe their plight forms a piece of the puzzle in solving the Middle East conflict.
Said ben Said
Fifty years have passed since many Arab countries were humiliated by Israel in 1967 in a war the Arabs started, with the explicit goal of destroying the Jewish State and throwing the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. Today, Israel has solid diplomatic relations with two of these countries — Jordan to Egypt — while Saudi officials speak with their Israeli security counterparts about the Iranian threat.
Netanyahu (left) and Suchard
JERUSALEM (AP) — Acclaimed mentalist Lior Suchard appears to have met his match: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Suchard, who has wowed audiences around the world by guessing their secret bank PIN numbers or the names of their childhood crushes, went head to head with Netanyahu in front of a group of journalists, only to come up empty in an awkward duel with the seemingly inscrutable Israeli leader.
In one of his famous routines, Suchard asks his guest to scribble a picture on a piece of paper, while Suchard stands across the stage and draws an identical image. But when he tried the game with Netanyahu on Wednesday night, Suchard was unable to match Netanyahu’s doodle: a Jewish candelabra with the words “Long Live the Jewish People” underneath.
