NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
An Israeli air strike has killed a senior commander of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Baha Abu al-Ata died along with his wife when a missile hit their home, the group said. Four of their children and a neighbour were reportedly injured.
Israel’s prime minister said Abu al-Ata was a “ticking bomb” who was planning to carry out attacks on the country.
At least 150 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since the killing, which PIJ has vowed to avenge.
Several New Zealanders were active users of a now-defunct neo-Nazi message board which had its data leaked last week – including one who says they were aged 15.
Another user, from Auckland, described themselves as “a firm believer in Italian Fascism”, and displayed extreme anti-Semitism in their posts, writing that “Israel’s control of Jerusalem is one of humanity’s greatest tragedies”.
“We can’t just nuke Israel because then we lose God’s City, instead we need to take it back with gunpowder and steel.”
Juliet Moses, spokesperson for the New Zealand Jewish Council, said the comments were abhorrent and revolting.
The plight of Jews in World War Two isn’t your typical comedy fodder.
But if there’s a man who could make it work, it’s Taika Waititi.
His new dark comedy Jojo Rabbit is about a Hitler Youth member’s discovery of a hidden Jewish girl, played by Kiwi actress Thomasin McKenzie, who joined Jack on the show.
Listen to the Audio here
A Pittsburgh police commander was driving past the red-brick home his grandfather had lived in for decades when the first radio call came through: Shots fired at Tree of Life synagogue.
Jason Lando stopped his city-issued Ford Explorer, the damp October leaves clinging to the tires as he radioed a dispatcher. “How many 911 calls did you get on this?” he asked.
Active shooters were rare in Squirrel Hill, but Lando had learned during his decades on the force that an isolated report often meant a false alarm, reports The Washington Post.
Lando floored it, speeding toward Tree of Life.
“My grandfather is inside,” he thought.
As he pulled up, loud cracks of gunfire pierced through the stained-glass entryway.
“We’re under fire,” he shouted into the receiver while shoving the extra magazines he stored in his glove compartment into a pocket.
Shattered shards battered the ground.
Then more shots.
Arjan van der Boon is passionate about shining a light on people he calls the invisible immigrants.
It’s a cultural group he says is missing from the pages of New Zealand history.
Forgotten. Ignored. Denied.
“We’re an untold story. We thought we’d tell that story,” he says.
“We put ourselves back on the pages of history. We were missing.”
There are lots of stories that involve the Dutch, but one key one involving a teen girl – Anne Frank – is hard to go past given it defines a tragic period within a country’s history.
Her story, as part of an exhibition, has now found a new temporary home in the place van der Boon helped create, the home of Dutch culture and heritage in New Zealand.
Van der Boon arrived in New Zealand more than 30 years ago and for more than 10 years he has been involved with the creation of New Zealand’s national Dutch museum, Oranjehof Dutch Connection Centre in Foxton.
At the start of October, the Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ) exposed antisemitic material within a Facebook group of New Zealand based anti-Israel group Kia Ora Gaza. This included posts that compared Israel to Nazi Germany, comments that dehumanised Jews, and open support for terror against Israeli citizens.
IINZ has now found that four New Zealand members of parliament, including the Prime Minister, were part of the Facebook group where antisemitism was posted and tolerated.
Youssef Haddad is an Israeli Arab from Nazareth, he is the son of a Christian-Arab minister, and he has dedicated his life to defending Israel’s reputation on the world stage.
At 34, he’s in much demand among journalists in Israel and on news networks around the world.
After all, an Arab who’s become a champion of Israel, even as a good number of Israelis themselves are not shy about condemning their own country’s policies as they ally with avowed enemies, is newsworthy.
A book these days has to have an elevator pitch. For my latest junior fiction novel that part was easy.
“It’s Hitler Stole My Pony,” I told my agent. Her ears pricked up. “You had me at Hitler,” she said.
A dual narrative novel for 8- to 12-year-olds set partly in modern-day Berlin and also in Berlin and Poland during World War II, Prince of Ponies is based around the true story of Hitler’s plan to create an Aryanesque equine master race.
Yes, you heard right:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stacey Gregg is an author of junior fiction about horses. Stacy is of Ngāti Mahuta and Ngāti Pukeko descent and grew up in Ngaruawahia.
Previously a fashion journalist, Stacy swapped stilettos for gumboots when the manuscript for her first book in what was to become the Pony Club Secrets series, Mystic and the Midnight Ride, was picked up by HarperCollins London. Since then she has written 25 books with HarperCollins – including 13 in the Pony Club Secrets series and four in the Pony Club Rivals series. Her series Pony Club Secrets is currently optioned by Libertine Pictures who plan to produce a major TV series aimed at the international 8-12 market, filmed in New Zealand.
In 2013, HarperCollins UK published Stacy’s first stand-alone hardback novel, The Princess and the Foal, based on the true story of the childhood of HRH Princess Haya of Jordan. Stacy got Her Royal Highness’s blessing to write the novel and was given unprecedented access to the Royal Palaces and stables in Jordan and access to the Princess’s childhood friends and family as part of her research process. The Princess and the Foal sold rights into over a dozen territories including the UK, the USA, Italy and Germany and was translated into Arabic.
Following on from The Princess and the Foal, Stacy’s next six stand alone novels have all been based on true stories, often with dual narratives with an historical perspective. She always travels to the countries where her books are set to undertake her research. Her work to date has taken her to Spain, Italy, Russia, Iceland and now, for her latest book which is due out in October 2019, Berlin and Poland.
Her 2017 book, The Thunderbolt Pony, diverges slightly from the international format. It is set in Kaikoura during the earthquakes and its heroine, Evie, must make a cross-country journey to rescue her animals while battling her own issues with post-traumatic OCD. Stacy consulted closely with clinical psychologist and OCD specialist Hilary Mack to ensure that the depictions of OCD in the novel were both heartfelt and accurate.
To date, Stacy has sold over a million and half copies, has been nominated four times for New Zealand book awards for junior fiction, has won the Children’s Choice award for fiction three years running, and has also been awarded 7 Storylines Notable books awards including two in 2019, one for her novel The Fire Stallion and the other for Mini-Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me!, her first book in a new series of younger fiction for 5-7 year olds. Mini Whinny was also shortlisted for the NZ Children’s Book Awards in August 2019.
She is HarperCollins NZ’s third best-selling children’s author of all time – outranked only by David Walliams and Dr Seuss. She tours extensively around New Zealand primary schools pro bono on a regular basis, and has also toured in Beirut, Sydney, Abu Dhabi and London.
Prince of Ponies, her new novel set in wartime Berlin, released in September 2019. Her second picture book in the Mini Whinny series – Goody Four-Shoes was also released in September 2019.
Stacy lives in Herne Bay, Auckland with her 19 year old daughter Isadora. She still rides horses and currently competes at level 2 dressage on her Arab gelding Cam.
Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas was elected in January 2005 and is in the fifteenth year of his “four-year” term, so you’d think the last thing his Fatah party would want to do is call more attention to the fact that Palestinians have not had any elections since 2006. But you’d be wrong.
Ahead of the September 17 Israeli election, Fatah’s Facebook page posted 11 different posters calling on Arabs to vote — in Israel.
Among the slogans promoted on the page by Fatah were “Your representation in the Knesset will work to restore yoru status — VOTE!” and “Your vote — your future” and “Please note: If you do not vote your vote will go to the [Israeli] right.”
This message was also pervasive in Palestinian Authority (PA) media, including PA-aligned newspapers. One day before the election, an article in the newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida by Muhammad Ali Taha read “Avoiding [Arab] voting is [Israeli PM Binyamin] Netanyahu’s goal because he is scared of the Arab vote, so go down to the polls and contribute to his downfall.”
In the same paper, columnist Omar Halmi al-Ghul wrote “Non-voting works for the benefit of the Zionist colonial forces… So we should all demand that our public vote and participate massively.”
The irony of calling for Arabs in Israel to vote while their own people in the West Bank have not had an election in almost a decade and a half has not been lost on Palestinians. They have reportedly been flooding social media with responses along the lines of — “They should vote? What about us?” and ending their posts with the trending hashtag (in Arabic): #wewantelections.
Source: Australia-Israel Review, October 2019, page 11.
On October 3, David Cumin (Israel Institute of NZ) and John Minto (Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa), met in a highly anticipated debate over Differing Perspectives of Israel.
Held at the University of Auckland, it attracted a full house of some 170; so full that people filled the area around the podium.
Well moderated by Rosslyn Noonan, NZ’s former Human Rights Commissioner, the deep feeling of each debater’s supporters threatened to break out into chaos at times.
Minto idealistically promoted a one-state solution where both Arab and Jew enjoyed the rights of democratic citizenship in peace.
Cumin supported a two-state solution where both peoples could seek self-determination. Having said that it looked like he didn’t believe this had much chance of ever succeeding as Arab leaders continue to seek a “river to the sea” solution.
The first public debate on Israel in many years, it served as a release valve for many of the pent up emotions evoked by the issue.
A video recording of the event and each debater’s opening remarks may be found here.
