NZFOI: Saddening, embarrassing, disappointing, and alarming.

The Race Relations Commissioner is calling on every New Zealander to reject the tactics and ideologies of hate groups after swastikas were spray-painted outside Temple Sinai in Wellington.

The Jewish community is on guard after fluorescent yellow swastikas also appeared in several other inner-city locations.

Wellington City Council received reports this morning of graffiti on different parts of the footpath on The Terrace and outside the Wellington Jewish Progressive Congregation on Ghuznee St. It has since been removed.

Photographs supplied to the Herald show swastikas were painted and the word “Heil”.

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Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall has apologised to the Jewish Council over a comment he made on live television in which he labelled an All Black a “Jew”.

Hall made the slur against his teammate Jack Goodhue on TV. In media reports  Hall said: “[He] doesn’t want to pay for his wedding, so he’s actually looking for Women’s Day or Women’s Weekly to try and get behind and pay for his wedding, so red card for being a Jew, Jack, so there you go mate.”

A complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority claimed that the remark was discriminatory was not upheld as it did not meet the standard of “nastiness”. Although not the source of the complaint the New Zealand Jewish Council expressed their disappointment on it not being upheld.  They only knew about the complaint when the BSA released its decision.

The New Zealand Jewish Council’s Juliet Moses told J-Wire: “Mr Hall made contact with me by email on Thursday and offered an apology that I believe to be considered and sincere, and have accepted. We are planning to have a telephone conversation and I hope we can all move on constructively from this.”

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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.

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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.

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