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→ 18 May 2021
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A feuding family | Dominion Post

NZFOI: This thought provoking letter to the Editor was published in today’s Dominion Post

Words affect our understanding of the world. Language can be poetic, describe fiction and fine reality. As a Jewish New Zealander, the language being used in New Zealand media surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is concerning.
Words such as coloniser and ethnic cleansing are being used to create an image of Israel as an out-of-control superpower, imposing its will on and seeking to annihilate its Palestinian neighbours.

Change the words, however, to homecoming and self defence, and you see a picture of Israel as a land which has seen the return of its people taken away as slaves 2000 years ago, compelled to act when attacked.

Currently, New Zealand media we see David and glass story. But what if we changed the paradigms to 1 of the feuding family, where descendants of the shed ancestor or tupuna (in this case the biblical forefather Abraham) both have manua whenua or valid claims to the land. Palestinians and Jews have overlapping interests in the Holy Land.
Jewish tino rangatiratanga in Israel, formalised in 1948, need not come at the expense of Palestinian tino rangatiratanga. The rallies this past weekend around New Zealand call for a one-sided condemnation of the violence.

Rather, Kiwis should call for co-existence and a two-state solution to be born through negotiation, not through blood.

Dr Michelle Gezentsvey Lamy, Wallaceville.

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→ 18 May 2021
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Frequently Asked Questions for Teens

The Zionist Federation has kindly prepared a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) resource suitable for teens who may be confronted by pro-Palestinian relatives, friends and acquaintances.

You can download it from here.

Feel free to share it with friends and family.

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→ 23 March 2021
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Two very different elections | NYT

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israelis are voting on Tuesday in their fourth election in just two years. Many of them feel numbed by their endless election cycle — a mood that contrasts with the Palestinians, who are excited about a rare chance to vote, in elections in May.

The Israeli vote is the embodiment of political paralysis caused in part by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to remain in office while on trial for corruption. Mr. Netanyahu hopes the country’s successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign will help him win. But polls suggest that the outcome is unlikely to break the deadlock. Many Israelis are bracing for a fifth election later this year.

The Palestinian vote, set for May 22, will be the first since a violent rift in 2007 between Hamas, the faction that controls the Gaza Strip, and its rival, Fatah. More than 93 percent of Palestinians have registered to vote, illustrating an initial enthusiasm for the process. Young people want a clearer path to statehood and a more competent government.

Geopolitics: Mr. Netanyahu’s plans to visit the United Arab Emirates and his bombast about Emirati investments have turned into a diplomatic debacle. Emirati officials sent clear signals that the Persian Gulf country would not be drawn into Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election campaign.

Source: NY Times

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→ 24 February 2021
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Israel’s vaccine rollout has been fast, so why is it controversial and what can other countries learn? | The Conversation

Israel is rolling out a fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine programme, giving a first dose to 48% of its population of 9 million in five weeks. The country’s aim is to vaccinate 80% of the population by the end of May 2021.

But questions have also been raised about the way the programme has been carried out. So what can be learned from Israel’s experience?

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→ 14 October 2020
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PA Mufti: Sharia’h obligates every Muslim to wage Jihad against what the PA calls “the ‎thieving Jews” | PMW

Referring to previous Islamic religious rulings that “obligate” Muslims to “fight ‎against the thieving Jews,” a host on official PA TV interviewed the PA Grand ‎Mufti on the aspects of Sharia’h law in connection with the UAE and ‎Bahrain’s recent peace agreements with Israel.‎

The PA Mufti stressed that “if an inch of the Muslims’ lands is stolen, Jihad ‎becomes a personal religious commandment for everyone.” The PA defines ‎all of the State of Israel as stolen Islamic land – a waqf – which is an ‎inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law. Therefore, according to the ‎PA Mufti, Shari’ah law prohibits Palestinians from recognizing Israel in any borders and commands that every Muslim has a personal duty to ‎wage war against Israel until the “Muslim” land is freed. He further stated that the UAE and Bahrain are ‎‎“twisting” these religious rulings, noting that this is “forbidden” and that they will ‎have to answer to Allah for this.

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→ 14 October 2020
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The War of Return — A review | Quillet

[NZFOI has recently acquired this book for the members’ library.]

In a story that may be apocryphal, the late Christopher Hitchens claimed that he had once seen legendary Israeli diplomat Abba Eban comment that the most striking aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict is how easily it can be solved: It is simply a matter of dividing the land of Israel into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The only thing standing in the way of this solution is the intense religious or nationalist attachment of both sides to the idea of an undivided nation between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, this assumption that partition alone can bring peace has been the foundation of all of the international community’s peace efforts since the 1967 Six Day War. The only difficulty, it is believed, is persuading the two sides to agree to it.

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→ 12 June 2020
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In the eyes of the Palestinians: What do the annexes think about the annexation? | News 13

Netanyahu explains Annexation Plan

The Authority makes a lot of threats towards the application of sovereignty. However, in many cases the street level thinks differently – and some would rather want to get rid of its rule.

“It is better than a million times for Israel to be responsible for the whole area”

When the question of what the Palestinians think is, there is a gap between the will of the people and the statements made by its leaders. It could be seen for two decades – during Arafat, what he also wanted the people to want, but for the current PA chairman, Abu Mazen, is something else. He says one thing and the people want something else and are not afraid to say it.

When the Palestinian Authority wanted to burn the area, citizens wanted work permits in Israel, and when the United States moved the embassy to Jerusalem, the Palestinians promised a wave of violence and the public chose not to take to the streets.

One of the Palestinians who wrote News 13 met with him said: “I am from the village of Jeba. I want the villagers to be happy. They are subject to the authority today and they want Netanyahu and no one else, they want an Israeli identity card.” The realization that there is an opportunity to get another life out of the gut brings out talk they once heard only inside the houses.

According to another resident of the Occupied Territories, “It is better than a million times for Israel to be responsible for the entire territory. We are prepared to be under Israeli military shoes and not under Abu Mazen’s head.”

A meeting with a Palestinian businessman explained the will of the people from another angle: “I do not want a state – I want money. Money is better than a state. All the Palestinian people want it. The authority has looted us and destroyed us.”

Again, this gaping chasm between the PA and its leaders and the people who, after 25 years, understand that Palestinian sovereignty has not really improved their lives. The dream on the way to the country is also stuck in the middle. The question is what will be heard in a month, the voice of the PA leaders or the voice of the people who totally think otherwise?

Source: Zvi Yehezkeli (9 June 2020). In the Eyes of the Palestinians. Channel 13 News. https://13news.co.il/item/news/politics/state-policy/in-the-eyes-of-the-palestinians-1075194/. Accessed 11 June 2020. Translated.

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→ 23 April 2020
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Pandemics, Palestinians Incitement and Peace | Glick

A few weeks ago, officials in Israel’s Health Ministry were calling for Israel to “medically annex Judea and Samaria” for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. The notion was that while Israel and the Palestinian Authority are separate political entities, from a public health perspective, they are indivisible.

On a practical level, the call was superfluous. From the moment the virus arrived in Israel, the PA’s Health Ministry began cooperating in an unprecedented manner with its Israeli counterpart. The Palestinians followed Israel’s lead on virtually all aspects of the coronavirus fight. Palestinian medical teams received training in Israeli hospitals. Israel provided the PA with testing kits, protective gear, respirators and other vital equipment for fighting the pandemic. Even the Hamas regime in Gaza viewed Israel as the authority for dealing with the virus.

But with all due respect to “medical annexation,” the collaboration between medical professionals didn’t indicate any change of heart on the part of the Palestinian leadership. Both the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria and the Hamas regime in Gaza are fully capable of simultaneously taking advantage of Israel’s help in fighting the pandemic and using the pandemic as a means to harm Israel. And that is precisely what they are doing.

PA Prime Minister Mohamad Shtayyeh has long been considered a moderate. He was a member of the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel. He is a Western educated academic and a favorite of the European Union. Many viewed PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to appoint Shtayyeh prime minister last year as a sign of moderation.

Alas, the optimism was misplaced.

At a press conference in Ramallah in late March, Shtayyeh propagated multiple blood libels against Israel.

Against IDF soldiers, Shtayyeh alleged, “We have heard testimony that some soldiers are trying to spread the virus through the door handles of cars. It is a case of racism and hatred by people who hope for the death of the other. We will add this to the list of crimes they’ve committed.”

As for Israel as a whole, Shtayyeh accused Israel of using Palestinian workers in Israel as a biological weapon against the Palestinians as a whole. He said Israel wants the thirty thousand Palestinians working for Israeli employers to keep working so that they can get infected with coronavirus and then go home and infect their fellow Palestinians. He added that a resident of his village who worked in Israel returned to the village infected and proceeded to infect twenty of his neighbors with the pandemic.

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