By Miriam Bell…
Controversial Maori Party co-leader John Tamihere has been making loaded and offensive comments about Jews yet again this week.
Earlier this week, The SpinOff reported that Tamihere was “doubling down on the widely condemned comments he directed at Auckland Mayor Phil Goff during last year’s local elections”.
This report came from comments Tamihere made when talking to Radio Waatea, on Tuesday, about Nelson MP Nick Smith’s eviction from Parliament last week.
Smith was forced to leave Parliament under escort last week and as he was removed he shouted “What sort of Nazi establishment is running the place?”.
The comment was directed at Deputy Speaker of the House, Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe, who had asked Smith to leave.
Tamihere told Radio Waatea that the silence over Smith’s comment was telling when compared to the condemnation generated when he said “sieg heil” to Phil Goff during a political debate last year.
He was unrepentant about saying “sieg heil” to Goff, saying he was proud that he said it, and then continued with:
“The Jewish society comes out to try to beat me up. Everybody else. Do they come out after the white boy Nick Smith? No, they don’t. For two reasons – one: he made the comments to a brown deputy speaker; and two, he’s one of them, so he gets away with it.”
The different treatment he and Smith received was an example of the one nation, two classes of citizen that the Maori Party is standing up against, he claimed to the station.
Smith’s eviction from Parliament was reported widely by the mainstream media. [For example, read the NZ Herald’s report here and Radio NZ’s here.]
However, the focus was on the fact that he was the first MP the Serjeant-at-Arms has removed from Parliament since Robert Muldoon, in the days after he was prime minister – rather than Smith’s comment.
In contrast, Tamihere’s comment, which came in the midst of last year’s Auckland mayoral campaign, caused a furore.
At the time Holocaust Centre CEO Chris Harris said that Tamihere uses Nazi language – the language of race hatred – in a throwaway manner.
“It is wrong, deeply irresponsible and inciting hate in one of the world’s most ethnically diverse cities. It is utterly unacceptable for a public figure to evoke Hitler and the Nazis as Mr Tamihere is doing.”
Last year’s comment was not the first time, Tamihere had made offensive comments relating to Jews. Back in 2008, he said he was “sick and tired of hearing how many Jews got gassed”.
