The NZ Jewish Council is concerned about the high number of antisemitic incidents in New Zealand recorded last month.

NZJC spokesperson Juliet Moses said that while New Zealand hasn’t experienced the violent Jew-hatred seen recently in the United States and Europe, it has also had a significant rise in antisemitic incidents relating to the war between Hamas and Israel.

Last year, 2020, saw 33 antisemitic incidents recorded in New Zealand, which was the highest number since records began in 1990.

Last month alone, 16 incidents were recorded. They ranged from targeted, private antisemitic abuse of Jewish students online to a man giving the Nazi salute outside a synagogue.

Moses said those 16 incidents didn’t include public antisemitic social media posts from New Zealanders or on Kiwi forums, but the NZJC had also noticed an increase of those.

“Not only did the quantity of social media hate increase, but so did the level of vitriol. For example, there have been multiple expressions of support for terrorists as well as repetition of age-old tropes about Jews controlling politics and/or the media.

“And it’s not just from anonymous troll accounts: Green Party MP, Ricardo Menéndez March, tweeted ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.”

This is a slogan that, even with the most generous interpretation, means the destruction of Israel, Moses said.

“It is used by the terror group, Hamas, and stated in their Charter, to mean the genocide of Jews. We’ve also seen a Maori Party staff member tweet open support for Hamas.”

The NZJC is asking for government and civil society to stand up against racism and rising antisemitism.

Moses said the “Give nothing to racism” campaign of the Human Rights Commission applies to everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“All of us have a responsibility to speak up and “be an upstander, not a bystander”, as the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand puts it. Also, we all have a responsibility to avoid extreme language when we talk about complex issues.”

The NZJC is asking everyone to calm down their rhetoric around the Arab-Israeli conflict, she said.

“The consequences of violent language include attacks on groups of people, including Jews, as we’ve seen around the world. If we don’t stand up to hatred, it will grow.”