By Sheree Trotter on The Times of Israel…
In 1948 NZ Prime Minister Peter Fraser was criticised for his ‘Zionist exuberance’ by one of his most senior officials, at a time when the NZ government was vigorously debating recognition of the state of Israel.
Peter Fraser’s biographers described him as a man of principle who was an old fashioned human rightist, ‘tied on a tight leash to the under dog’.
Fraser was a great friend of the Jewish people and advocated for them on numerous occasions.
In 1943 he spoke emphatically against the ‘Nazi Fascist tyranny’ calling it ‘one of the blackest chapters in the history of the human race’. He was appalled at Nazi treatment of the Jews, which he referred to as the ‘savagery of the civilised barbarians of today.’
The horror of the Holocaust, combined with the refugee crises of European Jews undergirded his passionate support for the establishment of a Jewish state…
Read Sheree Trotter’s full article on The Times of Israel here.
