Opinion piece by the NZ Jewish Council’s Juliet Moses…

In the last two years, the New Zealand Jewish community has faced significant challenges, especially its government’s co-sponsorship of UN Security Council resolution 2334, and the singer Lorde cancelling her Tel Aviv concert in response to BDS pressure.

However, while small and remote, members of the community continue to be active in holding politicians and the media to account, building relationships and combating anti-Semitism in all its ugly forms.

The New Zealand Jewish community is remote and tiny. In the 2013 census, 6867 people identified as having a Jewish affiliation, out of a population of 4.5 million.

New Zealand’s co-sponsorship of UNSC resolution 2334 profoundly distressed its Jewish, Christian and broader communities. Among other things, the “anti-settlement resolution” labelled all of East Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Western Wall, as occupied Palestinian territory.

Less than a year later, the National (centre right) government was defeated by Labour, who came into power by entering into a coalition with New Zealand First, whose leader Winston Peters became Foreign Minister.

Before the election, Peters was an outspoken critic of resolution 2334, exposing that, in a breach of procedure, the resolution had not been approved by Cabinet. But the hope that with Peters in power, the government’s stance on Israel would be more favourable has not yet been realised, certainly in terms of the country’s voting at the UN.

Late last year New Zealand abstained from the UNGA resolution to determine whether its resolution condemning Hamas would require a two-thirds majority. The two-thirds majority resolution passed, meaning the resolution condemning Hamas (which New Zealand voted for) failed…

Read Juliet Moses’s full article on the Australian Jewish News here.