EDITORS NOTE: The tone of the opinion pieces published to date continues to trend in the way indicated in this article. As of August 7, the team at One Community Chronicle has seen just two exceptions, but is aware that many members of the community have sent in opinion pieces in response to the call. If you have sent in an opinion piece and it is not published over the next few weeks, please consider sending it to One Community Chronicle for publication.
By Greg Bouwer on the Israel Institute of NZ website…
When Stuff issued a public call on July 31 for New Zealanders to “have their say” on the Israel–Gaza war, it framed the initiative as a bold act of journalistic inclusivity. “We’ll publish what we can,” it promised, “as a way to show a range of perspectives.” But the result — across two days of publishing (so far) and six carefully selected opinion pieces — reveals not diversity but a deliberate editorial shaping of New Zealand’s public conversation. In short: curated condemnation.
The pattern is striking. Of the six voices published so far:
- Five explicitly accuse Israel of genocide, war crimes, or ethnic cleansing.
- Four refer to the Holocaust, either directly or by analogy — with Israel cast as the new Nazi.
- Three are Jewish contributors — whose inclusion serves to shield Stuff from charges of bias, while weaponising Jewish identity against Jewish nationhood.
Not a single published submission affirms Israel’s right to self-defence, articulates the necessity of dismantling Hamas, or contextualises the war within the unprecedented atrocities of October 7 and the taking of hostages.
This is not journalism. It is editorial theatre.
Read the full article on the Israel Institute of NZ website HERE.
