The Israel institute of New Zealand has done some great work on investigating New Zealand’s uneven “even-handed” stance in international forums and the United Nations and its agencies.

The following article refers only to the article found at https://israelinstitute.nz/2020/06/election-series-the-52nd-nz-governments-dismal-record-on-israel/. You may wish to read that article before proceeding with my article. My article could equally have been written with minor changes as a criticism of previous National governments as this is of this Labour-led coalition. How we change this situation is the issue.

A recent example of the depth of the problem is the situation of the 75th World Holocaust Forum in Israel held last January and our non-appearance at the event. Invitations were issued by the forum organisers in September 2019 to “Heads of State”. That could not happen in our case or that of Australia or Canada. The New Zealand Cabinet was not made aware of this invitation until mid-January 2020.

Simon Bridges in his Jan 27/2020 interviews questions if anti-Semitism was behind the failure to get a representative to the 75th World Holocaust forum. But he was wrong to blame that on Members of Parliament when the source of the anti-Semitism is firmly in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and many of its staff. These anti-Semitic staffers reach to high levels in the department.

So who was it that hid the invitation to the Government from MP’s and ministers?

The House Speaker, Trevor Mallard, was prepared to go but the event organisers declined to provide security so he could not go. It is hard to see why no security could be provided with the event being in Israel.

The Government resolved the situation as best as it could: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke at the Auckland Memorial event and New Zealand’s Ambassador to Poland, Mary Thurston, attended the 75th Anniversary event at Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy  also wrote a letter to Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Itzhak Gerberg, with the title ” World Holocaust Forum Conference 2020 – Remembering the Holocaust and Fighting Antisemitism”. The message was sent on to the President of Israel and Forum leaders by Ambassador Gerberg who then published it in New Zealand.

Around the same time swastikas were painted on and around the Temple Sinai building in Wellington. This was widely condemned including by many opposition MP’s and drew a statement of condemnation from the Minister of Ethic Communities Jenny Salesa. It should also be noted that a young member of the public took it upon himself to clean up the mess and was thanked for his efforts by the Temple community.

The Israel Institute’s article started by referring to then Foreign Minister Murray McCully voting for UNSC 2334 on December 23, 2016. This was done without bringing the issue to Cabinet which is the correct procedure. Since then, my research speaking to members of the National Cabinet is that if they had discussed the issue the vote would have been against the resolution thus supporting Israel.

This vote overturned UN SC 242 of 1967 replacing its half page wording with the two-page wording of UNSC 2334. The public of New Zealand were not fooled by this and reacted. People I know who never speak out about Israel did so this time warning that nobody should touch Jerusalem or the holy sites. Of course, the purpose of UNSC 2334 was to make Jerusalem a Muslim city and with UNESCO votes would make Christian and Jewish holy sites Muslim sites.

Reaction was swift with all National MP’s getting a landslide of protest notes and emails. Other reaction included, in December 2017, the distribution to all MP’s of The Hague Statement of Jurists on the Israel-Palestine Conflict published by The Hague Initiative for International Co-operation.  This document was a 35-page analysis of UNSC 2334 and was influential in getting National to walk away from supporting UNSC 2334.

Sometime between December 2017 and Simon Bridges’ “Meet the People” speaking tour of provincial New Zealand in the winter of 2018 the National party disassociated itself from the vote.

By the time Bridges got to his Waipawa “Meet the People meeting” he was well aware of the issue. In part answer to a question at the meeting he said that the issue of UNSC 2334 had been raised at most meetings. The next day at his meeting in Hastings his response about 2334 and other foreign policy issues was recorded.

New Zealand has a record over many decades of voting with Continental Europe and some third world nations regardless of who is Prime Minister – rather than voting with the English-speaking world. But, on fundamental issues such as Zionism is Racism, New Zealand always votes with Israel. Both National and Labour have to change day-to-day voting from now on.

However, the negative attitude and voting at the United Nations is not reflected in the actions and positions of many MPs. Here are a few examples:

The Israel Institute’s article refers to Jacinda Ardern visiting Israel years ago as President of the International Union of Socialist Youth.

It is worth noting that then Labour MP Shane Jones visited Israel in July 2007 with National MP Chris Finlayson on a fence-mending visit led by then Honorary Consul of Israel in New Zealand David Zwartz. This was after the travel ban on Labour MP’s going to Israel, which came in response to the passport-spy scandal, was lifted when Helen Clark was Prime Minister.

And, in a twist on issues, anti-Israel Labour MP Duncan Webb is, by his own request, a member of the Parliament Friends of Israel Group.

Before the Israel Institute starts handing out “Not Achieved or D-grades” there are some events that should be noted – but which are not referred to in their article.

In the Israel Institute’s article reference is made to the signing of the Agreement on Co-operation in Technological Innovation, Research and Development between Ambassador Gerberg and Minister for Housing, Research, Science and Development, Energy and Resources Meagan Woods.

It is correct that the pervious National Government had done much of the work for this agreement. But it should also be noted that they deferred or postponed signing the agreement at least once for what I consider political reasons. It then got caught up in Israel’s recent drawn-out election saga.

On his return to Israel in December 2019 Ambassador Gerberg sought a way out of the situation of delay from Israel’s Attorney General under Election law. A way was found and on his return to New Zealand Ambassador Gerberg was able to get the agreement signed on March 5th, 2020.

Here are some other things that have happened since our general election in September 2017 which should be taken into account when grading the Government’s relations with Israel.

October 29 to Nov 1st, 2017: Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy represented the new Coalition Government and the people of New Zealand at the 100-year celebration of the Battle of Beersheba. Neither the new Prime Minister or Ministers were able to attend because it was just 33 days after the election and they were setting up the new Government. As part of the visit the Governor General met with the President of Israel and visited Yad Vashem.

January 25 to 27th 2019: There was a cross-party MP tour to see New Zealand troops operating in peace keeping operations in Israel, Egypt, and South Sudan. The tour group included Minister of Defence Ron Mark and National Party Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Trade and Defence Select Committee Tim Macindoe. As part of the tour they visited Israel. While there, they met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and toured UNTSO camps and deployments on the Golan heights and other parts of northern Israel.

May 2019: New Zealand buys military equipment from Israel. Nine million dollars of  unmanned ground vehicles were obtained from Israeli firm Roboteam. This is a substantial purchase of military equipment for the army. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first military purchase from Israel for many years.

7  October 2019: Major General Evan Williams is appointed to Command the Multinational Force and Observers MFO mission in the Sinai Peninsula. He is the third Kiwi to command the Force and took over from an Australian.

17 December 2019: Anti-Israel activist and so-called human rights worker Julie Webb-Pullman is denied entry to Gaza by Egypt. Egypt requires people entering Gaza from the Sinai to have permission to do so from their own government. Wellington refused to grant permission because of a travel ban on Kiwis going to Gaza. To the best of my knowledge she is still here in New Zealand.

In his statement announcing the failed entry to Gaza by Webb-Pullman, John Minto writes: “NZ Government claims to be ‘even handed’ in dealing with the Middle East. That is untrue. We have strong relations with Israel but only token dealings with Palestinians.”

This is a reflection of the view that Minto, and other far Left commentators, hold which is that the 52nd Government is to close to Israel. However, most friends of Israel – both Jew and Gentile, and including the Israel Institute – say that we are not close enough.

So, in terms of the New Zealand-Israel relationship, I see the main issue as being a problem with MFAT and members of its staff who are both anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. That means that it needs a strong Foreign Minister, who is fully backed by Cabinet, to sort out the department.

References:

75th World Holocaust Forum January 2020:

National Party MP Gerry Brownlee: http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/5/356694

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/407938/winston-peters-defends-nz-s-absence-from-holocaust-forum-in-israel

https://1.org.nz/an-eternal-reminder-to-us-all-nz-pm-on-holocaust-reme

https://www.jwire.com.au/new-zealand-sends-a-message-to-israels-amb

Temple Sinai Incident January 2020:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/407957/use-of-nazi-symbols-we-must-be-vigilant-to-combat-this-hatred-holocaust-centre-ceo

https://1.org.nz/minister-for-ethnic-communities-jenny-salesas-message-in-response-to-the-swastikas-spraypainted-outside-temple-sinai/

Simon Bridges policy change recording on UN SC Res 2334 and on other foreign affairs issues at Hastings “Meet the People” public meeting June 26, 2018: https://youtu.be/HcU6CeHiDDI

Information about MP Duncan Webb as member of Parliament Friends of Israel was supplied by the group’s chairman MP Alfred Ngaro.

Events between New Zealand and Israel:

Israel  and New Zealand Sign Innovation Agreement.  March 5, 2020

https://embassies.gov.il/wellington/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Israel-and-N….

https://1.org.nz/israel-nz-sign-historic-agreement/

https://jwire.com.au/an-innovation-agreement-signed-between-irs

Beersheba – October 2017:

https://gg.govt.nz/publications/governor-general-visit-israel. This is the itinerary of the visit.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/29/56759/nzs-role-in-historys-last

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-top-new-zealander-makes-official

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41826602. This includes NZ information.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/342722/commemoration-of-the-batt

Israelinstitute.nz/2017/10/nz=governor-general=in-israel-for-Anzac-centenary/

Minister of Defence and Select committee member visit Kiwis in Israel, Egypt and South Sudan on peace keeping missions:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister-defence-departs-middle-ea

Purchase of Israeli military equipment:

https://englobes.co.il/en/article-new-zealand-army-buys-roboteams-umm

NZ General to lead Sinai MFO Peacekeepers:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/senior-nzdf-officer-lead-peacekeep

Julie Webb-Pullman unable to enter Gaza from Egypt. By John Minto, national chairman of the Palestine Solidarity  Network  Aotearoa (PSNA)

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/12/17/new-zealand-government-refuses

*Email address: John McCormick:    j.rk52@hotmail.com