In November 1947 New Zealand voted at the UN in favour of the Partition Plan (Resolution 181). By voting alongside nations such as the United States, Australia, Canada and France, she paved the way for the reestablishment of Israel within her ancestral homeland.
Seventy-seven years later, New Zealand is behaving less and less like a friend of the Jewish state.
New Zealand is one of the few nations amongst the supposed allies of Israel that has not sent an official delegation to Israel since the tragic events of 7 October 2023. Several Asia and Pacific foreign ministers have visited Israel, including Australian FM Penny Wong in January, and leader of the opposition Peter Dutton in July. But there has apparently been no official delegation from New Zealand. This is the sort of thing that friends and allies notice.
Indeed, Minister Peters seems to understand the importance of such visits. In a speech in Chile this month he said, “In-person engagements are especially valuable. We have a term: kanohi ki te kanohi – face-to-face – which is much better than Zoom, by phone, or by email. So, we in our views believe in in-person engagements.”
As part of developing the relationship with Chile, a country that has consistently voted against Israel at the UN, Peters stated, “As home to the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East, we know this issue is very close to home for you here in Chile. We acknowledge Chile’s leadership on the utter catastrophe unfolding in the Middle East and in the multilateral system as well”.
Noticeable also, in contrast to Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong and many other world leaders, is the absense of reaction to the pogrom perpetrated against Jews in the Netherlands recently.
According to reports, “At least 100 Muslim men attacked Maccabi soccer fans on a scale unseen for decades.” The alleged “Jew hunt” was announced well in advance in the messaging app Telegram, prompting rioters to travel from far outside Amsterdam to attack Israelis. It was the largest-scale antisemitic event in the kingdom since the Holocaust.
Our government has been silent.
Further, New Zealand has now established a pattern of voting against Israel at the UN.
Late in 2016, UNSC Resolution 2334 was co-sponsored by Venezuela, Senegal, Malaysia and – incredibly – NZ. (This vote was a catalyst for the founding of the Israel Institute of New Zealand).
In September this year, NZ supported a United Nations General Assembly resolution on Israel’s presence in “occupied Palestinian Territory”, demanding Israel’s withdrawal within 12 months. This was accompanied by a convoluted explanation from FM Winston Peters setting out the problems with the resolution, despite voting in favour.
And now we’ve joined the mob again to vote against Israel on two resolutions including a draft resolution on “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.”
New Zealand’s hostility towards Israel is perhaps partly explained by Robert Muldoon’s famous dictum “NZ’s foreign policy is trade”.
On 1 November MFAT announced that New Zealand had concluded negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council on a free trade agreement that unlocks opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. “This FTA gives our exporters preferential access to an important market, removes tariffs or duties on our products and makes doing business easier. NZ can build on the $2.6B worth of exports we sent to GCC member states in the year to June 2024.”
Perhaps that was behind the broad smile of PM Luxon in his recent meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, the primary funder of the terrorist entity Hamas.
FIANZ, NZ’s representative Muslim organisation, recently boasted of the growth in the Halal meat export industry to over $3 billion.
Should we be concerned by this finance fuelled relationship with the Muslim world?
Last year, ISGAP released research which “uncovered and established that the foreign donations from Qatar, especially, had a substantial impact on fomenting growing levels of antisemitic discourse and campus politics at US universities, as well as growing support for anti-democratic values within these institutions of higher education. With the explosion of antisemitism at US universities in recent weeks, there are also security concerns that have potential domestic and global implications.”
In the past week, new research has been published which “connects South Africa’s political and financial alignment with Iran and Qatar—both leading supporters of global terrorism—with its campaign to bring a legal case against Israel.”
The report shows that “Iran, Qatar, Hamas, and other terrorist entities are quietly underwriting South Africa’s effort to prosecute Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)”.
The obvious pattern is that Qatar funding leads to growth in antisemitic activity.The reader may make his or her own assessment as to the implications for New Zealand.
There has been a dramatic surge in antisemitism globally and New Zealand has not been exempt. Direct action against Jewish people, Jewish businesses, and pro-Israel non-Jews (i.e. physical acts, personal abuse, items being posted to residential and business addresses, etc) has also seen a marked increase. Open support for terror in New Zealand social media accounts and in public protests and marches is becoming commonplace.
What has become of New Zealand?
Is it too late for a return to principled and moral leadership?
