{"id":2329,"date":"2018-05-17T07:28:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2018-07-01T20:14:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T08:14:25","slug":"we-the-maori-people-support-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2018\/05\/we-the-maori-people-support-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe, the M\u0101ori people, support Israel&#8221;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Karakia by Tawhiri Littlejohn: Israel 70\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/269527580?h=e64754de82&dnt=1&app_id=122963\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>We, the M\u0101ori people support Israel. And there are many behind me and all over this nation that support Israel.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With these words Tawhiri Littlejohn, Ngati Whatua, opened the \u2018Celebrating Israel at 70\u2019 rally at Silo Park Auckland. He then recited the well known karakia, E to Matou Matua (The Lord\u2019s Prayer).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We asked Tawhiri to tell us about his background.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I come from a family line of Ministers. My great-grandfather Paraire Paikea was a Methodist minister but then became a follower of Ratana. In fact he served as Ratana\u2019s private secretary and was also a Member of Parliament representing Northern M\u0101ori. My grandfather, Tapihana Paraire Paikea, followed in his footsteps as a politician and follower of Ratana.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Growing up in the Ratana movement there was a lot of interest in Israel. We always heard that Israel are God\u2019s chosen people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>There was a lot of talk about the ways that M\u0101ori were connected with Israel. The importance of whakapapa was almost identical.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I worked in the music industry for fourteen years, playing drums in bands and working as a session musician, until I had my own experience of God. I married my girlfriend Katie in 2011 and then in 2014 left behind my music career and the lifestyle that went with it. I was asked to become a pastor of the local church and in 2015 was ordained at the Kaiwaka Revival Church.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My wife Katie has some Jewish heritage and for a long time we have wanted to learn more about Israel and meet Jewish people. Last year we took our first trip to Israel and attended an indigenous conference hosted by the Jewish community.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was an overwhelming experience being in the place where the Bible was written. We enjoyed meeting the people, both Jews and Arabs. They were interested in us as M\u0101ori, which blew me away. I was taken aback that they even knew who we were. A soldier came up and asked if we were M\u0101ori. I asked how he knew and he said he had been to New Zealand. We stayed in East Jerusalem and the Arabs there were so welcoming. We felt the gift we could give them was aroha.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What did you think of the rally on Sunday?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I was really honoured to be part of it and to stand with Israel. My wife and I have had a desire to bless Israel for a few years now.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was interesting to see the tension created by the Palestine supporters there. It was an odd experience to see that in New Zealand. It went against the Kiwi culture in my opinion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What are your thoughts about the Israel Palestinian conflict?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>First thing is don\u2019t have a biased view of the situation. Learn your facts and educate people without getting into arguments. As Christians I believe the solution is to be bearers of love and truth and to show aroha to Jews and Palestinians.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>[FB_IINZcomments]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We, the M\u0101ori people support Israel. And there are many behind me and all over this nation that support Israel. With these words Tawhiri Littlejohn, Ngati Whatua, opened the \u2018Celebrating Israel at 70\u2019 rally at Silo Park Auckland. He then recited the well known karakia, E to Matou Matua (The Lord\u2019s Prayer).\u00a0 We asked Tawhiri [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,34,447,43],"tags":[416,428,19,63,52,28,427,422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}