{"id":5038,"date":"2020-07-08T12:35:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T00:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=5038"},"modified":"2020-07-18T00:49:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T12:49:29","slug":"its-an-election-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2020\/07\/its-an-election-year\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s an election year"},"content":{"rendered":"
Politicking is well underway in NZ and, just as we did prior to the last election, IINZ has created a\u00a0voter\u2019s guide<\/a>. It is pleasing to see two of the minor parties holding a strong pro-Israel stance. In contrast, the present Labour government\u2019s track record on Israel is poor.<\/p>\n A perusal of the\u00a0government\u2019s actions towards Israel<\/a>\u00a0suggests a problematic relationship to terrorism, when said terrorism is directed against the Jewish state. The Ardern government has repeatedly failed to condemn terrorism,\u00a0financially supports a group closely associated with terrorism<\/a>, and has refused to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group. Its stance on Israel is all the more ironic and hypocritical in light of its response to the one recent act of terrorism on New Zealand soil.<\/p>\n In addition, the Government has\u00a0continued the pattern of imbalance and bias in its voting record at the UN<\/a>, in spite of the fact that it claims to have a \u2018balanced approach\u2019 to Israel. Finally, the actions of certain government ministers and officials have raised further doubt over the government mantra about maintaining a \u2018balanced\u2019 and \u2018even handed\u2019 approach to Israel.<\/p>\n If it were a report card, IINZ would give the Labour goverment a \u201cD-\u201d or,\u00a0 in current parlance, \u201cNA\u201d (not achieved). We will, in coming weeks, also review National\u2019s record and survey the minor parties to see where they stand.<\/p>\n Given the record, it was not surprising that\u00a0Winston Peters issued a press statement<\/a>\u00a0expressing \u2018serious concern\u2019 over Israel\u2019s plan to apply Israeli civilian law to parts of the disputed territories, even before the details of the plan had been announced. There has been much speculation and concern over what\u00a0might happen on 1 July<\/a>, when the Israeli government was expected to announce plans to extend sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. That date has since come and gone, and it is still unclear what the government will do.<\/p>\n