Hundreds of Kiwis protest NZ’s anti-Israel UNSC vote
Hundreds of Kiwis protest NZ’s anti-Israel UNSC vote
outside Parliament
Shalom.Kiwi
The absence of
government representatives in Parliament over this holiday
period didn’t stop busloads of Kiwis from travelling to
Wellington in order to send them a message.
Flaxmere
Christian Fellowship Church Pastor Nigel Woodley led a two-busload delegation of Kiwis
from Hastings to Wellington on Friday supported by Hawkes
Bay Friends of Israel chairman John McCormick to protest New
Zealand involvement in the anti-Israel resolution passed at the
United Nations Security Council this week.
Pastor
Woodley issued a statement saying"We are protesting the
outrageous resolution put forward by our Government and
passed at the UN last week outlawing the rights of the
Jewish People to live on their own historical homeland in
the Land of Israel. We are ashamed of this evil decree
(Resolution 2334) and will publicly condemn it with all who
gather with us.”
Others joined the Hastings group to
fill out the approximately 200-strong crowd in the capital.
In addition to this protest, more than 1,000 people have signed a letter to Prime Minister Bill
English calling on him to condemn the actions of
McCully. There have also been at least two other petitions
against the resolution – “Keep the Israeli Embassy in New
Zealand” and “Israel has my vote!”, each of which
have over 1,000 signatures.
Pastor Woodley has organised
previous rallies in support of Israel’s right to
exist, and has been outspoken about the UN bias against
Israel. In December 2015, two days after submitting a
11,865 signature strong petition to government on Israel,
Woodley was struck on the head by a man uttering
“utu” (revenge).
On Friday, Woodley stood under the
Richard Seddon statue to speak to those gathered, flanked by
two signs, one saying “Israel please forgive us” and the
other saying “UN Resolution 2334 condemned”. He also said "The answer is not
resolution, it’s negotiation.”
A former Honorary
Consul of Israel in New Zealand, David Zwartz, pointed out
that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully had broken a
long-standing NZ policy of “even-handedness” in the
Israel-Palestinian conflict, by co-sponsoring an anti-Israel
resolution with two states (Venezuela and Malaysia) that did
not even have diplomatic relations with Israel.
There has
been no comment from the Prime Minister or McCully since the
vote was cast, but other MPs have made their views known.
Green Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Dr Kennedy Graham,
has fully supported McCully’s stance against
Israel. Labour leader, Andrew Little, and Act Party
leader, David Seymour, have also commented but neither would
commit to supporting or condemning the affirmative vote. Little said that it would be a weird
friendship if one of its conditions was to accept
uncritically everything that the other did while adding that
he respects Israel’s right to defend itself against
hostile neighbours. Seymour made the following statement:
"I am pro Israel because I believe that democracy and
individual freedom are more important than the will of the
mob. As goes Israel, so goes freedom for us all. On the
current topic you have to look at the resolution itself and
the U.S. Ambassador’s speech to the Security Council. It
is possible to be pro Israel and yet question the
settlements. What is dumbfounding is why New Zealand chose
to take a leading role. With the Saudi Sheep schmossle and
now this, McCully can’t go fast enough.”
These
leaders may be unaware that the resolution does not simply
“question the settlements”. The reality is that the resolution denies Israel legal claims to
the land—including Jewish holy sites such as the
Western Wall. It also reversed the United States’
50-year strong land-for-peace formula. In the world of
Resolution 2334, the land is no longer Israel’s to trade
for peace.
Furthermore, Mr. Kerry called East Jerusalem
“occupied Palestinian territory”, which contradicts Administration claims in
the 2015 Supreme Court case, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, that
the U.S. does not recognize any sovereignty over
Jerusalem.
The resolution is blatantly biased and already has had the
effect of emboldening the Arab Palestinians to promote
more terror. There are many reasons to suggest
resolution 2334 was morally wrong and strategically damaging
for peace.
The biased nature of the resolution has not
been lost on many others, including the 27 organisations and 858 individuals who
signed a letter to Bill English and the large number of
people who have signed the online petition.
Despite
voting for the resolution, the UK government has now rebuked Mr
Kerry for focusing on the single issue of Israeli
settlements and not the whole conflict in his latest speech.
Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has also spoken
out against the bias, saying Australia would have opposed resolution
2334 because “in voting at the UN, the [Australian]
Coalition government has consistently not supported
one-sided resolutions targeting Israel”.
In a show of
solidarity with Sydney’s Jewish community, on Friday
evening Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull,
attended a the Shabbat Hanukkah service and spoke in support
of Israel while wishing the community a Happy Hanukkah. Turnbull called
resolution 2334 “one-sided” and “deeply
unsettling”. Jews in New Zealand await comment from
Prime Minister Bill
English.