Noisy Welcome Promised for New Israeli Embassy
For Immediate Release - 06 April 2010
Noisy Welcome
Promised for New Israeli Embassy
A campaign formed in Wellington to oppose the opening of an Israeli embassy says nobody would want the embassy as its neighbour.
NIEW – No Israeli Embassy in Wellington – is a coalition set up to oppose Israel plans to open an embassy in Wellington for the first time since 2002.
NIEW spokesperson Alastair Reith says there is fierce opposition to what the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinian population under occupation and its refusal to consider peace measures.
“Wherever the embassy goes it’ll be a noisy neighbourhood. We intend to have a frequent presence and make our objections known. We can’t make it as bad as Israel makes it for the people under military siege in Gaza, but everyone will know we will be laying protest siege to wherever they finally locate the Embassy".
NIEW was set up to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, which is supported by over 70 Palestinian civil society groups.
Mr Reith says "New Zealanders protested for boycotts divestment and sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid era, and we now need to do the same for Israel, the worlds last race based state." .
“Israel doesn’t allow half the Palestinian
population to live in historical Palestine, and most other
Palestinians have been under occupation for more than 40
years without the vote. It’s effectively a democracy
only for Jews and a few Palestinians. That’s just like
in South Africa where apartheid was a state for whites and a
few select blacks,” Mr Reith says.
Mr
Reith says NIEW is astonished the New Zealand government
has agreed to let Israel open an embassy at this
time.
“The timing is awful for a start. How come we are inviting Israeli diplomats here at exactly the same time the British government is expelling them?”
But Mr Reith says Israeli aims and strategy have remained the same for years.
“They are just more open and arrogant about it now.”
“It’s taken decades to shift half a
million Israelis into illegal settlements on the West Bank
to displace Palestinians, whose homes have been bulldozed
down. New settlements are not news to the White House.
Likewise Israeli spies have been stealing and faking foreign
passports for years, including our own New Zealand ones.
There is no surprise this is going on.”
“The same way it has always been clear and not new, that Israel intends to hold on to East Jerusalem as part of any peace deal with the Palestinians, despite Israel having no legal claim to the city. Only Israel has the cards to play to achieve peace but is now more blatant about it than ever that it doesn’t want peace only territory,” Mr Reith concluded.
ends