This is the first of a series of posts on the history and lives of Jews in New Zealand. Future pieces will detail the Jewish communities that function today in the country as well as the interactions between indigenous Māori and Jewish settlers. Rumors swirled in Amsterdam in 1642 of “a large island in the…
Recently appointed New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee contacted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to restore diplomatic relations with Israel. Brownlee received his ministerial warrant on Tuesday, Israel’s Independence Day, and hours later wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get the relationship back on track. “I’ve sent a letter…
JERUSALEM (JTA) –Israel is permanently downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Zealand and Senegal, two of the cosponsors of an anti-settlement resolution passed in the United Nations. Israel recalled the ambassadors to the two countries after Resolution 2334 passed in late December. The resolution passed by a vote of 14-0 with one abstention, the United…
SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — The recent passing of an anti-settlements resolution in the United Nations “stands in sharp contrast to the condemnation and accusations that have dominated subsequent commentary from Israel and that country’s supporters,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCullay said in an Op-Ed in a major daily newspaper. New Zealand is one of…
(JTA) — New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s North Shore office in Auckland was vandalized with pro-Jewish graffiti, believed to be in response to New Zealand’s co-sponsoring of an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations. In recent years incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism have been common in New Zealand. On Wednesday, however, the trend of anti-Semitic…
After New Zealand was one of four countries to sponsor a resolution in the United Nations Security Council condemning Israel, the country’s Jewish community has called on the governments of New Zealand and Israel to work together to keep the Israeli Embassy in Wellington open. The plea follows the recall to Israel of its ambassador…
It’s been 10 days since I returned to my other home in New Zealand. When I first returned to live for the majority of the year in the United States this past spring, I wrote a short piece explaining why Ruth Bader Ginsberg had the right idea when she chided that if Donald Trump became…
New Zealand has drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for Israel to stop building settlements in occupied territories and for the Palestinians to refrain from referring cases to the International Criminal Court. The two-page draft, seen by Reuters on Thursday, also asks both sides to avoid provocative acts and not to question…
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