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Israel at 70

Israel, a country half the size of Canterbury, is often in the news, but rarely for positive reasons. On 14 May the Jewish homeland celebrates 70 years since its rebirth as a modern state under the mandate of the UN,…

New Zealanders Show Support for Israel

Late in 2016 many New Zealanders were appalled at the stance taken by our government in co-sponsoring UN Resolution 2334, which was seen as a biased, counter-productive and unbalanced censuring of Israel. A large number of Israel supporters responded with…

Exploring the Kiwi connection as Israel turns 70

Last week Israelis began a series of events in celebration of 70 years of statehood since the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. While New Zealand’s relationship with Israel has in recent years been frosty,…

Michael Wood’s 2018 Yom HaShoah Address

Tonight is about remembrance. Recalling the evil barbarism of the Shoah. Remembering the courage and humanity of those who suffered and were murdered, along with those who heroically resisted. Also I think, it is about remembering and acknowledging the collective…

Green MPs Davidson and Ghahraman show selective concern for human rights

Green MPs Marama Davidson and Golriz Ghahraman demonstrated selective outrage last week, suggesting that their concern for human rights in the Middle East extends only so far as Israel can be blamed. In the space of one week they stridently…

From Paris to Auckland: “I’m very happy that we’re here. I’m breathing again”.

Last Friday, 85 year old Jewish Parisienne and Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was murdered in her home, allegedly by her neighbour and an accomplice. The attackers stabbed her 11 times and then set her and her apartment on fire. Two…

International law expert: New Zealand made a terrible mistake at the UN

Professor Alan Dershowitz needs little introduction in legal circles. A preeminent civil-liberties and constitutional lawyer and recently-retired Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, he has also been described as “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world” after taking on…

Dear Lorde, don’t give BDS the Green Light

Put in the same position, I don’t think I would have been able to make a different decision to the one Ella made regarding the cancelling of her Tel Aviv concert. For that reason, I find it difficult to be…

Fairfax takes extremist line on Lorde controversy

Media interest in Lorde’s recent decision to cancel her planned concert in Tel Aviv has been intense, and New Zealand has been no exception. Over the holiday period, newsrooms are sparsely staffed and sometimes juniors are left to run the…

Elliott Abrams: Honor and Dishonor at the United Nations

The United States was badly outnumbered in the General Assembly. There were just 67 countries who could be said to be on “our side” in that they didn’t vote against our position. No, not this week’s vote on Jerusalem. This…

Happy Hanukkah

The word Hanukkah (or Chanukah, or other spellings) means “rededication” and commemorates the Jews’ struggle for religious freedom from the Greek-Syrians more than 2,000 years ago (c160BC). The festival lasts eight days and remembers the rededication of the Temple in…

Canterbury University’s academic credibility found wanting

New Zealand is the only Western country where a tertiary institute has awarded a degree to a work of Holocaust denial or revisionism. Joel Hayward wrote a Master of Arts thesis at Canterbury University that concluded “the weight of evidence…

Hate on the streets of Auckland and hypocrisy in the Beehive

Newshub reported that there were “at least 50”, TVNZ said there were “hundreds”, and one of the the organising groups thought they counted 400 people protesting in Auckland. In reality, approximately 150 people gathered in Aotea Square in Auckland to…