Shalom.Kiwi

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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…

Is Marama Davidson a dogmatic street activist or serious political leader?

A day before Marama Davidson’s announcement that she was putting her name forward as a candidate for the Green Party’s co-leadership she attended an anti-Israeli protest organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Movement and Kia Ora Gaza – the same group…

When stakes are high we must take a stand

We often question the purpose of learning about the past. How can history be relevant in an ever changing world? As the political poles move further apart, there are few issues that can cross the bridge of partisanship. Remembrance must…

Gideon Levy’s sell-out tour of New Zealand

I’m no biblical scholar, but if I was asked to name great Jewish prophets off the top of my head, Moses, Abraham and Jonah would likely get a mention. Gideon Levy, the Israeli commentator, would not. Nevertheless, on Levy’s visit…

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…

‘Lorde takes a bow to the bullies’

Lorde has announced that she has decided to cancel her show in Tel Aviv, Israel, after predictable calls for her to do so. She was told that to perform there would be to “break the boycott”. A boycott that is…

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…

Nikki Haley: The UN has done much more damage to the prospects for Middle East peace than to advance them

Jerusalem controversy: nothing new

Donald Trump’s announcement today recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was, in itself, nothing new, nor should it be controversial. His speech was, in fact, in keeping with US legislation two decades old. It has only been threats of violence that…