The Gaza clashes: 10 things the media isn’t telling you or asking The mainstream media in NZ and elsewhere is currently awash with bias, ignorance and misinformation about the conflict on the Gaza border that resulted in the deaths of 60 Palestinians. Here are 10 points you are very unlikely to hear:…
Recounting 70 years (and still counting) Seventy years ago Hitler’s war against the Jews was no longer raging. The Holocaust had finally been checked. The Crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau and of other of Hitler’s extermination centres had been snuffed out. However the furnaces were still smouldering in…
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…
Dayenu Passover has always been my favourite festival. It’s not eating a cardboard-like substance, sinus-clearing horseradish and other artery-clogging food that makes it so. Even as a child, I recognised intuitively that there was something special and rich in meaning in…
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…
Use of ‘Polish’ camps objectionable but should not be outlawed Karl du Fresne has been a staunch supporter of free speech: opposing the phenomenon of “no platforming” on university campuses, expressing dismay at Facebook users threatening violence and bullying people into silence, and confronting the idea of New Zealand Police…
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…