Dear Mr Key – it is now time to withdraw permission for Israel to maintain an embassy in New Zealand

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
68
0

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Dear Mr Key.

The disproportionate butchery Israel is currently carrying out upon the Palestinian people is an unethical and despicable breach of human rights.

New Zealand has always been a strong supporter for Justice and while we attempt to gain a seat on the UN Security Council, now is the time to stand up for that Justice.

We may simply be left with symbolism, but by God we should seize that symbolism and turn our back in disgust at the manner in which Israel is treating Palestinians and refuse to allow the Israeli Embassy to be re-established until the two state solution is ratified and legitimately standing.

Now is the time Mr Key to withdraw permission for Israel to maintain an embassy in New Zealand.

I ask all New Zealanders of conscience to join their signature to this petition.

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68 COMMENTS

    • I have a lot of time for the Jewish members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Gush Shalom, and Breaking the Silence. It doesn’t sound as if you do. Does that make you anti-semitic.

      Please keep your autoerotic activities private.

      • Having time for a very, very, very small number of the Jewish population does not make you pro-Semitic it makes you as stupid as they are.

    • @Mike – this is nothing to to with anti semitism.

      It’s about the atrocities performed by Israel against vulnerable Palestinians, such as attacking a home for the disabled, hospitals and UN schools! And the list goes on!

      • Hamas hide weapons in schools and hospitals. They hide weapons in homes and other civilian enclaves. The Palestinians can solve this problem tomorrow. Get rid of Hamas.

    • would you agree mike that…

      a) not all jews in the world are israelis? (by current location of residence)
      b) jewish people are capable of, and indeed do, have different opinions on all sorts of things (just like everyone else it would seem)?
      c) not everyone is israel supports what their govt does?

      would you agree that criticizing what the govt of israel does is not criticizing all jewish people?

      ergo – not anti-semitic?

      • Oh how little you know. A bunch of people in NY claiming to be Jews, carrying PLO flags with arab muslim anti-Israel speakers, and you think they are all Jews. NO WAY. By the way name me one country in the world where everyone agrees with the government.

        Israel deserves a homeland on it’s historic land so to do the arabs but their historic homeland is not Israel. Learn some facts.

        • your a disgusting little hate monger colin.

          notice how if you take any argument that supports israel and swap the word out for palestine knuckle draggers and hate merchants like you completely lose the plot?

          what ever happened to the idea that all humans have the same rights?

  3. Agreed. Boot them out, and keep them out until a just are fair settlement is negotiated, which would have to include the return of most of the land they have been holding onto since 1967, the dismantling of the illegal “settlements”, and the ending of the blockage.

    If that takes a very very long time, and Israel remains defiant, then cut off all ties with them, everything. We do not need to do business with criminals.

    • You have posted a link to an article by Aljazeera what a joke. Why not try the truth some time but then it might just hurt your little brain.

  6. What are you saying ‘ Mike ‘ ? Are you fucking daring to use that old argument to condone the murder and horror that rich , arms dealing jews are foisting on a small , defencless country ? Their neighbours . Are you fucking serious ?

  7. Hamas really should put their pea shooters away, Israel is full off and run by nut jobs and as long as Hamas insists on pissing Israel off they will be bombed into submission. Israel does not give a fuck how many children they kill or hospitals they destroy, the more the merrier in fact.
    Hamas is not helping the situation and is only provoking Israel further.
    This ongoing conflict is in my opinion, unfixable.

    • @ F DX – Yeah, Europe and Great Britain should’ve done the same in 1939. Just roll over for the fascists…

      Fast forward seventyfive years, and we have a whole bunch more, new, fascists bombing blockading and occupying a powerless neighbour…

        • I suspect Gosman would blame a woman for having the audacity to fight back while she was being raped… or, in the words of the distasteful joke, woke up with a heavy dew on her.

        • Gosman says:
          August 4, 2014 at 8:56 am

          Yet it was this powerless neighbour that started firing missiles at Israel.

          Only if you view history through contemporaneous news reports, Gosman.

          If that’s your limitation on current affairs, then events did indeed begin only a few weeks ago.

          The rest of us are somewhat more aware.

        • @Gosman – there is no comparison between the primitive rocket weaponry used by Hamas and the sophisticated state-of-the-art US supported (and possibly supplied) armaments of the type Israel uses against Gaza!

          It’s like comparing a sling-shot with a nuclear bomb!

      • So Frank I presume you are talking about the arab terrorists who are bombing Israel, occupying the Israeli territories of Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and causing the government of Israel to stop them importing weapons aimed at the destruction of Israel. If not then you are not very well informed.

        • Not sure the territories you mention are Israeli. Certainly not even Israel has attempted to claim them as such.

          • For once I agree with something you say Gosman, I also almost respect you for contradicting an obvious ally.

        • Colin – your apologism for the Israeli war machine; blockade of Gaza; illegal land-grabs in the West Bank, is noted.

          If you base your moral stance on the use of force – might is right – then be prepared to have it used against you, one day.

          • Oh yea you mean like the 2000 plus rockets that the terrorists in Gaza have fired at the civilian population of Israel. Or perhaps you are okay with the money spent on building tunnels into Israel instead of building schools, hospitals and houses for the people of Gaza, or perhaps the aid money give to the people of Gaza spent on arms to attack Israel.

            Frank your apologism for the terrorist war machine built in of Gaza; illegal land-grabs in the Judea and Samaria and all the wars started by the arabs to kill Israel, is noted –

    • F DX, your analysis misses one important factor. Israel is a welfare beneficiary of the American taxpayer. If American public opinion changes too much, they’ll lose their funding. I think this provides a bit of a brake on them because they can’t get too extreme. On the other hand, the US and A is full off and run by nut jobs as well……..:-(

  9. While I agree that we should not allow Zionism to have an embassy in the country, I also believe a two-state solution is inviable. There needs to be one democratic state, where all citizens have equal rights. Once Zionism is killed off, it will be entirely possible for Jews and Arabs to live together again. They did for many years, before the UN interfered and gave Arab land to the terrorists of the Irgun and Stern Gang.

    • Perhaps you don’t know history, any history, that land you call arab land is in fact Israeli land and has been so for over 3000 years.

      • Colin – 6,000 years?

        We’ve moved on a bit since then, mate.

        Do you know we now have electricity, automobiles, and even landed men on the moon?!

        Hard to believe, I know…

        • Oh yes and few of them would be possible without products developed by Israel. And by the way Frank it is 3000 years not 6000 years, and you want to move on then move on and give Israel a chance to exist on it’s historical home land.

      • Twit:

        My ancestors came from England. (London, Kent) D’ya think they’d welcome me with open arms if I marched back there with a machine gun and said “F*** off you lot, my ancestors owned this land once and now i’m coming to reclaim it for my own use.”

        Which is the nearest equivalent I can think of.

        • Except it has already occured. It would be like arguing the Poles of Pomerania and Silesia should not be allowed to live there anymore.

      • Perhaps you don’t know anything about history Colin. The REAL Jews, the REAL Israeli’s WERE Arabs. The Jews of Israeli are watered-down Arab/Eastern Europeans. They do not belong there. Even if we’re going to be good about it and give them some land somewhere to escape the racist persecution of having a little tiny bit of Arab blood and the religious affiliation that comes with the Cognitive Dissonance passed down through many, many generations of Homo Sapiens to finally nestle itself into their, and your, pea sized brains.

        • Quite incorrect. The ‘original’ Jews (whatever that term actually means were a semitic people. That does not make them Arab though. The Arabs are just another subset of Semitic peoples. However just because you are semitic doesn’t give you any more or less rights to live in a particular area. It would be like trying to state Caucasian peoples have more of a right to live in the UK.

    • You cannot unmake an omlette. Israel is not likely to be going away. The only way a one state solution would work would be as some sort of confederation where sovereignty is shared between the current State of Israel and some sort of Palestinian entity where each would have jurisdiction over areas where members of that community were in the majority. The concept of a Jewish State would not disappear though under that concept.

    • @IGM – treasonous for challenging the evil that is consuming Gaza? How so?

      I think you will find the “lefties” amongst us, of which I’m proud to be one, are more patriotic (for want of a better word) towards NZ than those who support the present government, betraying Kiwis, selling our nation off piece by piece!

      Think about it. What is our (Jewish by descent) PM doing about the butchering of innocent Palestinians by Israel? Nothing it seems. Just dancing to the tune of his masters in the US, dictated to by the likes of the financiers of Wall Street and the equally vile American armament dealers.

  14. “National is not responsible for what is happening in Gaza. Demanding they do something is not going to achieve anything.

    And expelling the Israeli diplomat? How would we then express our disgust at the innocent murder of women and children the next time it happens?”

    Greg Presland Senior Labour Party official and David Cunliffe confidant

    http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-03082014/#comment-859640

    So how long will the beltway liberals at ‘The Standard’ persist in withholding their support for this petition to remove the Israeli ambassador?

    How big will the pile of bodies have to be before the seesaw Lackional Parties agree to kick out the Israeli ambassador in protest.

    Are voters names on a petition more horrifying to them than scenes of murdered children?

    Will the Labour Party continue to refuse to support the protests against the genocide in Gaza?

    We will all get to know at least some of the answers after the 16th of August

  15. Having only received the honour of receiving my New Zealand citizenship on July 1, I would normally have not joined in on this comment stream. However, given what I see as an amazing lack of knowledge on this thread, I simply could not resist.

    Thus some “facts” and I use the term to mean that I am prepared to demonstrate the data to support my assertions:

    First, this is not a war between just Israeln itself and the Palestinian Hamas Authority. In reality this ids a proxy battle between Shite and Suni factions of Islam. This can be supported by the total absence of Hezbolah and the silence if both Jordan and Egypt, who are very quietly supporting Israel, a first in any Israeli/Arab conflict.

    Let his also remember, that it was Israel that returned Gaza to the Palestinians and with nothing in return, but a continued commitment to kill every Israeli.

    Further, I think Kiwis need to understand that Israel us not a homogenous religious state. Fully 41% of a Israeli Jews are secular. Additionally, over 20% of Israel’s population is Arab and Palestinian, all of whom have citizenship or permanent residency. They have the right to vote, serve in the Israeli Parliament and yes in the Israeli military, even though they are exempt from military service.

    On the other side, the Palestinians did vote in the Political wing of Hamas, but largely disfavoured the military wing, so even internally there was discord, long before this current military action.

    Enough from me, for now and for anyone who might wonder, I have had Arab and Pakestinians I call friend,; have an adopted Brother and Sister in Israel and have been to both Israel and the West Bank. I am not a Zionist, and am a full bloodied (no pun intended) atheist, but facts matter. Thanks for reading and I am open to factual critiques and dialog.

    • Lee,
      Thanks for giving us some facts, however, I would be more interested in knowing your views on the present conflict.
      Surely the voters must have known that electing the political wing of Hamas entailed dealing with it’s military wing. Do correct me if my assumption is wrong.
      My understanding is that 10% of the Israeli Knettet are Arab, although some Druze counted in this number dislike being labeled “Arab”, this is only about half the percentage of Arab citizens of Israel. Is there some reason more Arabs don’t enter politics?
      It refreshing to talk to an Israeli who is not as fanatically minded as “Colin”‘, who seems to think all of Old Testament lands should be returned just because of ancient religious texts. I wonder if he also condones the keeping of slaves, smiting and raping one’s enemies women and children, killing homosexuals and one’s own children for the smallest of misdemeanours.
      Congratulations on receiving your citizenship.

  16. Sorry for. Y typos, I got worked up and my iPad thinks an “I” is a “u”. Also, on behalf of the rest if my family, thanks for letting us in, a decade ago! Kia Ora

  17. Will the Labour Party send their officials to address the rally at Aotea Square on the 16th August?

    Will the Labour continue to oppose calls to expel the Israeli ambassador?

    “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
    Martin Luther King

  18. Will any officials from the Labour Party be turning up at the big rally on the 16th of August at Aotea Square?

    Will the Labour Party rally their members and supporters to attend?

    Will The Standard continue to refuse to promote the petition to expel the Israeli Diplomatic Mission?

    Will The Standard be promoting zionist and genocide supporter Grumpy by giving him another Post?

    Will there ever be any more posts on The Standard about the atrocities being committed in Gaza?

    “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
    Martin Luther King

    • Well we seem to have got a solid answer to at least one question.

      “Will The Standard continue to refuse to promote the petition to expel the Israeli Diplomatic Mission?”

      At the end of a satirical post mocking the IDF, Chief moderator and author of The Standard Lynn Prentice lays down The Standard’s editorial line.

      http://thestandard.org.nz/imperatorfish-a-statement-from-the-israel-defence-force/

      However, I also think that expelling the Israeli ambassador from NZ is a stupid and outright dumb idea. It’d make holding Israel to account by NZ much more difficult. It’d lessen the effect of being brutally honest with them about the deficiencies of their state over the coming decades. And with all of the explicit and implicit censorship that Israel operates over all of its citizens**, it is about the only realistic way to send the message to them.

      Lynn Prentice, The Standard

      The only remaining question is whether the Labour Party will continue to boycott the protest rallies in support of Palestinians facing genocide at the hands of the Israeli regime?

      I suppose, we will get to know the answer to this question after the big rally being called for on August 16 at Aotea Square Auckland.

  19. The Green Party as well as demanding that the government remove Israel’s diplomatic privileges, calls for the govt. to divest New Zealand public funds from Israeli business.

    https://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/nz-govt-must-respond-israel-s-gaza-onslaught

    “New Zealand cannot sit by and take no action as more innocent Palestinians are killed.

    “New Zealand divesting from Israeli companies is a simple action that, along with other countries taking such an action too, can put real economic pressure on Israel to end the atrocities in Gaza.

    “The Green Party is also calling on the Government to immediately expel the Israeli Ambassador from New Zealand. This is a clear diplomatic signal we should take in response to the senseless slaughter in Gaza.

    “The continued presence of the Israeli Ambassador in New Zealand, coupled with the Government’s soft approach to the Gaza crisis, sends a clear message to Israel that their actions are not sufficient to suspend diplomatic relations. We think they are serious enough, and we would take that step.

    “New Zealand should cut off ties at ambassadorial level until Israel’s actions accord, once more, with proper international standards.”

    Will the Labour Party also be making the promise to divest our public funds from Israeli business?

    Or does Labour wish to maintain links with Israel in this area too?

  20. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=144620

    Questioner: “The Greens have called for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled from New Zealand as of today, what do you make of that?”

    John Key: “I wouldn’t support that move….”

    Questioner: “We saw another school bombing over night, are you concerned that Israel is breaking international law?”

    John Key: “Well I am horrified by what I see. I will repeat the comments I have made in the past. But look in the end we are seeing now, well in excess of a thousand people, fifteen hundred people, civilians tragically killed. And an end has got to come to this senseless killing. But it is on both sides. And the parties need to start talking.”

    Questioner: “Are you concerned that Israel has breached international law?”

    John Key: “I don’t have any advice to support that. And I wouldn’t want to speculate on it.”

    Questioner: “So it hasn’t been raised with the ambassador about issues to do with collective punishment under the Geneva Convention?”

    John Key: “I don’t know exactly the conversation MFAT had with the ambassador. I just know that he was called in last week.”

    David Cunliffe for the Labour Party also rejected the Greens call to send the Israeli ambassador home. David Cunliffe claims that we need to keep the communication channels open to be able to raise our concerns. David Cunliffe called the Israeli ambassador into his office to explain himself.

    Maybe David Cunliffe needs to be asked these same questions.

    Did the leader of the opposition raise the question of war crimes with the Israeli ambassador?

    Was a transcript kept?

    What was the substance of their discussion?

    Did this discussion actually achieve anything?

    Was any assurance given to the government or the opposition leader by the Israeli ambassador that the regime he represents will stop murdering Palestinian civilians?

    Or was the ambassador unrepentant, and instead offering up excuses and justifications for this genocide?

    Why is the Labour Party not joining the Green Party and Mana in calling for the ambassador to be sent home?

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