Wait, wait, wait.
On top of the Gender Identity Hate Speech and Blasphemy Law madness Labour are promoting, Hate Speech will also be considered to extend to the use of word ‘Zionism’ as anti-Semitic???
The growing issue of anti-semitism in New Zealand
In New Zealand, anti-semitic tropes are often associated with criticism of Israel, especially the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.
It is possible to be critical of Israel’s actions, and supportive of Palestinian human rights, without being anti-semitic. Jews and non-Jews do this all the time. But everyone needs to have some understanding of anti-semitic tropes.
Also, critics of Israel often condemn ‘Zionists’, but Zionism has different meanings.
One meaning subscribed to by nearly all Jews, and many non-Jews, is simply that Jews have a human right to self-determination in their own nation-state.
So, the word ‘Zionist’ needs to be clarified and understood.
The Royal Commission report into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain calls on all of us to do what we can to advance social cohesion.
In close collaboration with Muslim and other communities, we are developing our response to the Royal Commission’s recommendations which is meaningful to everyone in Aotearoa. Combatting anti-semitism will be one element of this response.
In the meantime, we will prepare a short paper on anti-semitic tropes so they can be avoided. We will do all we can to ensure anti-semitism is given proper attention in the government’s National Action Plan against Racism. Also, we will devise a Commission plan of action against anti-semitism.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No one has any time for actual anti-Semitism. The Jewish people have put up with centuries of persecution and disgusting discrimination. The Holocaust is a horror that must always be remembered as the very worst of humanity, so I have zero time for anti-Semites. But to extend that sensitivity of persecution to claim any use of the word ‘Zionism’ (which has become radicalised and culturally hateful against Palestinians) is now suddenly part of hate speech is an insult to the intellect of the debate and should be resisted at all costs.
Every month this hate speech attack on free speech looks more like a means for petty revenge for the winning schism after the law gets passed.
Will Scientology abuse the blasphemy laws first? Or will it be the Gloriavale Christian Community nutters?
Will apologists for Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation of Palestine take legal action against John Minto for using the word Zionist?
Will Fourth Wave Feminist and Trans allies use it to have Rachel Stewart and Ani O’Brien arrested?
I bring it back to the whole point we are having this review.
How the fuck will criminalising the use of word ‘Zionist’, criminalising the misuse of pronouns and criminalising blasphemy against religions make any single one of us safer from a white supremacy terror attack?
If your solution to a white supremacy attack against Muslims is to make the word ‘Zionist’ hate speech against Jews, you seem to have been at the wrong massacre.
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Yeah well I’m sick of the censorship of my comments on the daily blog Martyn.
We should all be looking forward with fear to the time that the Ministry of Truth is censoring everything.
Censorship – free speech and blasphemy , all have to be viewed in context.
The Blasphemy law is dead in NZ.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/blasphemous-libel-law-repealed
“The continued existence of this offence on the statute books was out of place with New Zealand’s position as a bastion of human rights, including recognising freedom of expression and religious tolerance for all faiths.”
Antisemitism is often used as a term of abuse of anyone who criticises Israel or actions of Jew/s.
eg. Today another Palestinian youth was shot dead by a IDF soldier.
The term is a form of hate speech often aimed at closing down valid discussion.
Are we contemplating laws that may cover negative or critical comment about any ethno-religeous group in the world.
In NZ surely the term “anti-Polynesian” may be a parallel but seldom if ever heard.
We could try tackling the REAL ENEMY. But we won’t.
What happens in America happens here.
“It seems I always underestimate the ability of sociopathic central bankers and their willingness to destroy the lives of hundreds of millions to benefit their oligarch masters. I always underestimate the rampant corruption that permeates Washington DC and the executive suites in mega-corporations across the land. And I always overestimate the intelligence, civic mindedness, and ability to understand math of the ignorant masses that pass for citizens in this country. It seems that issuing trillions of new debt to pay off trillions of bad debt, government sanctioned accounting fraud, mainstream media propaganda, government data manipulation and a populace blinded by mass delusion can stave off the inevitable consequences of an unsustainable economic system.”
I used to try and make specific predictions about the new year generally centered upon economic chaos, stock markets crashing, global conflict, and various other doom-like events. But those running this clown show somehow convince the masses all is well, the economy is healthy, inflation is non-existent, debt does not matter, college makes you smart, we’re energy self-sufficient, 100 million working age Americans not working – but unemployment was 3.5%, the stock market hitting all-time highs is good for you even though your real wages haven’t gone up in a decade, and America was great again.
It is amazing to me how effective propaganda is when multiple generations have been indoctrinated and socially engineered in the government school system and decades of boob tube fake news has been programmed into their pliably ignorant brains. Edward Bernays created the game plan and the techno-oligarch despots currently running the show are executing it to perfection.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” – Edward Bernays – Propaganda’
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/quinn-fourth-turning-detonation-part-1
I’m surprised that you are surprised Bomber. Like rust, censorship never sleeps. Once it was finished with those on the right, it goes after those on the left then once it has silenced all the loud critics on the fringes attacks the middle. History always repeats.
Those who crowed the loudest at Trump’s morons demanding heresy burned at the stake will have the loudest wails when the guns are turned on them. Groupthink is a seductive mistress for the power elite of modern society.
The sleeping hobbits of (little) Aotearoa however will still be complaining about Smeg giveaways and crowing over Betty down the road who is the fastest 80 year old in the world at mowing her lawns.
I’ve found the trick is enough Alcohol to numb the brain and not enough that it hurts in the morning.
Newspaper: “A South Island Neo Nazi group has issued a statement today…”
Government: haha it’s funny becus they are bald!
Person: Today I visited a Zionist…
Government: THAT’S HATE SPEECH ARREST THEM
Person: Today I attended a meeting of Christian Restorationists
Government: OOOoooh nice, churches restoring old villas, cool!
Police: We have tracked down a cell using a hate speech text to drive Zionism.
Government: ARREST THEM
Police: You want us to arrest all the Christians in NZ except the Catholics?
Government: NO THAT WOULD BE HATE SPEECH ARREST YOU!
Police: What if we just arrest their leader?
Government: EXCELLENT WHO IS IT?
Police: The name we have here is… Jesus Christ.
Government: ARREST THEM!
Government: HAVE YOU FOUND THE TERRORIST SHOOTER WHO POSTED HATE ONLINE
Police: No we haven’t found any trace since it became illegal to say anything.
GOVERNMENT: EXCELLENT I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD WORK
Fantastic news! Melanie Phillips nailed it when she said: “Anti-Zionism is a fig leaf for anti-Semitism.” Hope this means we will see less sewage from Minto, Bravery, Griffiths et al….unless they have the courage to admit their motivation in demonising Israel is just plain good old fashioned Jew-hatred.
Okay Gaby so it will be fine for me to write and complain about the occupation of the Palestinian land by Jews. Tricky I mean lots of Jews don’t agree with it at all including quite a few who live there. Demonising Israel is demonising the occupation of palestinian land, I know lots and lots of Jewish people none of them agree with the occupation.
I was at the holocaust memorial service in Hagley Park yesterday. An appalling crime that should never be able to happen again, I think we agree about that.
But I will continue to complain about Human Rights where ever they are going on in the world and that includes in the occupied territories of Palestine.
Yeah Gaby – like racism and apartheid are intrinsic to Zionism.
Hopefully the opening of debate will shut you up for a bit so the adults can discuss human rights, war crimes, land thefts and inflicting of slow genocide without your interruptions. The Paul Hunt and Meng Foon article concludes with, “In a plural democratic society, grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, public discussion must be respectful of diversity and not based on hateful tropes, stereotypes, and falsehoods.”
You should be very afraid Gaby.
Oh, too funny for words. Talk about condemning yourself out of your own mouth. Oh well, not very bright, doing your best I guess.
Zionism = Fascism. Israel practices apartheid therefore it is a fascist state.No amount of idiot thought control from the numpties in Wellington will alter that. All this will do is create more hatred and eventually violence. Dumb move by Cindy . But then she’s not the brightest bulb now is she?Andrew Little continues to disappoint. Who is he listening to? How narrow is his world experience?Very narrow indeed. Clearly we have a government that is ignorant of history.
I was pro Israel for a very long time, until I lived with a Palestinian Christian. I went to his church and hung out with him and his community. Palestinian Christians have suffered the most under the invasion of Palestine, there are virtually none left in the Holy land. The largest community of Palestinian Christians is in Sydney Australia – I’d encourage you to go have a talk to them Gaby. Because what has happened to them is the future for the rest of the Palestinians caught inside the sphere of the state of Israel.
My issue with your comments, is you are happy to shut down any debate which calls out the ideology underpinning of an extremely violent state. A state which has gone way beyond self defense, into the realms of ethnic and religious cleansing, as the fate of the Palestinian Christian’s so clearly demonstrates.
Gaby your accusations can only lead to the opinion that you have trouble reading and comprehending.
Israel can do no harm to anyone in your eyes it seems. Supremacist stuff.
Nice quote there from Melanie Phillips. There’s a reason she’s known “Mad Mel” in the UK lol!
No problem that Jews have the right to national self-determination. Trotsky himself from a Jewish background argued for this right. But not at the expense of an existing nation. To equate Zionism with the right of Israelis to occupy Palestine, is to deny Palestinians the right to national self-determination. Zionism is therefore not the ideology of Jewish self-determination but the right of Israel to exist by occupying and oppressing another nation. If this thought is suppressed that becomes part of the oppression of Palestine.
Nailed it dave brown. However despite the Orwellian clarity of your comment the rabid ,deranged, halfwits defending Zionism ( that’s you Gaby) won’t be able to get their tiny brains around it.Chur!
Zionism is essentially the idea of Jewish rule of their homeland from Jerusalem (hill of Zion). It’s predicated on faith across generations of time, next year in Jerusalem.
In recent hisotry it’s a product of 19th C European nation self determination (natioin states emerging out of the end of empire) and the end of colonialism in the 20th C – and is caught between the two because Arabs accuse the Palestine mandate (to enable a Jewish homeland) of being a project of European colonialism.
The initial conundrum was in the UN decision to partion the land into two states (with Jewish and Palestinian Arab majority) with Jerusalem separated out to be an international city. The second was in the UN offering no collective security to the Jewish homeland state when it was attacked by 5 Arab armies. The third
occupation of much (Old or East Jerusalem) of this “international city” territory (and West Bank) by Jordan without protest by the UN.
It was not until 1949 the UN banned taking territory by force, so one wonders if it was tacitly recognising Jordan as a Palestinian state and West Jerusalem as part of Israel. Of course the UN has not recognised the occupation of East Jerusalem and West Bank by Israel since 1967 as giving it the right to annex this territory (given 1949).
Since then the peace between Israel and Jordan effectively relinquishes Jordanian claim to Jerusalem and West Bank territory, and apparently restores the claim of local Arabs to self determination independent of Jordan. At least in the eyes of the the UN, if not Israel.
Thus emerging the PLO to assent to the original 1947 UN partition plan in return for a nation state of their own on the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza land occupied by Egypt 1948-1967.
This they were offered for peace in 2000, they refused because they also wanted right of return for 1948 refugees as citizens of the state of Israel. Since then Israel has tried disengagment without a peace – withdrawal from Gaza and some parts of the West Bank. This was followed by Hamas rule of the Palestine Authority (temporarily) and Gaza (permanently) without recognising Israel. Since then Israel has nakedly turned to de facto annexation of the West Bank by settlement land grab (land without any Arabs on it) and annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (occupied since 1967) both without international recognition.
It now insists Jerusalem (their Zion) will always be united. It’s not far from calling Gaza and Jordan the Palestinian states. In 1948 Arab armies expected to conquer Israel in one war, now Israel expects to take the West Bank (or all that it can grab without any Arabs on it as they can) bit by bit and rule without end (unlike the brief 1948-1967 rule by Jordan) – leaving only a few bantustans like Ramallah and Jericho for Arab residents. When enough Arabs have migrated abroad they will give those remaining citixzenship in Israel.
Suppressing resistance to this Zionist victory by calling it anti-semitic hate speech is as sure as those you cannot criticise have formed an alliance with your Christian nation Crown throne government against you. For the Jewish mothers son’s foot is on your head. All hail Zion … kingdom come … Five Eyes united.
Jordan is the Palestinian state. Jews are the indigenous people of Palestine, as it was called under the British Mandate. Before that, it was never an autonomous state and was most recently a provincial backwater of the Turkish Empire. Jews had a continuous presence in the land. Arabs did not, arriving in the 7th century as muslim colonisers and then pouring in when Jews developed and made Palestine prosperous. It was when Jews became free to assert their rights that the Arabs were inflamed with supremacist hatred. Palestinian Arabs are just that…from Arabia. Anti-Zionists are either ignorant of history or try to rewrite it.
If Palestinians arrived as Arab Moslems from out of Arabi,a who were all those Palestinian Christians there before 500CE and still there in 1870 (and why have those latter numbers only fallen since occupation of the West Bank in 1967?).
The idea that the peoples who now speak Arabic from Basra to Beirut to Marrakesh are those descendant from Arabs out of Arabia is ignorant nonsense.
The genetics reveal a diversity not sourced from Arabia. The evidence shows those in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine are northern Semites with a long history in the area.
“No one has any time for actual anti-Semitism”: Really? That’s a bold statement for a New Zealander to make, Bradbury. I may disagree with neo-nazis on, well; just about everything (down to the biological existence of race, as opposed to speciation; let alone the desirability of any particular race over another), but even I don’t deny that they are themselves people, albeit vile people. Many NZers do indeed have a lot of time for antisemitic views, Jewish cemeteries don’t just vandalize themselves:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8210365/Swastikas-cannot-be-removed-from-graves
I really noticed that in a holiday trip down to the far south – they do things differently there. The spray painted graffiti is quite prevalent, but somehow not as disturbing as the many swastikas cut into trees – for some reason that just seems extra creepy to me.
The Israel Lobby in the UK has been amazed at how well their smearing of Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite worked. It looks like they’re going to have a go at the nonsense here too.
No thanks. Zionism is a racist ideology that places the importance of rights for Jews above those of the Palestinian people they continue to oppress.
All they said was that they were going to write further about anti-semitic tropes in relation to use of the word Zionist – they did not refer to such being informative to any future hate speech legislation as such.
“The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations (CoP) sent Biden a letter on January 12, urging the incoming administration to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism across “all federal departments and agencies.”
As Stern rightly pointed out in his editorial, conservative Jewish groups are not using the IHRA definition to combat growing anti-Semitism. Rather, it’s become a tool to suppress conversations surrounding the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in academia.”
The Jewish groups apologise for their campaign by saying they are not ending free speech in the nations adopting the IHRA standard (only realising their goal to do on one issue, criticism of Israel). Of course where this is part of wider hate speech legislation that is not going to be the case. Where those of God religion cannot be criticised, despite those of such religion having freedom of speech to judge others of the world (the infidel heathen, the unsaved going to hell etc) in both faith and political organisation for coillective power through law there is a very unequal playing field – leading to people competing for power using God as a populist tool (the white race as Christian soldiers identity movements) – which leads to the Americanisation of politics into forms of civil war. With Iran this leads to arming Hizbollah, Houthi and Shia militias in Iraq (currently running a programme to murder moderates calling for civil justice).
https://www.mintpressnews.com/jewish-groups-warn-fallout-labeling-criticism-of-israel-anti-semitism/274877/?fbclid=IwAR2UrpKqy7fE7F4Ry_ItotmFL4tAqomHouSAQwO1TDpCBz3FEJjuwUuAgxU#.YBM-0fyYbjw.facebook
More and more countries and institutions are adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The days of the Jew haters hiding behind ‘anti-Zionism’ are numbered.
The days of raving racists like yourself and your enablers are the ones whose days are numbered. The IHRA have finally pushed their boat out too far for most of the world to stomach.
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