The NZ Jewish Council alleges a rise in antisemitism,
manifested in threats and the exclusion of one Israeli
performer from a festival.
In case anyone has
forgotten them, the NZ Jewish Council is indirectly
appointed by largely non-existent regional councils to
represent the Zionist-Jewish institutions of New Zealand.
Their constitution does not mention Israel, although they
can’t seem to stop talking about it.
To be clear,
AJV objects to the conduct of any politics by threat or by
racialised misdirection, period. The bitter irony of the
Jewish Council’s concerns do not change that.
Juliet
Moses objects that one mustn’t ‘hold an entire
population responsible for its government’s decisions, any
more than you can assume every citizen of any country
supports its government.’ (Stuff, Oct 21)
Israel’s
government has collectively punished Gaza through 17 years
of its choking, illegal blockade. Its leaders have
explicitly supported more than three years of genocide,
holding every single civilian in Gaza violently responsible
for authorities they cannot control. Moses, though, was
intervening in support of Israelis.
On October 28, Ben
Kepes allowed that ‘People do not have to agree with the
Jewish Council.’
Thank you – but ‘disagree’
does not begin to reflect the sentiment. People are
attempting to stop a genocide, conducted by a government
which the Jewish Council cannot bring itself to
condemn.
The NZ Jewish Council has been morally
selective for years, giving the impression that the Jewish
community cares only about their own fears while they
depoliticise and downgrade the consequences of Israel’s
actions for others. AJV
tried strenuously to elicit the Jewish Council’s
condemnation of the Kahanist, fascist Israeli government
from the moment it was elected. No response.
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Since
then, Israel has slaughtered 75,000 from a community of 2.3
million Gazan Palestinians. They are ethnically cleansing
the West Bank. They have done vast damage to Lebanon, bombed
hither and yon, and now Netanyahu and Trump look eager to
restart their war against Iran. Still nothing.
Often
in Aotearoa, we can debate, go home and debate another day.
This is not one of those times. In times like ours, one is
called on to use one’s public platform and privilege to
save lives – or one may be considered complicit or
cowardly for their silence.
Neither Jews nor Israelis
are neutral while a system of settler-colonial oppression
built for our benefit is committing genocide. AJV supports
boycott and other targeted, non-violent acts of economic
choice. These forms of external pressure have helped bring
other criminal regimes to heel.
Hear this, Jewish
Council. Standing aside from genocide is not neutrality. It
is permission to carry on.
Having issued that passive
permission (at least) for years, the NZ Jewish Council now
wishes to rule out even peaceful economic objections to
genocide. They are disturbed that one Israeli individual
won’t perform on one stage. How dare they imagine that to
be the story, when 75,000 Gazans have been murdered – and
the genocide is
ongoing.
