In a move that resembles the boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses during the dark days of the 1930s the Christchurch City Council (CCC) has voted to boycott any goods or services related in any way to Jewish communities living in Judea-Samaria, the historical home of the Jewish people. John Minto of the Palestinian Solidarity Network stirred the Council with misinformation and lies regarding the state of Israel. Minto accused Israel of:
“genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, wholesale killing of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.”
The terms used by Minto are completely false, but an ignorant City Council listened to his rhetoric and were moved by his impassioned plea, instead of diligently investigating the facts. This is my email to Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, of which all the councilors were cc’d in:
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Dear Mayor Mauger,
I am a Church pastor living in Hastings, originally from the South – Oamaru, Dunedin, Timaru, and Motueka. Along with many people I am appalled at the decision reached by the Christchurch City Council to ban the purchase of goods purchased from companies involved in Judea and Samaria – the historical heartland of Jewish sovereignty (Judea means land of the Jews). Known by most as the West Bank and controversially as “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, the CCC has made judgement that the land of so much controversy belongs only to the “Palestinians”, without giving any respect to the historical and indigenous rights of the Jewish people to their ancestral land. This was supposed to have been sorted out by negotiations between the Israels and the Palestinians but unfortunately in 2008 President Mahmoud Abbas, after refusing a deal that gave almost 100 percent of the disputed territory to the Palestinians, decided to try another tact in order to get more – unilateral decisions at the United Nations, a tact that the CCC has now supported. The answer will never be unilateral decisions at the UN, but negotiations between the parties, a course the CCC should have encouraged instead.
You have listened to one of the outspoken haters of Israel in New Zealand – John Minto. I have countered John at several rallies and am appalled at his misinformation, distortions, and sometimes outright lies regarding the State of Israel. In my opinion you have listened to an antisemite. The boycotts of Israeli goods he calls for is reminiscent of the Nazi boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses in the 1930s, something the CCC has now become part of.
John Minto wrongfully stated that the current government supported UNSC Res. 2334 (2016), when in fact the National Party after losing power in 2017 came out a year later in 2018 and admitted that resolution was a mistake – here https://youtu.be/HcU6CeHIDDI
I am asking the CCC to revisit its decision, and to seek a balanced view from informed people, instead of basing its now foreign policy on the words of someone who is virulently anti-Israel. Better still, I am asking the CCC to make a policy that it will never involve itself again in foreign affairs and instead leave that to central government.
With due respect to you and your council.
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