An online campaign asking people to call a number if they see an Israeli on holiday has caused outrage, with Jewish groups calling it ‘disturbing.’
A campaign by the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) to have people identify Israeli tourists holidaying in New Zealand and phone a “tipline” about them has been labelled “disturbing” and “antisemitic” by Jewish groups.
The organisation’s national chairperson, John Minto, said in a post online that the campaign was “part of holding Israel to account for genocide when our government is complicit in the most horrendous war crimes of the 21st century—there’s no place in NZ for rest and recreation for perpetrators of genocide.”
In December, the PSNA wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters asking for a suspension of all visitors from Israel who are in the Israel Defence Force (IDF) or its reservists.
Israel requires every citizen over the age of 18 who is Jewish, Druze or Circassian to serve in the Israel Defense Forces—for a minimum of 32 months for men and 24 months for women.
Only Israeli Arabs, religious women, married individuals, and those deemed medically or mentally unfit are exempt. So that would ban virtually every young Israeli from visiting New Zealand.
The letter to Peters alleged Israeli soldiers were being denied visas to enter Australia after being required to fill in a 13-page form to determine if they had been involved in war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Israelis coming to New Zealand face no such requirements,” it said. “As well as the working holiday visa, since 2019 Israelis can enter New Zealand for three months without needing a visa at all. This visa waiver is used by Israeli soldiers today for ’rest and recreation’ from the genocide in Gaza.”
But the New Zealand Jewish Council (NZJC) has condemned the hotline, calling it “the latest in a series of disturbing antisemitic rhetoric.”
NZJC President Juliet Moses expected condemnation from “across the political spectrum.”
“We would like the police to look at whether it is a chargeable offence,” she said. “More important is the broader issue of the position that the Jewish community is in and, as we’ve sort tried to point out, the escalating antisemitism of which this is obviously a very sort of conspicuous and disturbing example.”
But Minto contested the Council’s description of the campaign as calling on people to “hunt down” IDF soldiers and reservists.
“Hunt down is not a word we’ve used, we are intending to track down,” he said.
“The reason they are reacting is because this campaign has been effective. They should be there telling these Israeli soldiers as well they’re not welcome here.”
Deb Hart of the New Zealand Holocaust Centre called the hotline “racist” and said it encourages vigilantism.
“We’ve seen a 500 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Jews … this is not the New Zealand that we all know and love,” she said.
“Jewish children don’t feel safe to go to school. All of our synagogues need guards at the door. This is the reality 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.”The Human Rights Commission said it had received more than 90 complaints about the hotline, and Commissioner Stephen Rainbow called for its immediate termination.
“The promotion may not be unlawful. However, the chief commissioner sees it as potentially harmful to Israeli and Jewish people in New Zealand,” he said.
“Israeli and Jewish people have as much right as everyone else in New Zealand to be safe, secure, and free from harassment … This sort of action has the risk of a ripple effect which may cause harm in the community.”
Race Relations Commissioner Melissa Derby said the Royal Commission report into the Christchurch terrorist attack had called on all people in New Zealand to support social cohesion.
“That means not allowing racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and other forms of hateful bigotry to flourish,” she said.
Foreign Minister Peters later took to X to call Minto’s actions “an outrageous show of fascism, racism, and encouragement of violence, and vigilantism.
“New Zealand should never accept this kind of extreme totalitarian behaviour in our country,” he said.
The NZJC calls on the government to condemn the PNSA’s behaviour.
“This growing threat requires urgent action from government and security agencies and condemnation from leaders across the political spectrum to prevent escalation such as we have seen in Australia,” it said in a statement.
It was referring to an event where masked arsonists set a synagogue ablaze in Australia in what was called an antisemitic attack.