After Sen. Ted Cruz reposted the story, criticising New Zealand, Winston Peters called it ‘fake news,’ which seems to have made Haaretz back down.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz has been forced to amend a story it published, which had earlier led to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioning whether the United States should consider New Zealand an ally. The correction was made only after a complaint from New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
The trouble began when the newspaper claimed that, as part of “new visa requirements” that New Zealand announced last week, Israelis must now detail their service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
In a statement issued on Jan. 2, the department said no new policies had been announced for either Israeli or Palestinian nationals, and that New Zealand doesn’t require Israelis to have a visitor visa for stays that are less than three months, only a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority declaration.
Overnight, Haaretz changed the headline and introductory paragraph to clearly state that the New Zealand government had denied the reports.
“The New Zealand government denies reports that all Israelis must detail their IDF service to apply for visas, saying there are ‘no new policies for processing visitor visa applications from Israeli or Palestinian nationals,’” the story now reads.
But before it did so, the story had been noticed by Cruz, who posted on X that “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system, when they denigrate and punish Israeli citizens for defending themselves and their country from Iranian-controlled terrorists,” adding that, “New Zealand should be cooperating with Israel in its campaign rather than engaging in these self-indulgent leftwing attacks.”
Cruz’s post was replied to directly by one of the New Zealand government’s three coalition parties’ leaders, David Seymour, who told the Senator, “That is not the position of the New Zealand Government.
“Israeli citizens are welcome here and can enter New Zealand without a visa under our Visa Waiver program. We have strongly criticised those seeking to denigrate or punish Israeli citizens, which they have no right to do. No doubt there are people you disagree with in your country, too.”
New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters also responded publicly to Cruz, calling the Haaretz story “fake news” and assuring him the government was “demanding it be corrected.”
“Israelis do not need visitor visas to travel to New Zealand, let alone have to declare their military service,” Peters said.
“And both New Zealand’s chief human rights commissioner and I—as foreign minister—have made clear that the so-called ‘genocide hotline’ [established by pro-Palestinian activists] is dangerous, anti-Semitic nonsense.
New Zealanders are a friendly people and Israelis are very welcome to visit New Zealand.”
However, despite these top-level reassurances, representations from the New Zealand embassy in Washington D.C. and the fact that the Senator’s post links to one by the newspaper that has since been taken down—and despite five community notices pointing out that the original story has been corrected—Cruz’s opinion remains unamended on X as of the time of writing.
This is the second time an Israeli newspaper has made the claim after The Times of Israel, published a similar story this week. It has since run another one detailing the New Zealand government’s denial of the claims.
A spokesperson for Immigration New Zealand clarified that there may be circumstances when it needs more information from an applicant to determine whether they can come into New Zealand, and that may include military details.
However, “it is not correct to say that every Israeli wanting to visit New Zealand is asked to provide details of their military service.
“It is worth reiterating that since Oct. 7, 2023, we have approved 809 of 944 applications received from Israeli nationals across both temporary and residence visa applications,” the spokesperson said.