Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem is a platform for all the indigenous of the nations to express their solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.

Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem was founded by Indigenous Coalition For Israel and spearheaded by Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Read the media release approved by Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem is a registered Amuta (non-profit entity in Israel).

DIRECTORS

Dr Sheree Trotter is Maori (Te Arawa). She earned her PhD in history from the University of Auckland (Thesis: Zionism in New Zealand to 1948). In 2012 she co-founded the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation for whom she has interviewed seventy Holocaust survivors. Sheree completed an Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy scholars-in-residence course at University of Oxford in 2023. Read endorsements from Jewish community leaders, and others.

Hon Alfred Ngaro Alfred was a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2011 to 2020 and the first Cook Islander elected to Parliament in New Zealand. As a Member of Parliament Alfred re-established the Parliamentary Friends of Israel Group. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the National Government and was an active advocate on social issues.

Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem: Statement of Purpose

Updated 11 January 2024

  • IEJ will be a tangible expression of indigenous peoples’ support for Israel and affirmation of the Jewish people’s indigenous status. Many who are indigenous identify with the struggle of the Jewish people against dominant narratives that seek to erase identity and connection to ancestral lands. A number have faced existential threats, as does Israel.

  • IEJ will provide a symbolic doorway, a place of welcome and an information hub for indigenous peoples visiting Israel.  It will also provide a platform for expression of solidarity with Israel. 

  • IEJ will support and promulgate the academic work being undertaken to respond to false narratives and to ground the argument for Jewish indigeneity.

  • IEJ will become a tourist attraction that tells the stories of Jewish-indigenous connections and histories, and will display indigenous arts.

  • IEJ will establish a media production department to create films, podcasts, news programmes and material for use in its exhibition space, on social media and other outlets.

  • IEJ will foster relationships and mutually beneficial collaborative projects in education, business and innovation.

  • IEJ will not purport to be an official representative of any of the governments of the host nations of the respective indigenous peoples.