Israel: 77 years
The 77th anniversary of Israel’s Independence was recently celebrated in Auckland, New Zealand. Speakers included HE Alon Roth-Snir, Ambassador; David Levy, Israeli diplomat, Director of the Pacific Department; Henri Eliot, Hon Consul Israel; Juliet Moses, Jewish Council and Sheree Trotter, Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem.
Here are a two speeches from that event.
Dr Sheree Trotter, Director Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem
On the 77th anniversary of Israel’s independence, I want to reaffirm the commitment of Indigenous supporters of Israel. We recognise that the Jewish people are the Indigenous people of the land of Israel, with a 3,500 year continuous connection to the land. The Jewish people have a right to self determination in their ancestral land. They have a right to live in peace.
The endurance and tenacity of the Jewish people through centuries of persecution inspires us, along with the Jewish desire to do good in the world, tikkun olam, in spite of the ill-founded opposition and hatred directed towards them.
We are disturbed by the alarming rise of antisemitism and recognise that one of the main drivers is the false settler colonialist narrative. We are working internationally to counter those lies in academia, media, in the culture and amongst our people.
We are also re-kindling and building Indigenous connections and alliances, and are reminding people that there is a history and heritage of Māōri support for Israel in Aotearoa NZ.
Indeed, there’s a legacy of Maori leaders from Apirana Ngata, to the Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu to leaders like Monte Ohia, John Rangihau and more recently kaumatua Pat Ruka who have shown regard for Israel and the Jewish people.
I worked closely with Matua Pat Ruka. He was instrumental in strengthening the relationship between Māori and Israel. The Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem seeks to continue that legacy. We will not stand by silently while our Jewish and Israeli friends are maligned and attacked. We will continue to speak up.
Finally, I want to honour the young Jewish/Israeli couple Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were murdered a week ago and who worked at the Israel embassy in DC. They believed in peace and building bridges and were beacons of light in a dark night. They were murdered for being Jewish. We remember them today and say moe mai, moe mai, moe mai ra. We pray their families will be comforted and that their legacy of hope, light and peace will shine on.
Ina, e kore te kaitiaki o Iharaira e parangia, e moe.
Hineh lo yanum velo yishan, shomer Yisrael.”
הִנֵּ֣ה לֹֽא־יָ֭נוּם וְלֹ֣א יִישָׁ֑ן שׁ֝וֹמֵ֗ר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Behold, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Juliet Moses, Chair Jewish Council NZ
During Sukkot 2023, I gave a speech here at shule. It started:
“I was lucky enough to be in Israel in April this year with family and friends, on Yom Hatzma’ut, for the state’s 75th birthday.
It was a time to reflect on how this tiny beleaguered state has survived and indeed thrived, despite the unprecedented challenges it has faced since its establishment. It was also a time to think about the challenges that lie ahead.
And there ARE huge, many would say existential, challenges, that are not just external, but internal as well. ”
Later in the speech I said:
“While Jews and Israelis argue about what Jewish agency and sovereignty means and should look like, after 2000 years of not having it, our detractors believe it should not exist at all.
Antizionism …targets and discriminates against the Jewish state as an equal member of the family of nations, under the banner of human rights. Fundamentally, it suggests that the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, guaranteed to us and all peoples in the UN Charter, is illegitimate or “supremacist”, and that Israel, alone among all the nation states of the world, must be dismantled or destroyed. It is sometimes said that the state of the Jews has become the Jew of the states.
This is a sophisticated, and I would suggest, unparalleled pernicious smear campaign with its roots in Soviet ideology, epitomised by the 1975 UN General Assembly “Zionism Is Racism” resolution.
So while Zionism is the first successful emancipation movement of an indigenous people, it is – to use a popular word – decolonisation in action – antizionism inverts and appropriates the discourse of human rights to portray the very existence of a state that provides a refuge from racism for a historically persecuted people as inherently racist and the chief violator of human rights in the world. It does that by denying Jews peoplehood and their connection to the land of Israel, by perpetuating a false narrative of “settler colonialism”, by redefining words like “genocide” and “apartheid” and applying them toIsrael in a way that happens for no other state, by ignoring its legitimate rights and security concerns, and by associating it with Nazism, fascism and white supremacy.”
I delivered that speech on 30 September 2023, exactly one week before Black Sabbath.
Of course I did not predict what would happen a week later. I am not gifted with amazing prescience. But I do know Jewish history and I did observe what was happening around us and the trajectory, with a sense of foreboding.
It is not easy right now being a supporter of Israel, nor a friend of the Jewish people and a special thank you to those here today who are. It requires courage, critical thinking and clarity. It means resisting the mob and the mania. It can feel lonely and overwhelming, but when I am feeling like that I find it helps to place this moment in history, a history that we may have thought we were somehow exempt from but has caught up with us. I remind myself of our warriors, prophets, rabbis, thinkers, dreamers and scholars of the past, of the unbelievable – and I really mean unbelievable - challenges and hardships of thousands of years. And I remember the beauty, achievements, ambiguities, arguments, contributions, contradictions, and complexities of our people, that have always been part of Judaism and Jewish life, and have now been, for 77 years, a blip in our long history, a part of the Jewish homeland. And I believe that as long as we remain true to ourselves and what makes us unique, we and Israel, will continue to survive and thrive, against all odds.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Juliet Moses