Monday, 30 September 2024

The New Zealand Jewish Council strongly condemns the Labour Party’s Associate Foreign Affairs spokesperson posting a claim that “Palestinians have every right to do whatever they did on October 7th”.

“Whatever they did” was breaching a ceasefire to invade sovereign territory, massacring 1200 people (mostly civilians), burning alive whole families, raping women, beheading corpses, and taking over 200 hostages to Gaza (over 100 of whom remain), in the gleeful attempt to enforce the genocidal charter of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group in New Zealand.

On X (formerly Twitter) this morning, Damien O’Connor reposted a statement of questionable provenance purporting to be from the former Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of State claiming that the actions taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7 were justified. On further investigation, it appears that Mr O’Connor regularly shares content from some of the most notorious accounts on X, including far-right extremists and pro-Putin propagandists.

We wish to remind Mr O’Connor that, since October 7, Jews in New Zealand have suffered increasing numbers of antisemitic attacks - both physical and verbal, including in schools.

We request that Chris Hipkins, as leader of the opposition, confirm whether it is in fact the official Labour party position that the October 7 massacre was justified.

Juliet Moses, President of the NZJC, comments that "To see someone in O'Connor's position justifying the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust is horrifying to Jewish New Zealanders and should be repugnant to all people of conscience in this country. Deleting one post, as Mr O’Connor has now done without apology, is wholly insufficient. Chris Hipkins must explain his party's position, and how someone with such hateful views and poor judgement can hold a senior position in Foreign Affairs in the Labour Party."

Juliet Moses, President, New Zealand Jewish Council

© Scoop Media