13 Comments

Yes, the government's acceptance of Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid must be defended on the world stage.

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Honestly, given everything that has happened over the last 15 months, perhaps we should be declining visas to active and reserve members of the IDF? Our government has done almost nothing to hold them accountable besides endorsing a handful of UN motions

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Israeli passport holders do not need to apply for visitor's visa.

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I'm saddened that Mr Cruz think kiwis would be unwelcoming to vicious, genocidal war criminals! Ethnic cleansing is a difficult and complicated process and those involved in it need a nice holiday sometimes.

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Time for this government to grow a back bone and rid itself of its reputation of supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. With America as a friend who needs enemies. Yep we’ll be next on the its tariff list. Thank god for China

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I doubt Cruz's ignorance will hurt NZ's tourism attractiveness...most of our visitors would not be people likely to pay much, if any attention to Cruz. In fact, given that NZ enjoy's a reputation as a stable, liberal polity it's likely Cruz's cheap shot, to extent anyone is listening to him, will be a net asset to our tourism marketing effort.

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Im (ashamed to say i was ignorant of this and am) shocked to find out that Israelis don't need a visa to come here. Wtf.

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So great to know that we are keen to welcome war criminals with open arms here in good old Aotearoa. I hope no one got confused and thought we had a backbone for a second. How terrible.

Why is media and Spinoff reporting that the Anti genocide hotline is being called antisemitic with no commentary to dispute that? It's very one sided reporting.

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As far as I can see, the first report that New Zealand was requiring Israelis to declare their war crimes was in The Times of Israel on 28 January, https://archive.ph/e2tfc. Haaretz seems to have picked up the story from there.

It's interesting that Cruz, Peters, and New Zealand media, all seem comfortable to pin the blame for the misreporting on the left-wing Haaretz, reviled in Israel for its lonely stand against the genocide of the Palestinians.

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> Finance minister Nicola Willis told Bloomberg last year that we should be exempt. “Our starting position is please don’t do that,” Willis said in December.

Naive, wishful thinking. Trump's a bully. If he has any reason to pay attention to us, he'll bully us, too.

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So Luxon didn’t have a chat with his new bestie Cruz about the issue?

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The governments own stand has been equivocating and weak. The inaccurate reporting and scurrilous and stupid journalism in the Herald is inexcusably dangerous. In correcting our foreign Minister needs mor astute drafters of his statements.

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Peter’s third paragraph is confusing and unhelpful. In correcting impressions clarity and simple statements are essential.

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