David Cumin
IINZ
Ladies and gentlemen, friends, allies, the Honourable David Seymour: thank you for being here today. It is heartening to see so many in the crowd and an honour to share the stage with such wonderful people who have also fought against antisemitism and for the principles that underpin our great nation.
Kiwis, we’re supposed to pride ourselves on kindness, tolerance, and a fair go for all. That’s why it’s embarrassing and enraging that we need a rally against antisemitism. In 2025.
We are so lucky to live in a democracy where we can generally speak our minds and live our lives without fear of reprisal from police or the intolerant mob. But let’s not kid ourselves: that democracy is looking a bit shaky these days and I want it strong for my children and for their children. The shakes are largely due to vocal activists hell-bent on dragging us into their nightmare fantasy of radical upheaval.
And guess who’s the convenient scapegoat in their wannabe revolution? The Jews, of course. Though, they prefer to call us ‘Zionists’ nowadays because that’s become an acceptable slur in some circles. It shouldn’t be! While the words might change, antisemitism is the classic first step for extremists who want to tear down our liberal way of life.
Activists, academics, unions, NGOs, even some politicians in New Zealand peddle this prejudice disguised as ‘justice’ and it bleeds straight into violent Jew-hatred. Don’t just take my or Lucy’s or Juliet’s word: Australia’s ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) boss, Mike Burgess, has warned repeatedly that anti-Israel rhetoric is fuelling and normalising wider antisemitic narratives and that inflamed language can lead to violence.
He’s right and it’s happening here too.
When crowds chant “globalize the intifada” – led by union bosses like Joe Carolan (Unite Union) or cheered on by the likes of Chlöe Swarbrick and Phil Twyford – they’re not calling for peace, they’re calling for suicide bombings, stabbings, and mass murder exported worldwide. The intifada wasn’t a yoga retreat: it was terror.
These chants are just as vile as far-right slogans like ‘blood and soil’. Both scream for violence. Both deserve total condemnation. Yet one seems to get a free pass from media and leaders who claim to hate bigotry, like Helen Clark’s husband (Peter Byard Davis), who wrote “you reap what you sow” when hateful antisemitic graffiti was exposed in Wellington.
The double-standard and victim-blaming must stop being accepted.
We must oppose the new face of the world’s oldest hate as we oppose neo-Nazis. No more double standards. No more excuses. Hatred is hatred.
Enough is enough.
If all you’ve been taught about antisemitism is that Hitler was bad and we should all be nice, then wake up. You also need to learn about communist antisemitism under the Soviets and Islamist Jew-hatred – and be willing to oppose it all.
When John Minto sets up hotlines to hunt down Israelis in New Zealand, or when his organisation glorifies terror, we shouldn’t just shrug while MPs stay in his hate-filled social media groups or show up to his events.
When academics obsess over boycotting Israel and demonise self-defence, while ignoring every other war on earth, we must call it what it is: obsessive bigotry. And when academics seek to kick “Zionists” out of universities, vice-chancellors should demand tolerance, not hide.
When our national counter-extremism research centre appoints a terror-justifier like Mohan Dutta to a key committee, we deserve an apology and self-reflection, not silence, from Paul Spoonley, Joanna Kidman, and their board (including Dave Moskovitz and Andy George).
When teachers brainwash kids with one-sided anti-Israel poison, we should demand change. Toss the propaganda out with the mouldy lunches. Don’t serve both to impressionable students.
When our government keeps pouring our tax money into schools using textbooks that glorify Jew-murder, we deserve accountability. We see you Bede Corry and your MFAT (New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) leaders.
When MPs like Gerry Brownlee and Brooke van Velden MP call for designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in opposition, then flip-flop when in power, we see that foreign affairs and possible trade is put before our national security. It has to stop.
When senior police (New Zealand Police) like Rakesh Naidoo make social media videos with hate preachers, it’s hard not to wonder if we really are properly protected.
When once-respected organisations like Amnestu International and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand spend two years demonising Israel before they can admit to the rape and slaughter by Hamas, it should spell an end to their donations.
And when the United Nations and its bodies like UNESCO can’t bring themselves to acknowledge Jewish indigeneity, let alone stop singling Israel out for unique hate, we must end our unquestioning support and complicity.
Enough is enough.
This year alone, we’ve seen Jews murdered in Washington, Colorado, Manchester, and the horrific Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach, where terrorists gunned down families lighting candles.
Heartbreaking. Shocking.
But not surprising.
After each act of terror, I had hoped things would change – that the hate would be recognized and called out. Yet we’ve been told to ‘lean into’ our discomfort, and we’ve been gaslit and we’ve been ignored. Our government even cut security funding amidst unprecedented levels of incidents.
And that’s the ongoing tragedy. Things must change.
Enough is enough.
Enough ‘thoughts and prayers’ and ‘we stand against all hate’ platitudes only when we are burying our cherished whānau. Those words are hollow virtue signaling if you won’t condemn the hate fueling the killers – whether it’s neo-Nazis, Islamist radicals, those who deny Jews the right to a home in our ancient indigenous land, and those who treat the Jewish state as the world’s scapegoat.
Chris Hipkins MP mourns dead Jews but has remained silent while his party tolerated MPs justifying October 7th or peddling conspiracy nonsense about a “Zionist Jewish lobby”. He wanted laws to criminalise ‘hate speech’ but can’t even deal with hateful statements from within his party.
The nzherald.co.nz published a front-page opinion lamenting vile posts online, then printed a letter saying the Bondi massacre was “terrible… but…” But nothing. Why publish such an excuse for terror? Stuff rejected an advert remembering the hostages, but ran full-page propaganda ads against us. We see you, and we see the BSA who seem willfully blind to bias but are itching to control the internet.
Enough is enough.
Antisemitism used to be a sporadic problem in New Zealand – a few incidents a month, maximum. And even that is too many.
Since the barbaric massacre led by Hamas in 2023, there have been incidents here every few days, at least. Assaults, threats, harassment, vandalism and watching our kids get abused and assaulted at schools.
But antisemitism isn’t a ‘Jewish problem’: it’s a New Zealand problem; it’s a problem for liberal democracies everywhere. That’s why the liberal democracy of Israel is truly on the front lines – because the evil behind Hamas is the same evil that took the innocent souls in Bondi and Manchester and Washington and Colorado this year.
And it is an evil that won’t stop if the Jews disappear. It’s an evil that seeks to take away our liberties – to impose its version of utopia on society. And all attempts at utopia have ended in blood and chains. We must oppose it, as decent Kiwis.
So here’s the call: No more excuses. No more hypocrisy.
– Leaders: defund the hate, proscribe the terror, and walk your recent talk.
– Media: do your job honestly. Earn back our trust.
– Teachers: teach facts, don’t preach hate.
– Fellow Kiwis: speak up when you hear the hate chants, the slurs, the double standards. Write the letters, have the hard chats, get involved.
Stand united against all hate, or watch the radicals chip away our democracy.
We’re resilient. We’ve outlasted worse than this lot. But it takes effort. Today, we say enough. Neo-Nazis, Islamist extremists, and vile leftists must equally be kept in check – not selectively allowed to infiltrate our politics or be lauded by our media. Let’s make New Zealand the country it claims to be: one where hate loses every time.
Thank you everyone for being here. Thank you to all those who have been making a stand. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with words of support. And thank you to anyone finally seeing ‘human rights’ was just a mask for hate. It’s never too late to wake up, reflect, and fight for the tolerant, democratic New Zealand we love.
Let’s keep working to make a brighter future for our children.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
