Ashley Church
IINZ
I’ve attended many pro-Israel rallies over the years and have been a speaker at most of them – but my first experience of a ‘counter rally’, where pro-Pally protesters turn up to disrupt was in 2018.
That was the year of the 70th anniversary of the modern State of Israel. It was also about a year after the Israel Institute of NZ had been established and I was asked to be the MC for an outdoor event at Silo Park in Auckland.
But as our peaceful event kicked off, we were interrupted by a pro-Palestinian group, who stood about 50 metres away banging drums, blowing vuvuzelas, and generally creating mayhem. They didn’t attempt to engage – their sole purpose was to drown out our speeches and try to ruin the event. I was still naive at the time and I remember being confused as to why people wouldn’t want to talk and why they wouldn’t respect the free speech of others.
Now, of course, I understand that this is their modus operandi. ‘Talk’ requires an intelligent response and a cohesive argument and the pro-Palestinian movement (which has now morphed into more general support for Islamic extremism) has neither. Instead it is built entirely on mindless slogans and the gullibility of the young, the easily influenced, the woke virtue signallers and the useful idiots.
But to be fair – their approach has had some success in closing down debate and it has occurred to me, in more recent years, that we need to learn from it. Which is why I was delighted that Yifat Goddard and Nigel Woodley decided to hold a pro-Israel rally on parliament grounds in Wellington, recently, to counter a rally of pro-Islamic extremists which was organised for the purpose of presenting a list of ‘demands’ to the government.
And it worked.
Around 700 supporters of Israel and the Jewish people turned up (in contrast to about 300 pro-Islamic extremists) and we simply drowned out what I’m sure its organisers were hoping would be a PR coup. The effect of our stand – which was peaceful but loud – was immediate and clearly apparent in the anxiety and alarm which spread through the participants and speakers in the extremist rally. After a few inaudible speeches, and after being subjected to yet another powerful pro-Israel Māori haka, they finished early and scurried away.
The lessons are obvious.
If we’re going to hold rallies we need to be prepared for these extremists and play them at their own game. We need to turn out in numbers and we need to drown out their attempts to speak hate and spread misinformation. As we saw earlier this week – evil can’t survive when it is confronted with truth.
By the way – as the final speaker at the recent event, I issued a few ‘demands’ of my own to the prime minister and the government:
- that the NZ Government recognises the right of Israel to defend itself and make decisions in the best interests of its national security
- that the NZ Government rejects the International Court of Justice definition of genocide, as it has been applied to Israel, as it has no credibility amongst international law experts
- that Mr Luxon revoke his foolish statement indicating that New Zealand would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to visit our country
- that the NZ Government immediately cease funding the terrorist organisation UNRWA and, instead, lobbies for the permanent dismantling of this corrupt body
- that the NZ Government renounce any UN vote which supports the dividing of Israeli territory
- that the NZ Government rejects any resolution calling for a ‘two-state solution’ until the Palestinians can demonstrate that they can maintain a long-term and sustainable peace
- that the New Zealand Government reform our universities so as to ensure that they do not continue to be a hotbed of hatred and antisemitic activism
- that state-owned broadcasters (TVNZ and Radio New Zealand) be required to treat issues in the Middle East with balance and objectivity and immediately cease their one-sided narrative
- that the New Zealand Government denounce antisemitic terrorism, such as that which took place in Melbourne recently, together with a firm undertaking that such acts will not be tolerated here
- that the New Zealand Government calls for the immediate release of the hostages taken by terrorists on 7 October
- that the New Zealand Government returns to our traditional position of support of our friends and allies in Israel
Apart from #7, on which decisive action appears to have been taken in the last few days, I’m not holding my breath.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
