Welcome to Indigenous Coalition for Israel’s inaugural newsletter!

ICFI provides a platform for indigenous voices to speak up for Israel. There have been notable indigenous supporters of Israel but in the prevailing culture they have largely gone unheard. This has meant that a false narrative concerning the Israel-Palestinian conflict has easily taken hold amongst indigenous peoples - and this has often bled into antisemitism. One of our goals is to counter the false narrative with research based articles and educational resources.

ADVISORY BOARD AND RESEARCHERS
In recent weeks we have been building a great team of advisors and researchers.

PARTICIPATION WITH OUR GLOBAL PARTNERS IN ONLINE EVENT
It’s been a busy six weeks since the Indigenous Coalition for Israel was established. We launched by participating in a global online 6-hour marathon event, organised by our partners the International Coalition for Israel, to celebrate Israel and wish the Jewish people Shana Tova. We contributed messages from Aotearoa New Zealand.  

CONNECTION TO AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS GROUP
The Indigenous Coalition For Israel also aims to cultivate collaboration and foster relationships between communities. So, we are thrilled to have formed an association with the Australian organisation, Indigenous Friends of Israel, led by Norman and Barbara Miller. Our goal is to establish a broad coalition with local and international groups and we are currently building relationships with various iwi and reaching out to like-minded groups and individuals internationally. 

MEDIA RELEASES AND LETTER TO FOREIGN MINISTER
Our first press release urged the Foreign Minister Hon. Nanaia Mahuta to not attend the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the antisemitic Durban World Conference against Racism planned for the 22 September. We followed up with a letter to the minister.  Even though it was a last minute decision, we were thrilled that NZ decided to pull out of the problematic event. This was a small but highly symbolic shift in a concerning trajectory of anti-Israel decisions made by NZ in recent years. 

The first anniversary of the Abrahamic Accords also took place in the month of September.  Indigenous Coalition For Israel took the opportunity to issue a media release urging New Zealand to follow the example of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco and pursue a closer bi-lateral relationship with Israel. If these countries, formerly enemies, could build close ties with Israel, why couldn’t New Zealand? After all we have been allies and profess the same democratic freedom loving values. If the UAE and Bahrain can have ambassadors in Israel, then why not New Zealand?

LETTER TO NZ SUPER FUND
As indigenous peoples we identify with the Jews and recognise that their return to the land should be viewed as the return of an indigenous people to ancestral territories. Therefore, we wrote to the NZ Super Fund to object to their decision to divest from Israeli banks, which provide mortgages to Israelis wishing to build homes in the settlements. Under the Oslo Accords, Israelis have the right to build in Area C of the West Bank. According to Article 26 of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which New Zealand is a signatory, ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired’. We haven’t yet had a response from NZ Super Fund, but we hope they will do the right thing and reverse their discriminatory decision. 

RESOURCES
We have been busy adding research based articles to our website. Please take some time to view our articles section.

JOIN US
We thank you for following our work and invite your feedback and comments. We hope our efforts will contribute to a shift in the anti-Israel narrative internationally. If you have ideas, contacts, feedback, please contact us. Follow us on Facebook and please share our work with others.

FUNDING
Indigenous Coalition For Israel recently registered as a charitable trust (we do not have donee status). Trustees are Hon Alfred Ngaro, Dr Sheree Trotter and solicitor Graham Simpson. We need funding to achieve our goals so please consider making a monthly donation to support this important work.

Some of our readers will not have seen the video of Ngapuhi’s powhiri for the Israeli Ambassador, held at Waitangi earlier this year. ICFI Director Hon Alfred Ngaro has played this video at many of his meetings around NZ and reports his audiences have been deeply moved. We close this newsletter by encouraging you to view and share this powerful video.