 | |
| Founder(s) | Alfred Ngaro; Sheree Trotter |
|---|---|
| Established | 2021 |
| Location | New Zealand |
| Website | indigenouscoalition.org |
The Indigenous Coalition for Israel (ICFI) is a New Zealand based organisation that aims to foster a unified indigenous voice in support of Israel, both domestically and globally, by promoting education and cultural engagement. [1] [2] It was founded by former Cabinet of New Zealand government minister Alfred Ngaro and academic Sheree Trotter. [2] [3]
ICFI aims to address the underrepresentation of indigenous supporters for Israel in the prevailing cultural discourse, aiming to educate on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. ICFI seeks to change the perception of Israel among Māori and Pasifika communities to create greater understanding and to address the lack of an official Māori or indigenous entity to represent a pro-Israel stance. [2] [4] [5]
ICFI uses various platforms to communicate their message, including its website, articles, newsletters, videos, social media and face-to-face engagement. [4] [6]
Sheree Trotter, co-founder of ICFI, is an academic and researcher who writes on rising antisemitism in Western-style democracies. [7] [8] [9] Trotter earned her PhD in History at the University of Auckland and her thesis was on Zionism in New Zealand. [10] Trotter is a Māori Te Arawa indigenous person from New Zealand and believes there is a misconception that Jews are colonisers in Israel. Through her work with ICFI she emphasises the Jewish historical connection to Israel. [11] [12] [13] [14]
Alfred Ngaro, co-founder of ICFI and former Cabinet of New Zealand government minister, has stated that he is a Zionist and supports the Jewish people in the "Land of Israel". He reflects on his Jewish grandmother, who came to the Cook Islands, and describes himself as a Cook Islander, Polynesian by birth and Jewish by descent. [15] [16]
In April 2023, ICFI supported a press statement alongside several other organisations condemning the rocket attacks fired from Gaza and Southern Lebanon into Israel, and called on the New Zealand government to do the same. [17]
In December 2023, ICFI criticised a petition with 5000 signatories entitled the "Māori Call for Palestine" which urged the New Zealand government to intensify its support for Palestinians in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. The petition included measures such as expelling the New Zealand-based Israeli ambassador until a ceasefire is reached and imposing economic sanctions on businesses linked with Israel's military actions. [18] In addition, the petition accuses Israel of genocide, apartheid and occupation which Trotter, as spokesperson for ICFI, deemed "problematic" and "deeply misguided". Trotter is quoted as saying, "...it doesn’t really show a recognition or understanding of the geopolitics of the region or the history of the region. It throws around some pretty provocative terms that I would challenge as being incorrect and I think it fails to recognise what Israel is dealing with with Hamas.” [18]
In 2024, the Indigenous Coalition For Israel initiated the creation of the first-ever Indigenous People Embassy in Jerusalem, [19] located on the Friends of Zion Museum campus. [20] This project, recognized as the 100th embassy in the State of Israel, aims to modify the narrative among indigenous peoples worldwide, emphasizing the ancestral connections indigenous groups have to their lands and resources. It seeks to acknowledge the social and cultural distinctions that define indigenous populations across the globe. [20]
The establishment of the embassy received support from indigenous leaders from various regions, including Singapore, Taiwan, Samoa, American Samoa, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, along with Native American and Southern African chiefs. [20]
According to Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, indigenous peoples, with their intrinsic connections to their territories, are well-positioned to counter narratives that aim to disconnect the Jewish people from their ancestral lands. [20]
Te Pāti Māori, also known as the Māori Party, is a political party in New Zealand advocating Māori rights. With the exception of a handful of general electorates, Te Pāti Māori contests the reserved Māori electorates, in which its main rival is the Labour Party.
In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that give reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament. Every area in New Zealand is covered by both a general and a Māori electorate; as of 2020, there are seven Māori electorates. Since 1967, candidates in Māori electorates have not needed to be Māori themselves, but to register as a voter in the Māori electorates people need to declare that they are of Māori descent.
Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand Māori activist and former parliamentarian. He was elected to parliament as the member for the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in 2005 as the Māori Party candidate.
Tāme Wairere Iti is a New Zealand Māori activist, artist, actor and social worker. Of Ngāi Tūhoe descent, Iti rose to prominence as a member of the protest group Ngā Tamatoa in 1970s Auckland, becoming a key figure of the Māori protest movement and the Māori renaissance. Since then, he has become a renowned activist for the rights of Māori and the process of co-governance and decolonisation.
Ngā Tamatoa was a Māori activist group that operated throughout the 1970s to promote Māori rights, fight racial discrimination, and confront injustices perpetrated by the New Zealand Government, particularly violations of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Israel–New Zealand relations are the foreign relations between the State of Israel and New Zealand. While Israel has an embassy in Wellington, New Zealand's embassy in Ankara, Turkey is accredited to Israel. Diplomatic relations between the two countries date back to January 1949. New Zealand has exported a mixture of agricultural and manufactured goods to Israel. In return, Israel has exported a range of manufactured goods to New Zealand. Bilateral relations between the two countries have been complicated by issues such as the 2004 Israel–New Zealand passport scandal, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Te Tai Tokerau is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate that was created out of the Northern Maori electorate ahead of the first Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) election in 1996. It was held first by Tau Henare representing New Zealand First for one term, and then Dover Samuels of the Labour Party for two terms. From 2005 to 2014, it was held by MP Hone Harawira. Initially a member of the Māori Party, Harawira resigned from both the party and then Parliament, causing the 2011 by-election. He was returned under the Mana Party banner in July 2011 and confirmed at the November 2011 general election. In the 2014 election, he was beaten by Labour's Kelvin Davis, ending the representation of the Mana Party in Parliament.
Philip Stoner Twyford is a politician from New Zealand and a member of the Labour Party. He has been a Member of Parliament since 2008. He is the Labour Party MP for Te Atatū.
Kelvin Glen Davis is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the House of Representatives, and was a senior minister in the Sixth Labour Government and the deputy leader of the New Zealand Labour Party from 2017 to 2023.
Annette Te Imaima Sykes is a Rotorua activist and lawyer who advocates for the rights of Māori tribes to be self-governing. She was ranked third on the joint Internet Mana list for the 2014 New Zealand general election.
Alfred Ngaro is a New Zealand politician, serving as leader of New Zeal since 2023. He was a list member of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2011 to 2020, representing the National Party.
Duncan Alexander Webb is a New Zealand lawyer and politician. He was elected as a Member the New Zealand House of Representatives for Christchurch Central, representing the Labour Party, in the 2017 general election.
Hilda Peters is a New Zealand rugby league footballer who plays for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL Women's Premiership.
The Māori land march of 1975 was a protest led by the group Te Rōpū Matakite, created by Dame Whina Cooper. The hīkoi (march) started in Northland on 14 September, travelled the length of the North Island, and arrived at the parliament building in Wellington on 13 October 1975. The purpose of the march was to protest the loss of Māori rights and land through the actions of Pākehā (Europeans). Over the 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) course of the march it grew from 50 to approximately 5,000 people.
NewZeal is a socially conservative political party in New Zealand, currently led by Alfred Ngaro.
Maisey Rika is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and composer, performing in both English and Māori. Her five original albums have each reached the Top 40 in the Official New Zealand Music Chart. She was named an Arts Foundation Laureate in 2021, has received awards at the Waiata Māori Music Awards and APRA Awards, including APRA Best Māori Songwriter in 2010 and 2013, and has twice won Best Māori Language Album at the NZ Music Awards.
"Ka Taria" ("Waiting") is a song by New Zealand musicians Rob Ruha and Drax Project. A song sung in Māori and English, it was released as a single during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. It was the third Drax Project song released as a part of the Waiata / Anthems project, following "I Moeroa / Woke Up Late", and Ruha's second, after "35". The song debuted at number 17 on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart, the highest position by a New Zealand artist's song that week. By the end of 2022, it was the 20th most successful Te Reo Māori song of the year in New Zealand.
Co-governance in New Zealand consists of various negotiated arrangements where Māori people and the Crown share decision-making, or Māori exercise a form of self-determination through a devolution of state power. Notable examples include the co-management of natural resources as part of the provision of Māori social services by Māori-focused entities, and statutory Māori representation in local government bodies. In addition Treaty of Waitangi settlements from 2008 often had co-governance agreements where the iwi involved worked with significant rivers, watersheds, coastlines and landmarks.
Antisemitism in New Zealand is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the New Zealand Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since New Zealand's Jewish community was established in the 19th century.
New Zealand–Palestine relations refer to foreign relations between New Zealand and the State of Palestine. New Zealand does not recognise Palestine as a country.