June 19, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

An official government website of New Zealand published a fact sheet with a map of Middle East that only identified Palestine and erased Israel. The government immediately removed this fact sheet from the website after receiving severe comments from social media.

The Immigration of New Zealand’s website showed this fact sheet to provide information for Palestinian immigrants to New Zealand. This fact sheet noted that East Jerusalem was the designated capital of the State of Palestine. It also pointed out that Israel caused the massive repression of Palestine during the Second Intifada. The website listed the economic sanctions of Israel and a blockade on the Hams-controlled Gaza without brief explanation.

The Israel Institute of New Zealand had reacted to this event. The Institute Director, Ashley Church stated that the most terrible error was that the official government identified the whole modern Israel as Palestine. This was very offensive. She also mentioned that the official government should apologize immediately and promised this will not reflect Government policy. In addition, the Immigration of New Zealand should launch the investigation to figure out who should take responsibility for the chaos. 

Photo:Webshot.