Man burns Israeli passports outside NZ embassy

Thursday, 25 July 2024

A Jewish man has burned two old Israeli passports outside the Embassy of Israel in Wellington, in a symbolic gesture against the war in Gaza.

Rick Sahar set two old Israeli passports on fire outside the embassy’s capital headquarters on Thursday morning. He retained his current Israeli passport, as well as his New Zealand and United States passports, saying he might need his Israeli passport to travel back in case of an emergency.

Sahar said he hoped the act would get the attention of the embassy and the Israeli ambassador to New Zealand Ran Yaakoby.

The New Zealand-based activist groups that Sahar is part of have called on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel to withdraw from Gaza as the Hamas-Israel war rages on.

Sahar, who lives in New Zealand, burned the passports in a snap protest attended by a small group of other demonstrators. “I am so disgusted by the behaviour of the Israeli government that today I have burnt my Israeli passport in protest. This burning also marks my commitment to devote myself to fighting for Palestinian rights,” he said in an emailed statement.

Israel’s military launched a fresh attack in southern Gaza in the last days, after ordering Palestinians to leave several neighbourhoods including areas that had been designated by the military as part of a humanitarian zone, according to the Guardian.

The Palestinian health ministry has said at least 39,145 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 as a result of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

It comes amid protests in Washington DC in the United States over the arrival of Netanyahu, including a sit-in at a congressional office building that ended with multiple arrests, according to the Associated Press.