The chief executive of the Auckland Memorial Museum, David Reeves, apologized to pro-Palestinian activists on Monday for the museum’s expression of solidarity with the victims of Hamas’s massacre of 1,300 Israelis on October 7th, many of whom were raped, tortured, and burned alive – including babies and the elderly. Thousands were wounded, and approximately 200 civilians were taken captive to Gaza.
On Sunday night, the museum was lit up in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag. Shortly afterwards, anti-Israel activists blacked it out, covering the lights with fabric.
The Israel Institute of New Zealand said on social media that the pro-Palestinian protesters not only covered the lighting, but also “damaged lights.” Video from the scene shows a large crowd waving Palestinian flags and honking horns.
Showing support to Israeli victims of terror caused "distress"
“We wanted this to be an expression of hope for peace. Our approach was wrong, and I personally apologize for the distress and hurt caused to members of our community,” Reeves said in a statement on Monday, referring to the pro-Palestinians who were enraged by the show of support for the Israeli victims.
“I am carefully reviewing and reflecting on all of the feedback we have received. As a War Memorial Museum, we continue to hope for deeper understanding and a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” he said.
Juliet Moses told New Zealand’s 1News that the blue-and-white lighting was a “very nice and strong message of solidarity for the victims of the horrendous terrorist attacks... The museum has lit up before for other victims of terrorist attacks. There are some things that transcend politics or geopolitics.”
Considering “the absolute savagery of these attacks that were unprecedented and indeed have given Jewish people their most deadly day since the Holocaust, I think this message deserved to be given dignity and the Jewish people also given dignity and the time to mourn,” she said, adding that an apology on behalf of the museum seems like a betrayal. “I think it’s cowardly and very disappointing.”
Police arrived at the museum Sunday evening after tensions broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators. The officers remained on site from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m., when the crowd dispersed, several local news sites reported. There were no reports of injuries.
According to Janfrie Wakim, a member of the Auckland Museum Institute, the pro-Palestinian protest, in which she reportedly participated, was a “very non-violent act of defiance.” She told the New Zealand Herald that she was “very outraged” about the lighting.
Wakim, however, is not a neutral observer, to say the least. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign in New Zealand, she has a long history of condemning Israel. One example among many: In June 2010, wearing a keffiyeh, she addressed a demonstration against the IDF “massacre” of Turkish aid workers on the Gaza flotilla in which she lamented the “Nakba” (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) of 1948, when the State of Israel was established.
Commenting on the apology, Shanna Ross, an expat from Auckland now living in Toronto, told The Jerusalem Post, “Never have I been more ashamed to have come from New Zealand than I am now.”