Jackson, Ngarewa-Packer and Davidson certainly do not own the Māori view on Palestine - there is no monolithic Māori view on any subject, nor should there be. But they demean Māori by standing on the side of barbarism and depravity and by continuing to mislead their constituency.

To the extent it accurately reflects the wider Māori sentiment – and this point really needs to be hovered over – such an unapologetic abandonment of the Jewish state represents something of a historical swerve. Even before the establishment of New Zealand in 1840, relations between local Māori, who now account for around 17 per cent of the population, and the country’s Jewish community, which has never numbered more than 10,000 souls, have been notably good.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s infantile analysis and accusations reflect a wider determination to force Israel into a fashionable narrative manufactured in elite European universities. So, whose minds are being colonized here? My cousins in Israel must fight a demonic hatred, but its tentacles reach far – fed by complacency, arrogance and fashion.

Dr Sheree Trotter discusses the complexity of the Gaza situation.

The situation in the region is both tragic and highly complex. It is a region that has a history, since time immemorial, of war and division. It fires passions of an unholy (and, sometimes, holy) nature. But it is the place of ahi kā for the Jews and always will be.

We call on the Government of New Zealand to immediately:

Condemn outright, without any excuses or justifications, the actions by Hamas

To proscribe Hamas, and all parts of it, as a terrorist organisation

Support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people

As the details of the barbaric acts against Israelis become clear, the leadership of Hamas, the Iranian Regime, and the Hamas paymasters, the Qatari Regime, are guilty of carrying out and supporting a pogrom, and actually celebrating these unspeakable crimes.

Antisemitism globally is displaying an alarming upward trend, a trend that is coincidental with, and likely lubricated and accelerated by, increasing polarization within western style democracies. As is painfully obvious, the latter is a phenomenon from which Israel is not exempt.