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Comments (0)Israel was granted membership in a United Nations regional group in Geneva.
Israel’s membership in JUSCANZ—an acronym for Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—was approved last week by consensus. The group also includes Norway, Switzerland and several other democratic countries.
The move was hailed by both the American Jewish Committee and its Geneva affiliate, U.N. Watch, which called it a “historic accomplishment.”
Israel has long been prevented from joining regional groups at the United Nations, a state of affairs that has inhibited its full participation in the world body and roused the ire of its Foreign Ministry and American Jewish groups, which considered the exclusion a blatant contravention of the U.N. charter’s guarantee of state equality.
In 2000, Israel was admitted to the Western European and Others Group, or WEOG, at U.N. headquarters in New York.
“Admission to JUSCANZ is another step on the long road to ending systemic discrimination against Israel within the U.N. system,” AJC Executive Director David Harris said in a statement.
British Kosher Food Companies Raided
Two British kosher food companies were raided for having illegal workers.
The Great Food Company and Gilbert Kosher Foods could be fined up to $113,000, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
Five men working for The Great Food Company were found to be Sri Lankan and face charges for having counterfeit documents. Two men from Gilbert Kosher Foods were found to be working illegally while their asylum applications are being processed, according to the Chronicle.
British Border Agency staff interrogated 56 employees in the raid, according to the newspaper.
Both companies have the same managing director, who is facing stiff fines for knowingly hiring illegal workers.
Israelis Found Posing as Maori for Tourists
Israelis living in New Zealand were found to be posing as Maoris for a local tour operator.
Discovery Heritage Group conceded Tuesday that it had hired Europeans and Israelis to pose as Maori for passengers disembarking from ships at the port of Tauranga on New Zealand’s north island.
Maori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.
The Maori impersonators dressed up in traditional robes and had fake Maori tattoos painted on their faces because some of the Maori are “too lazy to get out of bed,” local media quoted Terina Puriri, the director of the Discovery Heritage Group, as saying.
The group has been banned from operating at the port because of the breach of security.
The Israelis and other Maori impersonators danced the traditional haka and asked disembarking passengers if they wished to pose for a photo with an indigenous New Zealander.
Puriri, who is Maori, was reported as saying that “some of our Maori are too slack to promote themselves ... some of our Maori are too lazy to get out of bed to do that.”
But HuiKakahu Kawe, the chairman of the local Maori tribe, was reported as saying, “We have Maori operators that are operating successfully in the tour business who do get up in the morning and do the business.”
Puriri said critics should “relax” and “stop splitting hairs,” the Associated Press reported.