An Australian senator has demanded tighter immigration controls coupled with trade sanctions against New Zealand after it co-sponsored a United Nations resolution condemning Israel’s West Bank settlements.
The upper house representative also wants the Australian government to back Israel and take serious steps to stop the “world-wide targeting of the Jewish state”.
Sen. Malcolm Roberts (pictured) of the One Nation Party said he was “appalled” at New Zealand co-sponsoring a resolution in the UN Security Council criticising Israeli settlements as violating international law and undermining a two-state solution with Palestine.
“If Australia had applied pressure to New Zealand in a serious manner, the new English government would have thought twice before stabbing our ally in the front,” Sen. Roberts said in a press release.
The resolution was passed 14-0 at the last council meeting of 2016, and New Zealand’s final meeting in its two-year term as an elected member of the Security Council.
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, Israel immediately condemned the vote with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming President Barack Obama for allowing the UN to “gang up” on Israel. Mr. Netanyahu also recalled the Israeli ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal, two of the countries that proposed the UN Security Council anti-settlement resolution along with Venezuela.
Sen. Roberts said immigration controls for New Zealanders travelling to Australia should now be reviewed in the light of the ballot.
“At the very least we should look at further cutting benefits for New Zealanders living in Australia. Perhaps a tougher immigration policy aimed towards New Zealand would stop Kiwis from establishing settlements in Australia.”
Sen. Roberts then took aim at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for comments made regarding Israeli settlements, calling him a “lame duck” for issuing a harsh warning to Israel that it could be either democratic or a Jewish state, but not both.
“Israel is the Jewish state, and it’s the only Middle Eastern democracy where Christians, Muslims, atheists and Jews can all be elected to the same parliament,” he said.
“Israel is Jewish and democratic, unlike most Islamic countries.”