Israel and the Pacific – a surprisingly close 'friendship'

Why does Israel cultivate close ties with Pacific nations? And why are many Pacific nations eager to back Israel? Indira Stewart reports on a long and increasingly close relationship with complex political and religious motivations.

On February 1, Israel opened its first Indigenous Embassy in Jerusalem, the ceremony supported and attended by indigenous leaders from around the world, including from the Pacific. A video of the launch, posted by the Friends of Zion Museum, shows Māori and Pacific leaders dancing, singing and celebrating with Israeli dignitaries.

Meanwhile in Aotearoa, the political year had kicked off with Rātana celebrations and the nation was preparing for our own Waitangi Day event. What was happening in Jerusalem, thousands of kilometres away, went largely unnoticed here.

That’s despite the embassy being founded and co-led by a New Zealand group. It was the vision of Māori academic Dr Sheree Trotter – a pro-Israel activist and co-founder of the Indigenous Coalition of Israel group. Trotter is now the director of Israel’s new Indigenous Embassy.

Among her supporters were several Pacific leaders, including Dr Ate Moala, a former candidate for the Wellington City Council and anti-mandate activist. She had flown more than 16,000 km from Wellington and stood proudly on stage during the celebration, with her traditional Tongan fine mat wrapped around her waist.

“May the God of hope, encourage you and fill you with joy and peace and believing His promises that Israel is forever. Amen,” she told the crowd of more than 200 who erupted in applause.

Two weeks later, she is sitting on a bench in South Auckland’s Botanical gardens on a sunny morning, beaming with pride at the memory. “We went as indigenous people from the nations to stand with Jerusalem and to say to them – we acknowledge you as the indigenous people of the land,” Moala says.

She was there representing the people of Tonga and had been given the blessing of Tonga’s Queen Nanasipau’u Tuku'aho.

“She wanted to send her blessings and her prayers in support of Israel. So that was a privilege for me to send a blessing of the Queen and the people of Tonga in Jerusalem.

"It was joyous. We were dancing – which is our legacy as indigenous people.”

In the video of the embassy launch, Moala is seen dancing and holding hands with other dignitaries in what she describes was a "moving" event. “I think it was important for Jerusalem to have a celebration during this time. It was wonderful.”

Less than 80 kilometres from the singing and dancing in Jerusalem, the Israeli Military was launching strikes in Gaza. By that day the Palestinian death toll had exceeded 27,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It was 121 days since Palestinian group Hamas launched its attack on Israel’s southern fence with Gaza, killing at least 1139 people, mostly civilians, taking 240 hostages, and sparking Israel's response – a devastating, ongoing bombardment of Gaza. From late last year Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant was predicting a drawn-out war that would continue throughout 2024.

As the situation in Gaza continues, what has become increasingly evident is the staunch support of Pacific governments for Israel.

On October 27, last year, members of the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza. But Fiji, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Tonga took sides with Israel, voting against the ceasefire motion. Kiribati, Palau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu chose to abstain, and Samoa’s vote was absent.

Just weeks before, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met privately with several Pacific leaders in New York. Henry Puna, the head of the Pacific Islands Forum, which is the regional body representing Pacific governments, was there.

“I can tell you quite openly that we had a very fruitful meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” says Puna, a former Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.

“He offered help with our fisheries, our management, our water issues, agriculture, promising to send a high-level delegation of officials that are experts in those areas to see how they could help with the Pacific. And you know, the Cook Islands have been in diplomatic relationship with Israel for a long time now and they’ve been very helpful to us.”

That diplomatic relationship extends across the Pacific region and dates back as far as the late 70’s, beginning with Tonga. Since then, Israel has provided millions of dollars in aid and infrastructure development to various Pacific nations.

Another UN vote for a ceasefire in December saw continued staunch support for Israel as several Pacific countries maintained their positions, again voting against the ceasefire.

Pacific historian and lecturer at the university of Canterbury, Professor Steven Ratuva, says the direction of UN voting by Pacific countries has highlighted Israel’s growing political friendship with the region for years.

“In 2012, after the vote to give Palestine the non-member observer status in the UN, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau – they all voted with Israel. As a result of that 2012 vote, the Israeli prime minister invited them over and promised them aid and so forth”, Ratuva says. “So Israel has been busy with this diplomatic manoeuvring in and around the Pacific.”

Israel, like the US and China, is playing a political chess game in the Pacific, says Ratuva. And it’s a region with a surprising amount of influence.

“You’re talking about almost twenty votes in the UN voting bloc,” he says. “So if you get that and you’re able to get what you want. If you control the Pacific, then strategically and militarily, you have a lot of influence in the biggest ocean in the world.”

Last year, Papua New Guinea became the fifth country to launch an embassy in Israel.

The Israeli government has also announced its commitment to bankroll a Fijian embassy in Israel too. Several other pacific countries already have honorary consuls. Countries like Samoa Tonga and Fiji, have enjoyed visa-free travel to Israel for years; and in turn Israeli citizens wanting to visit those Pacific countries have had their visitor visas waived.

The Israel-Pacific friendship is continuing to strengthen with Israel putting in a bid to become a dialogue member of the Pacific Islands forum, a position that would increase its influence and lobbying power in the region.

“The setting up of the embassy by Fiji and Papua New Guinea is a concrete manifestation of their diplomatic engagement taking place,” says Ratuva. “So you’re going to see more of that in future. You’re going to see Israel being more active in the future in the Pacific. But it’s not new.”

As Israel’s presence in the Pacific continues to grow, so too does the political and religious divide among Pacific people.

Videos of pro-Israel marches in Samoa circulating on social media feature Church Ministers praying for Israel.

Others are joining pro-Palestine groups, waving their Pacific national flags as they march in solidarity with Palestinians.

When asked what the Pacific Islands Forum position on the Israel-Hamas war is, Puna is diplomatic. “We are a region of peace and we want to keep it that way," he says. "We are friends to all and enemy to no one.”

But the images circulating online showing Pacific people passionately taking part in protests around the world – divided in their support for either side of the Israel-Hamas conflict – are a far cry from the friendly position Puna describes.

Auckland-based pro-Palestine activist Michel Mulipola is the great-grandson of Mata’utia Karaona Solomona, the Secretary for the Mau movement which fought for liberation against the New Zealand administration in Samoa in 1929.

“Palestine’s fight today was Samoa’s fight yesterday,” says Mulipola who wants to honour his great-grandfather’s legacy of fighting for freedom.

“I support Palestine and I care about what’s happening and the massive death toll currently happening in Gaza.”

Mulipola is often seen at pro-Palestine protests in New Zealand wearing a lavalava and waving the West Papua and Samoa flags alongside the Palestinian flag.

An accomplished Comic book artist, he’s also designed Palestinian flags with Pacific cultural patterns.

“First and foremost I think they’re Colonesians,” says Mulipola.

“They’re upholding colonial standards, upholding white supremacy, upholding imperialism and capitalism and all of those things wrapped up in colonialism.

He’s frustrated that the Pacific support for Israel is fuelled in part by a sense of connection between their respective religions - Judaism and Christianity. “Our people supporting Israel through thick and thin is wrapped up in this false idea that it’s about religion and wrapped up in that is Islamophobia which is rampant among our people. Especially the very religious.”

Dr Ate Moala disagrees, arguing that younger Pacific people supporting Palestine are misinformed.

“I wish they would just learn the history of the land. There’s the narrative that Jews are colonisers. Absolutely not,” she says. “We are going back 3000 years. For the Jews, that’s their homeland.”

Professor Steven Ratuva says countries like Israel and the US are successfully using religion for political leverage in the Pacific.

“Often economic and political strategic interests are said to shape foreign policy but in this particular case, it’s much more than that.

“There are beliefs in the Pacific that the Pacific people are descendants of the lost tribe of Israel. Those beliefs are still strong in places like Fiji. So it’s very easy to use the political leveraging mechanism to mobilise support of those ideas of being indigenous and linked to Israel.”

In October, Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand and the Pacific, Ran Yaakoby wrote to the Samoa National Council of Churches asking church leaders to pray over the situation in Israel.

He declined an interview with 1News but has written several op-eds for news platforms across the Pacific, such as the Samoa Observer.

Yaakoby encouraged Samoans to publicly stand in solidarity with Israel and for elected officials to make public statements. “It’s imperative that the public is well-informed to foster a balanced understanding and support for Israel in these trying times,” he wrote. “One needs to choose to be on the right side of history.”

Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Puna, says he’s “not concerned at all” about any influence Israel might have over the Pacific region. “How national governments choose their diplomacy and how they choose to engage with any particular country is a sovereign position for each country to make,” he says.

He hasn’t spoken to Israeli PM Netanyahu since their private meeting in September, just two weeks before the Hamas attack on October 7.

It was there that Prime Minister Netanyahu told Puna and the other Pacific leaders present, “You've been wonderful friends of Israel. Israel is your friend.”

It is a line Netanyahu uses often when describing his relationship with the Pacific. In 2018, he told former Samoa Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, when he visited Israel, “There’s an abiding friendship between Samoa and Israel and we greet you here as a friend.”

It’s language that no doubt resonates with the diplomatic Puna and his claims that the region is “friends to all and enemy to no one".

But the Pacific friendship with Israel is one that the world is watching.

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