Indigenous Coalition for Israel

Based in New Zealand, the coalition operates as a charitable trust board and describes its work as raising a collective Indigenous voice in support of Israel locally and internationally.[2][3] Its programs combine public advocacy, education, cultural engagement, relationship-building, research-based media, and opposition to antisemitism. The organization also presents the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem as an international platform for Indigenous supporters of Israel.[2]

The coalition was established in New Zealand and was described as newly founded in a report published on September 3, 2021.[5] It was formed after Dr. Sheree Trotter concluded there was no official Māori or Indigenous body speaking up for Israel; she and Alfred Ngaro then created the organization together.[4]

Alfred Ngaro is a Cook Islander who served in New Zealand's House of Representatives from 2011 to 2020, making him the first Cook Islander elected to that Parliament.[6] He also served as a cabinet minister and re-established the Parliamentary Friends of Israel Group during his tenure.[6] Dr. Sheree Trotter is of Māori descent (Te Arawa) and holds a doctorate in history from the University of Auckland; her doctoral thesis focused on Zionism.[6] She is also a co-founder of the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand, established in 2012.[6]

The coalition is incorporated in New Zealand as a charitable trust board, with registration number 50078149 and NZBN 9429049907490.[3] Its address is Unit 1, 19 Edwin Street, Mount Eden, Auckland 1024, and its trustees are listed as Trotter, Ngaro, and solicitor Graham Simpson.[3]

The coalition describes its mission as raising "a collective indigenous voice in support of Israel, locally and internationally, through education and cultural engagement."[2] Its stated methods include writing and speaking in local and international forums, engaging Indigenous leaders, producing research-based resources and media, standing against antisemitism, sharing Indigenous stories, and supporting Indigenous initiatives and collaboration.[2]

The coalition's advocacy centers on the position that Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel and have maintained a connection to it across thousands of years.[5] Ngaro has stated that the Jewish people's historical ties to the Land of Israel and the revival of the Hebrew language serve as sources of inspiration for Indigenous peoples more broadly.[5] The coalition also aims to change perceptions of Israel among Māori and Pasifika communities and to build greater mutual understanding.[4]

The coalition incorporates the Māori concept of whakawhanaungatanga — relationship-building — as part of its approach.[4] By 2022 it was working with a couple of iwi groups and had established partnerships with the European Coalition for Israel and the International Coalition for Israel.[4] Its outreach has also included writing to the guardians of the New Zealand SuperFund and to Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta on Israel-related matters.[4]

Beyond directors Alfred Ngaro and Sheree Trotter, the coalition has assembled an advisory council drawing from Māori, Pasifika, and other Indigenous communities. Dr. Ate Moala, a Tongan public-health medicine specialist, serves on the council alongside Bradford Haami, a journalist and media creative who works on Māori storytelling and teaches and writes about Māori history and knowledge.[6] Other council members include Moka Ngaro, described as Samoan-Niuean, and Moana Tipa, who brings decades of experience in Māori-related writing, broadcasting, and the arts.[6]

The coalition also memorializes Ngāpuhi kaumatua Patrick Tupoto Ruka, who died in November 2021 and had long cultivated friendship between the Ngāpuhi people and Israel.[6]

Since its founding, the coalition has engaged in pro-Israel activism across multiple fronts. Coalition members participated in demonstrations supporting Israel during the May 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, and the Māori iwi Ngāpuhi organized a pro-Israel demonstration during the same period.[5] The coalition also said it would work toward an international support network encompassing Indigenous organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.[5]

On October 16, 2023, one week after the Hamas terrorist attacks, Māori leaders in northern New Zealand hosted a hui — a community gathering — to express support for Israel and the Jewish people.[7] Representatives of Rātana, Kiingitanga, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua, Te Arawa, and various churches attended, with participants from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato also present.[7] Pastor Tawhiri Littlejohn, the organizer, stated that participants condemned Hamas's attacks and affirmed Israel's right to defend its country and citizens.[7]

The coalition publishes articles and videos on its website and says it aims to produce research-based resources, correct what it regards as misconceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and foster education and cultural exchange.[2][4]

The coalition's most prominent initiative has been the establishment of an Indigenous Embassy in Jerusalem. Trotter first raised the idea with Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum in September 2023.[8] The following month, Māori leaders Bradford and Selina Haami and Pastor Greg Motu met with Hassan-Nahoum at the Friends of Zion Museum to discuss the concept further.[8] Hassan-Nahoum endorsed the project as a symbolic embassy — explicitly "not a political entity" — and the coalition proceeded to lead its development.[8]

Plans for the embassy were publicly announced in January 2024, with the Friends of Zion Museum designated as its location and an opening scheduled for February 1, 2024.[9][10] The project drew support from Indigenous leaders from Samoa, American Samoa, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, and South Africa, as well as Native American chiefs.[10]

The embassy opened on February 1, 2024, with more than 200 people in attendance.[1] At the ceremony, Gil Haskel, identified as Israel's Chief of State Protocol, described it as the 100th embassy in Israel, while Deputy Mayor Hassan-Nahoum called it the fifth embassy in Jerusalem.[8] Trotter declared at the opening: "We recognize that Jews are the indigenous people of this land, and we stand with you and your struggle."[1] Before the launch, she had said it would convey "a strong message of solidarity from indigenous peoples around the world."[9]

The embassy was conceived as an information hub, with plans to host academic symposia, develop digital material addressing misinformation about Israel, and serve as a center for Indigenous visitors.[1][10] The coalition acknowledged that formalizing and funding the embassy's goals remained work to be completed after the launch.[8]

A defining feature of the coalition's platform is its assertion that Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel. The coalition connects Jewish indigeneity to the historical development of the Jewish people's nation, language, sacred literature, beliefs, customs, and traditions in the Land of Israel.[1] Trotter has argued that because Jewish history, culture, language, and religion developed in the ancestral homeland, Zionism should be understood as a model of Indigenous self-determination rather than a colonial project.[11]

Ngaro has similarly pointed to the revival of the Hebrew language as a source of inspiration for Indigenous peoples seeking to preserve their own languages and cultures.[5] The coalition holds that false narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have taken root among Indigenous communities and have contributed to antisemitism, and it presents combating those narratives as central to its mission.[2]

The coalition's core positions — that Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel and that prevalent narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are false — are politically and historically contested. News coverage attributes these positions to the organization and its co-founders rather than presenting them as neutral conclusions.[1][5] The coalition also advances claims about Palestinian and Jewish indigeneity and links certain conflict narratives to antisemitism; these are presented here as its advocacy positions.[5][2]

Similarly, while the Jerusalem initiative is referred to as an embassy by the coalition and in media coverage, it does not officially represent any government. Hassan-Nahoum's involvement was described as support for a symbolic rather than political entity.[10][8]