Photo posted to Reddit showing vandalism at Murray McCully's electorate office on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / Reddit
Photo posted to Reddit showing vandalism at Murray McCully's electorate office on Auckland's North Shore. Photo / Reddit
Foreign Minister and East Coast Bays MP Murray McCully's office has been vandalised after New Zealand co-sponsored a UN resolution against Israeli settlements.
A photograph posted to Reddit shows graffiti on the frontage of McCully's electorate office in Browns Bay, calling him a "traitor" and "Jew hater".
A spokesman for McCully said the damage was reported to the landlord, who removed the spray paint today. He did not know if the incident had been referred to the Police.
Murray McCully, Minister for Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, addresses the SC. Photo / AP
The vandalism comes after New Zealand co-sponsored a resolution in the United Nations Security Council criticising Israeli settlements as violating international law and undermining a two-state solution with Palestine.
The resolution was passed 14-0 at the last council meeting of 2016, and New Zealand's last meeting in its two-year term as an elected member of the Security Council.
Crucially, the US abstained. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his foreign ministry to temporarily limit ties with the 12 UNSC members that voted in favour of the resolution, being Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal and New Zealand.
McCully previously told the Herald he hoped "the friendship" between Israel and New Zealand would continue, in spite of the resolution.
Asked if the resolution was a victory, McCully said: "It is a victory for those who are keen to see the Security Council take action on the Middle East peace process after eight years of complete inaction."
The United Nations maintains that settlements are illegal, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.
About 430,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and a further 200,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future state.
McCully's North Shore office shows the vandalism. Photo / via Reddit
Days after Washington abstained in the vote on the UN resolution, Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a speech accusing Israel of putting the two-state solution "in serious jeopardy" by building "in the middle of what, by any reasonable definition, would be the future Palestinian state".
However, President-elect Donald Trump has signalled he could make a break with decades of US policy and end American objections to the settlements, tweeting "Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!" before the Kerry speech.
