Israel to send New Zealand emergency equipment, temporary shelters

[Violet_Crumble]

Prime Minister Netanyahu responds to Wellington's request for aid to cope with the devastation in Christchurch wrought by Tuesday's earthquake.
By Barak Ravid and Sefi Krupsky

New Zealand's government requested aid from Israel in the form of sanitation, water purification equipment and temporary shelters, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office said on Saturday night, after a massive earthquake struck the city of Christchurch on Tuesday.

Netanyahu gave instructions to immediately answer the call for help.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck at lunchtime, when streets and shops thronged with people and offices were still occupied in Christchurch, a historic tourist town popular with overseas students. The official earthquake death toll currently stands at 145 human lives, but hopes that some of the 200 or so people listed as missing might still be saved are starting to dissipate.

The Foreign Ministry said that as of Saturday night, there are still 9 Israeli citizens who are known to have been traveling in New Zealand at the time of the earthquake, but whose whereabouts are still unknown.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/israel-to-send-new-zealand-emergency-equipment-temporary-shelters-1.345897

Donations can be made to the NZ Red Cross through their site: http://www.redcross.org.nz/2011christchurchearthquake

[shaayecanaan]

1. A decent gesture, but obviously there is politics involved...

The current NZ prime minister John Key inherited a rather rocky relationship with Israel from the previous Helen Clark government. In 2004 Israeli intelligence agents tried to fraudulently obtain a NZ passport by impersonating a disabled man, and the Israeli government then compounded things by denying any involvement. Relations between the countries have been chilly since.

Key has endeavoured to improve relations with Israel since his election (his mother is Jewish and he feels an emotional attachment to Israel). Unfortunately for him his last scheduled visit to the country coincided with the Gaza flotilla killings, which made it difficult for him to appear overly friendly towards Israel.

Apparently, this latest gesture is an attempt by Key to allow the government of Israel to score a few brownie points with NZ (nothing wrong with that). After all, from New Zealand, Israel is obviously a long way to go for tents and water purification tablets - they'd probably be better off sending money, frankly.

I visited New Zealand earlier this year - a beautiful country, not unlike Switzerland or (dare I say) Lebanon, in parts. I think I will take up that chance to send a few dollars to the Red Cross relief effort.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. I thought financial assistance would have been better given the distance...

That's what NZ is going to need to help rebuild. I read somewhere yesterday that it's estimated it's going to cost around $10b to rebuild, and that's a country with a population of around 4 million people.

I didn't realise till I read Ha'aretz earlier tonight, but an Israeli tourist was killed in the earthquake. I feel so bad for his parents :(

NZ is like Switzerland and Tasmania all morphed together. I've been to NZ a few times and the first time I came back after a few weeks on the South Island, the drive back from Sydney to Canberra was really strange, coz I'd gone from green mountainous country with no flat ground and what seemed like a town every five minutes, to flat, dry and brown with long boring stretches of nothing until Goulburn...

[shaayecanaan]

3. i think there are quite a few tourists there because

Of the working holiday visa arrangements between NZ and Israel - whereas there are no current arrangements with Australia.