My comment to Phil Goff

Phil Goff has also written about his trip to the Middle East as part of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel

He actually only talks about Jordan and Syria, which is a pity.

I left this nice comment for him:

It’s great that Phil, and the NZ Labour Party took part in this trip as part of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel. With Kennedy Graham from the Greens attending, it is great to have such support for Israel from the Left. Here in Australia, we also have great friendship with Labor Minsters – Julia Gillard, Bill Shorten, Kevin Rudd, Stephen Conroy and Michael Danby are all strong supporters.

I heard also that Phil attended the Yom Haatzmaut function, celebrating the creation of Israel. Great stuff Phil!

One minor point – the 1.8 million refugees include the descendents from those wars. In 1970 the UNRWA only had 500,000 registered refugees.

You also neglected to mention that the Jordanian government killed thousands of Palestinian refugees in Black September of 1970.