Together in struggle: Yosef Livne looks at wartime links between New Zealand and Jewish Palestinian soldiers.

• Author: Livne, Yosef
• Position: Essay

The link between New Zealand men in uniform and Israel goes back a long way. The first contacts took place during the First World War, many years before Israel became a state. At Gallipoli, Zionist volunteers served alongside Anzac troops. New Zealand mounted riflemen fought the Ottomans in the dunes of the Holy Land near Nes Ziona and Rishon LeZion in the Judean plain and around Beersheba, liberating what today is Israel from the Ottoman Empire. New Zealand and Jewish soldiers fought alongside each other in Greece, North Africa and Italy, and were held in the same prisoner of war camps in German-occupied territory.

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Early in October 2012, I was appointed to be Israel's new ambassador to New Zealand. A few weeks later, while on a study tour of sites associated with the Shoah (Jewish Holocaust) in Poland, I visited the Commonwealth plot in the Rakowicki cemetery in Krakow. Our guide took us there to pay tribute to thirteen Jewish soldiers from Palestine, then a British mandate, who had enlisted in the British Army fighting the Germans. All of them were taken prisoner of war by the Germans and died while in captivity. As I stood with my head bowed I saw also the tombs of New Zealand soldiers, buried alongside. I knew how the former found final rest there. All of them had been taken prisoner of war early on in the Second World War and were either killed or died while in captivity--but Kiwis? Most were not fliers. So who were they and how come they ended alongside the Jewish soldiers from Palestine? Were they also prisoners of war? How did they die? Did they share the degradation at the same camp? In short, many questions that needed answers.

As I began to search for answers, I discovered new information. True, I found little evidence that our prisoners had the chance to mingle. I did, however, realise that there were points of contact prior to captivity. I decided to pursue the matter further

The answer is fairly simple. The link between New Zealand men in uniform and my country goes back a long way. Our march began in the First World War, many years before Israel became a state. It passed through Gallipoli, where Zionist volunteers were present alongside ANZAC troops. It then moved to the dunes of the Holy Land, where Kiwi soldiers fought against Turkish soldiers near Nes Ziona and Rishon LeZion in the Judean plain and around Beersheba, liberating what today is Israel from the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, there are several monuments...