New New Zealand ruling coalition included in the coalition agreement an item recognizing the fallacy of the decision of the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support UN anti-Israel resolution number 2334 in December 2016.
The inclusion of this item was insisted by the New Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, the leader of the party "First New Zealand", Winston Peters.
Peters' decision to join the coalition with Labor and Green led to the transition of power from Conservative Bill English to Labor Jasinda Erdern.
Deputy Peters, Ron Mark, took up the post of Minister of Defense of New Zealand. Both policies have long been part of the New Zealand parliamentary friendship group with Israel.
Recall that New Zealand was one of four initiators of the UN Security Council resolution 2334, directed against Israel, which was approved due to the decision of US President Barack Obama not to veto it.
After that, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Wellington. Relations between the countries were restored only in June 2017, after a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill Inglish, which was the result of diplomatic contacts led by Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Yuval Rotem and Deputy Director General for the Asia-Pacific Region Mark Sofer.
The conversation resulted in a letter from the Prime Minister of New Zealand to Prime Minister Netanyahu, which reads: "First and foremost ... I regret the damage caused to the Israeli-New Zealand relations as a result of New Zealand's resolution No. 2334 on the Council vote Security of the United Nations. We will be happy to return the Israeli ambassador to Wellington. "
After receiving official apology, Benjamin Netanyahu decided to end the crisis and instructed the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuval Rotem, to inform the New Zealand authorities of his decision to return the Israeli Ambassador to Israel Herzberg to Wellington.