New Zealand has begun requiring Israelis applying for visa to list details of their IDF service as a condition for entry, Times of Israel (TOA) reported on Tuesday.

At least one Israeli was denied entry to the country after providing details of their IDF service.

According to the report, in recent months, Israelis of reserve age who applied for tourist visas to New Zealand were asked whether they served in the IDF and whether they are active reservists. Those who responded positively were required to fill out extremely detailed questionnaires about their IDF service.

Questions included: “Have you been associated with any group or organization that has used or promoted violence or human rights abuses to further their aims?” and “Have you committed or been involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or human rights abuses?”

Reservists who couldn’t reveal details of their IDF service because of security concerns were not granted exemptions and could not obtain a visa.

The report said that one soldier who served in Gaza during the current war was denied entry as a result of one of his answers on the questionnaire. He noted that he said that he was not involved in war crimes in Gaza.

New Zealand has apparently adopted its neighbor Australia’s anti-Israeli and pro-terror policies, which forces Israelis to fill out similar questionnaires. In December 2024, Omer Berger, 24, and Ella Berger, 22, applied for visas for a family trip to Australia along with four other family members. The four family members quickly received their visas but Omer and Ella were informed they had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire on their IDF service, forcing them to cancel their trip due to the delay the extra paperwork incurred.

The questionnaire included questions about their involvement in physical or psychological abuse, their roles as guards or officials in detention facilities, and whether they had participated in war crimes or genocide.

Aaron Berger, a family representative, slammed the incident at the time. “Why are we subjecting friendly allies to war crimes investigations?” he said.

The incident came after Australia denied an entry visa to former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.

Following the fire deliberately set by mask-wearing perpetrators at a Melbourne shul last month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the Australian government, saying that “it’s impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel “to bring an end to its ‘unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’…and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country.”

“Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism,” Netanyahu concluded.

In the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents in Australia in recent months, media outlets reported on Wednesday that a trailer marked with an antisemitic epithet and loaded with enough explosives to cause a 40-meter blast wave was found in New South Wales, north of Sydney.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)