Being Pro-Palestine cost New Zealand your poetry, is how I'd put it!

They want to look apolitical? Fine, but then why rescind their invitation to you? It's hypocrisy, as you say.

In mid-September, I had submitted my short story, The Piano Teacher, which is set in Palestine, to an American journal which shall remain unnamed. Their website says it takes them three months to respond. On Oct. 10, I got an email saying my piece is rejected. They didn't wait. Anyways, the moral of the story is I got the piece published in a Palestinian journal, based in my hometown - Ramallah - and the journal undertook to translate it to Arabic, something the American journal wouldn't have done.

Hope you will get another chance to visit New Zealand, and Palestine, too.

https://medium.com/@ramsey-hanhan/the-piano-teacher-b61e753cee2e