Triple R interview on Biennale boycott and social responsibility

The issue of the Sydney Biennale receiving financial support from Transfield, a company profiting from running detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru, has troubled many artists and activists (my recent Guardian column examined it). I was interviewed by Triple R‘s Spoke program yesterday about the politics around boycotts, from Australia to Palestine:

Should John Howard face a citizen's arrest over Iraq war?

My weekly Guardian column is published today: Years after America officially withdrew from the country it invaded in 2003, Iraq remains… in chaos. The issue is largely ignored in the press these days, except for the occasional horrific… tale of carnage. Nobody senior in the western world has found themselves in the dock defending their justifications for…

Jews backing academic boycott against Israel

Back in January 2013 I signed a statement as a Jew in a global campaign backing the Palestinian right of return. The same New York-based Jews have collected signatures for a new, equally vital statement and my signature appears below: We salute the… American Studies Association’s courageous endorsement… of the… Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)…

Dangers of corporate sponsorship for cultural and artistic events

My weekly Guardian column is below: The 19th… Biennale of Sydney… opens on 21 March. There will be a… range of artists… displaying all manners of artistic endeavour. So far, so good. But a major sponsor is Transfield, a company used by the Australian Federal Government to handle refugee services and which therefore profits from the asylum seeker industry…

Israeli government wants to unleash war against BDS backers

Welcome to the smell of futility. The last months have seen an avalanche of Zionists, liberal Zionists, columnists and fear-mongers claiming that boycotts against Israel are dangerous, yet offering nothing to end the occupation. The latest, via Haaretz, is the Netanyahu government potentially spending huge dollars on attacking BDS backers. There’s one small problem (as…

Detention centre owners making a killing

My following feature appears in the January edition of Britain’s New Internationalist magazine: Outsourcing detention to private companies is a recipe for a disaster, says… Antony Loewenstein. Imprisoning immigrants is good for business. In the… US… it’s common for lobbyists hired by leading prison companies to magically convince officials to write legislation that benefits their bottom… line. US… magazine… The Nation… revealed…

Haiti's economic model failing to help its people

My weekly Guardian column is published below: Urban botox: the painted slums of Jalousie. Photograph: Antony Loewenstein The mood in Port au Prince’s flashiest hotel was cautiously optimistic. A business conference was held this January at the Karibe Hotel with a range of local and international businesspeople. Called… Restore Haiti, the event was held more than…

The day Scarlett Johansson fell in love with Zionist occupation

During the SuperBowl last night, a game I watched here in New York with a mixture of confusion and amazement during the litany of mundane celebrity-endorsed advertisements, the questions over SodaStream were strong. This pro Israeli-occupation company, now supported by actress Scarlett Johansson, found itself in a storm of controversy. Deservedly so. Al Jazeera America…

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