Now this is interesting. Since September 11, 2001, we’ve heard constant bleating from many conservatives and keyboard warriors that we shouldn’t “deal with terrorists” (er, apart from our friends who practice terrorism, of course). The Guardian on reality in the real world: A controversial new book produced by one of the world’s best-known aid agencies,…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Working hard on an ethnically pure Jerusalem
Israel 2011 (via Haaretz): About 10 days ago, a fish merchant in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda outdoor market noticed a young man with sidelocks and a skullcap trying to determine which of the stalls employ Arabs. The merchant, Saleh, called the police, who detained the man for questioning on suspicion that he was planning a terror…
The Jewish Taliban are on the march
The Middle East’s Only Democracy Inc (via the Guardian): Jerusalem’s secular mayor, Nir Barkat, has pitted himself against the city’s swelling ranks of ultra-orthodox extremists by demanding that local police enable women to reclaim their position in the public domain. Over recent months, women’s faces have disappeared from billboards across the city amid mounting pressure…
Clueless Hollywood romanced by occupation-loving Israel
Are these captains of… the entertainment industry totally clueless, and have no idea that they’re being co-opted into selling the image of “cool Israel”? Haaretz reports: Two delegations from Hollywood are visiting Israel to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one comprised of actors and another mainly featuring directors. Today, both groups will meet with President…
Norman Finkelstein on American Jews turning away from Israel
Why has the disillusionment emerged (via an interview in New Left Project)?: There is a common misunderstanding here, because everybody just assumes that the one and only factor shaping American Jewish attachment to Israel, and also the inexorable one, is the ‘ethnic’ factor: if you’re Jewish you must be pro-Israel, in fact you must be…
When BDS became the necessary default position for human rights
One day, and soon, this message will move from the alternative world to the mainstream and anybody defending Israeli behaviour will be shunned as extreme and bigoted: Professor Norman Finkelstein stormed UK campuses in the week to November 11, lecturing to packed auditoriums in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham on How to solve the…
