The Australian Jewish community may think that Israel is worth celebrating, but they conveniently ignore the realities of the West Bank occupation. Israel writer Bernard Avishai publishes a colleague’s report on Jewish extremism: Pogroms: it’s something the Jews know about. I grew up on those stories—Cossack raids on the shtetl, the torture and killings and…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
When truth isn’t on your side
A statement from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel: The impressive growth of the Palestinian civil society campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, particularly after its criminal war of aggression on the occupied Gaza Strip, is testimony to the morality and consistency of ordinary citizens and civil…
The will of the people
There isn’t just a global campaign against Israeli apartheid. Target Sri Lankan atrocities (and products).
Taking morality into our own hands
Who says the BDS campaign against Israel isn’t having an effect? On May 4, protesters will greet Motorola shareholders, already disgruntled by the company’s losses, as they arrive for their annual meeting at the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, Illinois. The protest, organized by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, is part of a…
Don’t protest in the Zionist state
Jewish Peace News reports: Last week, seven activists (five of them from New Profile), were surprised in their homes by Israeli policeman, brought in for interrogation and their computers confiscated. … New Profile is being investigated for allegedly “inciting to evade military service.” The charges are bizarre, since New Profile, which works against militarism in Israeli…
Anti-democratic and proud of it
Israel is a democracy? Hardly, writes former Israeli politician Shulamit Aloni: …The statistics on the destruction and harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip are familiar to everyone, and not divorced from the oh-so-moral behavior of our army in the occupied territories. In the context of this behavior, for example, the army operates with great…
Don’t let Google control everything
As an author, this deeply concerns me. It’s really a human rights issue: The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether Google is violating antitrust laws by reaching an agreement with authors and publishers to digitize millions of printed books and post the contents online. We speak to Brewster Kahle, founder of the non-profit…
The Islamic Republic unpacked
Leading Iranian human rights activist, lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on the key issues facing the Islamic Republic: The most pressing issue facing Iran is the increasing levels of unemployment among the youth and also increased poverty in society, as well as a greater occurrence of cases of violation of human rights. For…
The only realistic option
Meron Benvenisti, Haaretz, April 30: Judging by the increasing number of symposia around the world devoted to promoting a binational state instead of two states for two peoples, a sea change is underway among academics and organizations engaged in progressive thinking. A generation ago, the demand for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel expressed a…