Showing all posts in June 2019

Ilan Pappe, senior lecturer in political science at Haifa University, Counterpunch, October 27: “No Israeli government in history, backed by the US, has offered equal rights to the Palestinians, either in Israel or in the occupied territories. Israel has always demanded a Jewish majority and exclusivity in the shared land, while allowing, in the latest…

Bahrain blogger Zainab Alkhawaja, based in the US, reads a book, “Real Jews”, and understands the complexity of the contemporary Jewish community: “…Different groups all claim to be real Jews and throughout the book they accuse each other of being like the Nazis. It is actually very complicated and by the time you finish reading…

Patrick Cockburn, Independent journalist in Baghdad, issued this dispatch on October 26. The headline, “Bush and Blair say things are improving. It’s not true: they’re getting worse by the day”, sums it up: “It is not true when George Bush, Tony Blair and Jack Straw say that things are improving. They are getting worse by…

Today’s story in the Sydney Morning Herald – a terrorism mistaken identity case – makes for disturbing reading. The facts of the incident are bad enough, but under the government’s proposed anti-terror laws, journalists would be unable to report any details. Abuse of power is a virtual inevitability and accountability will be lost.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” “The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land,” he said. Worldwide condemnation for the comments has been swift. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister…

The Nepalese government engages in some good old fashioned state terrorism and Radio Free Nepal discusses a country that seems to be regularly ignored by the world media.

This intriguing report, from October 21, is revealing: “A Republican congressman criticized the State Department on Friday for allowing a U.S. lobbying firm to work for Sudan while the Bush administration is trying to tighten sanctions on the African country over the bloody conflict in its Darfur region. “Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia said he…

The media ethics charity, MediaWise, argues that governments across Europe should assist journalists fleeing persecution and provide greater support. The report highlights the important work being done by NGOs and media unions across the continent.

Amira Hass, Haaretz, October 26: “Will James Wolfensohn succeed where others have failed and cause Israel to release its grip on Palestinian freedom of movement?“The Quartet’s special envoy on disengagement affairs didn’t mince words last week when he expressed his frustration and disappointment with the stalling of the talks on the matter of the crossing…