The following is published today as the lead piece by ABC’s The Drum: The two-hour drive from Islamabad to Peshawar is along a surprisingly smooth road. Mud-brick homes sit amongst lush, green fields. Police checkpoints are set up routinely to stop unwanted visitors. I am asked why I want to see the troubled Pakistani town…
Another totally typical day in Israel/Palestine
One (via the Guardian): A belief that every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist may be leading to a “spiral of injustice” and breaches of international law in… Israel‘s treatment of child detainees in military custody, a delegation of eminent British lawyers has concluded in an independent report backed by the Foreign Office. The nine-strong delegation,…
Thank God for Tony Blair helping transport sweaters from Gaza
Amira Hass in Haaretz: Senior British diplomats invested supreme efforts in the past year so that one truck could transfer 2,000 sweaters, to be sold in the United Kingdom. The future wearers of these sweaters must, first of all, thank their former prime minister, Tony Blair, who this week will be marking the fifth anniversary…
How private prison operators game the system and demand longer sentences
The apocalyptic future is here (via Justice Policy Institute): Over the past 15 years, the number of people held in all prisons in the United States has increased by 49.6 percent, while private prison populations have increased by 353.7 percent, according to recent federal statistics. Meanwhile, in 2010 alone, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)…
ABCTV News 24’s The Drum on refugees and media troubles
I appeared last night on ABC TV’s The Drum (video here) alongside former Howard government minister Peter Reith and 2UE host John Stanley. The main issues were asylum seekers – I argued that neither major side of politics in Australia has any desire to alleviate suffering and seemingly prefer ways to privatise the system and…
One huge BDS victory at a time
US Jewish newspaper Forward reports: Controversy over the Israeli army’s use of Caterpillar Inc. bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes was a “key factor” in a corporate rating agency’s decision to drop the American manufacturer from its list of socially responsible companies. The ratings agency, MSCI, downgraded Caterpillar in February, dropping it from several indices in…
#LeftTurn Sydney launch video
14 June saw the Sydney event for #LeftTurn with co-editor Jeff Sparrow and contributors Tad Tietze and Larissa Behrendt. Green Left TV came along:
#LeftTurn on Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran
I was interviewed last weekend, with my #LeftTurn co-editor Jeff Sparrow, on ABC Triple J’s Sunday Night Safran,… … on the book, Iraq, war, Israel, Palestine and pirates:
On Peter Singer’s ambivalence towards Zionism
Here’s a very interesting profile, by Dan Goldberg in JTA, on famed philosopher Peter Singer. Despite the almost obligatory disparaging comment about dissident Jews – feeling insecure much, Zionists? – I’m pleased the group I co-founded, Independent Australian Jewish Voices, continues to elicit debate: He’s been brandished “the most dangerous man on earth,” accused of…
What’s some tortured Iraqis between friends?
Britain, spreading freedom across the world (via the Daily Mail): The Mail on Sunday can today reveal devastating new claims of abuse by British soldiers carried out at a secret network of illegal prisons in the Iraqi desert. One innocent civilian victim is said to have died after being assaulted aboard an RAF helicopter, while… …