Resistance: Below is a short video of Israeli celebrities and several activists, among whom I was honored to appear. The video is in Hebrew and for an Israeli audience, but there are English subtitles. The video essentially is self-explanatory, but to give you a synopsis we are coming out strongly against the bill currently in…
Creating a faux firestorm when anybody speaks up for Palestinians
This was a story in Monday’s Murdoch Australian: Incoming Greens MP James Parker yesterday stayed silent. He refused to answer claims he had made inflammatory comments about Jewish people when discussing the NSW Greens’s proposed boycott of Israeli goods. Mr Parker, who on Saturday claimed victory in the seat of Balmain in Sydney’s inner west,…
Greens leader should back BDS because oppressed Palestinians ask for it
The last week has seen a barrage of Murdoch attention on the NSW Greens and its embrace of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. It’s a principled and mature position to take, backed by countless groups globally. Last night on ABC TV Lateline saw Greens leader Bob Brown discuss the issue and sadly he…
Don’t think Goldstone’s “retraction” changes a damn thing about the report
There was an intentional Israeli policy of collective punishment against the Gazan people. Mondoweiss co-owner Adam Horowitz tells Democracy Now!: …The Dahiya Doctrine is the war doctrine that Israel first used in the 2006 attack on Lebanon, which basically said that any area that they were receiving fire from, they would consider the entire area…
Israel hearts apartheid South Africa (how they miss those glory days)
Daniel Blatman, Haaretz: The historical background of the Israeli apartheid state-in-the-making that is emerging before our eyes should be sought in 1967. It is part of a process that has been going on for about 44 years: What started as rule over another people has gradually ripened – especially since the latter part of the…
On Murdoch smearing, the Greens and truth in the Middle East
My following story appears in New Matilda today: News Ltd has had a field day over an NM story about the Greens, including claiming that we misquoted newly elected NSW Greens MP Jamie Parker. Antony Loewenstein responds Last week, New Matilda published a story by me about the Greens and the NSW election campaign. The…
So much for that grand “coalition” for Libya invasion
Welcome to the world of Western foreign policy; only certain kinds of repression are troubling. Pepe Escobar in Asia Times: You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the…
War in Libya pushed by “insufferable” French mini-imperialists
As the war in Libya drags on, this piece in the Daily Beast fully explains the role of French President Sarkozy and the supposed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL), a man who loves a good Western-led war to allegedly protect the innocent but he reveals his true side by blindly backing Israel at the expense…
What statement on Sri Lankan crimes does; Tamil victims not forgotten
The recent public campaign against the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka – I signed a statement alongside Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Ken Loach and others – was aimed to highlight Colombo’s gross human rights abuses and lack of accountability after the end of the civil war in 2009. PEN is currently holding a series…