The recent news that Britain’s largest union, Unite, agreed to boycott Israeli companies was clearly the beginning of something far bigger: One of Britain’s largest trade unions passed a motion at its annual conference in Bournemouth last week accusing Israel of lying over the Gaza flotilla incident and has called for a complete boycott of…
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Horror on the high seas
Gripping testimony from Al-Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal: Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened. It was this time last week…
Major British union embraces BDS
Drip, drip: Britain’s largest union, Unite, has unanimously passed a motion to boycott Israeli companies at its first policy conference in Manchester on Wednesday. The motion, which passed unanimously, called the union “to vigorously promote a policy of divestment from Israeli companies”, while a boycott of Israeli goods and services will be “similar to the…
“Cats smuggling semtex in their fur for Hamas”
More, please (thank you, Mark Steel): It’s time the Israeli government’s PR team made the most of its talents, and became available for hire. Then whenever a nutcase marched into a shopping mall in somewhere like Wisconsin and gunned down a selection of passers-by, they could be on hand to tell the world’s press “The…
West complicit in Israeli terror and oppression
My following article appears in today’s New Zealand Herald: The day after the Australian Government announced it was expelling an Israeli diplomat over the forging of its passports in the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai, the Murdoch press was incensed. The Australian’s foreign editor, Greg Sheridan, last week condemned Kevin Rudd’s “over-reaction” to…
How the far-right is gaining support and love
The toxic mix of social disaffection, racism, growing unemployment and September 11 leads to this, a rising phenomenon across the Western world. We ignore such trends at our peril; such people can’t simply be dismissed as crazy and their views must be fought and challenged: In the back room of a sparsely decorated pub in…
Tell Israel to ditch its nuke now
A nuclear-free Middle East is a dream for us all. The elephant in the room has always been Israel, protected by the US and Western powers because, well, it’s the Jewish state. Don’t disturb the Jews. This news therefore is a little surprising but hopeful: The United States accepted Arab demands to pressure Israel over…
The concerned Australian legal liberal who wants Israel to act humanely
Leading Australian legal academic Ben Saul wrote back in March that Israel should no longer be a protected species in the international arena. He’s back with an equally strong statement. And note the growing number of public figures who no longer accept Zionist exceptionalism: Britain’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat is a lesson for Australia…
Is Canberra happy to help Israel in its “war on terror”?
In this Fairfax story today, the elephant in the room is Israel. Some key questions: has Australia ever provided our passports to Israeli agents? If so, when and for what actions? Australian security agencies use false passports issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs to allow covert operatives to function overseas, intelligence sources have admitted.…
Why are so many reporters so keen to use the language of the US military?
Robert Fisk gave the following speech at the Al-Jazeera annual forum in Doha a few days ago: Power and the media are not just about cosy relationships between journalists and political leaders, between editors and presidents. They are not just about the parasitic-osmotic relationship between supposedly honourable reporters and the nexus of power that runs…