It’s very hard to judge this case except to say that Hamas should either charge the man or release him: A British journalist who has been held in Gaza for two weeks without charge faces a further fortnight in detention after a court ordered an extension to his arrest. Paul Martin, a 55-year-old film-maker who…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
Israel will not face prosecution over Gaza crimes, says legal mind
Nick Kaufman is a former official at the International Criminal Court and until recently a senior lawyer in the Jerusalem prosecutor’s office. He tells Haaretz that Israel has little to fear from the Goldstone report over Gaza: – Nick Kaufman, do you think you will represent an Israeli official, who has been charged with committing…
Secrets and lies between friends over Mossad murder
My following article is published today on ABC Unleashed/The Drum: Israel is a protected species in the international arena. Many Western states, including Australia, have long tolerated behaviour by the Jewish state that is condemned if committed by any other democracy. This reality makes the current scandal over the alleged Mossad hit last month in…
Australia/Israel has a problem in loving each other through the night?
We can always rely on Zionist spokespeople defending Israel no matter what the country does (nuking Gaza? Well, there were terrorists there!) This is about as convincing as an Israeli Mossad agent dressed as a tennis player (and ignores the grave damage done to Israel’s image in the Australian community): A Federal Labor MP and…
Australian media continue to drag Israel down to where she belongs
“Jerusalem has lost friends” is the headline on this Age story: This vote is clearly an act of retaliation by Australia – and by Britain, France and Germany. Israel has lost friends thanks to the sordid affair in Dubai concerning fake passports and murder, and the stink will hang in the air a good while…
Former Aussie ambassador questions the closeness between Israel and Australia
The following article in today’s Sunday Age is by Ross Burns, a former Australian Ambassador in the Middle East: In the course of a career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, much of it spent handling Middle East matters, I rarely heard language as portentous as the statements on relations with Israel from…
Australia needs to find its voice over Israel (but it ain’t likely)
A fine letter in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald: Finally, Kevin Rudd has done the unthinkable and questioned Israel about its actions (”Betrayed PM should not be taken for granted by Israel”, February 26). As Peter Hartcher points out, this is not the Prime Minister’s style. Mr Rudd seems to have a distorted his Christianity by…
Israel feels a little more exposed in the UN
For Australian diplomacy – usually little more than a rubber-stamp for everything Israel does – this is significant: Australia was last night preparing to abstain in a United Nations vote on a resolution urging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to investigate allegations of war crimes committed during last year’s war in Gaza. The UN General…
The UN thanks Israel for allowing glass into Gaza (really)
The weakness of the UN in the Middle East. Scraps on the table and even then they thank the Israelis for nothing: 24 February 2010 UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry called on Israeli President Shimon Peres today to discuss efforts to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the situation in the West Bank, and the continuing crisis in…
How the fishermen of Gaza are not coping
Gaza today: Ten years ago, Gaza’s approximately 3,600 fishermen were hauling out approximately 3,000 tons of fresh fish a year, supporting an even larger 30,000 people in Gaza. Since then, violent clashes with – and ever-tightening restrictions by – the Israeli army have virtually destroyed the once-booming business. Today, just 20 percent of Gaza fishermen…