On some days, such as today, I look at the Middle East “peace process” and wonder how any serious journalist can’t write about Israel and Palestine and not simply laugh (or cry). Talks, meeting, summits, statements of intent and yet the occupation only grows. A farce allowed to continue by either blind Zionists or bought…
Showing all posts tagged Gaza
Gazans continue to suffer while Netanyahu speaks
Another day in the life of occupied Palestine: A coalition of human rights groups led by Physicians for Human Rights …– Israel, HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, and Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement today sent a letter to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, in response to…
Only nice views in Israel, please
Free speech in Israel? In their deluded dreams, writes Amira Hass in Haaretz: A new report from Adalah shows how the courts and police attempted to stamp out opposition to Operation Cast Lead. “This is a time of war, and every incident harms the people’s morale.” This was not a sentence in a right-wing journal,…
J Street can’t quite bring itself to see Israel for what it is
The supposedly progressive new pro-Israel lobby group J Street is getting heaps of mainstream traction. But post the recent UN report on Gaza, its statement is shamefully weak: J Street has reviewed the Goldstone report in its entirety over the past several days. J Street agrees with Israelis, such as Minister Isaac Herzog, that some…
Hamas says it wants to come in from the cold (yet again)
How much longer will the world continue to demonise Hamas? The head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip has told United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon that the group supports any steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, according to the Palestinian news agency Ramattan. The letter…
Introducing Saree Makdisi to Australia
During last night’s Sydney Ideas event with Sareee Makdisi, I gave the following introduction: Sydney Ideas 22 September, 2009 Excavating Memory in Jerusalem Professor Saree Makdisi, US academic, author and Middle East analyst Seymour Centre, Sydney University An introduction by Antony Loewenstein During an interview with the Boston Globe in 2008 during the release of…
And Israel wonders why it is so hated
A day in the life of a Palestinian in Gaza: Abu Wael, my white-haired host in Beit Hanoun, so gentle and soft-spoken, sat and graciously urged his guests to eat more of food that he grew with his own hands on his northern Gaza farm, while he spoke of his grief. The farm used to…
Launch wars and never look back in Gaza
Zionist commentators are concerned that the UN Gaza report – a detailed study of wilful Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians – is just all too inconvenient. Here’s Uriel Heilman in JTA: For an Israel desperate to steer international focus toward the threat of Iran, the debate over the Gaza conflict is a distraction and an…
The importance of standing up for Palestinian rights, those occupied
Following an article in the Australian on the weekend – that accused critics of Israel of extremism – the paper publishes the following letters today: This week a leading US Jewish newspaper, The Forward, has published an article with the headline “Palestinian-led movement to boycott Israel is gaining support”. It explains how the global and…
Why the Goldstone Gaza report matters
Richard Falk, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, has spoken extensively about Israel’s crimes in Palestine, including after the Gaza war. Now, after last week’s UN report about the conflict, Falk wrote the following for a Turkish publication: “So why did the Israeli government boycott the commission? The real…