How we remember history and the violence within it is one of the great challenges of our age. From the Holocaust to Cambodia and Rwanda to Palestine, we are all haunted by holding power to account. Last night I watched one of the most remarkable documentaries I’ve ever seen, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing:…
Showing all posts tagged Judaism
Israel’s less than silent cleansing of Bedouins
Forget all the media babble about a “peace process” in the Middle East. It’s a distraction from the main game. US journalist Ben Ehrenreich, writer of the wonderful recent New York Times magazine cover story on non-violent Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, reports for the Los Angeles Review of Books: It would be a…
Australia’s behaviour towards Papua New Guinea akin to vulture capitalism
My following article appears today in the Guardian: The Australian government’s decision to… send all refugee boat arrivals… to Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a… political earthquake. It has nothing to do with alleviating the suffering of asylum seekers – if Canberra cared about it, a regional solution would allow processing of claims in Indonesia – and will…
Imagining a different Israel, one less abuse at a time
A stunning piece by Gideon Levy in Haaretz that imagines a Jewish state that completely challenges its history and institutional racism: In my dream I see Benjamin Netanyahu giving the speech of his life, which is the speech of our lives: thanking Secretary of State John Kerry for his efforts and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…
What is the EU now saying about illegal Zionist colonies
It’s a small step, far too little, but a significant symbolic move. Noam Sheizaf explains in +972 magazine: The European Union’s new guidelines regarding the settlements were… the talk of the day in Israel yesterday… (Tuesday), and they are still the leading story in all the morning papers. The feeling is that for the first time, an…
Let’s be clear, Britain sells weapons to thugs globally
A belief in human rights? Preaching to others about improving accountability? It’s all empty rhetoric by most/all Western governments, including Britain. Evidence for the prosecution (via Independent): The Government has issued more than 3,000 export licences for military and intelligence equipment worth a total of …£12.3bn to countries which… are on its own official list…
Boycotting Israel strikes fear in heart of liberal Zionism
Today’s Haaretz editorial… displays the reality of Israel’s situation; an illusion of stability amidst growing international criticism of its apartheid against the Palestinians: Concern over a possible international economic boycott of Israel has been growing. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is responsible for negotiations with the Palestinians. At the beginning of the month she warned that if…
The Age/Sydney Morning Herald reviews For God’s Sake
The following review by James Grieve appears today: FOR GOD’S SAKE By Jane Caro, Anthony Loewenstein, Simon Smart and Rachel Woodlock. Macmillan. 314pp. $32.99. Here is the latest contribution to the debate on organised religion and the existence of God, started about seven years ago by the so-called new atheists, notably Richard Dawkins and Christopher…
Israel ethnically cleansing Bedouin while the world shrugs
This is how a “Jewish and democratic” state behaves, apparently. Racism by any other name. Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini write for Al Jazeera English: On June 24th the “Prawer Plan for the Arrangement of Bedouin-Palestinian Settlement in the Negev” passed its first reading in the Israeli parliament. If implemented, the Plan will constitute “the…
John Kerry’s fruitless Middle East “peace mission”
Far too many in the media get excited when yet another US official talks about restarting the “peace process”. It’s all smokes and mirrors and largely irrelevant to facts on the ground, ever-expanding Israeli occupation over Palestine. Here’s Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: How do we respond to Kerry? I…