Showing all posts tagged Palestine
Murdoch broadsheet gives lesson in how not to report news
Murdoch’s Australian has spent the last months demonising NSW Greens Senator elect Lee Rhiannon. The main reason is her strong and principled support for sanctions against apartheid Israel and her progressive politics. Today’s paper features a Labor party press release dressed up as a news story. Memo to reporters there; only quoting one political enemy…
ABCTV News24 on human rights in China, Gitmo torture and Sri Lankan war crimes
I appeared last night on ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside ABC journalist Marius Benson and lobbyist Sue Cato (video here). While China, we learn via Wikileaks, ignores Australia’s supposed concerns for human rights, I asked if Prime Minister Julia Gillard actually cared about human rights as there had been no public comments from her…
Lock them up in Gaza and don’t be surprised with the brutality
The recent murder in Gaza of Italian human rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni was a shock to all of us. He was killed by a self-proclaimed Salafi jihadi group. The isolation of Gaza almost guarantees some extremism, writes Jared Malsin in Foreign Policy: Beyond the tragic events of the story itself, however, Arrigoni’s death highlights a…
Marrickville, BDS and Palestine in eyes of The Jerusalem Post
One week after Sydney’s Marrickville BDS vote, the issue continues to resonate globally. I was interviewed late last week by the pro-settler and conservative Jerusalem Post newspaper. The journalist was friendly enough but it was clear I speaking to a man who didn’t see the West Bank as occupied but merely Judea and Samaria (the…
This is what the Palestinian Authority is good at; flying first class
This Newsweek profile/interview with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas simply shows an elite Palestinian elite utterly out of touch with Palestinians on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza. The focus isn’t on ending the occupation or stopping daily Zionist incursions into Palestinian territory. This Palestinian leadership has become drunk on Israeli and American largesse;…
Occupation stories from deep inside normal Palestinian lives
Life in Palestine is often transmitted to the West by people who don’t live there, merely passing through. Father Peter Bray, the Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University, has regularly written missives about the reality under occupation. Here’s his latest: Easter Sunday 24th April 2011 Again I send special greetings on Easter Sunday from here in…
Insider’s view of Libya’s unlikely revolutionaries
UK Guardian journalist Chris McGreal – whom I know and respect from his fine reporting in Palestine and South Africa – writes about the latest revolution; Libya: Few revolutions have been more inspiring. After years of reporting uprisings and conflicts driven by ideology, factional interests or warlords soaked in blood — from El Salvador to…
Marrickville BDS debate showed how little Palestine is understood in Australia
This has been the week of Sydney’s Marrickville council putting Palestine on the national and global map by daring to support Palestine (though sadly giving in to bullying and rescind BDS). At this week’s fiery public meeting, it was clear how many Zionists have vested interests in not acknowledging the devastating effects of Israel’s occupation…
“I wouldn’t trust [Israeli Arabs] for anything”
A new study of Israeli youth paints a picture of bigotry and intolerance. How on earth is this the basis for future “democracy”? Apparently unwilling to question mainstream narratives regarding the futility of peace or the venality of politics most young people in Israel are no vanguard for social or political change. They do, however,…