Global protests against firms invested in a light-rail system in the occupied Palestinian territories refuse to die. The latest, courtesy of Jonathan Cook: An ill-fated light railway under construction in Jerusalem was originally heralded by Israeli officials as a way to cement the city’s “unification” four decades after the city’s Palestinian half was illegally annexed…
Showing all posts tagged settlements
Australian commercial TV on West Bank apartheid
Times are changing. 60 Minutes, one of Australia’s most popular commercial current affairs programs, has done a story on the West Bank. The journalist, Liam Bartlett, has written this: Trying to understand the Middle East peace process is a bit like attempting to unscramble an egg so we travelled to Israel to get a first-hand…
Israelis forgetting how to treat the other as human
Back in January, Assa Doron, an Israeli/Australian research fellow in the research school of Pacific and Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, wrote a piece in the Australian about Jewish dissent over Israel: No one has a monopoly on patriotism or what constitutes national loyalty. Like many others, I too feel for…
Why Zionists know that boycotting Israel is a dangerous weapon
The following article by Philip Mendes and Nick Dyrenfurth appears in today’s Australian newspaper: A few weeks ago the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange staged the sixth annual Israeli film festival. Lost Islands, a film taking its title from a 1970s Australian television series (which amassed a cult following in Israel), kicked off proceedings. By telling…
British workers won’t wait for government to act over Palestine
After much soul searching and gnashing of teeth, this decision is significant and timely: The TUC today backed a targeted boycott of Israeli goods originating from illegal settlements and an end to arms sales to IsraelPalestinian territories“. to ramp up the pressure “for an end to the occupation of The decision to step up its…
Justified pressure on Israel grows by the day
History is turning: This weekend at the eighth annual US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation national organizers’ conference held in Chicago, delegates from the approximately 300 member groups that make up the US Campaign voted in favor of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The vote came on the heels of a presentation…
Why J Street may just be having the right effect (sometimes)
It’s clear that J Street is seriously upsetting the Zionist establishment. Jewish Diaspora leaders who publicly criticise Israeli government policy are both necessary and morally important. Last night during a talk at Sydney University I challenged a senior Jewish lecturer who expressed pain about the West Bank settlements to actually try and do something about…
How many US citizens know they are funding illegal settlements?
Not before time: Israeli peace activists are planning to ratchet up their campaign against groups in the United States that raise money for settlers by highlighting how tax exemptions are helping to fund the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Gush Shalom, a small peace group that advocates Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied…
How much of an internal threat are Israel’s home-grown enemies?
The New York Times investigates the Jewish settler movement and argues that removing them from illegal colonies will be less of a problem than is generally assumed: Of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, those who live in unauthorized hilltop outposts like this one, a hardscrabble unpaved collection of 20…
Zionism progresses on its own merry way
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: The Palestinians expect a complete halt to building; it is now clear that this will not happen. Jerusalem is not a settlement and the building [there] will continue as normal.