Israel, you are being watched and increasingly so: Citing “European Union political guidelines” regarding “occupied territories,” the Spanish Housing Ministry has disqualified a group of Israeli academics from competing in a Solar Decathlon held every two years, because they are from the Ariel University Center of Samaria, located over the Green Line. Engineers, architects, solar…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
Could we please just pray daily for Israel?
Following my article in yesterday’s Crikey about Saree Makdisi’s recent visit to Australia, the following letter is published today: Josh Landis writes: I don’t get it. What does Crikey see in Antony Loewenstein and why are his rants continually published? The latest offering says almost nothing. Summary: 200 people including about five Jews turned up…
Can Fayyad make a difference?
My latest New Matilda column is about the favoured Palestinians in the West: ‘Moderate’ Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad may be popular with western leaders, but under his watch the gulf between rhetoric and reality is growing, writes Antony Loewenstein The Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, was… interviewed earlier this month on… ABC Radio National’s… Saturday Extra.…
How to ruin the chances of Middle East peace
Michael Shaik, from Australians for Palestine, writes in Murdoch’s Australian: In 1973, Ariel Sharon announced his intention to make a “pastrami sandwich” of the Palestinians by building strips of settlements across the West Bank, “so that in 25 years’ time, neither the United Nations, nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it…
Saree Makdisi: Obama won’t solve the Middle East crisis
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: After… Tuesday night’s Sydney Ideas lecture by Saree Makdisi, professor of English Literature at the University of California and nephew of the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, asked a question. He wanted to know why Makdisi…
America signs yet another deal to kiss Israel
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…
Jewish angst over colonies is utterly unappealing
Chaim Gans, author of A Just Zionism: On the Morality of the Jewish State, continues the grand Zionist tradition of endlessly debating the “rights” and wrongs of the occupation and the pain of the Right that believes God gave the land to the Jews. Such circular and futile discussions have been going on for decades…
The awakening of the mainstream journalist in Jerusalem
Jason Koutsoukis, Middle East correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age, has published an important piece online today, singularly challenging the myth that Israel is a victim in the Middle East: Forgive me for being confused, but exactly what are the clear and present dangers facing the State of Israel? … The more…
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…
The Israeli Jewish bubble
Back in July, Joseph Dana and I walked the streets of West Jerusalem to check Israeli public opinion towards Arabs, Barack Obama and settlemets. The main message? Leave us Jews alone. Racism was everywhere. Now Al-Jazeera has pounded the same area and heard virtually similar comments. At what point will Israeli Jewish racism be exposed…