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…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
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…
How mad Jews treat Palestinians (and the world turns away
When a picture speaks a thousand words (via Sabbah): A settler tosses wine at a Palestinian woman on Shuhada Street in Hebron. The approach of some settlers towards neighboring Palestinians, especially around Nablus in the north and Hebron in the south, has often been one of contempt and violence.
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…
Peace and justice won’t come to Palestine by simply wishing it
Following my article in last week’s Canberra Times, I’m informed by reliable sources at the paper that Jewish academic Dvir Abramovich demanded a right of reply because I had “unfairly libeled… Israelis as extremists.” Yesterday his piece was published and it’s a masterful piece of saying nothing in 800 words. Empty words and slogans, two equal…
Jews who refuse to abuse Arabs under occupation
I wrote in December last year about the Shministim, Israeli high school students who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies the Palestinian Territories. I met some of these brave men and women during my recent visit to Israel. Now, they’re taking this message to key ground, the US: Two…
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…
American Radical; a key film about Jewish questioning
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein has just been screened in the US for the first time: The film-makers have given me a preview screening of the film. It’s a powerful work, revealing the history of Finkelstein himself and his leading critics. In many ways, I feel deep sympathy for Finkelstein, a man who…