The separate May meetings in Washington between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signalled an undoubted shift from the Bush administration. Obama is reportedly examining ways he can pressure Israel to cease all settlement building in the West Bank, a reality that radically upsets the Zionist…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
The people the world ignores
Harvard Middle East scholar Sara Roy writes in the Harvard Crimson about the forgotten world of Gaza: Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely…
How strong is Obama?
The US President: Part of being a good friend is being honest. And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests. We…
Salute to Israel 2009
My following report was published on Mondoweiss today: Last year I was told a story about a friend’s visit to Israel on the Birthright program. After visiting Auschwitz and waving the Israeli flag, his group were shown around Israel. One night they were in the Jordan Valley and as the sun was setting a guide…
Our government does not speak for us
The following letter is circulating around Australia and reflects the deep anger towards the government and its media whores: As citizens of conscience we would like to protest in the strongest possible terms against the proposed Australia-Israel cultural exchange trip to Israel to be led by Julia Gillard and involving other parliamentarians, academics, business people,…
The Israeli face to the world
A senior settler official, Danny Dayan, rejects a report by Peace Now that finds nearly half of the land occupied by Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank is private Palestinian property: Not a single Arab has been harmed [by settlement activities].
They won’t wait for political action
While the Obama administration wonders how to pressure Israel to cease settlement building – how about withdrawing the billions of dollars in annual aid? – concerned citizens are taking a stand: Britain’s main academic union voted overwhelmingly to boycott Israeli universities and colleges. The University and College Union passed the boycott resolution at its annual…
How many Jews oppose this?
What kind of Judaism is this? A perversion: Jewish settlers threw stones at a Palestinian car in the West Bank today, causing injuries, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said. Medics said two men were taken to hospital, one with a fractured skull, and four others were treated for minor injuries after the early morning incident…
If only they cared about the Arabs
The recently deceased Israeli writer Amos Elon wrote the following passage in 1967, a fascinating insight into where his country was already headed: Had they [Palestine’s Arabs] agreed in 1919, not to turn Palestine into “the” Jewish homeland, but to incorporate “a” national home for the Jews, as stipulated by the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish…
Forgetting that Israel is an occupier
Jewish anti-Zionist writer Shraga Elam emails just the latest example of mainstream Israeli racism: On 26.5.2009 “Channel 2” cameras photographed Betar players among them the star Amit Ben Shoshan singing very happily after they won the Israeli cup a song popular among their fans. A song that goes like this: What’s Salim doing here? Don’t…