There is much to criticise in this Haaretz editorial (not least its optimism that a two-state solution is still feasible, let alone moral), but one can’t fault its determination to pressure the hardline Israeli government against trying to maintain the intolerable status-quo: History provides very few opportunities to utterly change political realities. It seems such…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
Their Israel does not exist
Independent Australian Jewish Voices blogger Michael Brull beautifully skewers the parochialism and racism within the Australian Jewish News, a paper containing countless examples of paranoid, bigoted and clueless Jews. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. This is how Jews want to be viewed in the wider community? Some clearly do. Palestinians are…
It’s us and them, at best
Here’s a fascinating collection of Israeli bloggers talking about life as Jews in Israel. The message is depressing, namely that Arabs are virtually invisible and the occupation doesn’t exist. Example one: The truth is, a lot of people like me grew up in Israel, and never really mingled with Arabs. I grew up in Haifa,…
You bomb and you pay a price
As somebody who now openly supports the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign against Israel, this recent news somehow slipped under the radar: Pro-Israel groups have attacked [British super-market] Tesco for setting up a customer helpline for those considering boycotting Israeli goods. Tesco says it provided the service in expectation of calls questioning its stocking…
Keeping them locked up
So much for the Israeli government’s plan of “economic peace” for the Palestinians: Israel defines around 1.6 million dunams (some 4 million acres) in the West Bank as state lands and does not allow the Palestinians to develop them. Hundreds of thousands of dunams in the West Bank have been declared “closed military zones” or…
We shouldn’t be grieving for the death of newspapers
My following article appears today in Online Opinion: As a journalist who spends the vast majority of my life online, the seemingly never-ending debates about the future of the media and newspapers can be exhausting and predictable. The same mantras are heard over and over again. Where will the news come from when newsprint dies?…
Their voices for the world to hear
The following information was released yesterday: The second Palestine Festival of Literature is announced today, taking place from 23rd-28th May 2009. Because of the difficulties Palestinians face under military occupation in travelling around their own country, the Festival group of 17 international writers will travel to its audiences in the West Bank. It will tour…
Still pushing the two-state “dream”
Sol Salbe, of the Middle East News Service, translates a startling paragraph from Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot: Yediot Acharonot is reporting this morning that the US Administration is talking in terms of Bushehr for Yitzhar – in other words the US will assist in dismantling the Iranian nuclear threat in return for the evacuation of…
Trying to silence Palestinians
The following statement was just released by The Freedom Theatre in the occupied Palestinian lands: On the morning of April 15, 2009, an unknown individual set fire to The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, Occupied Palestine. The main door of the theatre was completely burned, but the fire did not spread inside the building…
Stone the journalist doing his job
Stop the presses! A British journalist states the bleeding obvious: The BBC Trust yesterday called into question the corporation’s reporting of the most sensitive news story of modern times, publishing findings that the BBC Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, had breached guidelines on accuracy and impartiality. The ruling will be seized upon by campaigners who…