My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Antony Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question and the co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, writes: “I am not a Jew”, said an Arab radio journalist in Jerusalem to the New York Times. “How can I belong to a Jewish state? If they define this as…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
Old ways no longer work
I sent the following (unpublished) letter to the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: Israel’s 60th birthday is being celebrated by Jews the world over but a growing number of global citizens share the view of South African liberation hero Desmond Tutu who said after returning from the Holy Land: “It reminded me so much of what…
Lessons in resistance
Non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation lives: Today, for a few hours, Palestinians took control over an illegal Israeli settler outpost on the outskirts of Ramallah. Replacing Israeli flags with Palestinian ones, Mohammed Al-Khattib and other members of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, accompanied by Israeli anti-occupation activists from Anarchists Against the Wall and…
Israel’s gift to the world
A group of former Israeli soldiers describe their experiences in the occupied town of Hebron. Apartheid, violence and abuse. Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa writes what many foreigners feel about the Jewish state’s inhumanity: No one told me this: I saw it with my own eyes and heard with my own ears from the victims…
Documenting Jewish abuse
The humanitarian spirit of Judaism refuses to endorse Zionist oppression: In January 2007, B’Tselem launched “Shooting Back”, a video advocacy project focusing on the Occupied Territories. We provide Palestinians living in high-conflict areas with video cameras, with the goal of bringing the reality of their lives under occupation to the attention of the Israeli and…
Saluting a humanitarian Jew
The humanity of Jewish musician Daniel Barenboim continues to reverberate around the world: Controversial conductor to lead orchestra of Israeli, Palestinian youths in concert ‘against ignorance’ in Jerusalem, says he will not partake in upcoming festivities marking Israel’s independence out of respect for Palestinian suffering Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim will lead an orchestra of 33…
This is Israel
A Haaretz editorial like no other: Last night, the investigative television program “Fact” broadcast pictures of our own Abu Ghraib affair. It is doubtful whether a country that has grown used to 40 years of occupation, and the stories that accompany it, will be shocked. We have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior…
Israeli lawbreakers
Finally, the evidence that categorically proves Israel’s colonial project in the occupied territories is illegal, even under Israeli law: More than one-third of West Bank settlements were built on private Palestinian land that was temporarily seized by military order for “security purposes,” according to a report by the Civil Administration that is being published here…
Seeing them as human beings
At least some in the Israeli establishment display humanity towards the Palestinians: A group of retired Israeli generals has launched a campaign urging the army to remove West Bank roadblocks, warning on Wednesday that the travel restrictions sow Palestinian hatred of Israel and stymie the peace process. The 12 top former commanders say the hundreds…