Leading Australian legal academic Ben Saul wrote back in March that Israel should no longer be a protected species in the international arena. He’s back with an equally strong statement. And note the growing number of public figures who no longer accept Zionist exceptionalism: Britain’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat is a lesson for Australia…
Showing all posts tagged West Bank
The West Bank is under complete Israeli control
This site has been following the case of Australian Bridget Chappel who was arrested, abducted and charged by Israel while living in the occupied Palestinian territories. Here, in an article for Green Left Weekly, she outlines the reality of her situation and why Israel’s control over the West Bank is absolute: Israel has exposed the…
Restricting Palestinian movement (and most Israelis say nothing, as usual)
A press release from a leading human rights group: Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual served a petition to the HCJ, along with 15 other Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, regarding the practice of expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip solely on the basis of their…
Please block Palestinian freedom of movement, it’s a really good look
Those “shared values” the West enjoys with Israel: Israel’s defense establishment is not permitting residents of the Palestinian village of Sheikh Sa’ad, southeast of Jerusalem, to leave the town in their cars. There are even restrictions on walking out of the village, a privilege reserved for residents with Israeli identity cards. To its west, Sheikh…
Washington and the Muslim world, a testy relationship
Views from across the Arab world: We are now approaching the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo, which offered Arabs and Muslims around the world a new “engagement” with the United States. A year later, how do Arab publics see the results of that effort–and how much do their…
Hands up the New Zealanders who want to hear more about Israel and Palestine?
Two weeks after the New Zealand magazine The Listener published a feature on my work and then last week two letters discussing the Middle East, more letters in this week’s edition. This is the kind of open debate we need far more of: Antony Loewenstein was paraphrased as saying, “Israel is racist and brutal if…
Italian supermarkets reject products from Zionist colonies
This is a step by step campaign but watch how growing numbers of global citizens (and corporations) are taking a stand: Following lobbying efforts by the Italian Coalition against Carmel-Agrexco, two major Italian supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, announced the suspension of sales of products from Agrexco, the principal exporter of produce from Israel and…
Liberal Zionism debates what Judaism should be in the 21st century
I’m coming late to this essay but there’s a long piece in the New York Review of Books by Peter Beinart talking about the failure of American Jewish elites and the wider Zionist community to understand the real effects of blind backing for Israel. Arabs are openly loathed and yet liberal, American Jewry is walking…
Australian union takes a stand against illegal Zionist expansion
The news that one of Australia’s leading unions, the CFMEU, has begun a boycott of Israeli products from illegal colonies in the West Bank received a tiny item in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald but nowhere else that I can see. Here’s the group’s statement from 12 May: The… CFMEU… National… Executive… in… October… 2009… discussed… the… latest… state… of… affairs… regarding… the longstanding… Israeli/Palestinian… conflict… and… considered… information… regarding… the… Boycott, Divestment… and… Sanctions… (BDS)… approach… being… adopted… by… some… national… trade… union… centres. The… CFMEU… Executive… resolved… to… invite… the… Palestinian… Ambassador… to… Australia… to… address… the CFMEU’s… NEC… and… then… consider… our… union’s… approach… to… this… matter… further. The… NEC… heard… from… Izzat… Abdulhadi… at… its… February… meeting… and… considered… the… arguments… for… a boycott… of… products… and… goods… produced… in… illegal… settlements… in… the… Occupied… Palestinian Territories.…
If Britain was serious about human rights in Palestine
A strong letter in the UK Guardian that puts some necessary pressure on Britain’s new Deputy Prime Minister. Speaking about “change” is politically necessary these days, but alas, what does it really bring to the people under American or British occupation? To the British deputy prime minister: Dear Nick Clegg, This is a request for…