The Greens, Palestine and defending BDS during NSW election

My following investigation for New Matilda appears today: Did the Greens’ stance on Israel cost them lower house seats in the NSW election? Antony Loewenstein talks to key Greens about BDS and dirty politics “I mean they just never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” That’s what NSW ALP campaign spokesperson Luke Foley had…

Obama defenders find ways to justify use of arms here and there

The New York Times, being an establishment paper, unsurprisingly backs Barack Obama’s military intervention in Libya. Much more revealing, however, is this interview with Samantha Power, a senior director on the National Security Council. I truly wonder if she believes the words she’s telling Politico: Obama “has used his pulpit and a number of speeches…

Another day in the history of Israeli non-democracy

Such news barely registers in the West, it’s such a normal occurrence: The board of Hebrew University summoned representatives of the university’s Hadash Party to a hearing before the Dean of Students last week. The hearing was for Hadash’s screening of the film Jenin, Jenin, and is yet another act by Hebrew University in actively…

Zionist denial of Bedouin life

SBS Dateline reports on the side of Israel routinely ignored in the West: Professor John Sheehan, an Australian authority on native title compensation, certainly thinks he could be. He’s currently helping Nuri in his struggle to reclaim land taken from his family by the Israeli authorities 60 years ago. Despite living in the Negev Desert…

Boycotting Israel…from within the Zionist state

This is the kind of vital shift in Israeli Jewish society that is taking place under the nose of the authorities and they hate it. Why should Jews be treated better than Arabs? Why should the Jewish state spend every day finding new ways to discriminate against Palestinians? And why should the democratic world –…

“The Israel Lobby”, five years on

One of its authors, Steve Walt, reflects on a tumultuous period and his work’s undoubted influence. One of the great personal successes, in my view, has been the increasing number of Jews who recognise the devastating result of simply allowing the pro-settler, anti-Palestinian Zionists solely taking the floor. Judaism simply cannot be about backing never-ending…

Palestinians heard backing BDS in Marrickville

With all the talk about Marrickville council embracing BDS in Sydney, Palestinian voices have been largely absent. Like in so many debates about the Middle East in the West, all we hear are Zionists and Zionists. Well, let’s change that right now. Here’s Australians for Palestine public advocate Samah Sabawi and the group’s founder Sonja…

What Israel does to dissidents; smear and damn

Gideon Levy in Haaretz: About two weeks ago, I was invited to the Jewish Book Week in London, following the publication in English of my book “The Punishment of Gaza.” The Jewish establishment in Britain threatened to boycott the event, the organizers considered hiring security guards, and roughly 500 people, mainly middle-of-the-road Jews, filled the…

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