NEWS: News Updates

 

 Remember the Holocaust, but mind what you say

January 26th, 2013

Holocaust Memorial Day is January 27. The theme of the UK HMD Trust is 'building bridges'. Visit their website to 'build a bridge'. Watch the UCU's video. But while both HMD and UCU make connections to other genocides, for some the Holocaust memory is sacred and, in particular any reference to Israeli treatment of Palestinians, as MP David Ward did, is unacceptable. But is this the day to stand up for Wiesel's words: 'Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.'

Labour MPs with heads in a bubble about Palestinian workers and land

January 25th, 2013

You might think Labour MPs would not want to favour a company which practised racial discrimination, paid its workers less than half the minimum wage, on casual terms, in poor working conditions, which mislabelled its products in order to fool consumers. When you add this company has based its production facility on a site which made a longed-for peace settlement impossible you do wonder why Labour Friends of Israel were happy to attend an event (1) publicising Sodastream (2, Who Profits report. Send this to an LFI member (List, 3)!

Hague says 2-state solution should be single highest priority for new US government

January 24th, 2013

'I hope that whatever Israeli Government emerges will recognise that we are approaching the last chance of bringing about such a solution' Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons last Tuesday. Despite reports of Britain and France 'spearheading' a two-state initiative (see link in post), Mr. Hague insisted that nothing would happen without the intervention of the USA, for whom he thinks 'this should be the single highest priority for new momentum in American foreign policy', which seems to blunt the European spear.

Laws and customs which keep Arabs without place

January 25th, 2013

These are a few excerpts from the comprehensive annual report by the ACRI. It documents the loss or denial of civil rights to Israelis especially Palestinians. Many of these are local rules (building,use of Arabic) reminiscent of the 'Jim Crow' laws of the federally 'equal' but actually segrated southern US. A new factor is the privatisation of police and judicial services which will leave Palestinians and the poor with little access to justice..

Don’t get your hopes up: what the election really showed

January 24th, 2013

The anti-Netanyahu vote was roughly the same as the vote for him and his coalition list. But that does not mean a left-wing vote. There was nothing in the result that suggested any shift against the Occupation or settlers. The next Knesset will have a record number (c. 40) religious MKs. And voting seems to have been almost entirely on ethnic lines. Yousef Munayyer (1) and Noam Sheizaf (2) on the dismal showing.

Labor and Yesh Atid call it for change

January 24th, 2013

This one's for the election geeks; so you couldn't be there, so here's the next best thing, a live blog from AFP reporting developments as they unfold. First news of Yesh Atid's unexpectedly strong showing at 18.15 via Twitter, although this had been predicted by Ha'aretz. Misled by opinion polls, perhaps, Netanyahu's strategy of appealing to the right looks profoundly mistaken - though he would have made an unconvincing centrist candidate.

Israeli showman gains from disgust with politics

January 23rd, 2013

Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party have been hailed as the unexpected winners of the Israeli election by gaining enough Knesset seats to give them a place in coalition negotiations. He stands as the pragmatic anti-ideological candidate, for the Haredim doing military service and against any Palestinian right of return. He blames the Palestinians for the failure of negotiations but believes those negotiations must take place.

Real Democracy – a Palestinian-Israeli vote share

January 23rd, 2013

There's no real democracy in Israel says the minority whose prime concern is the political exclusion of Palestinians whose lives are checked in every way by Israeli rules and rulers over which they have no say. So on the initiative of some (including a JfJfP signatory) Israeli supporters of the Real Democracy group offered individual Palestinians the right to choose who to vote for - or to not vote. Reports from +972, BBC, Ha'aretz.

A legal intifada against Israeli plunder of resources

January 23rd, 2013

Land, water and vast reserves of gas in the Eastern Mediterranean are some of the vital resources to which Palestinians have a title, especially now the PA has UN non-member status. Francis Boyle, professor of international law and adviser to the PLO, tells Dennis Bernstein what legal claims the PA could now bring, from gas to Gaza.

Bibi hangs on with no authority

January 23rd, 2013

These comments on the Israeli election are based on exit polls as final results are not yet in; all agree on one thing - Netanyahu may lead the party with the most Knesset seats, but Likud's loss of seats to centrist and leftist parties deprives him of a clear mandate to govern (1-3). The Palestinian turn-out appears to have been higher than expected with votes split between 4 different parties.

Mehadrin mislabels products from illegal settlements to avoid boycott

January 22nd, 2013

 Palestinian groups have called for a day of action on February 9th to exert pressure on companies which import products from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories but mislabel them 'Made in Israel'. Medjool dates from Mehadrin is one such product reports Corporation Watch. Plus a report on the Palestinian village that has been demolished to create space and water for the Beqa’ot settlement....

Can Palestinians save Israel from its march into apartheid?

January 22nd, 2013

In our last pre-election posting we offer a selection of comments on how social democrats are too weak and divided to prevent a victory for the ultra-right. All the articles suggest neither Israelis nor Palestinians have embraced active political participation; there is not an article outside Israel which views more years of a Netanyahu government with anything other than dismay.

The ‘outsiders’ who make up the mass right-wing vote

January 22nd, 2013

As in Western Europe, the Eurocentric Israeli left has lost vigour and confidence. It is also fractured by factionalism and ethnicity says Rachel Shabi, 3). In contrast, the mass of Russian immigrants are stridently on the right, rather like the mizrahi and sephardi Jews who felt demeaned by the dominant Ashkenazim. Harriet Sherwood and Yevgeny Kanevsky explore the phenomenon, 1) and 2)..

Why AIPAC fears putting its money where its mouth is on Hagel

January 22nd, 2013

When Pres. Obama nominated Chuck Hagel as his next Defense Secretary, neo-cons led a charge against him waving the flag of 'antisemitism'. Even right-wing Jews were embarrassed by this abuse of the term. The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for Hagel's appointment is set for January 31, but as AIPAC's support is confined to Congress, observers think they will not lobby publicly to block the appointment.

Only EU support for absolute right of Palestinians to self-determination will bring change

January 21st, 2013

As has often been said on this site, the EU, Quartet and USA have only one policy on the MidEast - a negotiated agreement for a Palestinian state - ignoring the fact that Netanyahu has only policy: relying on the IDF to deliver him a Greater Israel. Henry Siegman argues that a two state agreement can be reached if the new European initiative sets a time limit for a final settlement and is prepared to invoke the UN Charter to enforce