British unions at the forefront of moves to isolate Israel

The recent news that Britain’s largest union, Unite, agreed to boycott Israeli companies was clearly the beginning of something far bigger: One of Britain’s largest trade unions passed a motion at its annual conference in Bournemouth last week accusing Israel of lying over the Gaza flotilla incident and has called for a complete boycott of…

Little faith in Gaza of business as usual

Israel’s supposed partial lifting of the Gaza siege is treated inside Gaza as the farce it is: Manal Hassan plucks a date biscuit from an industrial tray, breaks it in half to inspect the filling, and discards it with a shrug of despair. “You see, they allow in dates, but not date paste,” she says,…

The Palestinian Authority knows where its bread is buttered

That’s what you call a loyal colonial partner: The Palestinian Authority attempted to neutralize a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel’s deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, leaked UN and Palestinian Authority documents obtained by The Electronic Intifada show. Israel’s 31 May attack killed nine Turkish citizens, including a dual US-Turkish citizen,…

Leading IDF lawyer explains how Israel justifies its action

My following article appears in today’s Crikey: On Tuesday lunchtime the Australian Human Rights Centre and the UNSW International Law and Policy Group (with assistance from the Israeli embassy) hosted a seminar on “The Fight against Terror: Practical Dilemmas in applying the Laws of War.” The two speakers were Professor Abraham Bell of Israel’s Bar-Ilan…

Hating Arabs and getting Murdoch to pay for it

Former Republican Presidential candidate and Fox News host Mike Huckabee loathes Arabs and Palestinians and believes Israel has the right to do what it wants, where it wants. Christian Zionism in action. A New Yorker profile of the man provides an indication of the kind of mindset Rupert Murdoch hires for his “news” channel: Sun…

Tony Blair is the face of Israel’s new Gaza policy

Tony Blair’s role in the Middle East is to appear balanced but is in fact designed to please Israel and offer a nice, kind face for Israeli occupation. And now the Israeli press confirms yet more shameless propaganda: It turns out that Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair was the person who in…

Mayonnaise won’t make Gazans feel human again

Muhammed Skaik, trade officer at the Gaza branch of the Palestinian trade center Paltrade, tells Haaretz that Israel’s supposed lifting of the economic siege may not mean too much: Since January this year. Israel has added every month or two about 10 items to the list of permitted items. But ketchup, snacks and mayonnaise, for…

Who’s your Zionist loving Daddy, Israel?

What does an Israeli patriot want? Gideon Levy sees an Israeli population convinced the world is against them and only keen to hear reassuring comments about the nobility of the Jewish state. The Wall Street Journal opinion page would agree. Here’s Shelby Steele today claiming that anti-Semitism is at the heart of the world’s growing…

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