Israel, 2010: The letter circulated by three rabbis in south Tel Aviv in which they direct residents not to rent their apartments to migrants and refugees trying to settle in the city makes a pretense of concern for the welfare of the residents and compassion for asylum seekers. But it hardly manages to conceal the…
Showing all posts tagged Zionism
The history of apartheid continues to resonate
I can’t help but read this story in the New York Times about the World Cup and wonder about years ahead, when Israel has left its apartheid behind. People will look back and wonder how it ever happened. And those who backed and supported to the last drop of blood will not be forgotten. Who…
The dancing storm-troopers
What planet do these Israelis live on? Occupation soldiers are dancing in the streets of an apartheid town and we should celebrate? It has been a while since we felt the kind of joy we experienced when we saw the six Nahal Brigade soldiers dancing in Hebron’s streets. If I were a Foreign Ministry official,…
Israel is drifting and the future looks bleak
The US Presbyterian Church continues to gently push for effective change in Palestine and the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof rehashes the tired line of finding a Palestinian “Gandhi” (do these Western commentators simply feel the need to repeat predictable talking points over and over again?) Max Blumenthal finds increasing Israeli violence at Sheikh…
Life under occupation in the holy city of Bethlehem
I regularly feature the writings of Father Peter Bray, a New Zealander who heads Bethlehem University. He offers first-hand accounts of the realities of occupation: 7 July 2010 Greetings from this holy place! Last week we finally celebrated the graduation of 656 students and so brought to an end the academic year which was the…
Australians are beginning to wake to BDS necessity
Sonja Karkar explains in the Electronic Intifada that the BDS movement is stirring in Australia (but geez, we have a long way to go): With a supine government and a media unwilling to investigate Israel’s criminal acts, getting the message out to the public has been a real challenge. However, Australian unions look like they…
Unprecedented hostility towards Israel, says New York Times
Roger Cohen in the New York Times: I hear more hostility to Israel around the world than at any time I can recall. The United States, traumatized, made mistakes after 9/11. Too often, it shunned prudence and rode roughshod. Israel is in some ways an extension of the United States. The line between what’s domestic…
Finkelstein shows the weakness of Obama on Palestine
The latest interview with Norman Finkelstein this week, on GritTV, on the meeting a few days ago between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu that showed the real face of Washington towards the Middle East; weak, blindly pro-Israel and deep with empty rhetoric. America will not solve this conflict:
New York Times happy to publish call for ethnic cleansing
Following the extensive New York Times feature on American companies getting tax deductions for building settlements in the West Bank, one letter writer in the paper is upset: To the Editor: Some questions: Why should it be controversial for tax-exempt charities to aid people who live in disputed territory? Why is it that Jews living…