Israel-Palestine

300 Israeli lecturers and teachers have publicly signed an advertisement supporting the Israeli women’s group “Civil Disobedience”, which drives Palestinian women and children on day trips to Israeli beaches and other leisure sites. The advertisement appeared in a national Israeli newspaper on 17 June, next to an ad published by Civil Disobedience itself. Members of Civil Disobedience now have criminal records for breaking the “law of entry”.

I’m going to be a passenger on the Audacity of Hope, the US boat in this summer’s international flotilla to break the illegal and deadly Israeli siege of Gaza.

Organisers, supporters and passengers aim to nonviolently end the brutal collective punishment imposed on Gazan residents since 2006, when the Israeli government began a stringent air, naval and land blockade of the Gaza Strip, explicitly to punish Gaza’s residents for choosing the Hamas government in a democratic election.…

“Peace without justice is hollow, a sham, the deathly stillness of tyranny triumphant,” writes Michael Riordon, as he shares his stories of Israelis and Palestinians resisting the occupation, all of whom have experienced harassment from the authorities, sometimes death threats and imprisonment.

The Israelis, immigrants or children of immigrants, all initially supported a Zionist state as a home for Jews, but gradually came to see Israel as a colonialist oppressor. Riordon, a Canadian…

Going to Gaza

As September approaches, a potentially momentous political event looms before us: the admission – or not – of Palestine as a member state of the UN. There are diverse opinions on whether this is a good or bad thing, but the discussion must be held, and quickly. Those of us concerned with the upholding of human rights and fair play in this world know that we cannot ignore this complicated issue which deserves serious and detailed consideration. The fate of the Middle East…

Two St Andrews university students, aged 18 and 20, are facing trial in August after being critical of Israel and its flag. One of them said he put his hands down inside his jeans and onto a fellow-student’s Israeli flag, and described Israel as a terrorist state guilty of many civilian deaths. The two were arrested at their hall of residence and kept in custody for 36 hours before being charged with “racially aggravated conduct”.

On 28 April, the Israeli parliament passed a law revoking the citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage or treason. A week later, Mordechai Vanunu, jailed for 18 years for revealing Israel’s nuclear weapons programme in 1986, demanded that his citizenship should be revoked, since he had been found guilty of both espionage and treason.

“Our South Africa moment has finally arrived,” is Omar Barghouti’s rallying call for a global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement to support the struggle for human rights in Palestine. In this book he eloquently and persuasively sets out the arguments for BDS against Israel in order to end its oppression of the Palestinians that is in defiance of both UN resolutions and international law.

Academic and co-founder of BDS, Barghouti draws on the South African anti-apartheid…

Vittorio Arrigoni, an outspoken Italian peace activist, was murdered in Gaza on 14 April, after being abducted by an anti-Hamas, al-Qa’eda-inspired group. Arrigoni arrived in Gaza on a Free Gaza Movement siege-busting boat in 2008.

After Arrigoni’s kidnap by a group known as “Tawhid and Jihad”, a video was posted on YouTube showing the 36-year-old, who was working with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), being tortured and beaten. The group demanded the…

Village Life
by Gill Knight
from PN 2532, April 2011

During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on.

But none has been more heart rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small…

During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank, Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on. But none has been more heart - rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small village of Nabi Saleh. The objectives of the resistance are to end the…

Departing in May, a boat carrying a contingent from Britain will join a convoy from 20 countries to the besieged people of Gaza.

This will be largest sea-borne mission yet to break the Israeli siege of Gaza and will mark the first anniversary of the Israeli attack on a six-ship aid convoy in international waters which resulted in the deaths of nine people and injuries to 54 others on the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the convoy.

Israel refused to permit a UN…

On 14 March, Israel released nonviolent Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu Rahma, one of the chief organisers of weekly demonstrations against the Israeli separation wall near the West Bank village of Bil’in. A schoolteacher, Abdullah was arrested in December 2009 and subsequently convicted of “incitement” and organising illegal demonstrations. After being sentenced to 16 months in prison, he was recognised as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Abu Rahma’s lawyer, Gaby Laskey…

Nabi Saleh is still on my mind and so is the new word I have learnt – “sumoud”. Picture this, during the afternoon of the demo, when things were quiet a group of us gathered under the water tower in the main square and sat on some pipes in a u-shape to chew the fat. Ben, an Israeli activist, appeared with a coffee pot and glass cups from a nearby house and we had a welcome coffee break.

Just as we finished and the cups collected, three soldiers appeared at the edge of the square and…

An All-Wales Palestine Network has been set up following a meeting with Jill Evans, MEP. It is thought that an all-Wales group can provide more “clout” than local groups. The purpose of this Network is action. No meetings, no chat, no structure. Concerted action only. Contact Pippa Bartolotti pippa@pippa-bartolotti.co.uk

CND Cymru is working flat out on making the links between public spending cuts and the atrocity of a Trident replacement that is going ahead…

The jubilant celebrations I witnessed in Palestine when the UN General Assembly voted for an observer state status are in direct conflict with the grim reality on the ground. All non-violent demonstrations that resist the occupation of Palestine are deemed illegal and suppressed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) – relabelled to reflect its real role as the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF). Any place where a demonstration takes place – village, street or field can be decreed a Closed Military…