Israel-Palestine

Surely the first point about Israel is that it is colonising and de facto annexing the occupied West Bank, contrary to the UN and international law. That, in my view, should be the immediate focus of pressure from outside and not the nature of the Israeli state around which debates can easily slip into anti-semitism.

I would suggest, secondly, that the peace movement and the left generally should stop making a cult of the Palestinians.

I say this because they are in…

The Peace News editorial comment on ‘Antisemitism, Zionism, BDS and PN’ (PN 2552-3) was thoughtful, informed and principled on the first two. That’s what makes its cack-footedness on boycott, divestment and sanctions so surprising. 

There are things the editorial simply got factually wrong. And then there are issues of political principle and practice. The incorrect facts are used to support the, in my view, wrong conclusions. Let’s start with the errors:

l The boycott…

The olive harvest, it’s not as romantic as it sounds, emailed my Aussie friend and fellow IWPSer before I set off for my second ‘tour’ volunteering with the International Women’s Peace Service, based in the village of Deir Istiya in the Salfit governate, in the West Bank.

And in a way my friend was right: gruelling sun, long hours in the sun, and a bit monotonous sometimes. Returning, eating and showering were all we were fit for, but there were clothes to hand-wash (olive-picking…

On 10 January, over 300 Palestinians set up camp in an Israeli-occupied area north-east of Jerusalem known as ‘E1’. The Israeli government recently authorised the expansion of a large Jewish settlement in E1, which will cut Palestinian East Jerusalem off from the West Bank and make a two-state solution impossible. 

The purpose of the Bab al-Shams (‘gate of the sun’) occupation was to create ‘facts on the ground’ by founding a Palestinian settlement on privately-owned Palestinian…

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…

The Israeli-initiated conflict over Gaza in mid-November, which left 105 Palestinian civilians and four Israeli civilians dead, began with the assassination of a hard-line Hamas military leader who was contemplating a long truce with Israel, according to a leading Israeli peace activist.

‘The assassination of Jaabari was a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of a long-term…

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continue hunger strikes against their indefinite detention without trial and against their conditions of imprisonment (see PN 2546).

On 21 November, Samer Issawi, on intermittent hunger strike for 118 days, began refusing water as well as food. His condition was unknown as PN went to press.

On 26 November, it was reported that Ayman Sharawna had declared…

In the last issue of PN, a Jewish reader wrote that she was ‘often very surprised and saddened at the extent of the anti-Jewish feeling and writing in the political Left, and in Peace News particularly’. We promised to reply this issue.

Jen asked whether there was ‘a visible and vocal place for Jews (or Arabs and Gentiles) in the peace movements in general, and in Peace News in particular, who believe in a Jewish…

On the long and extended train journey from Brighton to Liverpool I found the stomach to finally read the letter about my diary entry and I would like to support the editors in their response, primarily because the writer has specifically asked for a response.

On a very personal level, I feel more able to speak up at the moment because I am a really good jew, I go to synagogue every week, try to observe the Sabbath, love and am loved by a community that has been decimated. So, say…

As a Peace News reader I am very excited and hopeful about the work going on in the peace movement at the moment around oppression.

I was really interested to hear about George Lakey's work in the UK and especially Milan Rai's awesome article and thoughtful personal expression (PN 2549).

I'm excited that we get to take charge and think well about our own identities and each other's, to notice the places where we struggle to think well about ourselves and also…

On 20 September, four Palestinian youth, Taka Mohammad, 17, Mohammad Amir, 16, Yosouf Shtaiwi, 20, and Nadir Amer, 23, were arrested by the Israeli security forces ahead of the weekly demonstrations at the Palestinian village of Kufr Qaddoum in the West Bank.

On 21 September, four international human rights defenders were…

Since the beginning of September, Palestinians have regularly blocked roads in West Bank cities and held strikes, protesting at the high prices of basic necessities and the Palestinian authority’s neoliberal austerity policies, but also condemning the 1993 Oslo peace accords, particularly the ‘Paris protocol’ annex to the accords which preserves Israeli domination of the Palestinian economy.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Freedom Theatre co-founder Zakaria Zubeidi held a ‘death fast’ in…

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have continued to hold hunger strikes in protest at Israeli breaches of an agreement reached after the mass hunger strike that ended on 14 May.

The prison authorities have often released a prisoner or negotiated to end their strike at the last possible moment to avoid prisoner deaths.

Thus on 23 July, Akram Rikhawi ended his 102-day hunger strike after Israel agreed to his early release and Bilal Diab was released on 9 August after a 77-…

On 2 June, two campaigners from Stop G4S climbed onto the roof of security company G4S near Crawley, West Sussex, displaying two banners. One read: ‘G4S – Profiting from: Israeli Apartheid, Prison Slavery, Deadly Deportations’.

The duo secured themselves with superglue and bike-locks, while another dozen protesters surrounded the building, shouting slogan and holding anti-G4S placards.

The occupiers were charged with ‘aggravated trespass’ under the 1994 Criminal Justice and…

I was shocked by your glowing review of Gilad Atzmon’s book (PN 2545). His Wikipedia entry, for example, shows he doesn’t deserve coverage in Peace News.

Gilad has been persona non grata with the left in the UK for many years, since his criticism of Israel developed into anti-semitism. His latest book, The Wandering Who, borrows ideas from Zionism and Mein Kampf, claims a Jewish conspiracy runs the world, includes a side-swipe at feminism, heaps vitriol on…