The Trump administration has taken yet another step in its radical support of Israel. Having recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, recognized Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, cut off aid to the Palestinians, and abandoned the Iran agreement, it has now declared that Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land
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drive-by planet: Nigel Kennedy ‘apartheid’ reference to be censored by BBC: Palestine Strings at the Proms
On August 8 the BBC Proms featured the Palestine Strings in company with world renowned violinist, Nigel Kennedy, and members of his Orchestra of Life. Palestine Strings is made up of seventeen young Palestinians ranging in age from 12 to 23 who study at the Edward Said National Conservatory
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Rashid Khalidi’s ‘Brokers of Deceit’: how the U.S. has undermined the peace process
In Jerusalem at the start of his current visit to Israel, Obama went over-the-top with superlatives in a speech that employed high flown rhetoric and symbolism. He painted the US/Israel relationship in transcendent terms – “eternal” no less. In a later speech, adopting a more pragmatic approach, the president characterized
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israeli Settlements and the United Church Boycott: Three Common Distortions
*** Note: An unfinished draft version of this post mistakenly went out to e-mail and feed subscribers yesterday. Please do your best to scrub it from your memory and enjoy the updated post — as its author intended — below. Many thanks and apologies. *** After months of controversy and
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel, the Settlements, and the United Church: Three Common Distortions
– proposed United Church boycott of products from Israeli settlements Distortion #1: Why Israel? The world is full of tyranny and injustice. Of all the places and issues, why boycott the Middle East’s only democracy? Three assumptions are packed into this distortion: that the United Church is boycotting Israel, that
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: On Israel and Apartheid
Message on a wall at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Last month, university students and activists around the world marked Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual series of lectures and protests designed to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians, and as usual, the condemnations were heavy and hyperbolic. Canadian
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