Israel-Palestine

1 October 2016Letter

Zionism shows how an ideology can change over time with bad results (‘Behind Labour’s “anti-semitism crisis’, PN 2594–2595). In the 19th century, it was supported by socialists, communists and anarchists who went from the diaspora to Palestine. Their relationships with Palestinians were not perfect.

As the Stern-Weiner/Finkelstein article mentions, 1917 saw Lord Balfour’s ‘declaration’ which started to give traction to the state of Israel. It was part of the colonialist…

1 October 2016News

Women from 12 countries prepare to break Israel’s criminal siege

Members of the Women’s Boat to Gaza crew on Zaytouna-Oliva in the port of Ajaccio, Corsica, on 19 September. Photo: Women’s Boat to Gaza

On 27 September, the Women’s Boat to Gaza (WBG) set sail in the boat Zaytouna-Oliva from its final port in Messina, Italy, to denounce and break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. A second boat, the Amal-Hope II, was making final preparations and was scheduled to depart from Messina soon after. Both boats were expected to arrive…

1 October 2016News in Brief

On 25 August, 18-year-old Israeli conscientious objector Omri Baranes was finally accepted as a pacifist by an Israeli defence forces (IDF) committee and released from detention on conscientious grounds. She had served 67 days over three separate sentences. She is now exempt from military service.

Just over a month earlier, on 14 July, the IDF exempted Tair Kaminer, a 19-year old Israeli conscientious objector. She had received six successive sentences, amounting to 155 days…

1 October 2016News in Brief

On 11 September, Israel’s high court rejected petitions by human rights groups and the Israeli medical association (IMA) to quash a law the Israeli parliament passed last year permitting force-feeding against a prisoner’s will (if a doctor judges their life is in danger).

This flies in the face of the world medical association’s Malta Declaration that the practice is ‘never ethically acceptable’. The IMA abides by the Malta Declaration; so far no Palestinian hunger-striker has…

1 August 2016News in Brief

On 26 May, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem announced it would end a decades-long policy of co-operating with the Israeli military justice system, saying it was a figleaf to legitimise the occupation.

In early July, the youngest Palestinian child held in administrative detention (without charge or trial), 16-year-old Hamza Hammed, originally detained by Israeli authorities on 28 February, had his detention extended for an additional four months.

On 13 June,…

1 June 2016Feature

Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein talks about Naz Shah, Ken Livingstone, and the Nazi Holocaust

Norman Finkelstein is no stranger to controversy. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the political legacy of the Nazi Holocaust. Apart from his parents, every member of Finkelstein’s family, on both sides, was exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust.

His 2000 book, The Holocaust Industry became an international bestseller and touched off a firestorm of debate. But Finkelstein’s most recent political intervention came about by…

1 April 2016News

Bil'in resistance now in twelth year

On 26 February, the Israel authorities agreed to release Palestinian journalist Mohammad Al-Qiq on 21 May, a month early, in return for him agreeing to give up his hunger strike and not renew it. Al-Qiq, who works for a Saudi Arabian TV network, was arrested in November at his Ramallah home.

He was placed in administrative detention – without charge, evidence or trial – on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.

Some 700 Palestinians are currently in administrative…

1 October 2015Review

Pluto Press, 2015, 211pp, £15

This analysis of Palestinian popular – civil – resistance to the creation and expansion of Israel and its nearly 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory, is essential reading for anyone wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of civil resistance in an occupied country, and the factors making for its success or failure.

“The First Intifada encompassed a range of nonviolent tactics with the strategic aim of regenerating the resistance, increasing the cost to Israel of…

1 August 2015News

Khader Adnan released after 55 day hunger strike

Khader Adnan, a 37-year-old baker and father of six, was released from an Israeli prison on 12 July, after a 55-day hunger strike that left him near death.

Khader launched his hunger strike on 7 May to protest at the renewal of his ‘administrative detention’ (indefinite detention without charge) after six years in and out of administrative detention.

Khader was re-arrested on 13 July. The Israeli political police, the Shin Beit, said he had been arrested for trying to…

1 August 2015News

Swedish ship boarded & passengers detained

Marianne av Göteborg arrives in Palermo, Sicily. Photo: FREEDOM FLOTILLA COALITION

At 2am on 29 June, Marianne, one of four boats bound for Gaza in the latest attempt to break the Israeli siege, was surrounded by three Israeli navy boats while in international waters 85 miles from the Gaza coast, according to Freedom Flotilla organisers.

The Swedish ship was boarded and searched by Israeli soldiers who detained all 18 people on board. Organisers described this an ‘act…

1 August 2015Feature

Extracts from the new book, Popular Protest in Palestine, an important study of popular unarmed resistance to the Israeli occupation since the second intifada

As one member of a popular committee in Silwan [on the outskirts of Jerusalem] observed: ‘A major challenge is the coordination of nonviolent activities. Some focus on the [Israeli Separation] Wall, others on checkpoints and others on settlements. There is no coordination like there was in the first intifada.’

Underpinning the different challenges organisers identified as obstacles was what many observed to be a pervasive lack of trust in leadership at any level, including…

1 February 2015News

Hunger strikes, war resistance and BDS ...

On 17 December, 100 Palestinian political prisoners ended a solidarity hunger strike after the Israeli prison authorities agreed to stop holding Nahar al-Saadi in solitary confinement and to allow him contact with his family (he had been held in solitary for over 570 days).

The authorities also agreed to end the use of solitary confinement ‘without cause’ – a promise they made previously after the mass hunger strike of mid-2012 (PN 2547-2548).

In other news, after…

1 February 2015News in Brief

On 19 January, Israeli police Monday arrested pregnant journalist Joman Abu Arafeh as she was leaving the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, according to the Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA).

Earlier, on 14 January, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) launched ‘The Media in Gaza: Caught in the Crossfire’, a report on Israeli media violations during the July-August 2014 attack on Gaza.

MADA’s director general, Mousa Rimawi said: ‘We…

25 November 2014News

From Sodastream to Zim (and beyond)

In October, there were several victories in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Kuwait announced it will not deal with 50 European companies because of their involvement in illegal settlements in occupied Palestine. Israeli-owned soft drink company SodaStream moved one of its factories out of the Occupied Territories.

Israeli shipping line Zim apparently cancelled all future shipments to the port of Oakland, after nonviolent blockades.…

28 September 2014News

Rooftop occupation leads to 4 arrests

UAV factory, Shenstone, 5 August. Photo: London Palestine Action

On 5 September, on the second day of the NATO summit in Newport, Wales, about 40 people entered Barclays High Street branch in the town shouting ‘Stop arming Israel’ and ‘Barclays divest from the arms trade’. Barclays have almost 60,000 shares in Elbit. Four people were arrested and charged with aggravated trespass after glueing-on inside the office.