The BBC is well-used to accusations of bias from many quarters, not least on its coverage of the Israel-Palestine issue, where it appears unable to please anyone. More than 10,000 people have signed a change.org petition demanding that a public inquiry be held into the BBC’s pro-Israel bias. Four...

In July, plans to block European Union money from reaching Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territory became official. The ban will make institutions and entities in the settlements – which are outside Israel’s pre-1967 borders and are illegal under international law – ineligible for EU grants, prizes or loans,...

When Mohammed Morsi was deposed by the Egyptian military on 3 July, the international community was unsure how to react. The US held back from referring to events as a “coup”, as this would trigger an automatic suspension of aid to Egypt. The European Union was no less confused....

Israel’s settlements – civilian communities built on land occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War – are widely accepted to be illegal under international law. They have been classified as such by the International Court of Justice and repeatedly by the United Nations, which holds that the settlements...

Before Election Day 2010 BC (Before Coalition), there was one party which many on the left saw as the one that they could rely on to be vociferous when it came to protecting national and international human rights and civil liberties. Whisper its name today, however, and many ex-...

The British government has recently signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the Palestinian Authority (PA) pledging funds to the tune of £156 million, to be delivered over the next two years. The agreement was signed by the Prime Minister of the PA, Salam Fayyad, in Ramallah and countersigned by...

On Sunday 2nd January, two Palestinian workers for the British Consulate in Jerusalem were arrested by the Israeli authorities. The two have since been accused of aiding suspected Hamas supporters, and charged with weapons trafficking. A British foreign office official confirmed the arrest by the Israeli authorities on Sunday...

A veteran British MP has attacked the Westminster coalition government’s proposed change to the universal jurisdiction laws. Sir Gerald Kaufman also claimed that British Jewry is waking up to the truth of Israel’s human rights abuses. During the second reading of the Police Bill on Monday 13 December 2010,...

As the prominent Palestinian leader Sheikh Raed Salah remains behind bars in a British prison, condemnation of the British government’s action continues to grow from various pro-Justice groups and leading personalities, including many from different Palestinian factions. From nationalist representatives and Islamic figureheads, to Palestinians on the left and...

Before Election Day 2010 BC (Before Coalition), there was one party which many on the left saw as the one that they could rely on to be vociferous when it came to protecting national and international human rights and civil liberties. Whisper its name today, however, and many ex-...

When the borders of Gaza were sealed by Israel in June 2007 the population faced a situation that was, inevitably, going to deteriorate on every level very quickly. A total blockade of an overcrowded and already economically devastated country should have been condemned across the world from the beginning,...

He’s two weeks into his new role as Foreign Secretary, but already the Zionists’ guns are out to get William Hague. The editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard, claims that “Hague is no friend of Israel”; his article, in which he lambasts Mr. Hague for condemning Israel’s “disproportionate”...

In an interview with the Times (6 May), Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, is reported to have “complained about “extremism in British universities” which caused his deputy “to flee anti-Israel activists after she gave a talk at Manchester University”. According to Mr. Prosor, “We have a serious...

The Independent columnist Johann Hari is someone I don’t always agree with, but that’s the nature of freedom of speech and democracy. He’s just as entitled to his opinion as I am to mine. I can’t help thinking he’s right, though, in his article “The shameful, bloody silence at...

I am writing this in Malta, a small island state in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Sicily. It is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and so has had a key strategic role to play over the centuries. It is the historical home of the...

In his speech in Germany a couple of weeks ago, Britain’s Prime Minister said that his government will not give funds to Muslim organisation unless they believe in “universal human rights”. David Cameron said that multiculturalism has basically failed to integrate some sections of society in Britain and he...

It is heartening that a senior British politician can still find the time to attend a minority community function to offer praise and support for its contribution to British society. What made George Osborne’s speech at the Board of Deputies of British Jews 250th Anniversary Dinner on 23 November...

It has been an interesting couple of weeks watching the reactions to the latest Islamophobia emanating from Western sources; first that film and then, almost inevitably, it seems, more cartoons from a French publisher. As has been usual over the years, the sacred cow of ” freedom of speech”...

The real surprise this week was not that the British House of Commons voted against the government’s plans to attack Syria, but that people were surprised that elected MPs should vote pretty much in line with public opinion on the issue. Democracy, it would seem, is alive and if...

Following the release of Israel’s report to the UN on Friday in which the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) essentially looked into their own behaviour during operation Cast Lead, in which over 1400 Palestinians were killed following the Israeli military assault just over a year ago, MEMO contacted one of...

More than two weeks after British Prime Minister David Cameron likened Gaza to a “prison camp” during a speech in Turkey, he is still facing a backlash from the Jewish community. Clearly, his words struck a raw nerve. Last week the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, bemoaned the fact that...

This afternoon a press conference was held in the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office between Foreign Secretary William Hague and Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. The two men seemed to get along quite well and voiced their mutual respect for one another. In their opening statements the focus was...

Sarah Colborne (Campaign Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign) arrived at Heathrow airport this morning clearly tired and shaken but steadfast and determined. She was the only one aboard the flight to London as most of her fellow British flotilla members had chosen to stay in Turkey for the...

When political protesters are arrested by “oppressive regimes” around the world, human rights organisations are the first to rally the call for justice. In practically every issue of Amnesty International’s magazine, for instance, there is a call for the “immediate and unconditional release” of protesters and “prisoners of conscience”...

Rachel Corrie: A Case for Justice On March 16th 2003, twenty-three year old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a 65 tonne Israeli bulldozer in Gaza as she stood bravely in its path in a last-ditch attempt to stop it from destroying the family home...

Israeli historian Professor Ilan Pappe and South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former government minister Ronnie Kasrils spoke on Wednesday 10 March 2010 in the Houses of Parliament on the subject of opposing apartheid. Drawing comparisons between the oppressive nature of the former South African apartheid regime and the current...

While Desmond Travers argues for prohibition of certain weapons, ex-head of Shin Bet says forget the past and move on! On Monday 8 March, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) hosted a public discussion on the UN’s Goldstone Report and the Peace Process. The panel included...

Gordon Brown promises a full investigation as to how an assassination squad completed their murderous mission with the use of British passports The involvement of six British passport holders in the killing of senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, last month in Dubai was described in the Guardian today as...

Harsh sentences deliveredOn Friday morning last week the waiting room inside Islington Crown Court started to fill with some of the protesters who had taken part in the London-Gaza protests in January last year. They were there to be sentenced for their role in those protests. The defendants had...

It is a legal maxim in this country that justice must not only be done but it must also be seen to be done. Unfortunately, for many of those who took part in the London protests against the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year it looks as though justice...

2011 looks set to be a year for increased awareness and discussion on the major issues surrounding the conflict in Palestine. 2010 ended in mixed fortune for the Palestinian cause. On the positive side, it emerged that several Israeli Hasbara (propaganda) groups have dubbed London the world hub of...

The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) hosted UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Richard Falk for a series of events this week including a parliamentary briefing on the issue of Universal Jurisdiction. The following is an extract from the talk he delivered in the House of Commons: The issue of universal jurisdiction...

In an attempt to improve political relations and strengthen existing ties between Arab states and the UK, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has been on a tour of Gulf states this week, including a visit to the United Arab Emirates which she last visited 31 years ago. Participants in the...

It seems as though the Israeli scandal that emerged following the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh 10 months ago will simply not go away; nor should it. The revelation in January that Al-Mabhouh had been assassinated in his Dubai hotel room by an assassination squad involving 33 suspects...

In a major step towards promoting justice and human rights, Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) voted this week in favour of a campaign to boycott companies that profit from Israel’s illegal settlements. This is a very welcome and commendable decision which acknowledges the illegal nature of the settlements and...

The increasingly cosy relationship between the extremist, racist EDL movement and the ultra-racist Zionist movement in the UK is becoming more and more visible with each passing demonstration that they attend. It is now a common sight to see a mass of Israeli flags at an EDL rally and...

With what is appalling timing, given the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah a week ago on the order of the Home Secretary Theresa May, a certain Major General (ret.) Danny Rothschild is speaking in London on Monday 4th July at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Whitehall; he...

Sheikh Raed Salah has been the target of a vicious and concerted smear campaign by the pro-Israel lobby in the UK and unfortunately our government has now weighed in to give legitimacy to the systematic persecution of Palestinians on British soil as well. Sheikh Raed is the Palestinian leader...

The first anniversary of Israel’s horrific assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla is fast approaching. As most people will remember, nine peace activists were killed by Israeli commandos when the soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara in international waters. The ship was carrying hundreds of international humanitarians and peace activists...

Following the Middle East Monitor’s report on Tuesday 7th July that Israeli Major General (ret.) Danny Rothschild – was due to speak in the Houses of Parliament later the same day despite there being a record of human rights abuses under his watch in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, it...

In the time since his shocking arrest in London on 28th June, Sheikh Raed Salah’s name has been the focus of vicious and potentially libellous headlines in the British media. Moreover, some people in Britain actually began a concerted process of character assassination of the Sheikh long before he...

There is no doubt that attempts to whip up Islamophobia are on the rise and there certainly seems to be an atmosphere of intolerance and racism gaining traction here in the UK. While it is easy to point the finger of blame at racist far-right groups such as the...

Maxim Shevchenko is an immensely well-respected editor, journalist and presenter on television and radio in Russia. He is a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and he is also one of the latest targets of the pro-Israel Lobby. Shevchenko,...

Since the release of Peter Oborne’s Dispatches documentary, The pro-Israel lobby in Britain, public interest in the subject has grown considerably. With the approach of the 2010 general elections there has been a constant flow of revelations concerning the role of lobbyists acting on behalf of foreign countries in...

The long overdue Saville Report into the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland has been received with mixed reviews. While Unionist spokesmen regard it as an important step towards closure, relatives of the victims are now contemplating legal action against those responsible for the killings. For several reasons...

The leaked documents known now as the “Palestine Papers” have been picked over and analysed extensively by Al Jazeera and the Guardian; at least, most of them have. The files relating to the activities of MI6 officials in Jerusalem need a much more thorough investigation. The Middle East Monitor’s (MEMO)...

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been allied with liberalist groups and the influential Fethullah Gülen movement since its rise to power in 2002. Over the last ten years, the coalition has fought hard against extreme secular factions such as the...

On the heels of the British parliament’s refusal to sanction a military attack on Syria, US President Barack Obama drove the issue of a possible intervention to a dead-end when he said, “I will take this to Congress”. Discussions over a possible intervention after the use of chemical weapons...

During its early renaissance stages, modern Turkey was subjected to violent shocks, some of which were neither justifiable nor understandable. However, the Turks’ only option was to deal with them and build upon their positives, while turning their negatives into launch pads for new phases, rather than permanent problems....

The Russian Foreign Ministry said at the beginning of July that it will take a “balanced” position on the isolation of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi. This has also been articulated clearly in subsequent statements made by several Russian officials. Russia’s position was based on the need to denounce...