Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ben White
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‘Israel is your home’: Netanyahu’s exploitation of the Paris attacks
Last Saturday, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks in Paris, Israeli PM Netanyahu responded to the bloody events by urging France’s Jews to move to Israel. “I wish to tell to all French and European Jews”, he said, “Israel is your home.” A tweet from Netanyahu reiterated the point:…
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Internal inquiry must not whitewash Israeli war crimes in Rafah
Over the last couple of weeks in Israel, in what has been called an “exceptionally widespread attack”, politicians, op-ed writers, and reservists have urged the IDF Military Advocate General (MAG) Danny Efroni to end investigations into a number of incidents that occurred during the recent assault on the Gaza Strip…
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Business as usual at the UN – but US public opinion on Israel is shifting
Speaking to the Security Council on Tuesday shortly after voting against the doomed Palestinian-drafted resolution on statehood, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power referred three times to an “unsustainable status quo” between Israel and the Palestinians. It is of course Washington itself that bears most responsibility for this status…
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In the fight against apartheid, Christian Palestinians defy Israel’s propaganda
In 2012, then-Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that “Christians in [Gaza and the West Bank] suffer the same plight as their co-religionists throughout the region.” While the diplomat was looking to capitalise on more recent developments…
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On and off campus, Israel’s supporters look to stifle dissent
I was recently invited to give a talk at the University of Liverpool, an event organised by the students’ Friends of Palestine group. Last Thursday, more than 100 people filled the Mandela Room at the Guild of Students, to listen to my presentation and engage in a Q&A. Some people,…
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Israel’s universities launch new anti-BDS initiative with Hillel
Israel’s universities have launched a new initiative designed to counter growing calls for an academic boycott of the country’s higher education institutions. The Committee of University Heads in Israel, a body representing seven research universities on matters such as budgeting and wages, announced last week the new partnership with Hillel…
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Zionist Federation speaker: immigration will be death of Europe
The UK Zionist Federation (ZF) this week hosts an Israeli professor who has stated that “the only thing that can deter terrorists… is the knowledge that their sister or their mother will be raped.” Mordechai Kedar, of Bar-Ilan University, will speak at a number of synagogues and Jewish schools across…
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‘Jewish state’ law furore misses the point: Israel already discriminates
The proposed ‘Jewish nation-state’ bill has prompted a huge amount of discussion and controversy within and outside of Israel. But missing in most of the international coverage is the extent to which Israel already defines itself as a Jewish state, and in so doing, institutionally and legally discriminates. Here are…
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Israel’s strategy: between mowing the grass or uprooting it
Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good…so far so good…so far so good… La Haine (1995) Writing in the Journal of Strategic Studies at the beginning of this year, Bar-Ilan University-based…
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Israeli spokesman Mark Regev: punitive home demolitions are ‘price to be paid’
The Israeli Prime Minister’s spokesman Mark Regev has defended the internationally-condemned policy of punitive home demolitions as an appropriate “price to be paid”. Regev’s remarks appeared in an article in The New York Times by the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent Jodi Rudoren, but were subsequently heavily edited. In the original article,…
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Sticks are on the menu, as EU frustration with Israel mounts
Over the last few days, there has been talk of potential EU sanctions in response to Israeli policies that block progress towards a two-state solution. Most of this is based on an internal EU document initially reported on, then published in its entirety, by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which lists a…
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Israeli embassy official smears solidarity campaigners following Glasgow protest
Israeli embassy spokesperson Yiftah Curiel has attacked Palestinian solidarity campaigners as “thugs” guilty of “incitement and violence”, following a peaceful protest against his appearance at Glasgow University this week. Scheduled to give two talks on campus, Curiel’s visit was met with a quickly-organised protest by local activists – scenes that…
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Peaceful protest greets Israeli army vet at King’s College London
Students at King’s College London (KCL) protested an Israeli army veteran’s presence on campus this week, conducing a peaceful, silent walk out towards the end of his talk. Hen Mazzig was hosted on Monday by KCL’s Israel Society, in association with right-wing Israel lobby group StandWithUs, an organisation Mazzig now…
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BBC upholds complaint over ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper’ report
The BBC has upheld a complaint on the grounds of accuracy concerning a July report on ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper’ that misrepresented the killings of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. On 1 July, BBC News online published an article titled ‘Israel: Hamas ‘will pay price’ after teenagers…
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Livni’s Facebook reply to Naftali Bennett shows true face of Israeli ‘moderates’
The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu is a coalition that includes open opponents of Palestinian statehood. Many of these hard-right rejectionists, supporters of expanding the illegal West Bank colonies, occupy senior positions within the cabinet. Given this political reality, some politicians and analysts in the West suggest that if only…
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NGO: More than one Israeli attack on Gaza per day in September
Two months on from the ceasefire that ended a 50-day Israeli bombardment of Gaza, human rights defenders have accused Israel of routinely violating the terms of the agreement that ended the hostilities. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has published figures detailing repeated attacks throughout September on Palestinian civilians…
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Jewish Chronicle forced to correct report on Gaza protest ‘antisemitism’
The Jewish Chronicle has been forced to issue a correction for a report published during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza on alleged ‘antisemitism’ amongst Palestine solidarity activists. The original article, ‘Pro-Palestinian group says its supporters made antisemitic comments’, claimed that Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Sarah Colborne had “acknowledged” that the…
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Four Important Ways To Advance The Conversation On Palestine
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip over the summer prompted an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity for Palestinians in the West, from street protests to expressions of outrage by mainstream politicians. Israel suffered serious damage to its reputation, while support for Palestinians – including through tactics like boycott and divestment –…
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Apartheid microcosm: Israeli settler runs over and kills Palestinian child
On Sunday, 5-year-old Palestinian girl Einas Khalil was killed after being hit by an Israeli settler-driven car near the central West Bank town of Sinjil. Another child was injured. An Arabic language TV report with the bereaved family can be viewed here (and an English language summary here). The incident…
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Apartheid microcosm: Israeli settler runs over and kills Palestinian child
On Sunday, 5-year-old Palestinian girl Einas Khalil was killed after being hit by an Israeli settler-driven car near the central West Bank town of Sinjil. Another child was injured. An Arabic language TV report with the bereaved family can be viewed here (and an English language summary here). The incident…
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Lobbying the Lancet: how Israel’s apologists smeared ‘doctors for terrorism’
Over 50 days in July-August, the Israeli army subjected the 1.8 million residents of the fenced-in, blockaded Gaza Strip to an unprecedented assault. 2,131 Palestinians were killed, including 501 children. At least 142 families lost three or more family members in the same incident. Israel’s attacks left 11,231 injured, including…
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Max Blumenthal: the interview
“If people really want to know what motivates me and the position I’ve taken, it shouldn’t require some rich explanation or ideology. It’s not about having ‘Jewish issues’ with the way I was raised, or even necessarily deep identification with Palestinian culture. All you need to feel is disgust with…
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The White House criticised Israeli settlement expansion – and Netanyahu’s response is extraordinary
On Wednesday, NGO Peace Now announced that Israeli authorities had advanced plans for some 2,600 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem, close to Bethlehem. The news came as radical settlers moved into 25 homes in the Silwan neighbourhood of the city. Responding to the move, U.S. State Department spokesperson…
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‘Terrorists fired from homes’ – says the army that does exactly that
During the brutal attack on the Gaza Strip, one of the Israeli military’s propaganda claims was that Hamas fighters were “shooting from within homes“. The army even dropped leaflets over the fenced-in territory, warning that “any house…used to wage attacks against Israel will be targeted”. Yet the Israeli army itself…