Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ben White
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Israeli Ambassador: ‘in Britain the good is getting better and the bad is getting worse’
In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post’s weekend Hebrew-language newspaper, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub discussed efforts being taken by the country’s London-based diplomats to resist Palestine solidarity efforts including BDS, and improve Israel’s image. The paper notes that, with boycotts “on a daily basis”, the Ambassador…
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The real story of the UN Human Rights Council: Europe slams Israeli crimes
Last week, Israel found itself isolated and condemned in Geneva, as the United Nations Human Rights Council passed four damning resolutions, each by 46-1. The resolutions testify to grave violations of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, as well as systematic discrimination and wide-scale human rights abuses. Settlements, whose illegality…
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Spring in the step of BDS, as a worried Israel plans pushback
The first quarter of 2014 has been an interesting time for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign, with a number of promising developments – particularly in Europe – and indications that the Israeli government is taking the ‘threat’ posed by boycott initiatives more seriously than before. One significant development has…
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Under pressure, a strong EU-Israel relationship faces uncertain future
Last week, EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen warned on Israeli television that the country would face “increasing isolation” if the peace process collapsed, echoing remarks he made in January about a “price to pay” in terms of boycott and divestment initiatives by European companies. Yet last week also saw…
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The Israeli Embassy wants to stop my book launch and here’s why
This Friday, I will officially launch the second edition of my book ‘Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide’ with an event at Amnesty International UK chaired by David Hearst, former chief foreign leader writer for The Guardian. The launch takes place on the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in Apartheid…
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NGOs: Israel excluding Palestinians from their lands in the West Bank and Gaza
Israeli policies have been severely criticised this week by human rights NGOs, with a particular focus on the exclusion of Palestinians from their land in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A report co-published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre…
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US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Discusses BDS ‘Threat’
The growing strength of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement was a topic of discussion at the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade last week. The subcommittee’s March 5 hearing was on “Threats to Israel: Terrorist Funding and Trade Boycotts“. Chaired by Rep. Ted Poe (TX),…
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Israeli government pushes ‘BDS failure’ propaganda on its own citizens
Israeli government officials involved in monitoring and fighting BDS have claimed that the movement has “suffered several blows in recent weeks”, in unattributed remarks made to Hebrew news site NRG. The examples of ‘failure’ cited are a mixed bag, none of them significant in the way presented by the officials.…
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Human rights groups agree: Israel is shooting Palestinian civilians
Israel famously prides itself on having, in the words of Ehud Barak, “the most moral army in the world“. Some of Israel’s apologists even claim that accusations the country’s soldiers fire on civilians, including children, are nothing more than an anti-Semitic ‘blood libel‘. Contrast this rhetorical bluster, however, with the…
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New Amnesty report blasts Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians, urges international pressure
The killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces is the subject of a damning new report by Amnesty International, which documents “a callous disregard for human life” and “mounting bloodshed and human rights abuses” in the occupied territories. The new report, ‘Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West…
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Israeli government: International Criminal Court threat ‘potentially very significant’
A senior legal official at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has warned that “the challenge of the International Criminal Court”, should the Palestinians join, “is potentially a very significant one”. Speaking yesterday at the annual meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, MFA deputy legal…
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Chair of Israel’s Council for Higher Education: scientists are ‘army’ against BDS
A senior Israeli education official has described the country’s scientists as “an army…facing attempts to boycott us”. Speaking at a discussion on Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme, chair of the Council for Higher Education’s planning and budget committee Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg called the scientists “ambassadors for…
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Israeli government takes credit for ABP decision not to divest – but is it telling the truth?
Following recent decisions by major European investment funds to cut ties with Israeli entities, the announcement last week by Dutch pension fund ABP that it was not excluding Israeli banks was greeted with some relief by Israel and its lobby groups. In explaining this decision, ABP claimed that the three…
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Israel’s Finance Minister warns of boycott impact, as further divestment announced
Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid has issued a stark warning of the consequences should the U.S.-led peace process end in failure. Reports of Lapid’s comments on the threat posed by a boycott of Israel came hours before news of further divestment targeting Israeli companies by the Norwegian government. Speaking at…
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Shin Bet employees quizzed: Do you act according to Zionist values?
Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, has recently begun asking employees if they “act according to a Zionist value system”. The question, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, was added to the organisation’s annual evaluation form for its staff. An editorial in the paper, by way of context, notes that…
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Oxfam reputation at risk over Johansson-SodaStream controversy
Oxfam’s reputation is at risk of taking a hit after the charity’s ambassador Scarlett Johansson was recently unveiled as brand ambassador for SodaStream, an Israeli company with production facilities in an illegal West Bank settlement. Oxfam is now receiving calls by campaigners urging the charity to take immediate action. Press…
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Report: Israeli restrictions harming Palestinian families
Israel’s regime of restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement between the Gaza Strip and West Bank is the subject of a new report by NGOs B’Tselem and HaMoked. A key element of Israel’s apartheid system, restrictions on Palestinians’ ability to travel freely and live where they choose have long affected…
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Israel asks British government to pressure universities to fight BDS
Israel has asked the British government to “lean on universities to prevent their participation in academic boycotts of the country”, according to a report in The Times. In a meeting this week with the UK’s Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts, Israeli Science Minister Yaakov Peri slammed the academic…
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Academic boycott has to be part of the BDS campaign
As the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, launched by Palestinian groups in 2005, has grown, some strategies and targets have attracted more controversy than others. The academic boycott campaign is one which is still rejected or viewed with ambivalence by some who would otherwise support other forms of boycott, such…
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British citizens are killed by Israel, but the UK does nothing
At the end of August, a civil suit brought by the family of Rachel Corrie came to an end with a Haifa judge ruling that the State of Israel bore no responsibility for the death of the American activist in 2003. Despite the judge’s decision, the case – including key…
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It’s time to focus on Israel’s separation policy, not just the siege
Israel’s approach to the Gaza Strip has never been static; it changes according to the government’s priorities and short or long-term strategic goals. As early as 1991, Israel implemented the permit regime, regulating the movement of Palestinians in and out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in the…
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The Nakba is a past and a present, a continuous and developing process of Zionist colonization
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the historic ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist movement, and the establishment of the State of Israel on the rubble of hundreds of emptied, destroyed villages. Nakba Day continues to grow in prominence as a time for remembrance and protest, an alternative history…
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Analyses of Israeli apartheid are ever more crucial
In March 2012, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published unprecedentedly harsh concluding observations following Israel’s periodic review. In what one expert called “the most cutting CERD recognition and condemnation of a legal system of segregation since apartheid South Africa”, Israel was called out for…
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Why do Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip not warrant a response from the British government?
On 26 February, Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, the first such projectile attack since the ceasefire that brought an end to Israel’s eight-day assault on the blockaded territory (‘Operation Pillar of Defense’). For over three months, there were precisely zero rockets. Yet during the…