Arab-Revolutions

Palestine is Still the Issue: Arab Revolutions and the Recognition of Israel

[Ceasefire column] One of the most striking images in the wave of Arab revolutions has been the presence of Palestinian flags on demonstrations throughout. From Tunis to Cairo to Benghazi, expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians have been there all along. In his new column, Asa Winstanley argues that Zionism’s propsects in the region are more untenable than ever. Continue reading

Bedouins carrying signs reading “JNF robs Bedouin land” protest in front of the Jewish National Fund office in Jerusalem, 1 February 2011. (Anne Paq / ActiveStills)

Updated: British prime minister steps down as JNF patron

[Electronic Intifada] A spokesperson for David Cameron on Friday refused to comment on the rationale behind the British prime minister’s decision to step down from his position as honorary patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The move comes as pressure on the JNF steps up in Britain, and is being hailed by activists as a big victory in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. Continue reading

Shifting Sands cover

Review: “Shifting Sands” anthology a hit and miss

[Electronic Intifada.] Published by Whole World Press and edited by Osie Gabriel Adelfang, Shifting Sands is a collection of essays, prose and one poem by Jewish activists and writers. The anthology opens with Linda Dittmar’s account of her Israeli upbringing in pre- and post-Nakba Palestine. She works with Zochrot, the Israeli organization documenting the Nakba — the 1948 catastrophe in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland by Zionist militias. Continue reading

battle of the bridge

The World Turned Upside Down: Is Egypt Heading for a Social Revolution?

[New Left Project] The massive popular uprising in Egypt is already the most important event in the modern history of the Middle East. It will have wide-reaching reverberations for decades to come. Arab tyrants around the region are already announcing pre-emptive “reforms” in the hope of staving off what US Senator John McCain has called the “virus” of resurgent pan-Arab nationalism. Continue reading

Ilan_Pappe

The last chance salon: why Ilan Pappe left Israel

[Ceasefire] “Out of the Frame”, Ilan Pappe, Pluto Press, 2010. Of the small group of Israeli academics known as the “new historians” Ilan Pappe has been the most vocally critical of the founding ideology of Israel. Beginning in the late 1980s, professors such as Pappe, Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim examined newly-released Israeli archives and came to the conclusion that decades of Israeli history on the 1948 war was mostly propaganda, and that the Palestinian narrative was essentially correct. Continue reading