[Ceasefire column] Despite Israel’s posing as the region’s strongman, its attempts to crush simple acts of Palestinian civil resistance and international solidarity demonstrate how weak and morally bankrupt it really is, argues Asa Winstanley. Continue reading
[Electronic Intifada] After a furor in the British press, a political leader of Palestinian citizens in Israel remains in a British jail tonight. Authorities cut his speaking tour short by arresting him this week. Continue reading
[Electronic Intifada] Those regularly subjected to BBC and ITV news won’t exactly find the conclusion of More Bad News From Israel surprising but the importance of detailed documentary evidence like this book provides cannot be overstated. Continue reading
[Ceasefire column] This week Barack Obama confirmed the opening of negotiations with the Taliban. And yet, the United States government continues to refuse talks with Hamas, a popularly-elected movement. In his new column, Asa Winstanley argues this double standard tells us a lot about strategies of resistance. Continue reading
[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
[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
[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
[Electronic Intifada] Intifada: a Palestinian uprising. National committees organizing popular resistance; boycotts and tax revolts against the occupier; mass demonstrations calling for an end to the occupation; a violent crackdown by the occupation forces — and an official Palestinian leadership caught off guard. Continue reading
[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
[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
Published by The Electronic Intifada. Asa Winstanley, The Electronic Intifada, 2 February 2011 “This is what it means to be Palestinian, to care, because if you stop caring, then you let go. We cannot let go” (p. 110) explains Jerusalemite … Continue reading
Me on Press TV’s book review show “Epilogue”. Ken Livingstone leads a discussion between Dr Salman Sayyid & myself about Raja Shehadeh‘s book “Strangers in the House”. Part 1: (parts 2 and 3 after the break)