Palestine |

Oct 2

It’s about Palestine

The clinking champagne glasses on Engage’s website said it all. The movement established to oppose the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions was celebrating a victory, as the British University and College Union (UCU) announced that to even discuss the boycott risked “infringing discrimination legislation”. The boycott of Israel, it seemed, had suffered a blow. Engage and their fellow-travellers popped open the bubbly at the end of what must have seemed like a rather good week. Days earlier, the UK’s Socialist Worker had published an article in which the boycott was called into question for tactical reasons. Smugly, it was noted that “even” the “Israel-demonising” Socialist Worker’s Party now doubted the boycott. Read more

Mar 12

Occupation? What occupation?

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, an act of expansion that signalled the completion of the Zionist conquest of Palestine that began in 1948. The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) have been subjected to a regime of military brutality, land seizure and bureaucratic oppression, at the same time as Israel’s friends in the West sign arms deals and preferential trade agreements with the Occupier. Read more

Nov 23

Fragmenting Palestine and Palestinians

Before leaving for Palestine earlier in the summer, a friend of mine gave me a postcard by a Palestinian artist that expressed, he said, the fact that “the situation in the Middle East always seems to get worse, never better”. Sadly, three months in Palestine seemed to confirm this grim reality, as with each passing day, the occupation’s grip becomes tighter and ‘Palestine’ gets smaller. As 2006 begins to draw to a close it is useful to take a step back from the daily horrors in Gaza or the arrest raids in the West Bank, to assess three broad Israeli strategies vis à vis the Palestinians, and how they might be resisted. Read more

Dec 23

Defending Christian Peacemakers

At the time of writing, the fate of the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) kidnapped in Iraq by a previously unknown group ‘Swords of Truth Brigades’ is unknown. While we pray that they are released unharmed, it is also worth examining the events surrounding their capture and the international response, since they suggest a positive way of challenging those who perpetrate injustice in the name of religion.

The men held hostage, including the British man Norman Kember, plus two Canadians and an American, are a part of CPT actions around the world, where members pursue projects of peace and justice in conflict-stricken towns and neighbourhoods. The CPT presence in Iraq goes back to 2002, when they began their work of providing independent information, monitoring human rights abuses, and facilitating non-violent intervention training. Read more

Dec 10

The Palestinian Left

When the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Abu Ali Mustafa was assassinated in his Ramallah office in 2001, and Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze`evi was subsequently killed in retaliation, the PFLP were subjected to a level of media scrutiny rarely seen during the second Intifada. But aside from a few isolated incidents, the leftist groups have become increasingly invisible to mainstream analysts.

It is a far cry from the hijackings of the late 1960s, or the community-wide resistance of the first intifada. Now, all the talk is of the challenge posed by Hamas, and concerned parties from local activists in the West Bank to the US State Department scramble to adapt to the end of the era of Fatah dominance. Does this bipolar environment leave any role for the leftists, and if the answer is yes, are they up to the challenge? Read more

Jul 7

Church protest

Despite the continued strength and vitality of the Christian Zionist lobby in America, in the last few months there have been signs that it is also amongst the church that significant steps are being taken to pressurise Israel into compliance with international standards, including symbolically-loaded methods such as divestment, boycotts and sanctions. Read more

Oct 29

The debate over Israel’s separation wall part 1

This summer I have been able to see for myself the effects of the illegal Separation Wall being built around Bethlehem. I spent two months in Palestine, teaching English in Jerusalem and volunteering at Bethlehem Bible College. My daily walks to the College offered me an opportunity to see the relentless expansion of the prison walls.

For every metre of the Wall there is a story of dispossession and loss. The librarian at the Bible College, Hala, and her husband Daoud, have experienced the consequences of the ‘security fence’ at first hand. Shortly before the start of the intifada they used their life savings to purchase some land in Beit Jala as an inheritance for their children. Read more

May 1

Jerry and Sis Levin at UK’s Cambridge University

Internationally renowned advocates of non-violence Jerry and Sis Levin, spoke at Cambridge University’s Churchill College March 11 on “Peacemaking in Palestine and Iraq.” Their talk, organized by the college’s Phoenix Society, drew a large audience of students and fellows, and was the first of a string of engagements across the UK.

The Levins have a unique perspective on the conflict in Israel and Palestine. The couple moved to Beirut in 1983, when Jerry was appointed CNN Middle East bureau chief. A mere three months later, however—on Ash Wednesday 1984—Jerry was kidnapped by Hezbollah while driving to work. This ended Jerry’s career climbing the ladder of media success, and launched Sis’s peacemaking work, as she negotiated her husband’s release and battled against the hypocritical rhetoric of her own government. Read more