Britain’s Foreign Office has stepped in at the last moment, to declare Kadima leader Tzipi Livni is on a ‘special mission’ to London and immune from prosecution (1). Ms Livni, a former member of Mossad, has been accused of war crimes for her hard-line role in Operation Cast Lead. Palestine Solidarity Campaign leads protest at her visit and another act supporting Netanyahu’s government by the UK coalition (2 and 3). 4) Richard Irvine on the change in UK law on war criminals. (see also http://jfjfp.com/?p=25557)

Home Secretary Theresa May made decisions to exclude, arrest and detain Shekh Raed Salah against the advice of her own officials, using evidence from highly dubious sources provided by the contentious Community Support Trust. This posting has the press release from MEMO, a report from the Guardian and a BBC profile of Salah

Although there is no firm evidence that the rocket attacks on Israel on 18th August came from Gaza, the IOF has responded with deadly airstrikes, continuing after the cease-fire. Personal (Al Jazeera vox pop 1, Eva Bartlett 2, ) and Gazan legal centre (PCHR, 3, Al Mezan Center, 4) accounts testify to the damage

From a modest little leader in the JC criticising Israel’s new boycott act to tirades and cutting analysis from Israeli papers and human rights groups, all but the most short-sighted in and outside Israel condemn this bill as anti-democratic and an underhand way of protecting the illegal settlements

The PLO says the boycott law ‘turns settlements into sacred places’ and makes the Quartet irrelevant; below, a press release from the Palestinian BDS national committee, saying the law consolidates Israel’smove towards an oppressive, apartheid regime

NGO Monitor, director Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan university, publishes ‘ethical guidelines’ which NGOs should adopt to make transparent to their funders that they will not participate in ‘demonization, political warfare or political antisemitism’. Professor Steinberg’s own page, http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~steing/index.shtml, makes his views transparent

Firas Maraghy is from Jerusalem. He is currently resident in Berlin and has been on hunger strike since July 26th in front of the Israeli embassy building. The wickedly Kafkaesque situation in which he and his family have been placed by Israeli authorities is outlined below. It forms the basis of a petition addressed to the Israeli [...]

Co-ordinated by JfJfP, European, UK and US Jewish groups are uniting in another effort to demonstrate that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is ineffectual in preserving Israeli security and a blunt instrument of collective punishment on the people of Gaza. We need to raise more funds to buy, outfit and stock the ship – please consider making a donation, however small (or large).

Update: JfJfP signatory Ivor Dembina will perform his terrific one man show “This is Not a Subject for Comedy” in Parliament next Monday. Arranged by JfJfP, you can read all about the gestation of the show and the importance of Jewish comedy in the Guardian’s G2 – and now in the Independent and the Jewish Telegraph.

Jews for Justice for Palestinians is delighted that Fairtrade Palestinian olive oil is to receive wide distribution by UK retailers such as the Cooperative. We have promoted the sale of this oil for some time. It is of an extremely high grade and we urge our signatories and indeed all British consumers to continue to [...]

No Room for Racism JfJfP Press Release, 8 January 2009 (for immediate release) Reports in yesterday’s newspapers speak of threats against British Jews as revenge for the brutal invasion of Gaza. This is racism. There is no place for racism of any kind in a solidarity movement. We particularly value the support for this statement [...]