On the day that Ambasssador Prosor lectured the UN General Assembly on its refusal to see and speak the truth, Israelis celebrate the day the same body in 1947 ‘created’ Israel. It was orchestrated by WZO who say they intend to transform the 29th of November into ‘Zionism Day’.

One rocket according to the Lebanese army, four according to the IDF, fired from southern Lebanon landed in western Galilee on Monday, causing no casualties. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades (al Qaida affiliate) has claimed responsibility. Neither Hezbollah nor the IDF wants an escalation

Robert Cohen did not support BDS- too complicated, possible treachery to fellow-Jews But no international pressure or negotiations have stopped Israel’s rush to reforming its state on building and protecting settlements. So rather than hurling missiles, civil action is all that’s left. He deals with some ethical questions

The Palestinian impasse – a people divided by territory, strategy and political affiliation, the refusal of outside governments to do business with Hamas – was not resolved by last week’s Cairo meeting of the Hamas and Fatah leaders; but the words and body language were more positive than usual.

Please protest to the Advertising Standards Authority about an advert placed in the weekend Guardian and Observer by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism which contains a map purportedly of the state of Israel that incorporates the Syrian Golan and the entire occupied Palestinian territory including Gaza. (See posting below for some of the letters) UPDATE: Palestinian Mission also calls for protest action

We post letters of complaint to the Guardian/Observer about the advert for Israel’s Ministry of Tourism (see above). The Head of Client Sales responded to some claiming a ‘systems breakdown’ . Sales-speak for ‘nobody here has a clue about the Occupation’ ? Will there be a better explanation, or apology?
Latest: we’ve added the Guardian’s inadequate – and very easy to miss – response in its Corrections and clarifications column, dated 28th November, at the end of the posting.

What are pro-Israeli groups afraid of? Asa WInstanley is barred from the(ironically named) Big Tent in Manchester. At Birmingham University, where last year the Students’ Guild endorsed the EUMC “Working Definition of Antisemitism”, the chair of the debating society said she had been instructed not to accept a question with the term “apartheid” in relation to Israel-Palestine. Speaker Ben White was earlier told he was not allowed to sell his book , “Israeli Apartheid: a Beginner’s Guide”.

Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken deplores the influence of Gush Emunim in driving Israeli policy towards the destruction of the institutions of democracy; 2, the Knesset’s guide to Gush Emunim; 3, extract from a paper on how this group moved itself and others towards terrorism and religious fundamentalism

Regular readers of this website will know that there are many questions about Fox, Werritty, the British ambassador to Israel and the civil service which have not been answered – or even asked. They won’t go away. The Independent on Sunday picks up the trail

BNP Paribas, the huge French-based bank and investment corporation, has pulled out of Israel leaving furious Israeli officials to believe they have accepted anti-Occupation pressure. The bank attributes its decision to the Greek financial crisis but its other bases in the wider region seem unaffected.

Th French multinational Veolia has won new contracts for disposing of waste from Israel and the IDF in the Tovlan landfill site in the Jordan valley. Veolia also has a large presence in the UK through transport (Veolia Transdev), water, waste management and street cleaning. One of its biggest shareholders, EDF, is a major electricity supplier in the South East.

Just under half of all olim – those who make ‘aliyah’ to Israel – now come from Russia and Ethiopia. The World Zionist Organisation, subsidised by the Israeli government, is piloting a mission to Britain to increase aliyah as “To have less than 10,000 a year from the Western world is a terrible situation . It puts Israel in danger.”

No apology for another posting on ‘apartheid’ this week – it’s a defining question in how the status of Paletinians under the authority of the Israeli state is to be judged. Lev Luis Ginsberg rejects the term; the RToP in Cape Town give extensive reasons for how they judged the Israelis’ treatment of Palestinians under their rule. It’s not South Africa. It is separate and unequal treatment and is thus apartheid.

A ferment of anger at moves which make Israel’s democracy inoperable – on libel, media control, NGO funding to take the most recent – 2nd article below and other postings this page – has prompted a Brussels discussion – invitation 3rd in this posting. Netanyahu takes this moment to attack hopes for the Arab spring as a ‘delusion’

This seems a skimpy story: men in Jerusalem demand a shield against the sight of dancers’ feet but, like the fulminations of the Taliban and Iranian police who want all women enclosed in cloth bags, it signifies what sort of society the (increasingly powerful and numerous) ultra-religious want in Israel

The Cape Town sitting of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded that ‘Israel subjects Palestinians to an institutionalised regime of domination’ (1). (2) Jeff Halper provided the tribunal with a sober account of the buildings pulled down and put up by the Israeli state. enacting its official policy of hafrada, or separation or apartheid (2)

For the second time this year, Netanyahu has used his power as the tax-collecting authority for Palestinians to withhold their income. It is not clear whether this is to punish them for being accepted by UNESCO, or the PA’s bid to join the UN or for its imminent talks with Hamas. Reports from IMEMC and Ynet

The trickle of publications about actions by Israeli institutions which undermine the democracy of ‘the Middle East’s only democracy’ has become a torrent. Veteran critic Uri Avnery explains why the alarm is now truly well-founded

Muammar Gaddafi was not the first Arab dictator to feed his people on Jew-hatred as a means of binding them to him against the enemy alien. When he himself became the enemy of the people, that showed he was a Jew. Andrew Engel in Libya reports on the antisemitism that was turned aganst Gaddafi, and outlives him

The NGO-isation of political activism can cause problems, as Yitzhak Laor points out, but in Israel NGOs are the only agents which give Palestinians an effective voice – which is why Knesset members want to deprive them of funds. A statement from B’Tselem, NGO for human rights in the occupied territories, first.