A local protest is made into a national scandal by journalists. Hence the new ruling by IDF Brig-Gen that journalists should be barred from scenes of conflict because they will inflame what otherwise might be hidden.

This may be the week of Yom Kippur (ended last night, September 30) but there’s been no evidence of repentance and embracing the other in the public realm of Palestine/Israel (or anywhere else). Yet in two different places in this website there are heartfelt pleas for understanding the narrative of the other. It is fruitless […]

Ali Abuminah, renowned writer on Palestinian affairs, gives an interview to Real News in which he condemns the co-operation between Israel and PNA security on trying to silence all Palestinian dissidents.

Mohammed Amin, Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, discusses what Israeli Arabs gain and lose. He will be speaking at a panel discussion on Forgotten Israelis (see NIBS). Like Tony Klug, he says ‘Ultimately peace depends upon both sides understanding each other’s historical narratives.’

Using the universal language of music Palestinian lute player Reem Anbar provides music therapy lessons for the traumatised people of Gaza. “Music is the nutrition of one’s soul” she tells The New Arab.

The dire state of the Palestinian leadership – unpopular, increasingly repressive, bereft of strategy and new thinking in both territories – cannot continue indefinitely. This package includes two of the best commentators and recent poll findings – including the gulf now between the West Bank and Gaza.

The Sun instructs on Yom Kippur; PSC petition on child prisoners; National march November 4th, letter on JVL in Guardian; Balfour poetry competition gives up…

A coalition of Christian organizations in Palestine – also speaking for ‘persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria’ – write an open letter to the World Council of Churches asking for urgent support; ‘We are on the verge of a catastrophic collapse’. For some reason, the BoD chose to attack them. The task is allotted to someone whose blog and letter so jostle with insults, and spurious ‘facts’, the citing of pogroms and persecution, that her argument is not taken seriously by the Methodists whom she addresses.

Hamoud’s film about young Palestinians in Tel Aviv is iconoclastic. Instead of the stout woman in ‘modest’ hijab and abaya we see girls in jeans, hair flowing free. It’s the underground culture of every big city. The West, she says, wants to feel superior but it’s not true.

The UN Human Rights Commission is upping its opposition to Israeli settlements from polite letters to compiling a blacklist of all the companies which do business with producers in settlements. Barak Ravid points out how this will work.

Here is a most interesting article from Al Shabaka by Haidar Eid and Andy Clarno testing the limits of “apartheid” in analysing the Israel/Palestine relationship. As S. Africans have found, you can ditch the laws that enforce apartheid, but ‘racial capitalism’ is an engine of continuous racial inequality.

About 40 of the 132 member Palestinian Legislative Council have recently been arrested by the IOF and put into administrative detention – a military, not judicial, process. As they are not charged, the assumption is the detainees are thought to have links to any of the organisations which Israel has dubbed illegal. Britain’s FCO did not answer Lady Tonge’s question about this but did repeat its judgement that Israel makes ‘excessive’ use of this extra-judicial process.

Gaza’s greatest asset – the clear blue Mediterranean sea with its brilliant sun – has become a death trap. Lacking fuel and spare parts for the sewage system the sea is now heavily polluted. It is killing children in particular. Death and sickness could be avoided by the import of fuel and spare parts.

Bedouin, made up of many tribes, are a thorn in Israel’s side. With an undoubted right to live on the land they nonetheless find themselves harried from place to place. They fight for the right to maintain their communities and way of life. Their identity and tradition are in danger of eradication through ‘transfers’ and demolitions.

Bernie Sanders, the radical but defeated candidate for the Democrats’ nomination as their presidential candidate disappointed many with his near-silence on foreign policy. In an interview with The Intercept he expands – Saudi Arabia is not an ally, he would cut the huge American subvention to Israel and open channels with Iran.

Palestinians and Kurds want the same thing – an independent, sovereign state – only the borders to be sorted out. But Palestinians are sceptical. Arabs don’t want the break-up of Iraq. Why does Israel back the Kurds? Do they want a non-Arab, pro-western ally at their side? Daoud Kuttab comments.

Palestinian access to communications has expanded hugely since the advent of the 3G network and cheap smart phones. The result has been a flurry of arrests by Israeli police, for ‘incitement’, and Palestinian police, for ‘disturbing social harmony’. These are all illegal denials of free speech says NGO Adalah.

Rosh Hashanah occurred, Wednesday to Friday this week, 18th to 24th September 2017 prompting some interesting articles. Veteran journalist Akiva Eldar, ex-Haaretz now Al Monitor, notes a significant change amongst Israeli Jews, if not more widely. It was common, he says to make and send greetings cards including the wish for peace. That wish has […]

Robert Cohen addresses himself to the Jewish freshers flocking to universities this week. He asks them not to take as long as he did to discover being Jewish doesn’t mean loyalty to Israel (or attending all classes) but being true to historic values of courage, justice and integrity.

For the first time in its 100-year history the Giro d’Italia will start outside Europe – and Israel is the lucky beneficiary thanks largely to one man – the hyper-rich Israeli Sylvan Adams who wants to showcase ‘normal’ Israel. Threats of boycott are massing.