PRESS ROOM

274 Article

• "The Inevitable Bi-national Regime"

  22 January 2010, by Meron Benvenisti
  Translated by Zalman Amit and Daphna Levitt. The occupation of the territories in 1967 resulted from military action, but the military element quickly became secondary, while the “civilian” component,-settlements,-became the dominant factor, subjugating the military to its needs and turning the security forces into a militia in the service of the Jewish ethnic group. Eventually, settlements themselves were no longer as meaningful as they once had been. In the 1970s and 1980s, the very (…)  continue
  

• Israeli report claims $2bn stolen from Palestinians

  4 February 2010, by Jonathan Cook
  Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than US$2 billion (Dh7.4bn) by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists revealed this week. A new report, “State Robbery”, says the “theft” continued even after the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 and part of the money was supposed to be transferred to a special fund on behalf of the workers. According to (…)  continue
  

• How surrendering Palestinian rights became the language of "peace"

  27 January 2010, by Joseph Massad
  The 1993 Oslo agreement did not only usher in a new era of Palestinian-Israeli relations but has had a much more lasting effect in transforming the very language through which these relations have been governed internationally and the way the Palestinian leadership viewed them. Not only was the Palestinian vocabulary of liberation, end of colonialism, resistance, fighting racism, ending Israeli violence and theft of the land, independence, the right of return, justice and international law (…)  continue
  

• The Case Against Tony Blair

  1 February 2010, by Patrick Cockburn
  The case against Tony Blair has revolved too much around his good faith and too little around his competence. The placards held up by protestors on Friday as he gave evidence should have read “sucker” and “dope” rather than “Bliar”. Amateurs have a fluency denied to professionals because they see no “ifs” and “buts” which would interrupt the flow of their argument. Books proving that Bacon wrote Shakespeare are often highly articulate and have great narrative pace because their authors see (…)  continue
  

• War by any other name

  16 January 2010, by Gideon Levy
  Words, it is true, do not kill; but words can ease the work of killing. From the dawn of the Israeli occupation in the territories - by now an ancient dawn - or perhaps from the very establishment of the state, or maybe even from the revival of Hebrew, the language has been mobilized in active reserve service. There has been a permanent emergency call-up and Hebrew has never doffed its uniform. War after war, doublespeak after doublespeak, words are on the front line. They don’t shed blood, (…)  continue
  

• Twilight Zone / Waltz in Batir

  14 January 2010, by Gideon Levy
  Reader Nidal Zeghayer, 22, sent me an e-mail. He’d read what I wrote about Highway 443 and wanted to tell me about the other separation roads Israel is paving around his village of Batir, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. "Will you come see?" he asked. Something about his writing style led me to accept his offer. When we arrived in his village, he was waiting outside, wearing stained clothing: He’s in the midst of helping his father paint their house. Zeghayer is a fourth-year sociology (…)  continue
  

• An Outrageous and Pathetic Weapon Against BDS: Stop Instrumentalizing Anti-Semitism!

  23 December 2009, by Michel Warschawski
  Every time the State of Israel is confronted with substantial international criticism for its political behavior and its violations of basic international standards, it counter-attacks by using the infamous tool of accusations of anti-Semitism. One remembers the campaign on anti-Semitism launched by Ariel Sharon and his friends throughout the world, Jews and non-Jews, after the murder of Muhammad al-Dura in Gaza in September 2000, in order to create a diversion (in the very words of Roger (…)  continue
  

• Justice for Palestine, Palestine for Global Justice: A Contribution to the Discussion on Zionism

  5 January 2010, by Michel Warschawski
  “Why must we deal with Zionism? Zionism is history, mere ideology, and one should focus on the real political reality, not on ideologies.” Such a statement is not unusual in the Palestine solidarity movement, and definitely needs to be answered, for Zionism is neither a mere ideology nor a matter of the past, but a living political movement, embodied by the State of Israel and its policy. Without a clear analysis of the nature of Zionism, one cannot understand the failure of the “peace (…)  continue
  

• “Settlement Freeze" or Strategic Deportation?

  12 January 2010, by Signe Fischer Smidt
  The current “settlement freeze” is nothing but another act in the Israeli government’s theatrical play of showing the world that they are willing to make concessions in order to solve the conflict. Let us get one thing straight—the settlement construct ion continues, just as the strategic deportation of Palestinians in East Jerusalem continues. The rights of Palestinians are being violated on a daily basis and to them it becomes increasingly evident that the last thing on Netanyahu’s mind is (…)  continue
  

• Khirbet Tana - A village threatened with expulsion

  11 December 2009,
  December 10, 2009, on the International Human Rights Day and the day Obama received the Nobel’s peace prize, the Israeli army paid a visit to the remote village of Khirbet Tana in the northern West Bank, confiscating their tractors and letting the villagers know that their homes would soon be demolished. On request from the villagers and the municipality of Beit Furik, a group of international volunteers from Project Hope visited the village the following day to hear and report their story. (…)  continue