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There is an article here in the New Statesman by Edward Platt in which he describes some of the efforts of Israel and the PA to shut down organizations on the West Bank they believe to be channeling funds to Hamas.
Archive for October, 2008
Over on the main Z Word site, Anthony Julius has contributed a forceful essay entitled “False Confessions: How Anti-Zionists Incriminate Zionism.”
Continue reading ‘New on Z Word: Anthony Julius on Anti-Zionist Incrimination’
Back in August, I wrote extensively about an organization which bills itself as the “Free Gaza” movement (see here, here and here.) The aim of this organization is to break what it bills as the “Israeli siege” of Gaza. To this end, it has organized two boat trips of activists to the Strip. Each time, the activists have issued hysterical predictions about being blocked by the Israeli Navy. And each time, they have been permitted to dock without so much as a warning shot fired in their direction.
As we reported two weeks ago, Macmillan Reference USA’s “Encyclopedia of Race and Racism” contains an entry on Zionism which leads us to think that this leading publisher is trying to outdo the UN General Assembly, which rescinded its 1975 “Zionism is Racism” resolution back in 1991.
Continue reading ‘New Z Word Podcast: Zionism, Racism and Macmillan Reference USA’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Martin Graf, a member of the extreme right “Olympia” organization, has been elected as the third president of the Austrian parliament with 109 votes (out of a total of 182).
Continue reading ‘Austria: Right Wing Extremist Elected Parliament President’
Over at Normblog you’ll find the latest installment of Sam Fleischacker’s series “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict”. On this occasion Fleischacker deals with “Self-Determination: The Case for Arab Sovereignty over All of Palestine.” I think that though Sam makes many telling points along the way, the overall conclusion he draws is not correct and in the following remarks I will try to show why.
Continue reading ‘A Response To “A Cool Hour on the Israel-Palestine Conflict 8″’
The Rev Naim Ateek, head of Sabeel - a Palestinian Christian group identified with liberation theology, but which frequently descends into antisemitism - has expressed support for an organization known for its Christian sympathies: Hamas.
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna. His report here is based upon translations from the Hungarian press
On October 25, 400 new members of the Hungarian Guard, including some children, took the oath of the extreme right-wing movement in Budapest’s Heroes Square.
Continue reading ‘Right Wing Extremists Take to Budapest’s Streets’
I’ve followed, from a distance, the debate in the UK on a possible academic boycott of Israel and no other country pretty much from the start. I’ve paid as much attention to it as I could, I believe in the vital importance of trade unions and if I didn’t have some faith in the power of argument I wouldn’t be writing here.
Juan Miguel Muñoz of El País writes here about Tzipi Livni getting the thumbs down, at least for now, from Shas in her attempts to form a government in Israel. There isn’t a particular quote I could translate that would serve as a good example, but Muñoz’s article is suffused with disgust at the influence Rabbi Ovadia Yosef exercises over Shas in particular and in Israeli politics in general.
Terry Glavin, one of Canada’s finest writers and journalists and a contributor to Z Word, is currently visiting Afghanistan. When he can, he’ll be reporting on his trip, as he did earlier this week. “The place is seething with warm and generous and hospitable people,” he tells us. We look forward to your insights, Terry. You’re a brave, invaluable soul - so take good care of yourself.
Fears of Durban redux continue to multiply ahead of next year’s UN follow-up conference to the August 2001 event which showcased antisemitism in its starkest form.
Twenty-five years ago today, we were given an insight into just how cruel and callous Islamist terrorism can be. Hezbollah - the same Iranian-backed movement which launched a war against Israel in 2006 and continues to torment Lebanon even now - launched two separate attacks in Beirut. One claimed the lives of 241 American soldiers, the other the lives of 58 French soldiers.
Continue reading ‘Lest We Forget - Beirut, 1983′
On March 5, 2003, Asaf Zur, a 17-year old Israeli high school student nicknamed “Blondi”, was on his way back from school in Haifa. A suicide bomber exploded on Asaf’s bus, killing him and sixteen other innocent Israeli men, women and children.
Iran has deigned - for the first time - to respond to a long-standing Argentine request for the extradition of a number of its citizens, some of them prominent public figures and one of them an ex-president, Hashemi Rafsanjani. They are all wanted in connection with the AMIA investigation. To nobody’s surprise, the answer from Tehran, received yesterday, is “no.”
