By Leah Levane
JVL Introduction You may not know it but nearly 40% of Israelis are (at least) against the resumption of the “war” on Gaza. See this poll taken just before the bombardments recommenced. Tens of thousands have been demonstrating in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, including outside Netanyahu’s home. In addition the Movement to Support Gaza … Continued
By Leah Levane
Just days before Israel resumed its mass bombardment of Gaza, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, spoke while attending the 58th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. Her hopes for a continuation of the ceasefire were dashed but her concerns still must be addressed. When …
By Leah Levane
We are pleased to share this short video from Doubledown News that compromises mainly of interviews with Holocaust survivors and descendents of survivors when 87 year old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos had to be interviewed at Charing Cross police station about the march for Gaza on January 18th. It is possible that he was alleged …
“Israel obliterates the present” writes Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Drop Site News, introducing the final despatch of his slain colleague, 23-year-old Hossam Shabat, the latest journalist victim of Israel’s war on Gaza.
By Leah Levane
The Board of Deputies of British Jews issued a series of demands on the BBC to take action by the time Passover starts, which is April 12th. The BoD – and other Jewish Establishment organisations – seem to believe that the BBC is biased against Israel, despite substantial evidence to the contrary. see eg re the …
By Leah Levane
Five days before Israel recommenced its pulverisation of Gaza, an Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel published a harrowing and damning report: More than a Human Can Bear (Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023.) Sexual violence …
By Leah Levane
It does not take much to be declared by Trump that you are not really Jewish. Even being a supporter of Israel’s genocide may not be enough! The impact on people’s rights is enormous and the impact on any serious fight against antisemitism is simply to set things back generations. And, of course, it is …
By Leah Levane
Professor Emeritus Avi Shlaim has published a new book of essays, “Genocide in Gaza: Israel’s Long War on Palestine”.:”the book’s essays stem from a deeply felt (and historically inflected) sense of “moral duty to speak truth to power and to stand by the Palestinians in their hour of need”. With exactitude and ethical clarity, he …
By Leah Levane
There was a time when Israel had many elements of a true democracy – at least for its Jewish citizens. Now even the end of that has been manifested clearly on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As the majority of people are against the resumption of the war, demonstrators have come out in large numbers. The degree of police brutality has shocked many Jewish people in Israel.
By Leah Levane
This Al Jazeera article gives one family’s experience of that terrible Tuesday morning when Israel ended even the semblance of the ceasefire with unimaginable brutality. These memories help us to do that all important trying to imagine what it is like for people in Gaza as the bombs start up again, that faint glimmer of …