By Leah Levane
Four UN Special Rapporteurs have written to the UK government raising serious – and detailed – concerns about the use of the Terrorism Act to silence dissent on Israel and Palestine. They refer, eg, to the way it has been used to suppress free speech and the wide interpretation of the term “support” and that …
News and other media channels everywhere are reeling as Trump tries to drown out all else with his increasinly unhinged interventions in US and world politics. Reactions to him are dominating the news cycle.
This digest is a reminder of other issues, crises, realities.
By Leah Levane
These twenty tiny stories are both heartbreaking and awe inspiring. They also help us to imagine how much work there is to do even if the ceasefire lasts as we all hope and work for. But it seems also that the people are up for that. These are very short stories of twenty human beings …
By Leah Levane
Belazel Smotrich remains the Finance Minister in Netanyahu’s government, despite his anger at the ceasefire. Itamar Ben Gvir resigned but Smotrich agreed to support phase 1 of the ceasefire on a condition that there would be no Phase 2. Meanwhile his desire and political goal to Judaise the West Bank, the support the settlers – …
By Leah Levane
There will be miles of column inches written and hours of TV and other broadcast media analysing the spoutings of Donald Trump over Gaza but this will not tell us much that we do not already know, although, as this journalist argues, this is not thanks to the mainstream western media who this journalists argues …
Peter Beinart talk, in rage and disappointment, not just at the latest Donald Trump pronouncement that the US will “take over:” Gaza but with an incandescent disillusionment in the American Jewish community leaders who, he believes, will simply go along with it, just as they have failed to say “enough” at any point in the …
By Leah Levane
There will be much analysis as well as shock at Trump’s declaration that Palestinians should leave Gaza, which he deems only a demolition site. Then somehow the US will own it, do the work needed to clear and rebuild and presumably create a holiday resort for people from across the world with” thousands of jobs” … Continued
By JVL
Palestinian Environmental Scientist, Mazin Qumsiyeh spoke to JVL members and friends about his work on the environment. In conversation with Tony Booth, JVL’s Environment Officer he speaks about water and the Ecocide in Gaza. He also speaks about the reality of life for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. the restrictions on UNRWA, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners and much more. Mazin was at one time a High School teacher in Jerusalem, c 5 miles from where he lives in Bethlehem. Israeli resitrictions mean that he can no longer travel there.
By Leah Levane
A new international grouping led by countries in the Global South launched in The Hague at the end of January. One of the key issues that brought them together was their grief for “the lives, livelihoods, communities, and cultural heritage lost due to Israel, the occupying power’s genocidal actions in Gaza and the remainder of …
By Leah Levane
The spirit of Rosa Luxemburg lives on; so argues the writer here. Luxemburg drew “critical links between capitalism, imperialism, and militarism” Her opposition to militarism is reflected not only in those Israeli refuseniks but in all who are trying to disrupt the Israeli military machine. This article has much to tell us about Rosa Luxemburg’s …