How Gaza broke the art world

19th January 2026

A retrospective for world renowned photographer and sactivist, Nan Goldin, This Will Not End Well, opened in Berlin in November 2024.

Censored by its promoter, the Neue Nationalgalerie, Goldin remarked in her opening speech:

“Why did I feel I have to talk tonight? This is my lifetime retrospective, but there is nothing in it from the past year, and that’s missing. The museum has kept its promise to allow me to talk, and I thank them. But they claim that my activism and my art are separate, even though that has never been the case. The last year has been Palestine and Lebanon for me. Since October 7th, I have found it hard to breathe. I feel the catastrophe in my body, but it’s not in this show.”

After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization

19th January 2026

By Richard Kuper

In the wake of the Gaza genocide we are faced with two puzzles: what motivates so much of the Israeli public to support their government’s genocidal annihilation of Palestinians; and why have the United States and key Western governments so enthusiastically supported it?

Hamid Dabashi’s book offers us some answers as Rami Khouri makes clear in his review below.

Life and death under Trump’s “ceasefire”

18th January 2026

By Leah Levane

At least 449 Palestinians have died and a further 1,264 others been wounded during the so called ceasefire. Others are now suffering from Hepatitis A. People need medical care but what happens when there is not enough fuel for the generators? What does it mean to be terrified by a silence? Imagine trying to cope with the needs of people after more than two years of genocidal attacks when so many facilities have been damaged and even now, desperately needed supplies are being blocked by Israel, also in violation pf the ceasefire agreement.

Trump is symptom of a senile Empire

18th January 2026

By Leah Levane

This thoughtful, powerful and wide ranging piece finds many parallels with fascist regimes noting that the US “… ruling class, Democrats and Republicans, piece by piece, dismantled democracy. In Germany and Italy, the constitutional state, as well, collapsed long before the arrival of fascism. Trump, who is the symptom, not the disease, inherited the corpse. He is making good use of it.”

“No place under heaven”: genocide in Gaza

18th January 2026

By Richard Kuper

It is terrifying to see how inured the world has become to the suffering and slaughter in Gaza.

Israeli public opinion, in the main, just does not want to know. That’s why the work of Israeli human-rights organisation B’Tselem is so important. It called out the genocide in stark terms in a report – “Our” Genocide – in July 2025 and continues to do its utmost to ensure that a hostile Israeli public cannot just look away.

So its latest report, “No Place Under Heaven”: Forced displacement in the Gaza Strip, 2023-2025 matters…

One of the UK’s biggest corporations is profiting from ICE

17th January 2026

By Richard Kuper

“helping organise information held by NHS hospital trusts – currently in separate databases – in one unified platform”.

All very benevolent – except it isn’t. For Palantir and others like it are at the cutting edge of “AI-Powered Automation for Every Decision, supporting any “democratically elected” regime with the surveillance systems they use to maintain their dominance.

Who, though, knows of RELX, the UK’s 15th largest company?…

In support of banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans

17th January 2026

By Richard Kuper

JVL Introduction A letter sent to the Police and Crime Commissioner of the West Midland police in support of Chief Constable Guildford and his decision to ban the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the match with Aston Villa in November last year and regretting his enforced resignation. RK Simon Foster, Police and Crime Commissioner … Continued

Adelaide Writers’ Festival cancelled and why the Chair resigned

14th January 2026

By Leah Levane

The Adelaide Writers’ Week has had to be cancelled following the mass walk out of c 180 participants in solidarity after Palestinian Australian and activist for Palestine Ms Abdel Fattah was “disinvited” The Chair of that event, Ms Louise Adler who is the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors has resigned along with most of her colleagues, We also post a detailed article from the BBC . We must resist such attacks but as Ms Abdel-Fattah asked that we “Please remember that the genocide of Palestinians continues and that all of this is a smokescreen. I am not the story. Palestine is.”

Chief Rabbi’s ongoing refusal to recognise genocide

14th January 2026

By Leah Levane

We must, once again, note that the Chief Rabbi seems unable to acknowledge the full humanity of Palestinians, refuses to accept that there is a genocide and, as this article makes clear, also supports nothing that will prevent a genocide. He has opposed the very mild measures taken by the UK government such as the small reduction in licences to export arms to Israel. The article is specifically a response to Rabbi Mirvis’ article Genocide is humanity’s gravest crime. It should not be used as a political insult, was written for the Sunday Telegraph but reproduced on his official website.

Is Zionism Racism and has it always been?

13th January 2026

By Leah Levane

A thoughtful but unequivocal look at history, personal experience and the reality of Zionism that is so far that the “ideal that has gone wrong” (in the face of attacks on Israel?) Written by someone who was a zionist for many years, his conclusions are in line with the words of early zionists who recognised that it would not be possible to have a Jewish State in historic Palestine without (trying) to expel “the Arabs”. Of course this was not labelled racism but what else is it?

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