100 years since Balfour, , 70 years since partition. Why is there no State of Palestine? There is no State of Palestine because after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, when the League of Nations used the Mandate system to facilitate the creation of Nation States, the Arabs living in the British Mandate of Palestine didn’t want one. There is no State of Palestine because … Continue reading Why is there no State of Palestine?
It is difficult not to be moved by events in Syria. Images from Aleppo, Syria are heart-breaking. It is also fair to say, most of us in the west, despite vocally shouting that ‘something needs to be done’, haven’t got much idea about exactly what. Syria is a tale of 1000 trenches with 2000 armies. During the ‘Arab spring’ in 2011, I remember being engaged … Continue reading 325 miles to Aleppo, Syria. Hard lessons for Israel
50 years since the 1967 war. 100 Years since Balfour. 70 years since partition. A launch of another anti-Israel campaign. And breathe. This week I have been busy, Friends of Al-Aqsa, suspect academia and Ben White. It is going to be a long year. What was notable about the 3 events, was that they came from different spheres of the anti-Israel movement. The first from … Continue reading A three day nightmare, living within an industry of hate
03 Nov 2016. I was inside one of the hot spots of radical Islam in London – SOAS. We came to hear Tom Suarez promote his book, ‘State of Terror’. I had not heard of Suarez, and he is a musician, not a historian. The book is published by Karl Sabbagh, who provided one of the speeches at the House of Lords event that saw … Continue reading SOAS Palestine Society and evil Zionists that control the world
It was a few days ago whilst conducting a regular sweep of recent campus activity, that I noticed Goldsmiths RFC (Rugby club), have become deployed as a political weapon of the anti-Israel movement. As announced by the Palestinian Society: “We’ve teamed up with Goldsmiths RFC to put our logo and the Palestine flag on their new shirts!” I had been to Goldsmiths only a few … Continue reading Dropping the antisemitic rugby ball at Goldsmiths University
On Tuesday I spent an evening at Goldsmiths, University of London. It was my first visit. The talk itself was called ‘Palestine 101’. Like many events that are taking place on campus at the moment, it was designed to convert ‘interested folk’ into ‘dumbed down’, rabid, Israel haters. The talk was one of the most nonsensical, baseless and insane rants I have yet to hear … Continue reading Institutional antisemitism at Goldsmiths, University of London
Its 27th September 2016. Summer is over and the new academic year begins. Across the country, political activists such as those in the SOAS Palestinian society hold ‘freshmen’ sessions to attract new recruits to their cause. Everyone knows SOAS is important to BDS and Palestinian activism. When you walk into SOAS you enter the BDS UK student stronghold. But I am used to being inside … Continue reading BDS open the season at SOAS, back into the snake pit
I have been to your church several times this week in an effort to engage with people over the ‘you cannot pass today’ exhibition. The Church decided to use a replica of an Israeli security checkpoint to deliver a message about ‘bringing down walls’. Last night I was also at the circle discussion, that spoke about building bridges between the communities. I always try to … Continue reading Hinde Street #antisemitism in the Methodist Church
For those who missed the first part of this research into Yachad UK, you can catch up with it here. In the second part of the series, I will look at the core politics and activities of Yachad, and analyse the reason for the frustration and hostility the group generates amongst mainstream British Zionists. In many ways attacking Yachad is exactly what Yachad want you … Continue reading So this is Yachad (UK) – part two: a borrowed ideology
Truth is I had placed myself on a month long self-imposed exile from all my research into the anti-Zionist camp. I reasoned I needed a holiday, a break from the venom, the hatred and the antisemitism. The theory had been that if I replace Electronic Intifada with the Israel press and Counterpunch with Jewish media in the US or UK, I would be able to … Continue reading A journey beyond Zionism – part one – Haaretz.
