Tag Archives: Palestine

I have written before about the importance of semantics in the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how frustrated many people are about losing various battles over nomenclature, such as references to the disputed territories as “occupied,” and “Judaea and Samaria” as the West Bank.  An arguably more important semantic …

It is Monday night, 23rd September. It has been a long day. Today was my second day at the 2019 Labour Party conference in Brighton. On the first day I had spent my time looking at what was taking place outside of the  secure conference area.  Today I went inside. …

FACT: For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes.  This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …

FACT. For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes.  This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …

In the memory of June 5th 1967, some recall defeat others celebrate victory, but very few remember the tragedy of the forgotten ones.  After the war between Israel and Egypt started in 1967, the Egyptian government took the decision to take Egyptian Jews into custody until they evacuated them from …

MYTH Palestine was always an Arab country. FACT The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the twelfth century BCE, settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain — now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century CE, after crushing the last …

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished – after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” …

The saying goes: “The dead tell no tales” but that’s not exactly true. The dead speak to us from beyond the grave but they do so in silent symbols that we, those who are full of life and sometimes full of arrogance, can choose to ignore. Haifa’s cemetery is full. …

In war, the saying goes, the first casualty is the truth. In the wake of the deadly violence that occurred at the Gaza border with Israel on May 14 and immediately thereafter, Canadian media outlets accused Israel of using “excessive” and “disproportionate” force. Unfounded claims were broadcast contending that Israel …

“The history of the Palestinian people goes back as far as”… This is where Arab “historians” disagree. Some say the “Palestinian people” have a proud 4000-year history; others say 10,000 years, 30,000 years, and even –don’t laugh- 200,000 years, which makes the Neanderthals pretty young people compared to the “mysterious …

My answer to a Facebook question. I only realised after that the question really wasn’t addressed to me but to intellectuals and politicians in Arab states, a status I clearly don’t hold. The information is still valid. Pity to waste the effort.

Over and over I keep hearing the word “narrative”. Most often it is spoken by people who insist on the importance of understanding and respecting the “Palestinian narrative.” How many people have actually paused to consider what “narrative” means? More importantly, how should we respond to a narrative that is …

One of the most misrepresented and emotionally loaded issues about Israel – and there is a smorgasbord to choose from – is its security barrier.  This is one of the issues that featured prominently in a recent programme on Maori TV (One World – He Ao Kotahi) where the narrator …

“Hey Average Joe, did you see this map? “Look where Israel ought to be it says Palestine. And it says it was called Palestine 4000 years ago! It’s as if the Jews never lived there.  Can that be right?” “Well gee,” replied Average Joe, “It must be right.  After all …

Why do companies like Amazon and Sears think it’s OK to profit from Jew hate? Why do companies like Amazon and Sears think it’s OK to profit from Jew hate? The answer is simple – because we let them. Jews and non-Jews, from fear or from apathy are allowing hate …

Words are used to explain reality but they can also be used to shape reality, to create it. Sometimes exchanging a single word for another can change the picture entirely. Personally, I don’t believe there is any neutrality on the issue of Israel.  There are people who are uninvolved and …

“A durable Israeli-Palestinian peace can best be achieved through direct negotiations between the two parties, resulting in a Jewish state living side-by-side in peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state…” – From “The Peace Process: Israel’s Pursuit of Peace,” currently on AIPAC’s website. “Rejecting decades-old policy, the Republican Party approved on …

The “Humanitarian Paradigm”, advocating funded emigration for the resolution of the “Palestinian problem”, will be the most humane of all options if it succeeds, and the least inhumane if it does not. Even if the Palestinians agree that their state have no army or weapons, who can guarantee that a …

Israeli settlements in the West Bank have been tried in the New Zealand court of public opinion and found to be illegal.  Waikato Professor of Law, Alexander Gillespie, recently declared in the NZ Herald that  “There is no question in international law that these settlements are illegal.”  Similarly, many of …

As the coming Paris conference looms closer, avid two-state proponents should understand what the prescription they advocate really means: Israel through the binoculars of a Palestinian “intelligence officer” If a Palestinian state is established, it will be armed to the teeth. Within it there will be bases of the most …