Tag Archives: West Bank

FACT In politics, language matters, and the misuse of words applying to the Arab-Israeli conflict has shaped perceptions to Israel’s disadvantage. As in the case of the term “West Bank,” the word “occupation” has been hijacked by those who wish to paint Israel in the harshest possible light. It also …

Given that the government is trying to show unity, why is the Evyatar outpost being tackled so soon, if at all? The new government is trying to show its unity, not courting controversy, though there will inevitably be controversies thrust upon it. Given this orientation, it seems strange that Evyatar, …

The difficulty of moving forward in the Jordan Valley and Area C One of the major ways our personal lives mirrors the sweep of history is in the realm of decision making. Both individuals and nations face decisions on a daily basis. Most are mundane and inconsequential. There are however, …

Following publication by the United Nations Human Rights Council of a “blacklist” of businesses operating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is calling on the Australian Government to maintain its principled stance towards fairness at the UN and condemn the list. The …

There are 193 countries in the world, about 50 are Muslim.  And then there is one tiny speck of land, Israel, the only Jewish state, that takes up all the time of the UN.  The UN does not like Jews.  They never miss an opportunity to try and shake down …

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 …

FACT : Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on September 10, 2019:  “Today I’m announcing my intention, with the establishment of the next government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea. This is our essential safety belt in the east” (Ben Sales, “Netanyahu’s push to …

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 …

There are really only two ways to consider the borders of Israel when it declared independence in May 1948:  the entirety of the Palestine Mandate OR the proposed border put forward by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947.  As discussed below, only one of these is legally valid, while …

The terminology used by the United Nations that Israel is “illegally occupying Palestinian Land” has angered Israelis for a long time. The Israelis do not believe that the land is “Palestinian,” that they are “occupying it” or that living in and controlling such land is “illegal.” The Trump Administration agrees …

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen,  in January 2005  was elected as the President of the Palestinian Authority to succeed Yasser Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza, aka Judaea and Samaria. The PLO chairman and was elected for a four-year term  after which there was ‘supposed’ to be …

Don’t underestimate Trump’s deal-making ability to end what he himself has called “the war that never ends” Creating another Palestinian Arab state – in addition to Jordan – has been seemingly consigned to the garbage bin of history following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s CNN interview on 28 September. President …

Republished with permission of HonestReporting According to her Twitter profile, Daire Louise O’Dowd is a geography and English teacher.  Sadly, judging by her inaccurate and ill-informed mess of an article on IrishCentral, a US-based news site catering for the global Irish diaspora community, she should certainly not be educating anyone about the …

President Trump’s decision to close the PLO mission in Washington, cancel the visas of the Palestinian Ambassador and his family and order their bank accounts be closed – mark the PLO’s final humiliation for condemning Trump’s proposed peace plan before its contents have even been published. Strangely however the United …

Two major developments this past week could see a large part of Judaea and Samaria (West Bank) being reunified with Jordan – as existed between 1950 and 1967 – or becoming a Jordanian enclave – under President Trumps’ yet-to-be- announced “ultimate deal” intended to resolve the100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict. Those developments …

My visit to the so-called ‘occupied West Bank’ in November 2017 has taken me some time  to get ‘down on paper’.  I just haven’t managed to find the time to do it. I was staying with a with a friend in Jerusalem who, when I mentioned I’d be interested in …

 Has the IDF brass forgotten that they are soldiers, charged with providing military solutions to physical threats to the nation’s security; not sociologists, tasked with diagnosing the societal ailments of its enemies?  …the IDF General Staff has been insisting there is only one thing Israel can do about Gaza. According …

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 …

29 July 2017 saw an anti-Israel rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square that had been billed as “Alaqsa solidarity rally” to protest against Israel’s “security measures that require Palestinians to enter through metal detectors to go pray” (sic). These measures were removed by Israel before the day of the rally, after …

Vastly outnumbered, outgunned, besieged on every front and overwhelmed by the wealth and diplomatic influence of the Arab States, Israel faced its hour of maximum danger 50 years ago. It did so alone: 100,000 Egyptian troops, armour and artillery had amassed on Israel’s southern border; the UN peace-keeping force along …