Tag Archive
Mermaid dawn
Post of the week: The Pitman’s Requiem, by Harry Barnes.Libya: Congratulations to the people of Libya, who, supported by NATO forces, are taking their destiny into their own hands. I have been pessimistically and with many qualifications su... »
Slowly catching up 3: Other things
OK, we're nearly there folks.Especially highly recommended: Peter Ryley’s “A matter of life and death”, written under the Greek stars after the Norway killings, on what an emancipatory politics, in Greece, in Israel/Palestine and here, shou... »
TB and Prince Charles in today’s Guardian – some context
It must say something for the media’s belief in the public’s insatiable diet for Royal stories that for two volumes running, The Guardian has led its serialisation of my diaries on Royal stories. With volume 2, Power and the People, it was the arrangements for Princess Diana’s funeral, and the vexed issue of whether... »
No freedom of speech for Palestinians
Sorry, was someone from the Libdems claiming that their coalition government cherished freedom of speech? Bollocks. The home secretary, Theresa May, has ordered “a full investigation” after a leading Palestinian activist in Israel entered Britain despite a travel ban. Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was detained at 11pm on... »
Attacks on Ashton as misleading as they are unhelpful
Katharina Klebba, events manager of the Fabian Society, on the many attacks on European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Baroness Catherine Ashton. »
The A-Z of Ayman al-Zawahiri
Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's long-serving deputy, the man described as the "operational brains behind 9/11", was today appointed bin Laden's successor as al-Qaeda chief. »
Bahraini medical staff put on trial for treating wounded
Robert Fisk reports from Bahrain, where 48 surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses were put on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the monarchy. Their crime was to have treated anti-government protestors. Mr Fisk argues that the trial is going ahead at the behest of Saudi Arabia: In truth, of course, the Khalifa family is... »
Campaigning against societal norms and customs
Nesrine Malik has a good piece on the Women2Drive campaign in Saudi Arabia and the difficulties faced by campaigners who are protesting against customs rather than just laws: Manal al-Sharif, the woman who attracted global attention to the Saudi Women2Drive campaign when she posted videos of herself driving on YouTube, was released earlier this... »
Damning: how BBC coverage is biased against Palestinians
Former BBC journalist Tim Llewellyn has a damning article in the Guardian today, exposing the BBC’s failings when reporting on Israel / Palestine. He says: There is no attempt to properly convey cause and effect, to report the misery, violence and pillage that demean and deny freedom to the Palestinians and provoke their (limited)... »
Weekend reading: On Ed Miliband, Progress, Blue Labour and the Wombles
I spent most of last week away from both the office and the blog (and even, for two rather refreshing days, having any internet connection at all), moving house and celebrating my youngest son’s second birthday on Thursday. There has been plenty goin... »
Sunday’s violence on Israel’s borders represents new phase in Middle East conflict
This article was originally written for Left Foot Forward. On May 15 each year, Palestinians commemorate what they call Al-Nakba – “the Catastrophe”. It is a day in which Palestinians remember that with the founding of the State of Israel … Continue reading → »
How I got called a racist and a “w**ker-Jew” in the same day
On Sunday, I attended the “We believe in Israel” conference in West London. You can see my report on the event itself at Left Foot Forward. I went as a pro-Palestinian activist and UK director of a campaign to support … Continue reading → »
Inside the “We Believe in Israel” Conference
This article was originally written for Left Foot Forward. On Sunday, Left Foot Forward’s Seph Brown attended the “We believe in Israel” conference in West London; hosted by a coalition of Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the conference was the first … Continue reading → »
Inside the “We believe in Israel” conference
Seph Brown, the UK Director of Prosper Palestine, reports from the "We believe in Israel" conference, held at a location in central London yesterday. »
WHO WILL RESHAPE THE ARAB WORLD: THE ARAB PEOPLES? OR THE USA?
By Tariq Ali from the Guardian The patchwork political landscape of the Arab world – the client monarchies, degenerated nationalist dictatorships and the imperial petrol stations known as the Gulf states – was the outcome of an intensive experience of Anglo-French colonialism. This was followed after the second world war by a complex process of imperial... »
More massacres in Syria
As protests in Syria continue, the Syrian state is reacting in its usual bloodthirsty way by killing scores more people: Dozens of people have been shot dead by Syrian security forces, activists claim, as tens of thousands took part in anti-government rallies dubbed a “day of rage”. Activists said at least 50 protesters were... »
From Bob’s archive: George Galloway, racial nationalist
I'm still off-line, so here's another one from the archive (lightly edited), from September 2006. It seemed appropiate in the current moment, when sections of the left are romaniticising Gaddafi as an "anti-imperialist" hero.HP posted a link to a recen... »
Friday miscellany
Another round-up post I'm afraid.The Middle EastLibya and the complexities of liberal intervention: Bill Weinberg on questionable reports of Polisario fighters in Gaddafi's camp.Mick Hume on the PR war over Libya. James Turley on the rebels. SR Gardner... »
Monday miscellany III
Sorry, another round-up post.Sarah Correia on 6 April in Sarajevo, the politics of history, the meaning of anti-fascism, and the fragility of memory.Today is the day the burka ban kicks in in France. Much as I hate the burka, a ban on it is an absolute... »
End-of-week miscellany
Sorry that all my blogging lately has been either just links, or in the comment threads. Here's another batch of the former.LesInstead of starting with Libya, as my recent posts all seem to have, I will start closer to home, with the lovely Les Back.&n... »
Mid-week mini-miscellany
The revolutions in the Middle EastKellie on making excuses: highly recommended. Fascinating bit of citizen journalism here, with Twitterers debunking a myth about Israeli weaponry being used in Libya. Related: Fred Halliday on the left and jihad. And I... »
Middle East’s only democracy continues to oppose more democracy
Hey look, Israel is still rooting for Middle Eastern dictators: As popular unrest threatens to topple another Arab neighbor, Israel finds itself again quietly rooting for the survival of an autocratic yet predictable regime, rather than face an untested new government in its place. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s race to tamp down public unrest... »
Settlement construction remains an obstacle to peace
Over the last few years the world has been moving towards a growing consensus over a key barrier to peace in the region - continuing Israeli settlement of the Palestinian West Bank, reports Seph Brown. »
Burkes and Paines
Read this great post by Peter R.(For some prehistory, see here and especially here or for the ur-text here.) »
YEMEN: GENERALS BACK THE REBELLION
Source: Al Jazeera Several top Yemeni army commanders have declared their support for anti-government protesters seeking the resignation of the country’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Major General Ali Mohsen Saleh, the head of the north western military zone and the head of the first armoured division, said on Monday that he had deployed army units... »
From South London to East London to the South Mediterranean
Justice4Smiley:Transpontine remembers Smiley Culture. History is Made at Night: Smiley Culture. Alan A remembers. On Smiley's death. The death of a toasting translator. And just about everything at John Eden's blog: David Emmanuel aka Smiley Culture 19... »
Wave of unrest spreads to Syria
As the world comes to terms with intervention in Libya, and while Yemen and Bahrain once again resort to violence to quell popular uprisings, another Arab state has begun to feel the familiar rumbling of unrest, reports Seph Brown. »
The wisdom of Fred Halliday
Fred Halliday having been in my mind lately, with the prescient exception he took to his employers at the LSE dallying with Gaddafi, I found this never published post in my drafts folder, gathering dust since October 2006.Yesterday evening, I went to s... »