Despite the opposition to NATFHE’s motion on boycotting Israeli academics who do not publicly declare opposition to the occupation of Palestine, the motion passed narrowly at the NATFHE conference this past weekend. The motion has sparked some strong reactions. Technorati tags: NATFHE, academic boycott
The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) has put forward a motion to
…should not threaten to sue Ahmadinejad. ‘A group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide. Lawyers are preparing to send a file on Mr Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, to the International Court of Justice. … The UN convention defines genocide as the [...]
The Israeli Supreme Court has upheld a racist law that prevents Palestinian Arabs from living with Israeli Arab spouses or family. The Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has said that the ceasefire will be extended if the Israelis withdraw to the 1967 borders. A White House official is quoted as saying that Israel would “be [...]
As Gideon Levy points out yet again, not only has it caused a humanitarian crisis for which the Israeli government and the Quartet are responsible, but because it ultimately attracts support for Hamas and involves the Quartet in a diplomatic farce which it has now lost: ‘Two or three months and the “boycott” party of [...]
Last night I went to a Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) meeting at Euston on the crisis in the Territories. The PSC organised a strong platform, with Tony Benn, Karma Nabulsi, Lindsey German and Tariq Ali amongst others. Plenty of strong feeling, but the big hall in the Friends’ Meeting House was only half full–maybe a [...]
Cutting off aid to the Hamas-controlled PA is having a severe impact on Palestinians. The West Bank economy has been dependent on foreign aid since before the election, and the lack of aid now means that public-sector employees are not receiving wages, crushing the already fragile economy: ‘The World Bank estimates that only 12 per [...]
There’s another excellent editorial by Gideon Levy. ‘Does anyone among our excellent artillery forces think about the great fear they are causing to the children upon whose homes they are launching their shells? Have they been shown pictures of the destruction they sowed, whether deliberately or not? No Qassam rocket justifies this terrible, disproportionate bombing, [...]
Since Pesach, I have been thinking a lot about the ideas central to the seder: liberation of the oppressed, celebration that our basic needs are met and of our freedom, and sharing what we have with those less fortunate. I cannot help thinking about these ideas in the context of current events. There’s a post [...]
I wrote on April 13th and 16th about the human disaster that can be predicted as a result of the EU, American and Israeli policy towards Hamas, and about the resolute silence in the media about it. The silence was broken on Tuesday night by a report on Channel 4 news (you can watch it [...]
Today is Israeli Independence Day, the 58th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the state of Israeli in 1948 by Ben-Gurion. Via Engage, Hillel Schenker talks about attending a memorial service for the Israelis who have died in Israel’s wars since 1948, and marking Independence Day: ‘So we sat together, Israelis and Palestinians [...]
