Led by the PSC, JfJfP and others, the BBC is accused of bias for its month-long silence on the historic mass prisoner hunger strike. Rumours of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ in the BBC are alive on the web. This is nonsense. Rather, the undoubted BBC bias is testament to a belief that Israelis are ‘like us’ (Mark Regev is Australian) while Palestinians are the violent ‘other’. Palestinian groups could do more however to cultivate relationships with foreign journalists.

Although the peg of this story is Nakba day, it is in fact about the co-operation on the ground between Hamas and Israeli government officials. As a tax-gathering government, Hamas’ interest lies in stability and forcing the jihadists into Sinai in the judgment of Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz.

So powerful are the images of the 1930s, the intensity of antisemitism and Jewish socialism (some connection surely?) that they still haunt today’s debates. From Israel (1) to a recent NY conference on Jews and the Left (2-4) the shrinking of the Jewish left is notable; though no-one seems to have noted the shrinking – or re-forming – of the left in general. Footnote on ‘Jews for Sarah Palin’.

Although many readers of this website know the meaning of the word Nakba, fewer will know how far plans to expel Palestinians had been laid, and begun to be carried out, before the declaration of the state of Israel and before the attack by the combined Arab armies. Compare the quality of this argument with that offered by Jennifer Rubin in ‘Exile: voices of loss and longing – and hate’ in 6th post below.

The end of the hunger strike is only the beginning: of holding Israeli authorities to the conditions on which prisoners agreed to end the strike; the possible beginning of humane standards for prisoners in Israeli gaols; the start of family visits; the beginning of the end for administrative detention. Richard Falk, Stephen Lendman and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights greet the next stage with scepticism and expectation. Haaretz begins to write of ‘national liberation struggle’ and ‘political prisoners’.

Here’s an example of Israel’s military-industrial complex, which outstrips the USA’s in significance: Israel Aerospace Industries has set up a plant in Mississippi to make drones for the US’s overseas and home use. A cheap and safe (for the operators) means of policing and terrorising those on the ground, as Israel has found in Gaza. Report by Jefferson Morley, Salon.com.

We reproduce here statements and decisions by the TUC and public service union Unison on their policies on boycotting goods from Israeli settlements and Unison’s decision to suspend relations with Histadrut because of its ‘support for the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ….[and] the military assault on Gaza’. Both Ambassador Taub and some individual union members seem ignorant of these policies. Mr. Taub’s attack on boycotts and several letters in response follow.

One of the glitches with a security state, as many have found, is that short of a Maoist revolution you just can’t get the staff. Book readers, aka dangerous intellectuals, tend not to want to be customs officers (or football managers – that’s a reference to England’s football team for you intellectuals). Richard Silverstein on book-banning and climate change policy by Israeli officials.

“I don’t want to continue through another summer of protest to be partner to the lie” writes Gershon Baskin, a negotiator for the release of Gilad Schalit. Fellow protesters don’t want to talk ‘politics’, meaning the occupation. But that refusal gives them the mere illusion of accomplishing something.

The contrast between Israel as the home to which every Jew has a birthright and the Palestinian land it occupies, to which no Palestinian has a right of return is extreme. Palestinian refugees are the responsibility of the UN Relief and Works Agency. Two reports on their work (Reuters, UNWRA); a vituperative attack on them from Right Turn in Washington Post and an AFP story of the Indian Jews waiting to go ‘home’ to Israel.

CRH is an Irish company which owns 25% of Mashav which owns Israel’s only producer of cement – the material that makes walls that surround Palestinians and holds together the buildings of the settlements that encroach on them. PNN report of the protest at their AGM last week.

The IDF gears up for violence on Nakba day (3), Palestinian Christians hold a peaceful commemoration (4) and PSC holds a protest outside Downing Street at which Diana Neslen of JfJfP gives a moving speech about memory and exile (1 & 2). Haaretz declares Israel should acknowledge the Nakba as part of its history (5).Tel Aviv students defy education minister to hold ceremony (6).

Fear the prisoners on hunger strike would start dying, sparking a third intifada, and behind-the-scenes pressure from diplomats brought the Israeli Prison Service – with, presumably, the agreement of the government– to reach an agreement with the prisoners’ representatives. Solitary confinement and the ban on family visits will be ended. (Now the strike is over, it was mentioned on the BBC news.)

Isobel Coleman’s article on the impact of the ‘Arab Spring’ on women follows an interview with her on US NPR. There is no mention of Palestinian women – a significant absence. Yet the high involvement of Palestinian women in the campaign for imprisoned menfolk has again provoked talk, below the radar, of their own political role – though a ‘modern’ role for women is most associated with the old dictators and Israel.

In a dense and hard-hitting interview, Jeff Halper tells Frank Barat that the Israelis, with US complicity, have confined Palestinians to the enclaves of Areas A and B. Their policy is of Judaisation and warehousing. The PA cannot lead resistance – Fayyad is happy with non-territorial free trade. The Palestine left will not even recognise or work with the non-Zionist Israeli left. An inclusive Palestinian lead is needed.

Exile was punishment from God, our return conditional on fulfilling God’s commandments. Exile was exile from God, spiritual as much as physical. Our task in exile was to rebuild the covenant not organise for a political return. So there Ben Gurion, says a witty, sad and argumentative Micah’s Paradigm Shift on Nakba Day (May 15th)

From a slow beginning, support for the hunger strikers has grown to become, at this moment, the emblematic struggle against injustice; the injustice of mass administrative detention, the injustice of the Supreme’s Court rejection of two prisoners’ appeal, the injustice of a system, in which 1/5th of all Palestinians have served prison sentences. Many are warning that the situation is now at breaking point.

UPDATE: Strike ended; awaiting details.
Supporters of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have signed petitions, posted letters, sent emails, demonstrated; now they are being asked to fast for a day: on Thursday May 17th, a ‘global 24-hour hunger strike’; or to join in Fasting on Fridays.

Stop the Wall is an organization that promotes non-violent resistance to the Wall and defends its resisters (1). In the early hours of last Tuesday, the IDF raided their Ramallah offices (with or without PA connivance? – 4) and removed valuable computer equipment and records (2). While most see this is as an attack on civil resistance, the IDF says the raid was to prevent ‘terror’ activity (3).

Take this test to see how well you know the history of Israel. Clearly, all statements have been made by troublesome human rights dissidents, but which ones?