Click to read more about how the Jewish Agency for Israel Aliyah programme is less than candid and how its supporters indulge in censorship of comments they just don’t like. Unlike them, we’re welcoming comments from all points of view. The forum is open…

Philosopher, professor and author Judith Butler arrived in Israel this month, en route to the West Bank, where she was to give a seminar at Bir Zeit University, visit the theater in Jenin, and meet privately with friends and students. A leading light in her field, Butler chose not to visit any academic institutions in Israel itself. In the conversation below, conducted in New York several months ago, Butler talks about gender, the dehumanization of Gazans, and how Jewish values drove her to criticize the actions of the State of Israel.

The Israeli Interior Ministry recognizes 126 nations, but not the Israeli nation. An Israeli citizen can be registered as belonging to the Assyrian, the Tatar or the Circassian nation. But the Israeli nation? Sorry, no such thing [...]“

An evening with Mohammed Fahili, Director of The Sir Charles Clore Jewish-Arab Community Centre in Acre. The aim of the Centre in Acre is to provide high quality, low cost activities for Jewish and Arab women and children – in the spirit of co-operation and peaceful co-existence.
Monday 15th March 2010, 7pm to 8.30pm, Liberal Jewish Synagogue 28 St. John’s Wood Road, London NW8 7HA
RSVP to events@jfjfp.org or call 07877 453477

Many thought that the EU imposed taxes on imported goods from the Occupied Territories already. An ECJ ruling now makes this definitive, saying the EU deal with Israel [exempting Israeli goods from import duties] “applies [only] to the territory of the State of Israel” and the Palestinian one to “the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.” [...]

Maariv reported on February 23 that the Tel Aviv municipality launched a “counselling program” to “help” Jewish girls who date and/or marry Arab boys [...]

Hassan Jabareen, General Director of Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel writes: “The Knesset is also currently debating a bill that would severely curtail the foreign funding of NGOs. What, then, is behind this attack? [...]

“The vicious, McCarthyite attack on the New Israel Fund (Nif), which uses philanthropic funds to foster and support Israeli non-profit, civil society organisations, did not come out of the blue. The ultra-nationalist group, Im Tirzu, which blamed Nif for the Goldstone report, falsely claiming, as Jonathan Freedland showed, that more than 90% of the report’s information came from groups funded by the Nif, was exploiting a climate of vilification of such groups created by the Netanyahu government since it came to power a year ago [...]

Today, around the world, solidarity activists are taking part in an international day of action in support of Open Shuhada Street. Take a look for yourself (click on hyperlinks): In Berlin In London In Philadelphia In Tel Aviv And, of course, in Hebron (This post will be updated as more pictures and vidoes come in.) [...]

In an depressingly familiar parallel with the 2007 U-19 Palestinian football team fiasco, the UK Border Agency has again refused visas to visiting Palestinians. Due to take part in Fairtrade Fortnight, farmers Lina Mahmoud, Belal Eid and Nahed Besharieh were due to complete a packed schedule of visits to UK Fairtrade and Palestine support groups during Fairtrade [...]

Seth Freedman writes: “Israel’s latest conscripts in the fight to improve the country’s image have been unveiled: ordinary Israeli citizens. Armed only with a government-issued hasbara pamphlet and a winning smile, they will be sent to wage war with their detractors [...]

Al-Haq would like to highlight and condemn moves by the Israeli government, acting through the Israeli military, to upgrade the settlement college of Ariel to the status of a university [...]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized in early January the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, according to a report published in the Sunday Times. Based on information obtained from “sources with knowledge of Mossad” [...]

Uri Avnery writes: “AH, OUR people say, that’s what’s happening among the Goyim. Not here. Our intelligence community is like no other. The Jewish brain has invented the Mossad, which knows everything and is capable of everything [...]“

Jeremiah Haber writes: The Israeli government’s endorsement of proposed legislation “will require human rights NGOs in Israel (e.g., B’Tselem, Machsomwatch, Breaking the Silence, Adalah, etc.) to publicize contributions from foreign governments, not only in an annual report (they all do that anyway), but every single time they host an event, have a meeting, publish a report, issue a news release, whether they have received outside funding for that particular occasion or not [...]“

“British passports are the property of the British government. When that government says and does nothing for six days after it was given evidence that Mossad agents stole the identity of six British citizens to assassinate a Hamas commander in Dubai, it starts to seem as if Israel was right to think it could get away with it…”

According to a platform of Israeli human-rights NGOs: “The Infiltration Prevention Law [aimed at Sudanese and Eritrean refugees], which will first be deliberated by the Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee on February 3, 2010, is one of the most dangerous bills ever presented in the Knesset. If the law is passed, the State of Israel’s obligations to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees will be annulled, refugees who never committed a crime could be jailed for up to twenty years, refugees could be deported to their home countries in a manner that could endanger their lives, and the deeds carried out by aid organization employees and volunteers could become criminal… “

“Gaza is on the brink of becoming the first territory in the world to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution. This is not an accident or the result of natural disaster. It is a matter of policy [...]“

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has set up a new website called aidtoisrael.org to show clearly what US military aid to Israel would buy if used for social programmes at home [...]

In an informative overview published in Middle East Report Online, Joel Beinen details the Jewish colonisation of the Arab centres of Sheikh Jarrar and Silwan in East Jerusalem and the struggle against it [...]