The historian Ilan Pappe’s latest work, Ten Myths About Israel, is a useful primer for people just becoming familiar with the Palestinian liberation struggle – but it is far more than that. It is also a valuable tool for veteran organizers seeking to explain cogently and simply how Israel’s foundational myths and ongoing propaganda perpetuate…
The present Israeli government coalition consists of 67 (out of 120) members of the Knesset [parliament]. Each member wants to be elected again (and again and again). In order to be re-elected, he or she must attract the attention of the public. How? The simplest way is to propose a new law. A bill so…
Pizza Hut is feeling the heat after one of its adverts mocked Palestinian hunger striker Marwan Barghouti. The hashtag #Boycott_PizzaHut is being used online to vent frustration at the restaurant chain. A since-deleted tweet posted to an Israeli Pizza Hut account read: “Barghouti, if you’re going to break a strike, why not pizza?” It appeared…
Not since Ibn Batuta, travelled the Middle East in the 14th century has anyone set out with higher ambitions that Donald Trump. Batuta, a Moroccan Muslim traveller and scholar, had a few things in common with Trump. He reached what is now Saudi Arabia. He went to Jerusalem. He even had a keen eye for nubile ladies – there were…
Trump leans on Abbas but Israel is afraid of surprises For many Palestinians, President Mahmoud Abbas is seen as something like a Quisling, a timid man who has dedicated himself to selling out to American and Israeli interests in exchange for his remaining in power. Others, recognizing that a return to an intifada would bring…
President Trump’s expressed desire to resolve, somehow, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is welcome, but the grounds for skepticism about this outweigh the reasons for hope. The principal reason for skepticism is the lack of evidence that Trump has distanced himself politically from the position, embodied in the right-wing Israeli government and its most ardent American supporters, that…
