Remarks made by UNSW academic Peter Slezak at a rally at UTS on 26 March, have attracted considerable negative coverage in the Murdoch media. [The Australian and The Daily Telegraph]
Pearls And Irritations is carrying the full text of the speech so that readers can make up their own minds.
The Gaza Strip has witnessed catastrophic humanitarian crises during the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation. The war has caused widespread destruction of infrastructure, leading to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and essential services. (more…)
“Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past and historians are the people who produce it.” – Eric Hobsbawm (more…)
Australians for Humanity is a coalition of interested parties seeking to have Australia and Australians respond to the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians and the declared Israeli intent to ethnically cleanse Palestine and proceed to the annexation of Gaza, the West Bank and parts of Lebanon and Syria. (more…)
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have been under attack lately – defunded in the US, dismissed as “divisive” by Australia’s Opposition Leader and treated as a box-ticking exercise in many workplaces. But after everything we’ve seen in Gaza, isn’t it time to ask – What is DEI really about? (more…)
I recently attended a demonstration outside both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Israeli Embassy in Wellington. (more…)
Australia’s recent wave of political scaremongering and hyperbolic reporting about antisemitic attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues, businesses and a day care centre has finally subsided, but its impact is still being eagerly exploited by right-wing media outlets, pro-Israel lobby groups and politicians of all stripes. (more…)
Israel has begun the final stage of its genocide. The Palestinians will be forced to choose between death or deportation. There are no other options. (more…)
Two weeks ago, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel published a report, “More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023. (more…)
As the latest ceasefire has predictably ended, will the world start taking notice of the Palestinians again? There’s been a stark absence of coverage in mainstream media of the ongoing decimation of Gaza and the West Bank. I imagine the average citizen believes it’s all okay now, the onslaught has ended and there’s nothing more to worry about. Nothing to see here, folks. Phew, the Palestinians are safe. (more…)
ABC’s Jane Norman is called out for repeating Coalition talking points with Jim Chalmers. Overnight reports claim Israel has killed senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil and his family. Former First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, calls on the international community to realise Israel is out of control, while the Arab League calls on nations to end economic and military ties with Israel. (more…)
Response to the latest Israeli/US slaughter in Gaza shows the world’s citizens looking into a moral precipice. How will they act? Will they ponder the principles of humanitarian law let alone ideals of a common humanity? (more…)
As both the actively enabled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the sanctioning of those who protest it continue, the associated psychological challenges likewise continue unabated. It is not only the international `rules-based’ order which is subverted (with all the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions that entails). When any pretence to a moral order is also subverted, the psychological scaffolding by which we navigate existence is at risk as well. (more…)
There is a cruel historical irony in Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank: the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis in 1943 was one of the most tragic episodes in the genocide perpetrated against European Jewry during World War II. (more…)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid the asking price for Itamar Ben-Gvir’s return to the government in advance. Not out of his own pocket, of course, but with the blood of the 59 hostages whose fate could be sealed by the resumption of the war, which has already sealed the fate of hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children. (more…)
While the biblical story of Noah’s Ark is certainly not the only ancient account of a devastating flood (the preceding Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, includes a story of the gods sending a great flood on earth), its basic plot of wrath, punishment, ethnic cleansing, and reproductive means of survival provides a compelling framework by which to reflect on Israel’s genocidal efforts in Gaza since at least 7 October 2023. (more…)
In our post-truth world, the art of messing with words has been perfected. When the Ramallah-based Ashtar Theatre issued a global call to creatives of all disciplines to join the cultural intifada in solidarity with the Palestinian people, I responded by writing a series of poems. Words under Occupation is an act of resistance and disentanglement. It comes in two versions: as text and as video. You will find the link to the video under the text. (more…)
It is 22 years since Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli military as she defended a Palestinian home against a bulldozer. Adam Bandt on ABC’s Insiders says the priority should be to end AUKUS. Bombing continues in Yemen where Ansar Allah is maintaining a blockade in the Red Sea. The Australia Institute calls out rising house prices. (more…)
Sunday evening in a crowded Glebe Town Hall in Sydney, the audience came to hear speakers address several objectives to “make candidates” attitude to genocide a key election issue, hold politicians accountable for genocide, vote for humanity”. (more…)
I’ll begin with a reminder, for the Zionists in the audience, of what antisemitism is. I grew up surrounded by adults with blue numbers tattooed on their forearms. My primary school teacher relentlessly picked on the three Jewish kids in her class. My high school refused to discipline a girl who punched me in the nose because I was Jewish. When I was in my 20s, a man beside me on the bus lamented audibly to his friend that it was a pity Hitler didn’t burn us all. I know what antisemitism is. And I know what it is not. (more…)
“The label Zionist is used, not in any way, accurately. When critics use that word, they actually mean Jew. They’re not really saying Zionist, they’re saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words [such as] Zeo or Zio.” –Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, October 2024 (more…)
Geoffrey Watson tells it like it is about Brendan Nelson having an undisclosed paid role with French arms dealer Thales while serving as a director of the Australian War Memorial. Netanyahu joins IDF forces in the takeover of Palestinian homes and posts about it. In our Parliament, just 11 voted No against criminalising “hate” speech to oppress Australians criticising Israel, while the rest were swept up in the hysteria. (more…)
When it comes to antisemitism, politicians in this country are often quick to jump on the claim without waiting for evidence. With notable and laudable exceptions like the Greens and independents such as Tasmanian federal MP Andrew Wilkie, it seems any allegation will do when it comes to the opportunity to imply Arab Australians, the Muslim community and Palestinian supporters are trying to destroy the lives of the Jewish community. (more…)
Defence of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is a collective responsibility fuelled by commitments to theory and ideology inherent in universalism. In domestic and foreign policies and in the conduct of personal relations, the values associated with universalism concern altruism and inclusiveness, each goal delivered in a spirit of generosity. (more…)
In 1997, the World Health Organisation invited me to be a short-term consultant to visit Iran and advise on HIV control among people who inject drugs and the spread from them to the large low-risk general population. At the time, HIV was spreading rapidly in Iran. I felt honoured to be invited to a country with such an ancient past. (more…)
The definition of antisemitism has been hijacked and devalued, most recently in the craven acceptance by vice-chancellors that it should also cover some criticism of Israel. This article argues that the time has come to push back by actively resisting the misapplication of the term and restoring it to its proper meaning – hatred of Jewish people, not criticism of a state’s illegalities and excesses. (more…)
“Physical violence can’t exist without violence of language.” Omar El Akkad (more…)
The Chinese Embassy in the US underlines the country’s differences with the US. Marco Rubio and Boris Johnson refer to the war in Ukraine as a proxy war, while Rubio also reaffirms Trump’s warning to Hamas. Ohad Kozminsky of the Jewish Council of Australia shares his views on Western colonialism and Gaza. (more…)
