Much of our focus this week has been on what happens when democracy, or the leaders we elect, let us down. (more…)
Category: Israel Palestine
-
“Very concerned” is not a foreign policy
While Gaza and the West Bank remain under siege, settlement and violence, Australia’s repeated support for a two-state solution sounds increasingly hollow without action. (more…)
-
What I saw in the West Bank
Former Irish president and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson says Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land is unfolding in plain sight, enabled by impunity and a lack of international political will.
-
Israel accused of erasing evidence in Gaza
A new human rights report accuses Israeli forces and contractors of removing and crushing Gaza’s rubble before investigators can examine possible evidence of genocide, mass graves and unlawful killings. (more…)
-
Terrorism and the deliberate corruption of language and meaning
The word “terrorism” is applied selectively to enemies of the US and its allies, turning a legal and moral category into propaganda that obscures state violence and normalises genocide. (more…)
-
Israel is losing America – and endangering Jews
Israel’s war in Gaza has eroded support across the US political spectrum, while Netanyahu’s claim to act for all Jews risks fuelling the very anti-Jewish hostility Israel says it opposes. (more…)
-
IDF closes investigation into brutal 2023 settler attack on Palestinians without charges
The closure of an investigation into alleged torture by Israeli settlers and soldiers highlights the near-total impunity surrounding escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
-
Gaza has broken Washington’s Israel consensus
US military support for Israel is facing its deepest political and legal crisis in decades, as Gaza exposes the gap between Washington’s stated values and its role as arms supplier and diplomatic protector. (more…)
-
Is there a one-state solution to prevent apartheid in Israel and Palestine?
South Africa’s transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy suggests that a single secular, non-racist state may offer a more hopeful future for Israel–Palestine than a fragmented two-state settlement. (more…)
-
Protection for some, pedagogy for others
The racial hierarchy of the Australian government’s response to its envoys’ recommendations leaves Muslims unprotected by the law. (more…)
-
Campus free speech on Palestine was the real casualty
A people’s tribunal has found that Australian universities restricted free speech and academic freedom on Palestine, even as vice chancellors apologised for not doing more to police protest. (more…)
-
Public life needs fewer empty notes – Message from the Editor
Public life is loud, reactive and full of people mistaking noise for importance. But there is a difference between speaking when something must be said and simply filling the silence. (more…)
-
Israel’s prison policy exposes Western media silence
Israel’s latest prison proposal has drawn attention in Israeli media, but its limited coverage in the Anglosphere points to a deeper failure to confront the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
-
FIFA has given up its responsibility to keep politics out of football
FIFA claims political neutrality, but its treatment of Palestinian football shows an organisation willing to accommodate occupation, apartheid and Israeli impunity. (more…)
-
Genocide, the word Albanese and Wong will never utter
By refusing to name genocide in Gaza, the Labor government avoids the legal and moral obligations that would follow – but not the shame of complicity. (more…)
-
Why Spain’s World Cup win felt like a victory for Gaza
Gaza has rearranged the world’s moral geography. Once-distant countries feel close because they have spoken when others are silent. At the World Cup final, that moral geography was evident in the football stands. (more…)
-
Israeli embassy attacks Labor’s draft Gaza platform
The Israeli embassy has criticised Labor’s draft Israel-Gaza platform ahead of this week’s national conference, warning it places too much responsibility on Israel.
-
How the Royal Commission should define antisemitism
Drawn from his submission to the Royal Commission, Gareth Evans argues for a definition of antisemitism that protects Jewish Australians without suppressing legitimate criticism of Israel. (more…)
-
Gaza: from genocide to engineering genocide
In Gaza, Israel’s systematic process of engineering genocide is stripping Palestinians of their aspirations and humanity. Their lives have been reduced to mere biological survival. (more…)
-
No case for muzzling ABC and SBS reporting on Israel
Claims of ABC bias against Israel in its reporting of current Middle East conflicts defy the truth and the professional and impartial tradition of ABC staff reporters. (more…)
-
The antisemitism commission must hear the voices it excludes
The focus of Block 3 of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was on online hate but the commission did not hear about the hate directed at pro-Palestinian groups.
(more…) -
The Iran lesson: why the US will lose a war with China
The US war on Iran exposed weaknesses in American power. Asia-Pacific allies should rethink defence settings built around US dominance and confrontation with China. (more…)
-
A diary, a face, a name – and the humanity genocide tries to erase
Diaries, videos and personal testimony can cut through denial and abstraction, forcing the world to recognise the individual lives caught inside genocide. (more…)
-
All Australians have the right to be protected against violence
The royal commission must confront hatred and violence against Jewish Australians while preserving free speech, political criticism of Israel and equal protection for all communities. (more…)
-
Pandora’s box of assassination
Ignoring the taboo on political assassinations could be perilous for Trump in face of the intense Iranian desire for revenge.
(more…) -
Who would want an ally like Israel?
Looking back from 2026 to 1967 reveals the extent to which Israel will go to serve its own interests, even when this means harming its ally. (more…)
-
US strike on Iranian school came after ‘bypassed warnings’ about outdated target info
US commanders reportedly ignored warnings that target intelligence was years out of date before a strike killed more than 150 schoolchildren in Iran.
(more…) -
For Palestinians, diplomacy has become a weapon of delay
After 1,000 days of genocide and 78 years of occupation, negotiations have not delivered peace. They have bought time, absorbed outrage and given Israel political cover to continue the destruction of Palestinians.
(more…) -
Beyond taking sides
What a letter from Accra can teach Australia about prejudice and why our convictions must be accompanied by curiosity. (more…)
-
History will read this report and ask what we did
An International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory report says the essence of childhood has been destroyed in Gaza. (more…)