United States secretary of state John Kerry is in the Middle East this week. Among other tasks, he is attempting to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Undoubtedly, Israel’s recent approval…
A Palestinian farmer and Israeli soldier clash in an olive grove. Can academics in other countries affect this situation by boycotting one side or the other?
AAP/Abed Al Hashlamoun
The news that famous physicist Stephen Hawking has decided to join the academic boycott of Israel has attracted some heated commentary.
Hawking pulled out of attending an Israeli conference in June, explaining…
Ben Zygier’s grave. Did the Melbourne betray a top secret Israeli intelligence operation?
AAp/Julian Smith
The case of Ben Zygier, the Australian who died in a high-security Israeli prison, simply refuses to go away.
On Tuesday we learned more from an ABC special on Foreign Correspondent. In a twist that would…
Continued boycotts of Israeli academics pose a threat to the very freedoms that academics hold dear.
AAP/Joe Castro
On Wednesday last week, the Student Representative Council at the University of Sydney adopted a motion to boycott Israeli academics. The motion called specifically for the University to cut its current…
Melbourne man Ben Zygier died in a top security Israeli jail cell. Numerous questions remain about his arrest, detention and death.
AAP/Julian Smith
When Melbourne man Ben Zygier, an alleged agent of Mossad, or perhaps a double agent, died in December 2010, his end was barely perceptible.
He had been held anonymously in solitary confinement at a high…
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may now deal with centrist parties rather than right wing parties.
EPA/Darren Northside
The dust is settling after the election in Israel, and the efforts to establish a stable coalition are well underway. Prior to the election, concerns were raised in the global media and the blogosphere…
Benjamin Netanyahu will remain Israel’s prime minister, but the rise of centrist parties have made his choices for coalition partners far more difficult.
EPA/Oliver Weiken
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bruising victory in Israel’s election was costly.
The hawkish atmosphere over electing members of the 19th Knesset saw the highest voter turnout since 1999 and some…
Opposition leader Tzivi Lipni and Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu face off in the impending Israeli election.
EPA/Abir Sultan
In all the language used to discuss the Israel-Palestine situation, “dilemma” is surely the most redundant.
A dilemma implies that there are two equal alternatives to opt for and that one must be foregone…
Boycotting the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is not Anti-Semitic; it’s a recognition of violations of international law.
Flickr/delayed gratification
The last weeks of 2012 saw a great amount of criticism levelled at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University and its director Jake Lynch following their boycott of an exchange program…
Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian delegation applaud after the vote on a resolution to upgrade Palestine’s status in the UN.
EPA/Andrew Gombert
The road of history is a pot-holed one. But that doesn’t mean, despite the crashes and stutters, that we don’t eventually get past them. The UN vote over upgrading the Palestinians to non-member observer…
The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is far from over.
EPA/Ali Ali
Israeli air-raids on Gaza have stopped. Palestinian rockets are not being fired at Israel. The cease-fire seems to be holding. After seven days of war, and 157 Palestinian deaths (the great majority of…
Palestinians gather around what is left of a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike this week.
EPA/Ali Ali
Gaza, ostracised, enclosed and pummelled, is being levelled – again. Israel’s case against Hamas, expressed both via air strikes and a social media war, is one of self-defence. Article 51 of the United…
Gaza under Israeli Defense Forces fire as seen from the Israeli town of Sderot, which itself is the victim of rocket attacks from its Palestinian neighbour.
EPA/EDI Israel
The hostilities between Israel and Hamas this week are just another sad exchange of munitions of no benefit for anyone, least of all the impoverished residents of Gaza. Rockets go one way, Hellfire missiles…
Barack Obama, pictured with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been accused of throwing Israel “under the bus”.
EPA/Aaron Showalter
At the same dinner party that Mitt Romney infamously told his $50,000-a-plate supporters that 47% of the American public are slackers, he also delved into foreign policy.
Romney told his audience that…
An attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo in September.
EPA/Khaled Elfiq
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has described his country as “a villa in the middle of a jungle”.
But Barak’s “jungle” has become increasingly dangerous. What happens to the villa when a wind of change…
Mitt Romney’s comments about Israel parroted the US Zionist lobby.
EPA/Abir Sultan
How should the world react when a supposedly democratic state can’t acknowledge a 40-year-old occupation?
When US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel during a visit…
Israeli chocolatier Max Brenner in Sydney in 2009. A Victorian court has ruled people do have a right to protest his support for the Israel armed forces.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is controversial on at least two levels. First, it targets businesses, which some (including the Victorian Government) see as an illegitimate…
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses Iran “Nuclear Day” gathering.
EPA/Press TV
Talk of a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has re-ignited debate over the right of self-defence under international law.
Some academics, including Anthony D'Amato and Alan Dershowitz…
President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in early March, 2012.
EPA/Martin H Simon
A key facet of America’s extended, depressing election campaigns is that every serious presidential candidate has to prove their fanatical, unswerving devotion to the Israeli government.
As part of this…
Australia is home to a many diasporas: communities of migrants and their descendants who maintain a spiritual or material connection to their mythical or physical homelands, be it their place of birth…
The aftermath of a bombing in Tehran that killed a nuclear scientist.
EPA/STR
Relations between Iran and the United States and its ally Israel have descended into the worst crisis in years. Concern is growing that the situation could quickly degenerate into conflict.
The origins…
Nicholas Sarkozy is a master of the political insult.
EPA/Kerim Okten/Pool
So Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been called a liar in a conversation that was released on the web.
I’m not talking about the chat between Nicholas Sarkozy and Barack Obama. Rather, I…
President Obama and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy were caught speaking of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in unflattering terms at the G20 summit.
AAP/Stefan Rousseau
The recent Cannes G20 meeting was ostensibly about saving Europe from falling into economic oblivion.
But a frank exchange between US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, caught…
Gilad Shalit speaks to his family following his release from captivity after five years.
AFP/IDF
When Gilad Shalit was dragged away in a cross-border raid in June 2006, it’s doubtful he or his captors would have imagined five years’ of negotiations lay ahead.
Nor in their most fevered imaginings…
A Palestinian girl in Gaza atop a destroyed house on the day President Abbas formally requested UN recognition of Palestine.
AAP
President Mahmoud Abbas has formally submitted Palestine’s application for full member status of the United Nations.
The United States has already promised to veto the application at the Security Council…
Palestinian civilians outside a United Nations installation in the West Bank city of Hebron.
AAP
Some hypothetical situations just aren’t worth investing too much thought in. What would I serve the Queen if she turned up for dinner? What sort of private jet would I buy if I inherited a billion dollars…
Palestinian medics attend to an elderly woman in the shadow of the Israeli wall.
AAP
The United Nations is set to vote on recognising Palestine as an independent state next month.
What the chances of the Palestinian initiative succeeding? What implications would recognition of Palestinian…
Israelis have a right to live in peace. But Israel has no ‘right to exist.’
AAP/Gali Tibbon
Since the 1970s, Israel’s leaders have insisted that their Palestinian interlocutors acknowledge Israel’s “right to exist” as a pre-condition for negotiations on a settlement of the conflict.
Amongst…
Obama has outlined American foreign policy in the Middle East.
AAP
President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East and North Africa yesterday is being considered a landmark event in US foreign policy.
Made in the wake of the so-called Arab spring and the killing of…
