JOHN DUGARD ON ISRAEL, APARTHEID AND RESOLVING THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT

The great John Dugard, former United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and reputed father of human rights in South Africa, on... Israel's apartheid: it’s very clear that apartheid is practiced within the Occupied Palestinian Territories . . . You cannot dispute it. It’s just so clear. (However, it is…

INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS: USE IT OR LOSE IT

[Y]our governments are rapidly changing their attitudes towards Israel. And sooner or later, that’s going to change the way you vote on Israel at the UN. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the UN General Assembly this week. 'There's just no appetite to go toe-to-toe with Israel and deliver a really harsh indictment', said one…

WHAT RESONATES

Some years back I argued in Mondoweiss that the case for Palestine ought to be made on the basis of justice rather than national interest. This position received empirical support in a November 2015 U.S. poll, which found that respondents' concerns about Israel-Palestine were principally related to 'human rights or international law' rather than 'America's interests'. This was particularly true of…

CHAIM WEIZMANN ON LAW AND POLITICS

Like all people and groups without the tradition of political responsibility, the Jews are apt to see in the printed text of a document the sole and sufficient guarantee of political rights.  Some of them have clung fantastically to the letter of the Mandate and have failed to understand its spirit.  Practical politics, like mechanics,…

GUARDING THE GUARDIANS

I interviewed Norman Finkelstein on the role of human rights organisations in the struggle for justice in Palestine: As always in politics, the issue is not what you’d in an ideal world prefer; the issue is choosing between the givens. Of course, politics is also about transforming those givens. But I think you cannot transform a…

BAN KI-MOON STARS IN LIVE PUPPET SHOW

In the course of ‘Operation Cast Lead’ (2008-9), Israel attacked multiple UN facilities in Gaza, including with white phosphorus. For example, on 17 January 2009 Israeli forces rained down white phosphorus on an UNRWA elementary school in Beit Lahia that was sheltering some 2,000 people, injuring 13 and killing two children. A subsequent UN Board…

THE STRUGGLE FOR PALESTINE: WHAT’S WINNABLE, WHAT’S NOT

This article was originally published on Truthdig (www.truthdig.com). How can the Palestine solidarity movement win?  What should it demand in order to combine the maximum of justice with political feasibility, and how should it frame those demands in order to reach a broad public? These are questions of political judgement rather than science.  But sound political judgement…

A NEW ‘PEACE ARCHITECTURE’

Special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Robert Serry's final briefing to the Security Council revealed the deep frustration of man who's spent seven years on the frontline of 'one of the most spectacular deceptions in modern diplomatic history'. 'Upon leaving this position', Serry explained, 'I cannot but express an overriding feeling that I have been part…