Israel/Palestine

From ‘Issam Da’ur via B’tselem The Israeli NGO B’tselem has been collecting testimonies from Gaza. Here is just one of the latest, dated 15 November, from ‘Issam Da’ur I’m a general practitioner at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip... In the first week of the war, I basically lived at the ER in the hospital and my mother took care of the kids... On Sunday, 15 October 2023, I slept at home. In the morning, an ambulance came to take me to the hospital because it was too dangerous to get there any other way. Before I left, I went into the room where the kids were sleeping and...

Seyla Benhabib, an American academic of Turkish origin, wrote this response to another open letter signed by many academics, mostly in the USA. It was first published on Medium . Dear Friends, Dear Colleagues: These are dark times as multiple crises are erupting around the world while talk of a global conflagration is heard in many circles. These are also times that try human relationships, friendships, and alliances. I have read many of you; taught many of you; have been adviser to some of you and have fought together with you for the rights of women in our universities; for gender-sex...

I was surprised to see the letter from Martin Thomas in Solidarity 691 taking issue with the headline in Solidarit y 690 . This is a concern Martin waited until the following week to express, and, as far as I know, one was not mentioned during the review of the previous paper, which takes place as part of our editorial meetings. Still, Martin has the right to change his mind, and he has attempted to account for doing so as the author of the headline. As another editorial team member who “signed off” on the headline (as did Workers’ Liberty’s executive committee), I do not share his view...

Martin Thomas makes an unfounded generalisation in his letter in Solidarity 691 : “Despite the official ceasefire slogan, those marches are not peace or anti-war marches, but anti-Israel, pro-Hamas war marches by sections of the left and by political Islamists and others for whom destroying Israel is the aim.” This is counter-productive exaggeration – certainly with respect to the main London demonstrations. (Reactionary peripheral actions by Hizb ut-Tahrir are another story, and perhaps some protests in other UK cities too – I don’t presume to know enough about those.) It is certainly true...

The other day a Labour activist, a supporter of ceasefire and someone who has worked in the West Bank, made an apt comment to me on the use of the “From the river to the sea” slogan. Some may first think it’s a bland “freedom everywhere” call. By now they must know that most Jews see it as threatening; as meaning Arab or Islamic rule in all of 1918-48 Palestine, “from the river to the sea”, and the wiping-out of Israel. So, use a different slogan, unless you want to make the threat, or don’t care. After some weeks of Gaza demonstrations, those who still go along with “from the river to the sea...

The death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza continues to rise. There is a talk af a limited hostage deal and a brief ceasefire, but with the deaths soon resuming. Lack of access to food and water has created real risks of starvation and deaths from thirst. The majority of Gaza’s population is now displaced and homeless. Gaza City, Gaza’s largest population centre, has been substantially destroyed. Attacks by both settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank have also continued. 206 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. There is still no sign of a viable “endgame” for Israel’s...

Assaf Talgam is a member of Maki and Hadash, and sits on the Central Auditing Committee of Hadash. He spoke to Solidarity on 14 November. Unfortunately, I can’t really say there is an anti-war movement in Israel as such, but there are elements which are resisting the war and protesting against it. This has been mostly led by Hadash and other groups. For the first two weeks people were in shock and did almost nothing against the war, since then people have come to their senses, but it is still weak. Public opinion is very pro-war, and even calling for a ceasefire to allow a prisoner exchange is...

Reposted, with thanks, from JewThink. Parts of the article are adapted from the posts by the author on Twitter/X . “My grandpa didn’t survive Auschwitz to bomb Gaza”, reads a placard held by a Jewish woman at a protest in Mexico against a previous Israel assault on Gaza . A photo of the placard went viral on social media in 2021. More recently, the American group Jewish Voice for Peace has shared a photo of a protestor at a demonstration against the current war with a banner reading “My grandparents didn’t survive the Holocaust for Israel to commit genocide in Gaza.” In both current and prior...

A letter from the editor The “Neither Netanyahu, nor Hamas” headline we had last week was wrong. It could be read as like “neither Israel, nor Hamas”. That is not our view. We are for “two states” the right of both nations to self-determination and to defend themselves. Israel has the right to defend itself. The Israel of today, not just a future internationalist Israel, has a right to defend itself against attacks like 7 October, and to seek to disable and deter the attackers, as well as against being totally wiped out. The right to self-determination for nations is not conditional on nations...

Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) is one of the most prominent organisations at the Palestine demonstrations. It has large numbers of stewards in green bibs and seems to have successfully monopolised the production of Palestine flag stickers, all emblazoned with the FOA website and logo. FOA, established in Leicester in 1997, is another spin-off loose affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), one of the world’s oldest political-Islamist groups, Egypt-founded but global. FOA’s public focus is solely on Palestine activism. It is the main MB-sympathetic group in Palestine activity. FOA holds a seat on the...