Bedouin
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Israel knows how to break things, but not how to fix them
According to a Pew survey published in May, based on enquiry undertaken in March and early April, thirty-nine percent of Israelis think that Israel’s military assault on Gaza is ‘about right’. Thirty-four percent, however, believe the military assault has ‘not gone far enough’; and a paltry nineteen percent think it has ‘gone too far’. Might Continue reading
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What’s a pause but continuity confirmed?
What once were considered shared norms, for example, that armed forces do not as a matter of course kill and maim children, for Israel, this understanding is now redundant. It’s moved on from that, it is no longer a serviceable concept. Rather, callous, cool and calculated disregard are the governing principles. The habit of praying-in-aid Continue reading
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Israelis protest – for some, not all
So, Israelis know how to protest. They can be roused. Generally quiescent and indifferent to burning injustices – the murderous iniquities – that their state daily perpetrates against Palestinians, when their own interests are pricked, they know how to yelp. And yelp they do, furious at the impending curtailment of their freedoms, the potential diluting Continue reading
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Gaza
What might be the justification for denying children, or indeed adults, access to vital medical treatment? ‘Denied’ here meaning what it says: a decision, a calculated act, an expression of policy, a rule formulated, then enacted. The purpose? What could that be? How come that the rationally impossible task of squaring a circle is here Continue reading
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As if their finger was on the trigger – its more than ‘complicity’
There are occasions when the power of words runs out. When the meanings we need them to carry, constitute too heavy a burden for them to bear. I was reminded of this when reading what is, to me, a richly evocative, deeply depressing, article by Mariam Barghouti in Mondoweiss. She is writing about a now Continue reading
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Magical thinking: The two state solution
I was going to begin this article with a recitation of funeral rites – funeral rights for the Two State Solution, the notional way forward to resolving the Palestine/Israel impasse. That ‘solution’, at base, proposes there should be two states – a State of Israel alongside a newly minted State of Palestine – on Continue reading
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How shall we harm you? Let us count the ways. A partial inventory of Israel’s oppression against Palestinians
Shoot your children bullet-dead – no tear to our eyes ‘On average, Israeli forces and settlers killed 6 Palestinian children per month this [2021] year. ‘Israeli forces and armed Israeli civilians have killed 78 Palestinian minors in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza, making 2021 the deadliest year on record for Palestinian children since Continue reading
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As Olive Harvest Begins, Israeli Soldiers Prevent Palestinians From Reaching Their Groves
I reproduce without comment an article in Haaretz by Amira Hass, dated 17 October 2021 When it isn’t the settlers who try to directly disrupt Palestinians’ olive picking, it’s the Israeli army that prevents it from taking place Mohammed al-Khatib from the village of Bil’in uses every opportunity he has to talk to soldiers, in Continue reading
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Towards a Greater Israel
This blog is about a seven minute read. Snapshots Yesterday dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian community in the south Hebron hills. Accompanied by Israeli soldiers they invaded homes, smashing windows & causing massive damage. One of those injured was a 3 yr old Palestinian boy. This is what a pogrom looks like. Continue reading
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As you sow, so shall you reap
Israel is a militaristic state. For many years[1] now, it has ranked first in the Global Militarisation Index (GMI). By way of contrast, the USA ranks twenty-seventh, the UK seventy-seventh. The GMI bases its rankings on a set of quantifiable indicators, for example, GMI compares a country’s military expenditure with its Gross Domestic Product, and Continue reading
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Bernard Spiegal 