Israel House Demolitions
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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
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Israel’s voracious appetite
An inherent, defining feature of Zionism, and therefore of the Israeli state, is its appetite. An unrelenting, voracious appetite for that which is not theirs to consume: Palestinian land. Zionism is this appetite, an appetite not capable of satiation until all – or practically all – Palestinian land has been consumed and digested by the… Continue reading
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State policy: dispossession, displacement, demolition
A state founded on an oxymoron – that Israel can be both democratic and yet in the exclusive control of one ethnonationalist group, in this case Israeli Jews – is unlikely to have a developed sense of irony. Irony, after all, requires, at a bare minimum, a capacity to notice a contradiction when it’s staring… Continue reading
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Two States or One?
I’m afraid this is rather a long post – just under 3,000 words –which may tax some readers’ stamina, and indeed patience. Doubtless a bit more incisive editing might have reduced the word count, but the subject I was aiming at – the One State idea as a potentially positive approach to the Palestine/Israel impasse… Continue reading
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NSPCC/JCB complicit in cruelty to Palestinian children: Campaign report
There’s been an agreeable increase in both visitors and viewings of pages to this blog site. In particular, there appeared to be interest in the campaign to persuade NSPCC to refuse donations from JCB (Machines) on the grounds that this made the NSPCC complicit in cruelty to Palestinian children and their families. JCB’s heavy duty… Continue reading
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NSPCC complicity in cruelty to Palestinian children. An open letter signed by ninety one health workers, academics, educators, social workers, youth workers, and others
It should at the very least be a source of disquiet that a number of mainstream media, including the Guardian, determined that this letter, and the issue it addresses – NSPCC’s complicity in undermining the lives of Palestinian children and their families – does not warrant space within their columns. A perhaps unintended, though perhaps… Continue reading
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The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children accused of complicity in cruelty to Palestinian children
My guess is that a significant number of those who read my posts are involved, in one way of another, with children and the required work to ensure their flourishing. We recognise this as a universal goal, unbounded by border, background or ethnicity. With this in mind, this post may have particular salience for at… Continue reading
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Seismic shift: Authoritative Israeli human rights organisation brands Israel an Apartheid State
It’s as good as official: Israeli human rights group – B’tselem – defines Israel an Apartheid State. Other organisations have made that evidence-based judgment, not least the UN and Al-Haq, but the B’tselem report has special significance – it represents a radical break in its previous position and implcitly calls to account those that have… Continue reading
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Playing with death – Palestinian childhoods
Traditionally, this site has been concerned with children and their freedoms. More recently, it has also focused on the conflict in Palestine/Israel. The two subjects distressingly combine in todays’s Daily Telegraph report. Something hidden, obscured or ignored now starkly highlighted: More children than Palestinian fighters are being killed in the offensive on Gaza. The name,… Continue reading
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2019 Eurovision Song Contest – Songwashing occupation, discrimination, apartheid
Tel Aviv is to host the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest What’s Tel Aviv like? This from Business Insider: ‘From the Mediterranean shores of Tel Aviv, Israel’s fraught geopolitical position is almost non-existent. Tourists and locals alike sip Goldstar, Israel’s ubiquitous dark lager, as the waves roll in and out. Children laugh and splash in the… 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 