Israel
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Beware London! An intifada is coming to your streets.
Readers will be much relieved that the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has girded its loins to stand firm against the possibility that an Intifada could occur here in London. It proposes to hold a march in the capital on the 26 November, to help ward off the possibility. So, if you’re concerned about the imminence Continue reading
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As you sow…
In what must be judged an utterly repellent gesture, the UK government along with other governments, has decreed that the Israeli flag be displayed on official buildings to indicate support for Israel. This performative act of perverse, inverted virtue signalling proclaims, by implication, that Jewish Israeli lives are more valuable than Palestinian ones. For what Continue reading
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Israel’s democracy: strange fruit
Israel is a country in denial. That is to say, it is a country which has obscured from itself its own nature; and until now, it has been adept at that. But the protective carapace of self-delusion is now under considerable strain. Shattered. Perhaps beyond repair. But not admitted, faced-up to. Purportedly liberal, primarily Ashkenazi, Continue reading
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‘We don’t need your tears – we have a lot of that from tear gas’. Israel and the role of International Civil Society
This article first appeared in 2021, but I thought it still relevant and worth republishing. The article now begins – in its title – and ends with a quote from Bassem Tamini. It’s in three parts. Some readers already familiar with the reports I cite in Part two and may wish to leapfrog to Part Continue reading
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Hamas and the politics of silencing
It is not to be supposed the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in announcing her ban on the political wing of Hamas, that she based her proposed policy on a dispassionate, objective consideration of Palestine/Israel issues. Rather, her motivations are in part domestic, the proposed ban pandering to the strong UK Zionist lobby, not least 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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The State of Israel has a right to exist…doesn’t it?
The ending of the latest fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians, in particular Hamas, has drawn attention yet again to the need for an end to over 70 years of conflict and this, it is said, requires a two state solution. I have explained in previous articles why it is that a two state Continue reading
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The original wound
The original wound is still raw – septic. Yet the work of wounding continues, daily, without let, without hindrance. The original wound The original wound was inflicted in 1948 – the Naqba (Catastrophe) marking the expulsion of the settled, indigenous inhabitants of Palestine from their homes and land. The methods: Intimidation and brute force at Continue reading
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The Israelisation of British politics
It should be a matter of the gravest concern. A concern for the integrity of British politics. A concern over and above those we have about the diverse causes we support. When it comes to thinking about, speaking about, using one’s best judgment about Israel and Palestine, too many of our politicians behave with the 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
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Bernard Spiegal 