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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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Archbishop Welby: You stand on unfirm ground
On the 6 September St-Martin-in-the Field hosted a series of talks on the theme of reconciliation entitled ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’. The event was organised by Embrace the Middle East. The speakers were the Archbishop of Canterbury , Justin Welby, Daniel Munayer, CEO of Musalaha and resident of Jerusalem, and Revd Continue reading
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Israel: Protesting and oppressing at the same time
Whilst Israel’s democracy warriors continue their mass protests against the Netanyahu coalition’s current and projected changes to the powers of the Supreme Court, the Israeli state’s murderous campaign against Palestinians in the OPT, East Jerusalem and Gaza not only continues, but is escalating before our eyes. This appears not to be a source of major Continue reading
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Israel: confronting its dreamscape
The ground is shifting, the habitual reference points obscured. What seemed entrenched, is now dislodged. Israel is in flux, somehow lost to itself, as countervailing forces and tendencies rise to the surface to vie with each other. Things are falling apart, there is at present no centre to hold. The spark that lit the 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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Two-state solution: Not a policy, more a futile prayer
A couple of blog articles ago, I wished the two-state solution, the two-state notional solution, good riddance. And, in summary, I adduced some of the reasons why, ethically and practically, it could no longer even masquerade as a feasible approach to ‘solving’ the Palestinian/Israel situation. Yet, like a family unwilling to withdraw treatment from a Continue reading
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Just numbers?
Some numbers: 17, 15, 16, 14, 17, 17, 17, 16, 10, 16, 16, 14, 17, 16, 17, 15, 14, 14, 17, 15, 17,11, 8, 5, 17,10, 5, 16, 2. Twenty-nine numbers. Added together, they come to 401. Those numbers can be expressed as an average. Do that, and the answer is 13.8. In addition, when Continue reading
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Good riddance: two state ‘solution’ is dead
The two-state solution is dead, notwithstanding that various governments, the EU, the Palestinian Authority, along with sundry organisations, Jewish and not, tenaciously cling to what was always an ill-conceived, unjust idea. For many, the reasons for now proclaiming the ‘solution’ dead beyond the possibility of resurrection, tend to focus on what might be characterised as Continue reading
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Israeli demonstrations. Democracy: What democracy?
Israeli air force pilots, soar through the sky unhindered, unopposed, their lethal, precision-guided ordnance primed to be unleashed against Gazan targets far below. The child, the mother, the brother, sister could not be so precise. They were at home unaware that precision was so precisely to strike them down. But that’s OK, they were not Continue reading
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A restrictive, hostile environment for protest.
The Government was in a hurry, it needed its latest legislation curtailing fundamental freedoms to be on the statute book in time for King Charles 111 Coronation on the 6th May. The Government achieved its aim, the Public Order Act 2023 became law on the 2nd May. Despite Government denials that the legislation was rushed 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 