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Fragments from a visit to Palestine/Israel
In November 2022 I returned to Palestine/Israel (P/I) for the first time in three years. I returned primarily to meet with some of the people I had met on previous visits. All were, and are, significantly involved in P/I politics, with long and noble personal histories of activism, for which they and their families have… Continue reading
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Normalcy in an abnormal world
Below I share a short article prompted by my recent (November 2022), relatively short trip, to Palestine/Israel. In this article I purposely resist too much comment, trusting that the incidents recorded speak for themselves. What I do emphasise – you could say the clue is in the title – is the events set out below… Continue reading
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The unchilding of Palestinian children
Israel is founded on violence, and exists by virtue of it. As discussed in an earlier post, it has to be this way, for it is a regime rooted in the need to dominate, the need to curtail the full existence of an entire people – Palestinians. By definition, this stance prompts modes of engagement… 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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Israel: Nurturing racism
It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that children are not born racist, but initiated into that particular mindset. This perhaps is particularly true of Israel. Therefore, where a state’s conception of itself rests on racist principles, on Zionist principles, one of its key objectives must be to shape minds at the earliest opportunity. This not… Continue reading
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Israel: Nurturing racism
It’s fair to say, isn’t it, that children are not born racist, but initiated into that particular mindset. This perhaps is particularly true of Israel. Therefore, where a state’s conception of itself rests on racist principles, on Zionist principles, one of its key objectives must be to shape minds at the earliest opportunity. This not… Continue reading
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Pro-Palestinian and Israel-critical voices silenced at the behest of a fragile ‘may’
It’s that word ‘may’ that tells you something fishy is going on. Something not quite right. Where the need is for certainty, for assurance that an idea, definition or policy can stand on its own two feet, ‘may’ suggests uncertainty, even evasiveness. A ‘may’ in a sentence prompts the thought, ‘well, maybe not’. Odd, then,… Continue reading
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The Destruction of Masafer Yatta, June 7, 2022
Photos and narrative – a deeply evocative blog by Touching Photos Touching Photographs Fakheit, Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine, June, 2022. 1. The laundry gets to me, its bright colors neatly arranged by size. French theorist Roland Barthes might have called it a “punctum.” That’s the heart-stopping detail in a photograph whose personal… Continue reading
About Me
This is Bernard Spiegal’s blog.
I write mainly about Palestine/Israel and related issues; sometimes other stuff too
Recent Posts
- Chief Rabbi Mirvis: Moral purpose shattered
- A charade and a reflection on relative time: Jewish Establishment meets with Foreign Secretary Miliband
- You don’t have to succumb to…
- Synod begins loosening the shackles that tied it to the pro-Israel Jewish Establishment
- Clumsy and wrong: Jewish Establishment’s attempt to influence Church of England’s York Synod
Bernard Spiegal 