Monthly Archives: July 2011

The Norway Killings: Jumping the Gun

The herd mentality of pundits and commentators was on display as they fell over each other to immediately blame the Norway killings on Muslim extremists. It wasn’t long before it became clear that the culprit, Anders Behring Breivik, was a blond … Continue reading

Posted in Europe | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Israel and the Anti-Boycott Law: The Wider Implications of Popular Indifference

This piece is cross-posted from openDemocracy where it was published on 19 July. A small part of it appeared in my earlier post on the anti-boycott law (13 July). The motivation for the law is not primarily to give voice … Continue reading

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IJV Panel on the Arab Uprisings and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

This piece is cross-posted from the Independent Jewish Voices blog Chaired by Professor Jacqueline Rose (Queen Mary, University of London), the IJV panel event discussing the impact of the Arab Spring on developments in Israel-Palestine, which was held at Birkbeck, University of … Continue reading

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The Anti-Boycott Law Crosses a Line: Will Israel’s True Friends Now Wake Up?

Only a few days ago I was talking about the issue of boycotting Israel with Jewish friends at a party. All could be defined as critical friends of Israel or liberal Zionists, deeply disturbed by the intransigence of the Netanyahu … Continue reading

Posted in Middle East | 2 Comments

Former Canadian Minister of Justice Cotler: ‘Calling Israel an Apartheid State is Not Antisemitic’

Professor Irwin Cotler, the former Canadian Minister of Justice and Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission for Combatting Antisemitism, recently told Ha’aretz journalist David Sheen: ‘You can criticize an Israeli policy or action as having been not only a violation of … Continue reading

Posted in Antisemitism | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments