This is a time of seismic change in the Middle East. At the heart of this region, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees – UNRWA – is a stabilising force. Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is underway, with serious implications for international peace and security, says Philippe Lazzarini. Statement by the Continue reading »
Israel / Palestine
The destruction of Gaza proves the entire mainstream western worldview is bullshit, because if the mainstream western worldview was accurate, the destruction of Gaza would not be happening. By the mainstream western worldview I mean the general consensus about what’s going on in the world which is prevalent among mainstream western politicians and pundits and Continue reading »
Some time back I watched SBS’ ‘The Australian Wars’. It was, to many, a completely different viewpoint of settler colonialism, the impact of invasion, and the very legitimate defence of land by Australia’s indigenous native population. It is often not highlighted that resistance to invasion and settler-colonialism is a fair and justified fight for indigenous Continue reading »
The continuing horror in Gaza touches us all deeply, even if only vicariously. It leads us ineluctably to the question, often asked in exasperation: Is there no solution? But we’ve been here before and some point to the 1998 Belfast Good Friday Agreement (BGFA), which ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland, as a possible model Continue reading »
It is time for Israel to recognize the force of the rapidly growing international movement to recognize Palestinian statehood, not as the final outcome of a political settlement but as a path to achieving it. Were Israel to get serious again about pursuing a two-state solution would not be to reward Hamas, but benefiting itself. Continue reading »
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’. ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things’.
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s Continue reading »
Readers will recall my article of 16 April, The end of occupation: A state of Palestine at the UN. It advised of an anticipated vote in the Security Council on April 18. The Security Council was sitting in New York. Because of the time difference, that was early in the morning of 19 April in Continue reading »
The Australian government is obscuring weapons exports to Israel despite International Court’s ruling to oppose ‘plausible genocide’. It is the standard government talking point: “Australia is not sending weapons to Israel and has not done so for the past five years.” However it’s a line that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Declassified Australia can reveal that Continue reading »
International politics is frequently conducted in a way that bears little or no resemblance to how it is reported in corporate and state media, nor as it is understood in academic circles. There is a public narrative for general consumption and opinion management. And then there is a more realistic account of how politics is Continue reading »
This week, the U.S. and U.K. have the chance to correct decades of their blatant geopolitical errors in the Israel-Palestine conflict by welcoming Palestine as the 194th United Nations member state. More than any other countries, the U.S. and U.K. have wrecked the Middle East through their non-stop meddling and imperial arrogance. This week they Continue reading »