Remand in custody – even of minors – is part of the routine of oppression that Israel employs against Palestinians, with the full backing of the military courts, a system in which both judges and prosecutors are always military personnel, the defendants always Palestinian, and the conviction rate almost 100% Today (Wednesday, 17 Jan. 2018), … Read more
YEARS AGO, when I was a member of the Knesset, I decided to stage a demonstration in the plenum hall. I put on a T-shirt with the slogan “Peace is greater than Greater Israel”. In the middle of the debate I took my jacket off, displaying the slogan. After a few minutes, an usher approached … Read more
Cursed beThe oneWhoExpelsRefugees! Published in Haaretz, 27/01/18
WHEN I first met Yasser Arafat in besieged Beirut, in the summer of 1982, Abu Mazen was not present. But when I met him again in Tunis, a few months later, he asked me to meet Abu Mazen, too. Abu Mazen, it transpired, was the Fatah leader in charge of Israeli matters. MY FIRST impression … Read more
Abu Mazen despairedOf findingAn Israeli partnerFor peace,Or a fairAmerican mediator.There will never beA more moderateOr more patientPalestinian leader. Published in Haaretz, 19/01/18
NO, I don’t want to write about the affair of Ya’ir Netanyahu. I refuse adamantly. No force in the world will compel me to do so. Yet here I am, writing about Ya’ir, damn it. Can’t resist. And perhaps it is really more than a matter of gossip. Perhaps it is something that we cannot … Read more
Hundreds of millionsTo fight against“Delegitimisation of Israel”Are totally wastedWhen, day by day,Government policiesGive IsraelA bad name. Published in Haaretz, 12/01/18
Israeli security forces fired live ammunition, killing 10 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more at demonstrations and clashes, in an attempt to quell the Palestinian protest sparked by U.S. President Trump’s declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Live gunfire is permitted only in cases of immediate mortal danger that cannot be prevented by any other means. … Read more
Jerusalem is the Capital of Both Peoples: Palestinians and Israelis March Together in Protest and Hope The future of Jerusalem is for us to decide. Together. We invite you to march with us and model an alternative to the one-sided and aggressive approach of the American President. Jerusalem is holy and dear to all of … Read more
I AM angry with the Mizrahi elite. Very angry indeed. Mizrah is the Hebrew word for East. Eastern Jews are those who lived for many centuries in the Islamic world. Western Jews are those who lived in Christian Europe. The words are, of course, misnomers. Russian Jews are “Westerners”, Moroccan Jews are “Easterners”. A look … Read more