Setting the facts straight on Hebron
September 9, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
Palestinian Embassy’s latest fact sheet on Hebron is interesting for the sources it quotes directly, the source material it distorts, and what facts it leaves out.
Settlement hype, not ‘activity’, reaches new high
September 7, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
The significance of the issue of construction within Israeli settlements in the West Bank has long been overemphasised and exaggerated in international diplomacy, but White House and State Department criticism of Israel last week over construction in its West Bank settlements may just have set a new high-water mark for settlement hysteria.
Explosion rocks Israeli satellite industry
September 6, 2016 | Rachel Kaye
Israel’s satellite industry is in crisis after a SpaceX rocket carrying an advanced Israeli communications satellite exploded on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida last Thursday 1 September. The accident and the subsequent loss of the Israeli-built satellite has been described as a “crushing blow” to Israel Aerospace Industries.
Media Week – It’s not all right; Church and Hate
September 2, 2016 | Allon Lee
On August 29, the Age, Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald websites ran a Washington Post report about the controversial Palestinian village of Susiya in Area C of the West Bank – that is the area under full Israeli control, with relatively few Palestinian residents.
The Israeli courts have ordered the village demolished, accepting arguments that it its residents are squatters and have illegally built there.
The report further stated that, “the Israeli government right now wants to formally annex Area C in the West Bank.”
There is no Israeli government move or discussion to annex Area C.
Media Week – Rinse Saikal; Notes and Stones; Seriously Silly
August 26, 2016 | Allon Lee
According to ANU’s Professor Amin Saikal in the Canberra Times (Aug. 22), “upon assuming the presidency, Obama…had to deal with a hostile Republican-dominated Congress, where Israel’s interests have repeatedly trumped those of the United States. As a result, he…has backed away from securing a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a means to demonstrate that the US is a dispassionate and unbiased player in the region.”
Saikal is betraying his usual inability to comprehend that US support for Israel might conceivably be based on principle and shared interests.
At Fairfax, Hamad gets gold medal for propagandising
August 23, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
Fairfax columnist Ruby Hamad recent blog is an impassioned plea to ignore what she calls the “symbolic” Olympic Truce principle – of setting aside conflicts for the sake of the games – and instead embrace the demonisation and singling out of Israeli athletes at the Olympics, because, in her view, they deserve it.
Media Week – A baffling declaration; Aid el-Vice; Hamad screed
August 19, 2016 | Allon Lee
In the Spectator Australia (Aug. 13), the ECAJ’s Alex Ryvchin ridiculed Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki’s declaration that Palestinians will sue Britain for the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine.
Media Week – Distorted Vision
August 17, 2016 | Allon Lee
The indictment of Mohammed El-Halabi, the Gaza head of aid organisation World Vision, on charges of funnelling millions of dollars to Hamas, used to build terror tunnels and buy weapons, was widely reported in the Australian media.
Welcome to electioneering… Palestinian-style
August 12, 2016 | Gareth Narunsky
For many of us, elections evoke images of big promises, political attack ads, leaders debates and corny images of politicians kissing babies.
In the Palestinian Authority, however, where Fatah and Hamas are due to contest municipal elections on October 8, campaigning works a little differently.
In Rio, Olympic-sized politicization of sport
August 11, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
While Israel celebrates its first medal-winner at the Olympics in eight years, some of the other stories coming out of the Summer Games at Rio De Janiero have not been so uplifting.
Opposition to protections from racist harassment and bullying “is ill-conceived, ill-informed and ill-timed”
August 9, 2016 | Jeremy Jones
Jeremy Jones, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council’s Director of Community and of International Affairs, who has unparalleled experience in the operation of the Federal Race Discrimination laws, has responded to comments by a number of cross-bench senators who have called for the abolition of that federal legislation which gives recourse to victims of racist intimidation, harassment and vilification.
Hamas again largely missing from Sophie McNeill’s latest Gaza expedition
August 8, 2016 | Allon Lee
On ABC TV, Radio and the national broadcaster’s website (July 30), Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill returned to what is clearly her favourite type of story – a one dimensional narrative focusing on Palestinians suffering in Gaza, where only Israel is deemed culpable for their plight.
