Media Week – Wild Woolcott; Bedouin Brouhaha; Sober Warning
November 18, 2011 | Jamie Hyams
Former DFAT head Richard Woolcott wrote a piece for the Age (11/11) critical of Australia’s vote against Palestinian membership of UNESCO. Having spent more than half his article setting out the merits of Australia obtaining a seat on the UN Security Council, he then wrote, “In these circumstances, I find it both surprising and a decisive setback to our election prospects that the Prime Minister decided Australia should vote against the admission of Palestine to UNESCO.”
Freedom to print falsehoods
November 18, 2011 | Allon Lee
A media stunt by a group of Palestinians trying to falsely tar Israel as an apartheid state not only caused some in the fourth estate to fall hook, line and sinker but to abrogate basic journalistic standards.
Six Palestinians called The West Bank Freedom Riders cynically tried to lay claim to the legacy and imagery of African Americans who fought against segregation in the 1950s/60s in the United States by “proving” they are banned from using Israeli public buses to cross over from the West Bank into Jerusalem.
But an analysis by Simon Plosker from Honest Reporting of the claims made by the six “Freedom Riders” and the media coverage shows the absurdity of the stunt and how easily it could be proved as dishonest propaganda.
How much land do West Bank settlements take up?
November 18, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
A constant talking point on the Middle East is that Israeli building in settlements in the West Bank is supposedly taking up more and more land and supposedly making Palestinian statehood unviable…
So how much of the West Bank is covered by settlements?..
Palestinians at a strategic crossroads
November 18, 2011
The Palestinians appear to have failed in their bid to even force the US to veto a UN Security Council decision to recognise them as a UN member state, and seem a bit confused about their next step. PA President Mahmoud Abbas seems to be now pushing for a unity government with Hamas following secret talks in Cairo. He is planning to meet Hamas head Khaled Meshaal next week, and it seems likely PA Prime Minister Salem Fayyad may be forced out of office.
This Update deals with the general state of play in terms of where the Palestinian could head next.
EU Funding of Israeli NGOs: More than for all the rest of the Middle East
November 17, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
Following up on the post Tuesday concerning controversial Israeli proposals to limit or tax foreign government funding to “political’ Non-Governmental Organisations in Israel, a Jerusalem Post editorial on the subject has an interesting fact that may help explain why some Israelis are so concerned about the issue:
…European governments spend more on left-wing NGOs operating in Israel – between $75 million and $100m. a year – than their total contributions to nonprofit human rights groups in other Middle East countries, according to NGO Monitor.
Assad loses the Arab League/ Iran’s Nukes again
November 17, 2011
Today’s Update features two pieces on the worsening international position of Syria’s Assad regime, in the wake of Syria’s suspension by the Arab League, a call by Jordan’s King Abdullah for Assad to step down, and new European sanctions. All this occurred as the killing went on in defiance of an Arab League peace plan (at least 40 people were reportedly killing on Monday, some disturbing video is here) and following attacks in Syria and Lebanon by pro-regime mobs on the Embassies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan.
An antisemitic Trojan horse in Greece?
November 16, 2011 | Allon Lee
The old saying to “never waste a good crisis” takes on a worrying meaning in Greece as the LàOS party with an antisemitic track record wins a major breakthrough for the far right by securing ministerial positions in the new unity coalition.
And with everyone focussing on the potential implications of the Greek debt crisis for Europe and the world economy, no one seems to have noticed.
Is limiting foreign government funding of Israeli NGOs “undemocratic”?
November 15, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
There has been some controversy in Israel over a proposal coming out of Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation which would limit or tax the ability of foreign governments or international bodies like the UN to fund Israeli NGOs…
American law professor David Bernstein has an excellent post challenging the idea that such a law (and it is by no means clear that such a law can get through the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, or what its provisions would be if it did) would be undemocratic…
UNESCO: Palestine – in, Freedom of Speech – out
November 15, 2011 | Or Avi Guy
Eric Falt, assistant director general for external relations and public information at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has issued an official letter of protest from UNESCO’s director general, Irina Bokova regarding a cartoon which UNESCO claimed constituted incitement.
This could have been an encouraging sign that UNESCO is finally acting against incitement, racism and specifically antisemitism prevalent in Arab and Muslim media, especially in the state-sponsored press. However, the cartoon that so inflamed UNESCO officials was published in Haaretz, an Israeli independent newspaper, which is protected under Israel’s laws regarding freedom of the press. Moreover, the only incitement that seemed to concern UNESCO is incitement against UNESCO.
Fairfax’s Chomsky and Holocaust Denial whitewash
November 14, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
On October 22, the Age and Sydney Morning Herald “Good Weekend” magazine ran a profile written by Jane Wheatley of prominent American linguistics expert, radical author and political activist Noam Chomsky. It is not available online, but was almost wholly complimentary to its subject – so much so that it completely re-wrote the history of one of the most controversial aspects of Chomsky’s long career in public controversy, his 1979 defence of French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson…
I penned a letter to “Good Weekend” setting this matter straight.
