Palestine Follow

Tony Blair was cheered when he spoke at the Labour conference of taking action over the "slums of Gaza" and stressed that "the Palestinians must have justice". Yet during the war on Afghanistan Blair and Bush have allowed the Israeli state to launch a new and bloody reign of terror against the Palestinians.

A brutal massacre carried out by a death squad. That is the only way to describe the Israeli army's attack on the Palestinian village of Beit Rima last week.

ARIEL SHARON, the Israeli war criminal prime minister, has launched a new offensive against the Palestinians. He is using the aftermath of the assassination of far right Israeli politician Rehavam Zeevi by Palestinian militants on Wednesday of last week.

TO UNDERSTAND why thousands of Palestinians have risked their lives to challenge the might of the Israeli state in the last 12 months, read The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid. The book, edited by US journalist Roane Carey, "arose out of disgust at the mainstream media's constant misinterpretation of the basic facts of this uprising". It brings together many of the best writers who oppose Israel's brutal repression of the Palestinian people.

THE ATTACK on Afghanistan has provoked a wave of anger against the US and Britain across the Middle East. As the first bombs fell, protests erupted in Palestine, Syria, Egypt and many other countries.

FRIDAY 28 September saw the first anniversary of the new intifada-the uprising by Palestinians against Israeli domination of their lands. During that year Israeli troops or settlers have murdered over 700 Palestinians. Despite this, a poll last week showed that 85 percent of Palestinians want the intifada to continue.

'I THINK we must be very careful about assuming that a great many people in this country want vengeance. They want this to be prevented from ever happening again. What one suspects is that there are people from all over the Middle East who, because of what they have seen happening in Palestine and elsewhere, are prepared to go to desperate lengths.' TAM DALYELL MP

IN THE aftermath of the attacks on New York and Washington the media repeatedly played the same footage of a small number of Palestinians who were celebrating. The message was clear-Palestinians are fanatics with little regard for human life.

Toxic Texan President George W Bush ordered the US delegates to leave the United Nations conference on racism this week. The US delegation marched out of the conference in South Africa because representatives of many countries had dared to condemn Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinian people.

ISRAEL IS stepping up its assassination of Palestinian activists, ten months into the Palestinian uprising against Israeli brutality. The assassination policy has been endorsed by George Bush's number two, Dick Cheney.

Around 70 people attended a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting in Glasgow last week. Scottish National Party MSP Shona Robison and leading pro-Palestinian academic Dr Michael Prior were joined by Palestinian and Jewish speakers in calling for solidarity with the intifada.

The bombing of Iraq last weekend was soaked in hypocrisy. Bush and Blair talk of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his evil rule. But this week the US was involved in joint military exercises with the one certain nuclear power in the Middle East-Israel. The Israeli government is now headed by Ariel Sharon, a war criminal. He was responsible for the murder of 2,000 Palestinians in 1982. They were raped, knifed or shot as they washed their clothes and cooked their food in refugee camps in West Beirut.