Palestine

15 November 2003
A LONG weekend of campaigning for justice for Palestine began with a rally in memory of Edward Said at Friends House, London, on Thursday of last week.

Palestine solidarity

01 November 2003
FOLLOWING A 500-strong public meeting, councillors in Preston, Lancashire, were set to discuss an historic proposal to twin the city with the besieged Palestinian town of Nablus on Thursday of this week. The proposal is the culmination of the campaign led by Socialist Alliance councillor Michael Lavalette, who will propose the motion. It will be seconded by Labour councillor Elaine Abbott.

Edward Said 1935-2003

04 October 2003
Those fighting for justice around the world lost one of their most eloquent voices when the Palestinian writer and critic Edward W Said died last week. Said was in many ways an improbable radical. He was born in Jerusalem in 1935. His family were conservative Anglican Arabs who called him after the then Prince of Wales.

Middle East: 'Palestine is like a prison'

27 September 2003
MOHAMMED 'IN A small city called Hebron there are 500 Israeli soldiers protecting a small number of extremist Israeli settlers. The Palestinians are forced to stay in their homes. The Israelis are putting all the Palestinians under curfew. It lasts all day.

Palestine solidarity

19 July 2003
WORK ON a "wall" in Manchester to symbolise the wall of silence in the West over Palestinian rights started at 11am in front of the town hall last Saturday. Cardboard boxes were collected, banners were made and declarations, photos and Palestinian flags stuck onto the boxes. The demonstration started at 2pm. We carried the boxes to the square in front of Manchester town hall. Together we built the wall.

A Palestinian journey not to miss

28 June 2003
Jeremy Hardy v The Israeli Army

Murder to bury peace talks

21 June 2003
ISRAELI PEACE activists say Ariel Sharon ordered the assassination of a leader of the Palestinian group Hamas in order to "bury" any chance of peace. The Gush Shalom group says the attempted assassination of Dr Abdel Azziz Rantisi on Tuesday of last week was designed "to destroy Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen and prevent a planned truce".

Palestine

21 June 2003
OVER 300 people attended the West Country premiere of the film Jeremy Hardy Versus the Israeli Army in Exeter last Saturday. People came to see the film made by Leila Sansour about the journey broadcaster Hardy takes when he agrees to become a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and join them in their work in Palestine.

The road map to oppression?

14 June 2003
THERE HAS been much optimistic comment on the meeting last week in Aqaba, Jordan, between US president George W Bush, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority representative Abu Mazen. The fact that Bush seems to be putting his shoulder to the wheel and making a serious effort to implement the so-called road map, intended to revive the Middle East peace process, has surprised many people.

Palestine

14 June 2003
UP TO 200 people protested outside Downing Street on Thursday of last week against Israel's targeting of international activists in Palestine. "We want an inquiry into the deaths of the internationals targeted by Israel," the Palestinian film-maker Leila Sansour told Socialist Worker. "The British government has shown incredible lameness in tackling the situation."

Voices for Palestine

24 May 2003
OVER 5,000 people rallied in Trafalgar Square on Saturday of last week in support of the Palestinians. The date was chosen to mark the 55th anniversary of the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians at the founding of the Israeli state in 1948.

The road map points to more suffering

10 May 2003
THIRTEEN Palestinians were murdered by Israeli tanks and troops in a single day in Gaza last week. The dead included a two year old child. Yet the British media did not care about these victims. Instead they devoted pages to the suicide bombing by a pro-Palestinian British citizen that killed three people.

Sharon's 100 obstacles to peace

19 April 2003
Tony Blair tried to get backing for the war on Iraq by claiming that it would bring peace to the Middle East. But Bush and Blair's "road map to peace" for Israel and Palestine is a con. It is overwhelmingly weighted in favour of Israel, the US's watchdog state in the Middle East.

Mike Kidron

05 April 2003
THE Marxist economist Michael Kidron, who died last week at the age of 72, made an enormous contribution to the Socialist Workers Party's development during the early years of our tradition in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Cape Town in 1930, Mike emigrated after the Second World War to Palestine, where he became an anti-Zionist socialist. He moved to Britain in the mid-1950s.

Journalists

15 March 2003
WORKERS AT the BBC are fighting against the sacking of journalists Adli Hawwari and Adbul Hadi Jiad from the World Service. The journalists are Iraqi and Palestinian. Around 60 reps from the journalists' NUJ union met in London last week. They voted unanimously to condemn the management's dismissal of the two workers and to call for action.

So that's why they call it Bush House

01 March 2003
WHAT IS going on at BBC headquarters, Bush House? Two World Service journalists were sacked last week. Adli Hawwari is a Palestinian. Abdul-Hadi Jiad is an Iraqi.

Graphic tales of Gaza resistance

01 February 2003
BETWEEN 1987 and 1992 Palestinian youth undertook a heroic uprising-the first intifada-against their Israeli oppressors. Towards the end of this period the journalist and artist Joe Sacco took himself to the West Bank and Gaza to try to understand what was happening.

A tragic satire

18 January 2003
THE BITTER and bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, you would imagine, hardly the subject for satire. Palestinian film-maker Elia Suleiman has achieved the impossible with his latest film Divine Interventions. It presents a funny and profound look at the situation.

Ramallah resistance

11 January 2003
SOME 400 delegates gathered in Ramallah on 27 December for the World Social Forum on Palestine. Encircled by Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints, Ramallah feels distant from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, let alone the world beyond the West Bank.

'An international struggle' against capital and war

04 January 2003
TWO IMPORTANT social forums took place at the end of last month. Activists met at the Palestine Social Forum in Ramallah, which is under Israeli occupation. It called for support for the international day of action against the war on Iraq on 15 February.