Dr. Jeff Halper, an Israeli academic and activist, as well as co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, gave a lecture on 16 March 2009 at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he explained why he believes Israel's "separation barrier" enforces "apartheid" between Israelis and Palestinians. His lecture - as captured in this video clip - is transcribed below. JEFF HALPER: This is why we use the word "apartheid." Apartheid, in our view,...
Democracy Now -
A number of Western countries are joining the United States and Israel in boycotting the United Nations (UN) World Conference on Racism, which hosted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, opened in Geneva, Switzerland on 20 April 2009. Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand all announced they would boycott the conference soon after the US announced its formal decision not to attend Saturday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session he was...
Yoni Goodman, director of animation for the Academy Award-nominated film Waltz with Bashir, collaborated with Open Society Institute grantee Gisha to create a powerful animated film about how the Gaza Strip’s 1.5 million residents experience living in a "closed zone." Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space. This includes substantial,...
After the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, broke with the story of abuse by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) during the recent Gaza attacks, the New York Times carried a story on its cover last week - which out of character for this newspaper - had the words "Israel" and "war crimes" in the same paragraph. The BBC has also run a report questioning war crimes in Gaza. The Real News Network talks to Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC who writes...
Democracy Now -
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Robinson is president of the International Commission of Jurists, which has released a report that finds the so-called war on terror has eroded human rights worldwide. Robinson also addresses the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza and takeover of the West Bank, the need for an independent investigation of Bush administration crimes, the global economic meltdown, and...
Soon after Israel's war on Gaza ended. Israeli's went to the polls to vote for a new government. During the war on Gaza, many commentators argued that the so-called centrist Kadima government launched the offensive to win Israel's right wing vote in the upcoming elections. It seems that the suffering of the Gazan's may have been in vain. Despite the fact that Kadmia, led by Tzipi Livni won the Israeli election, her party is currently the largest party in the Israeli parliament, but joins 12...