Category: Palestine

04 Dec

Comments Off on Palestine: Towards a new intifada

Palestine: Towards a new intifada

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A series of armed attacks by young Palestinians against settler targets in Jerusalem and the West Bank is forcing world attention to the simmering intifada across Palestine. The crisis over Al Aqsa has already raised the temperature. The Israeli offensive on Gaza lifted Palestinian sentiment to boiling point. Now the confluence of a polity of […]

06 Sep

Comments Off on The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

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My long-form essay on the trajectory of the Greens since 2010 is now up at Overland Journal‘s website, and will be in the print edition due out next week. No comments option at Overland, so feel free to comment below. The rise of the Greens represented a historic realignment of the Left of Australian politics, […]

22 Nov

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Guest post: For those who resist – Palestine is still the issue

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Left Flank is very pleased to be able to post this extended analysis of Israel’s war on Gaza by British-based socialist Kevin Ovenden, set in its regional and international context. Kevin has been a leading activist in Viva Palestina and narrowly escaped death at the hands of the IDF as part of the first Gaza […]

19 Nov

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Gaza: How did taking the side of the oppressed get so hard?

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The Australian Greens are deeply worried about the civilian death toll in Israel and Palestine, and urge both sides of the conflict to put down their weapons and respect a ceasefire. “The human suffering is too great and the continued recourse to violence has done nothing for peace,” Australian Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said. […]

17 Feb

Comments Off on On Finkelstein, the BDS, one-state solutions & the problem with Gandhi’s strategy

On Finkelstein, the BDS, one-state solutions & the problem with Gandhi’s strategy

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Palestinians cross over the Syrian-Israeli border, May 2011 I’ve had a chance to look at Norman Finkelstein’s recent controversial statements about Left strategy over the question of the BDS. Finkelstein, a brilliant critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, has for some time been highly critical of the international BDS campaign, in particular because he believes it […]

10 Feb

Comments Off on Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS

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The latest issue of The Monthly and my response in The Drum on Monday (here, reposted at Left Flank here) have stirred public interest in the sharpened political debates about the future of the Greens. On Thursday, The Australian ran a curiously subdued feature on the party by Christian Kerr that also pulled a lengthy quote the Drum essay. One area that deserves more […]

27 Nov

Comments Off on The Greens & Palestine: confronting inconvenient truths of the party’s right of return policy

The Greens & Palestine: confronting inconvenient truths of the party’s right of return policy

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Guest post by TONY HARRIS — cross-posted from his blog, Watermelon. In March last year, 35 prominent Jewish Australians signed a petition renouncing their automatic right of return to Israel, labelling such a right a “racist privilege” while Palestinians, ethnically cleansed from Israel in 1948, are denied their rights of return under international law.

Filed under: Greens, Palestine

11 Sep

Comments Off on Ten years since 9/11: What have progressives really learned about war & Islamophobia?

Ten years since 9/11: What have progressives really learned about war & Islamophobia?

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  The tenth anniversary of 9/11 has seen TV outlets promo tribute after tribute, where the message is clear: the tragedy of the twin towers requires of us an uncritical outpouring of grief.  The now ten years old footage, which has been replayed so very many times, is still raw and powerful: people jumping from burning […]

09 May

Comments Off on The balance of forces

The balance of forces

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> by Dr_Tad and liz_beths Since the NSW election discussion among many readers of Left Flank has been dominated by the battle over Marrickville Council’s BDS policy. The Left inside the party has just had to face down the combined forces of the Murdoch media, Barry O’Farrell, Kevin Rudd, various sections of the pro-Israel lobby, and the party’s own national […]

Filed under: Bob Brown, Greens, NSW, Palestine