On the sunny April afternoon I’m invited to check out the fortnightly protest against Ahava’s Covent Garden store, it’s clear that this week – perhaps more than most weeks – emotions are running high. It is just one day after the body of peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni was found by Hamas forces in an abandoned… [Read more…]
February 26, 2011
Having escaped the bustling streets in favour of nursing a strong macchiato in the wonderful Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, I got talking to a girl on the next table who, it turned out, worked for the Palestinian News Network. Mentioning this blog, we got talking about the challenges of writing about the conflict here in… [Read more…]
February 16, 2011
I have spent the past 5 days in a quiet, peaceful corner of Egypt, where the only real signs that a revolution has occurred is the fact that is very little money left in any of the cash machines. It seems the country pretty much ground to a halt over the past three weeks, and now the… [Read more…]
February 1, 2011
In the 16th Century the Catholic Church faced arguably the greatest threat of its long history, not from armies or kings, but from the spread of ideas and information. The printing press was at this time becoming a common feature in cities and towns across Europe, and printers and writers were generally considered to be… [Read more…]
April 16, 2010
Those of you following the Israel-Palestine situation closely will have noticed the development of a new conflict in recent months – that between the Israeli thinkers (in the form of the Reut Institute think tank) and the prominent author and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist, Naomi Klein. The debate centres on the fundamental issue of legitimacy; under what circumstances is… [Read more…]
September 15, 2009
The 64th session of the UN General Assembly started today, with diplomats and leaders from every country in the world travelling to New York to once again try to put the world to rights. As ever, the annual fanfare that marks the beginning of what will be a long season of talks, meetings and committee… [Read more…]
August 4, 2009
This documentary and video material has been selected to help you get to grips with this particular conflict. Some of the videos I’ve been directed to by my wonderful I-P course tutor, and some of them I’ve found myself. Where possible, I’ve embedded the videos into this article. 1. For getting a good overview: The Promised Land? (Al Jazeera… [Read more…]
July 28, 2009
Given that this conflict is at the centre, or at least near the inner edge of most foreign policy decisions across the world, no one knows anything about it! It's like Fightclub. The first rule of Fightclub is...you don't talk about Fightclub. And why don't you talk about Fightclub? Because, if you do, you get in trouble. It'll be bad. Presumably even worse than actually going to Fightclub. Where are all the films about Israel and Palestine? Not the cool hip indie films; the big films, the blockbusters, the Blood Diamond of the Middle East? Or if not films, maybe books? Not high-brow academic histories or intellectual policy hardbacks; I'm talking the Kite Runner of Ramallah; the Book Seller of Tel Aviv? You can hear the producers and publishers squirming in their seats as they say, quietly, 'don't go there.'
Kim
April 23, 2011
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