Israel and its critics

In a four part series in the Huffington Post, novelist and essayist Douglas Anthony Cooper examines the accusations of genocide that have been made against Israel by its critics. Part 1, 2, 3, 4.

Israel and Sudan

Simon Deng escaped slavery in North Sudan and became a leading human rights activist. He has been to Israel five times visiting Sudanese refugees. At the Durban Watch Conference in New York he gave this speech.

Which would you rather ... ?

The 270,000 Arabs who live in East Jerusalem may not be very enthusiastic about joining Palestine. A poll shows that nearly half would prefer to become citizens of Israel rather than of a new Palestinian state --  42 percent said they would actually move to a different neighborhood if necessary in order to remain under Israeli rather than Palestinian authority.

Searching for apartheid

Richard J. Goldstone, a former South African judge, led the United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict of 2008-9. In an op-ed piece in The New York Times he examined the claim that Israel pursues apartheid policies. His conclusion:

"[T]hose who conflate the situations in Israel and the West Bank and liken both to the old South Africa do a disservice to all who hope for justice and peace. ... The charge that Israel is an apartheid state is a false and malicious one that precludes, rather than promotes, peace and harmony."

Law of the sea

Israel and Lebanon are quarelling over maritime borders -- at stake: billions of dollars of natural gas.

Birth of a nation

Hundreds of Sudanese and other African asylum seekers and migrants gathered in a southern neighbourhood of Tel Aviv to celebrate the independence of South Sudan.

A visit to Canada

Emmanuel Navon is an International Relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University. His appearance as  guest speaker at UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) attracted anti-Zionist protesters, but others in the audience came to him after his talk to shake his hand and say thank you.

Deadly role

On Monday, actor Juliano Mer Khamis, the son of an Israeli Jewish mother and a Palestinian Arab father, was murdered by a terrorist in the West Bank town of Jenin. Richard Klagsbrun remembers him as an actor who believed that hope and reason could overcome hate.

Goldstone Report finding reversed

Richard Goldstone has come to the conclusion that in the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict it was not Israeli policy to intentionally target civilians, reversing a key finding of his United Nations report. "If I had known then what I know now," he has written in an article in The Washington Post, "the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."

Israel has called for the report, which accused Israel of war crimes, to be withdrawn. "Everything we said has been proven true," said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. "Israel did not intentionally harm civilians .... The fact that Goldstone backtracked must lead to the shelving of this report once and for all."

Education in Gaza

The United Nations wants to teach children in UN schools in the Gaza Strip about the Holocaust, starting this September. Hamas has pledged to stop the plan, "regardless of the price."

Palestinian hi-tech

After considering India and China, an Israeli hi-tech company chose Ramallah in the West Bank for a new software design center. In the past five years, the Palestinian technology sector has grown to 250 companies employing 5,800 people. About 32 percent of Palestinian technology companies are working with Israeli partners.

Hope tempered by worry

Some Israelis are worried by the popular rebellions rocking the Middle East.  Natan Sharansky is hopeful.

Seeking justice in Libya

For Gina Bublil Waldman, a Libyan Jew who left Libya more than 42 years ago  the upheaval sweeping Libya has opened old wounds. "In 1967, during the Six-Day War between Israel and its five Arab neighbors," she writes, "mobs took to the streets, burning Jewish homes."

Israel Apartheid Week and its precursors

Catherine Chatterley, founding director of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, discusses the origins of IAW and what is needed in response.