MILAN, ITALY  — My lecture at the University of Milan was scheduled for the afternoon of October 9, 2019. That morning the university president, pressured by a local Zionist group, decided to cancel the lecture. The excuse given was that the lecture was scheduled on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and this offended the…

In 1948, my grandfather, along with thousands of Badrasawis, was expelled by Israeli military forces from our ancestral village of Beit Daras in Palestine.  Like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from over 500 other villages, my grandfather assumed he would be back home in a few weeks. “Why bother to haul the good blankets on…

SANTIAGO, CHILE — After the Chilean city of Valdivia became the first municipality in Latin America to support the non-violent Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement this past June, the Chilean government has now ruled that it is illegal to boycott Israel at the municipal level throughout the entire country. The decision was made by…

Two police departments in the New England region of the United States canceled their annual visit to Israeli police forces and engagement in training, amid pressure from organisations affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The Vermont State Police and the Northampton Police Department in Massachusetts both canceled their planned trip to Israel for…

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA — (Analysis) In the aftermath of the horrific attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, politicians have managed to use the tragedy to attack their opponents. Instead of addressing the underlying issue of such hate attacks, they change the focus to unrelated matters. For example, President Trump suggested perhaps the attack…

Israel’s gross diamond exports have crashed by a staggering 45 percent since the 2014 massacre in Gaza that resulted in the death of over 2,200 people, mainly civilians including over 550 children. The net value of Israel’s diamond exports has fallen even further, by 60 percent from $11.25 billion to $4.4 billion over the period.…

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — American reality-TV star and model Kim Kardashian finalized a deal on Wednesday to serve as the new “face” of the Israeli eyewear company Carolina Lemke as it seeks to enter the U.S. market. Negotiations for Kardashian to appear in an Israeli ad campaign with the company had been in the works…

The Palestinian people are in need of some good news to boost their morale at an extremely difficult time in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. There has been little good news, particularly since US President Trump took office, recognised Jerusalem as capital of Israel, moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv in record time, defunded UNRWA and leaks…

Washington, DC – Israel supporters in the US are gearing up for AIPAC’s much-vaunted annual policy conference, with measures to counter the widening campaign to boycott Israel and its West Bank settlements expected to feature prominently in the powerful lobbying group’s agenda. This includes legislation that several Republican and Democratic Congress members have sponsored to curb…

Opinion– The Lorde saga has now reached new riveting heights. Just a few months ago on December 21st, 2017 two young female fans from Aotearoa, New Zealand wrote an open letter urging Lorde to cancel her Tel Aviv concert, scheduled for June of this year. A few days later Lorde a 21-year-old singer and songwriter…

Opinion — Like its predecessor movement decades ago in South Africa, assessing the success of BDS against Israel today necessarily rubs up against the tension between Israeli hasbara (propaganda) and its reality as an effective organizing tool against it throughout the world. Though Israel has repeatedly claimed BDS has proven to be a failed venture,…