As US strategic bombers and special forces deploy at British air bases, the UK is yet again getting sucked into a major war in the Middle East. Richard Reeve examines how London’s delusions of status and influence condemn it to repeating past mistakes and exacerbating dangerous crises. Whether Keir Starmer admits it or not, the … Continue reading Puppetry of the Heinous: Dependence and delusion in UK defence strategy
Is our Government Complicit in Genocide?
The Genocide Convention imposes obligations on states and individuals not just to punish the crime of genocide but to actively prevent it. Two years into the war in Gaza and over 20 months since the International Court of Justice found it plausible that Israel's actions there could violate the Convention, Carne Ross investigates the possibility … Continue reading Is our Government Complicit in Genocide?
The G7 Statement on the Israel-Iran War: an epitaph to international law and Western values
Supposedly the guardians of Western, democratic values and a 'rules-based' order, the leaders of the G7 nations' joint statement on the Israel-Iran War is yet another selective application of international law that makes us all less secure, write Ian Davis and Paul Ingram. Keir Starmer and the other G7 leaders appear to have lost the … Continue reading The G7 Statement on the Israel-Iran War: an epitaph to international law and Western values
Frontier Genocide: The West Bank a year after the ICJ ruling on Gaza
A ceasefire has brought some respite for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip this month, amid fears that the Trump administration is signalling greater impunity for violence and intimidation by Israeli military and settlers in the West Bank. Andrew Rigby calls for urgent protection of Palestinians in the Masafer Yatta area, already experiencing a ‘frontier genocide’ by Israeli settlers.
Scrutinising UK Arms Exports: Dissolving the CAEC is pie in the sky thinking
For 25 years parliamentary scrutiny of UK arms exports was conducted by a unique and often dysfunctional combination of departmental select committees: the CAEC. Suddenly, it’s only a matter for Business and Trade. Anna Stavrianakis analyses what’s gone wrong with parliamentary oversight and how, when it is most needed, it can be put right.
Settlers turn Soldiers: The imperative for international presence and protection in the West Bank
Palestinians in the West Bank have long been under intense pressure from Israeli settlers to abandon their homes and lands. With over 100 killed in October alone, Marwan Darweish, Andrew Rigby and Mahmoud Soliman say there is an urgent need to deploy a multinational presence to protect Palestinians from armed and empowered settlers.
Gaza: Should Israel be using violence to ‘defend itself’?
After the horrors of Hamas’s massacres of Israelis, the right of Israel to defend its people seems obvious. But, asks Alex Christoyannopoulos, does that entail a right to use violence? And, after decades of horrific, unresolved armed conflict, is there evidence that military violence is an effective form of defence for either side?
A Blow to the Strategy of Power
Atrocities committed against Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants from Gaza shocked Israel and the world. But, argues Israeli activist Amos Gvirtz, they were also a blow to Israel’s fundamental strategy of power over Palestinians and Arab neighbours. An urgent rethink of strategy is vital for the life and peace of all.
The Meaning of the Jenin Raid
The recent Israeli military operation in the Jenin camp marks a change and escalation in Israel’s tactics in the West Bank as it tries to control Palestinian responses to the recent rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, writes Paul Rogers.
Weaponising Sheep: Israeli settler colonialism in the South Hebron Hills
While media attention has focused on devastating Israeli military raids on Jenin and Nablus and land expropriations in East Jerusalem, a slower burning form of violence is being perpetrated by settlers against Palestinian herders in the West Bank, seeking to gain control of their land and livelihoods. Andrew Rigby reports from the South Hebron Hills.
Stick and Twist: The UK bets big on existential competition
The UK has revealed its hand for its new national security strategy, released on 13 March. Or has it? In this new long read, Richard Reeve argues that the UK is placing three big, long bets in its Integrated Review Refresh with major consequences and opportunity costs for tackling the environmental and social crises that threaten us all
The Contagion of Impunity: Occupation, settlement and liberation in the South Hebron Hills
The assault and detention of an old friend in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is an act of normalised brutality in this contested territory. Andrew Rigby argues that challenging such violence is essential to ending impunity and has the potential to transform the conflict and liberate both oppressed and oppressors from such ‘routinisation of terror’.