Jewish Chronicle links here.
Ha'aretz here.
Jpost.com here.
Guardian here.
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Hamas might have been democratically elected but their democratic credentials have always been in doubt. There is worrying news from the World Tribune that any semblance of political freedom for Fatah in Gaza is now over.

From the website of Trade Union Friends of Israel.

A delegation of British trade unionists has returned from Israel and the Palestinian territories with a commitment to develop links and co-operation between their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts. This comes at a time of increased co-operation between the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) following from their historic agreement signed in June 2008.

Trade Union Friends of Israel took a delegation of eight senior trade unionists on a five day fact finding mission. This included a tour of Jerusalem, briefings with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sessions with various representatives of Israeli unions and a visit to Ramallah to meet the PGFTU.

Delegates also visited the Alumim youth centre in Kafa Saba for disadvantaged children where they witnessed a rededication to the centre by the current President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Mr James P. Hoffa and a large delegation from the US Unions. His father, Mr Jimmy Hoffa Sr supported the establishment of the centre in the late 1950s with funding from the Teamsters.

Roger Lyons, Chair of TUFI, said: “The improved relationship between the Histadrut and the PGFTU was in full evidence from the briefings we had. It is now important that the UK unions seize the opportunity to develop relations with their sister unions”.

“The fact that any mention of boycott by all parties was absent really demonstrated how far we have come. However, we must not be complacent as there are those who are organised who would like to damage any relationship between Israeli, Palestinian and British trade unions”.

From the website of Trade Union Friends of Israel.
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This is from Education International via LabourStart

Education International (EI) has been informed that Farzad Kamangar, the Iranian Kurdish teacher and social worker sentenced to death on "absolutely zero evidence" according to his lawyer, could be hanged on Wednesday 26 November 2008.

According to several reliable sources, he has been taken from his cell 121 in ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison in preparation for execution. Jail security officers are said to have told him he is about to be executed and they are making fun of him, calling him a martyr.

The Revolutionary Court issued the death sentence against Kamangar on 25 February 2008. His lawyer has said: "Nothing in Kamangar’s judicial files and records demonstrates any links to the charges brought against him." Kamangar was cleared of all charges during the investigation process. The last time Kamangar was seen, he was at the health clinic of Evin prison and his physical condition was poor. Witnesses testify that he has been beaten again. Kamangar has not been allowed to see his lawyer or family members for the past two months.

EI has been appealing to the Iranian authorities to commute Kamangar's death sentence and ensure his case is reviewed fairly.

Now, EI is once again appealing to Iranian judicial authorities to halt the execution. EI is also asking members of the international community urgently to intervene.

This is from Education International via LabourStart
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Of all of the organisations working to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, relatively few work with both Israelis and Palestinians. The OneVoice Movement is one of the most interesting organisations that works with ordinary people on both sides.

OneVoice is not a dialogue organisation. Instead, it encourages Palestinians and Israelis to call upon their political leaders to find a just, peaceful political resolution to the conflict - one that will involve a State of Israel and a Palestinian State existing side by side.

Its Israeli and Palestinian arms work independently; the Palestinian branch talks about ending occupation and improving Palestinian lives; the Israeli organisation focuses on stopping terrorism and ensuring security. But both branches, from very different analyses of the situation, are able to reach the same conclusion about what has to happen next. OneVoice's statement has been signed by more than 600,000 Israelis and Palestinians. Paul McCartney was so impressed by OneVoice that he wore their emblem as a badge while performing in Tel Aviv in September.

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, by contrast, has a handful of active members - maybe less than twenty. Despite the name, BRICUP spends most of its energy on Israeli Universities, not Palestinian ones - it is behind the campaign to boycott Israeli academics.

John Mann MP recently described the campaign for the academic boycott of Israel as one of the least successful campaigns of all time. Thanks to the backlash against the boycott, the links between British and Israeli academics are closer than ever. But BRICUP has managed to pass boycott motions at the University and College Union and its predecessors for four years running. It also writes open letters to any author or musician who dares to appear in Israel - including Paul McCartney.

Israelis and Palestinians from OneVoice were recently in the UK to visit University campuses; they also met David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, asking him to put more pressure on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make peace.

But BRICUP published a warning that OneVoice "doesn't actually campaign to bring about" an end to the Occupation and "gives equal prominence to Israeli concerns". It asked BRICUP supporters to heckle at the OneVoice events, to counter the "wishy-washy-touchy-feely ethos" and oppose what they call “spurious” dialogue and negotiations. Instead (of course) BRICUP wanted attendees to press OneVoice to support "the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment" against Israel.

This gives rise to the ludicrous image of middle-class middle-aged British academics hectoring young Palestinians to stop being so reasonable and to start boycotting Israel. But BRICUP was not the worst offender; the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee went much further, producing a leaflet which referred to the "well-funded campaign OneVoice". "Well-funded" has become an odd sort of euphemism used by boycotters and other anti-Zionist campaigners at anyone who opposes them.

The rest of this leaflet is full of what can politely be called falsehoods. SPSC accuse OneVoice of refusing to "even use the word ‘occupation’" - a cursory look at their website shows this isn't true. Similarly, despite SPSC's claim that OneVoice support "a nuclear-armed Israeli military superpower", there is nothing in any of their literature to suggest OneVoice has ever said anything about nuclear weapons (realistically, Palestinians are more at threat from an Iranian Bomb than an Israeli one in any case).

BRICUP also condemns OneVoice for not promoting a "more diverse debate about the possible forms [of] the end of occupation", and SPSC has a similar complaint. This makes it clear that when BRICUP and SPSC say "end the occupation" they are not talking about the Israeli army withdrawing to the pre-1967 de facto borders. No, they can only accept a scenario that includes an end to Israel as part of the deal.

BRICUP and SPSC believe the important thing is calling for an "End to the Occupation" and shouting at Israel. OneVoice proves that most Israelis and Palestinians know differently; they know that the only way forwards is a deal involving creating a Palestinian State broadly based on the 1967 boundaries that is at peace with Israel. This is the best and fastest way to actually "end the occupation", not holding a placard that says "End the Occupation".

And a poster saying "Boycott Israel" is even less helpful – this is a hollow slogan peddled by discredited groups who want Israel to disappear so badly that they are prepared to just ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, like a child who believes that if she closes her eyes then the outside world goes away. The boycotters are at their most ridiculous when they target joint Israeli-Palestinian projects. If BRICUP and the Scottish PSC were the only groups trying to stop OneVoice, we could almost be glad they are showing themselves up as a lunatic fringe.

Sadly, this is not the case. A year ago, OneVoice organised simultaneous conferences in Jericho, Tel Aviv and other cities around the world to pressure the Israeli and Palestinian governments to make a final peace deal. BRICUP's sister organisation in the West Bank, PACBI, issued a call to boycott OneVoice Palestine’s Jericho concert; this call led to performers being threatened and eventually the cancellation of the concert after security and safety concerns. The Tel Aviv and other concerts were cancelled in solidarity.

PACBI proudly boasted that this forced cancellation was a “victory against normalization” and a “substantial accomplishment for the Palestinian boycott movement”. It took OneVoice months to recover from this blow.

Movements like OneVoice offer hope that despite their differences, moderate Palestinians and Israelis can still work together on the shared goal of peace and freedom for both peoples. But BRICUP and the Scottish PSC have proven that the Middle East has no monopoly on extremism and rejectionism . OneVoice has mobilised the Israeli and Palestinian peoples to take on the extremists; perhaps it is up to all of us to do the same here in Britain.

Arieh Kovler is Director of the Fair Play Campaign Group
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From the Eye on the UN mailing:

NEW YORK - The President of the UN General Assembly has launched an unprecedented attack on a UN member state from the Assembly podium. Going beyond even existing UN resolutions, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua accused Israel of apartheid and called for "a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against it. Reminiscent of a classic antisemitic slur, Brockmann (himself a Roman Catholic priest and one-time official of the World Council of Churches) also claimed our Palestinian "brothers and sisters are being crucified" by Israel.

His remarks were made on November 24, 2008 during the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This annual event marks the adoption of the General Assembly's partition resolution which called for the creation of a Jewish and an Arab state on November 29, 1947.

"Brockmann's assault is a gross abuse of the position of Assembly President," commented Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN. "He knows full well that his outrageous personal views will be translated into six languages and webcast around the world." Brockmann assumed the Presidency in September 2008, having been nominated by the Latin American and Caribbean regional group.

Brockmann made the apartheid allegation twice in one day, once in the morning at the annual meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and again in the General Assembly in the afternoon. In his words:

"I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur."

"Brockmann's call," said Bayefsky, "was in effect, a call for the political destruction of Israel by means of the same strategy adopted against apartheid South Africa." Brockmann said:

"More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel.

The adoption of the 1947 partition resolution, accepted by Jews and rejected by Arabs, is now bemoaned by the UN. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Palestinian Solidarity Day as "a day of mourning and a day of grief." This year, as in years past, the UN used the occasion to fly only two flags, that of "Palestine" and that of the United Nations. Though the resolution was ostensibly the UN's first commitment to a two-state solution, today the flag of the member state of Israel is left out.

From the Eye on the UN mailing.
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"...Should a child studying this be considered a civilian? He is a future soldier."

See Gene on Harry's Place.

Here.

See Normblog.

Here.