John Hurson in Ireland has been keenly conscious of the affinities between the historic Irish hunger strike of 1981 and the ongoing Palestinian hunger strikes. He has travelled to Gaza on several occasions on humanitarian aid convoys, and is the founder of the on line Gaza TV News service. I suggested that we collaborate on an article that might recall the Irish experience, especially the parallels and the potential implications for the future of the Palestinian struggle.

May 8 2012

In my blog entry in October 2011 I commented on the decision of the British government to issue a banning order against Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the so-called Northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Salah had been invited to the UK by supporters of the Palestinian cause to give a series of talks across the country at a number of different venues, including the Houses of Parliament.

Although the entry ban had been imposed on Salah by Britain's Home Secretary, Theresa May, a few days before his expected arrival, due to administrative errors by the immigration authorities he entered the country without hindrance and was not informed of the ban imposed on him until his arrest in June 2011. Rather than consent to deportation, Salah opted to stay and fight the legality of the Home Secretary's decision through the British justice system.

The former Director General of the Al-Jazeera Network became the first Muslim and non-Western journalist to deliver the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture at City University in London on Thursday. The anticipation buzzed through the crowd waiting to hear from Wadah Khanfar, one of the most influential figures in world journalism who had been at the helm of Al-Jazeera for 8 years, as the lecture theatre filled to capacity. A number of significant figures were in the audience, including journalists from the Guardian and the Financial Times as well as lecturers and media pundits. The high calibre of the audience highlighted just how significant Al-Jazeera under Khanfar's leadership has been in the development of journalism in the Arab world and beyond.

A response to the deeply-misleading Meir Amit Report

It is the usual policy at Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) not to respond to blatant attempts to discredit our work by Israel's propaganda machine. Since 1997, many such attempts have been made, yet our organisation goes from strength to strength and our support base continues to grow. However, the Meir Amit Report on FOA is deeply and deliberately misleading and requires a response.

Maxim Shevchenko is an immensely well-respected editor, journalist and presenter on television and radio in Russia. He is a staunch advocate of the Palestinian cause, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and he is also one of the latest targets of the pro-Israel Lobby.

Shevchenko, one of Russia's leading journalists, has a wealth of experience behind him, and over the years he has been very open in his condemnation of Israel for its repeated violations of international law in its dealings with the Palestinians. This has, inevitably, led to him becoming a prime target of Russia's Zionists.

There is no doubt that attempts to whip up Islamophobia are on the rise and there certainly seems to be an atmosphere of intolerance and racism gaining traction here in the UK. While it is easy to point the finger of blame at racist far-right groups such as the BNP and "the Zionist false flag operation" the EDL (as the BNP call them) (p32) as a major source for stirring up such unnecessary hatred, a new report published by Spinwatch attempts to trace the source of some of this Islamophobia to its more subversive roots, particularly to groups and agencies which purport to be moderate British think-tanks but which instead serve Israeli interests and promote a clearly Islamophobic agenda.

The phone hacking scandal which has hit Rupert Murdoch's publishing company News International is getting bigger every day and shows no signs of dying down. The effect on British politics has been compared to a revolution, albeit a very quiet one, and the term "British Spring" has been used.   British governments, both Labour and Conservative, had been in thrall to Rupert Murdoch and his media empire, continually currying favour and changing policy to suit him.  Before he became prime minister, Tony Blair travelled to Australia for the sole purpose of gaining Murdoch's support. Blair saw the support of News International publications such as The Sun as crucial if he were to win the next election. Blair's successors, Gordon Brown, and David Cameron were under the same impression, believing that they continually had to keep Murdoch on side. Thus, Murdoch's publications were continually given special access to 10 Downing Street, coming out with "scoops" and exclusives.