Israel/Palestine

In recent months, Bernie Sanders has become an enormously popular politician among Muslim Americans.

He was one of only two Democratic presidential candidates to address the Islamic Society of North America Convention in August, the largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans in the country. He is the first major presidential candidate to appoint a Muslim, Faiz Shakir, as his campaign manager. He was the first American politician to visit a mosque after the attacks on Muslims in New Zealand. Prominent Muslim Americans including Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Women’s March, and newly elected

A week ago, on 7 October, 18 year-old Yasmin Ricci-Yahav visited a military induction centre in Israel and declared for the third time her refusal to serve in the Israeli army.

We will let Yasmin speak for herself: “To date I have spent 30 days in military prison, and I expect to be sentenced for a third prison term…

“I continue to refuse to enlist in protest of the IDF’s role in the occupation and with the hope that my choice will contribute to a more open and honest conversation surrounding alternatives regarding Israel’s future”.

Over the decades thousands of Jewish-background Israelis have

John Strawson disputes the argument that the “two states” policy in Israel-Palestine — self-determination for both nations there — has become “unviable”. John Strawson is a professor of law at the University of East London, a former visiting lecturer at Birzeit University in the West Bank, and a former activist (in the 1970s) in the International Marxist Group. He develops his argument in polemic with Perry Anderson, who is now a professor at University of California Los Angeles, and who has been a leading figure in the New Left Review editorial team since 1962.

Perry Anderson announced a new

Workers’ Liberty comrades and those around us had a huge impact on Labour Party conference this year (21-25 September, Brighton).

When the Leader’s Office was fishing for compromises on Brexit in the run up to conference, some prominent Remainers were arguing that we’d already won everything we wanted, and that it was reasonable for Labour not to argue explicitly for Remain.

It was at the Labour for a Socialist Europe steering committee that was all put to bed. Following that, the AEIP/L4SE campaign was clear all the way through conference: we were going to refuse to accept being swallowed

Who could have missed Ayman Odeh’s eloquent op-ed piece in the New York Times, where he rightly asserted that “Arab Palestinian citizens have chosen to reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his politics of fear and hate, and the inequality and division he advanced for the past decade”?

Or his explanation of why he and the coalition he leads chose to nominate Benny Gantz — an IDF chief accused of war crimes against fellow Palestinians — for prime minister.

It was on this promise, and with the full knowledge that the Joint List will never be part of the emerging future ruling coalition, that

This article was originally published in The Nation magazine, and is republished here with permission. Read the full text of Hannah's article here.

No one yet knows the final result of the Israeli elections—the country’s second in six months. Attempts to build a governing coalition will likely stretch out for months. But the returns show significant shifts that deserve to be understood.

1. Benny Gantz is a wobbly centrist. But his voters have potential. As of now, the nine-month-old centrist party of Benny Gantz, Blue and White, has received the most votes—and the most seats in the Knesset: 33

We may have more time to build mobilisation against the plan of the Israeli right to annex part or all of “Area C” (60% of the West Bank) to Israel.

Israel’s election on 17 September gave no majority to outgoing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nor to his main rival, a “softer” right-winger, Benny Gantz. A long period of haggling about possible coalitions now probably lies ahead.

Publication of the new “plan” for the Middle East long announced by Donald Trump as “coming soon” is now likely to be postponed longer.

Trump’s people have indicated the new plan will drop even nominal commitment to

In advance of new elections due to take place on 17 September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced new plans for the annexation of Palestinian territory, pledging to annex a big chunk of the West Bank to Israel.

Prior to elections in April, he announced plans to formally annex 60% of the land area of “Area C” of the West Bank. The new proposal would cut off the Palestinian Territories’ border with Jordan, and leave cities like Jericho as enclaves entirely surrounded by Israeli territory.

Some, including Netanyahu’s main political rival, Benny Gantz, who heads the centre

Israel will hold new elections on 17 September, after right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a workable governing coalition after he won elections in April.

Just before those elections Netanyahu announced plans to formally annex to Israel some or all of “Area C” of the West Bank (60% of its land area, surrounding the 160 cities, villages, and other areas of Palestinian-populated land which are Areas A and B). He has made overtures to far-right, Jewish-supremacist parties.

The left, which slumped to its worst ever results in April, remains in a weak position.