In the early 1860s, French lawyer Orelie de Tounens travelled to Araucania and established himself as King with the consent of the indigenous population. Contrary to the colonial agenda which would later massacre 90 percent of the Mapuche population in an invasion known as the “Pacification of Araucania”, de Tounens established a system based upon…
Book Review: The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The Theatrics of Woeful Statecraft
The international community, through the Oslo Accords, has created an intricate web of terminology that points towards a permanently stalled state-building process. In their book, The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: The Theatrics of Woeful Statecraft (Routledge, 2019), Michelle Pace and Somdeep Sen expose what lies beneath the façade coined as the “State of Palestine”, a…
The UN is failing Palestine’s school children
The targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including school premises, is a violation of international law in which Israel indulges routinely. Only this time, the international community is not even attempting to feign the usual concern. What happens to upholding education as a basic human right, when Israel’s bombing of Gaza becomes a normalised routine, you…
Book Review: The Woman From Tantoura
An unfulfilled desire has no sanctuary other than remembrance. Radwa Ashour’s novel, The Woman from Tantoura (Hoopoe Fiction, 2019), explores the ramifications of memory and how its story is told. Chronology, while important, plays a lesser role than emotions, while memory takes on its own trajectory. “The story moves on, but sometimes not completely, because as…
Spirit of Return featured in online Palestine art expo
My watercolour painting, “Spirit of Return”, was chosen by rights group Staat Van Beleg for inclusion in an online art expo about the Palestinian Nakba. More about the art feature in this link.
No compromise in Israel Eurovision Boycott
Celebrities arguing against a cultural boycott of Israel in the lead-up to this year’s Eurovision song contest are missing the point. A joint letter from figures including Stephen Fry, Sharon Osbourne and Marina Abramovic states, ‘We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise,…
What happened after Chile withdrew from the Escazú Agreement?
In 2018, 16 Latin American and Caribbean countries signed the legally-binding Escazú Agreement, which sought to counter government and multinational corruption, exploitation of resources and violence against environmental activists in the region. Costa Rica and Chile had pioneered the agreement, the latter under former President Michelle Bachelet, even as, on home terrain, Mapuche activists seeking…
Book Review: My Name is Adam
One cannot speak of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 without touching upon identity and its ramifications. Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury’s novel, My Name is Adam is replete with questions and answers regarding identity, juxtaposed against inscribed recollections of the ethnic cleansing of Lydda. No matter the veneer one strives to don as part of the journey moving…
Repatriating remains is an obligation not a gift
The South Australian Museum is rectifying slivers of colonial damage with the announcement that it will repatriate the remains of over 4000 Aboriginal people to their communities. This will be welcome news for Aboriginal communities, but also a reminder of the need to lobby against policies that deprive them of the right to a dignified connection with…
Book Review: Palestine and Rule of Power. Local Dissent vs International Governance
This collection of well-researched essays provides an insight into the dynamics of how neoliberalism is woven within the Zionist colonial process and how it has created two opposing camps, succinctly described in the foreword by Richard Falk as the failure of UN diplomacy and the existing possibilities of Palestinian anti-colonial struggle. The neoliberal framework depoliticises…
