Ancient Gaza

Gaza has dominated the news for some time now, but, on my morning walk I listened to two brilliant episodes from a series on the city’s ancient history in the Empire podcast of Anita Anand and William Dalrymple.   The podcast tells of bloody conquests by Assyrians , Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans  – despite which, the …

Ceasefire?

We desperately hope that these are now the last days of the unrestrained genocidal rampage that has continued unabated for two years. Some level of violence will certainly continue, because the only thing that has really changed is that Israel has become more brazen after witnessing the world’s indifference to its acts. There is no …

Preserving memories

Tonight in the village, two people, Neriya and Maisoon gathered some people from the community – those who were willing to venture out of their houses on a Saturday night – for a meeting of testimony from Gaza.  We may have been about 20 people, including a couple of guests from outside the village. Interestingly, one …

Spanish solidarity for Palestine

In every small Spanish town or village there are Palestinian flags flown from balconies, strung across streets, or even over the village entrance sign.  I can’t comment on the motivations behind the phenomenon, but it seems dead right, timely and appropriate while a genocide is unfolding before our eyes, or while we cover them. The Spanish …