Spokesman Books

Israel's systematic attacks on civilians to be examined by the Russell Tribunal on Palestine 24-25 September – Brussels – Albert Hall, Brussels   www. russelltribunalonpalestine. com/en/   For immediate release   Wednesday September 17 th     The Russell Tribunal's extraordinary session on Gaza will examine Israeli attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure during 'Operation Protective Edge' in July and August of this year.   Human Rights Watch recently accused Israel of committing war crimes in a report analysing three attacks on schools in Jabalya, Beit Hanoun and Rafah. The attacks killed 45 people, including 17 children.   This is not the first time that a human rights probe has made such claims. United Nations and Amnesty International investigations have also found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.   According to the United Nations, 2,131 Palestinians were kil...

Dearest friends - The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent. The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24hrs shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS! Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!). My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      Contact: Scott Campbell: +510-295-8843 (US) Jamal Juma’ (Stop the Wall): +970-598921821 (Palestine)   8 July 2014                                                    On 10 th Anniversary of Historic Ruling against Israel’s Wall, Legal Scholars call on world to act   As protests continue in Palestine, worldwide events to stop Israeli impunity; At the UN, 86 top legal experts urge UN and third-state action   Leading international jurists and legal networks from all continents, among them UN special Rapporteurs, acting and former judges, leading law professors as well...

I am excited to share a video with you from our latest event, ‘On Palestine, G4S and the Prison Industrial Complex’ with eminent feminist scholar-activists Angela Davis and Gina Dent. http://waronwant.org/news/events/previous-events/18046-angela-davis-video War on Want, the School of Law at SOAS University and the Russell Tribunal on Palestine were honoured to host Angela Davis and Gina Dent for a discussion on Justice for Palestine and the Stop G4S campaign. It was a unique opportunity to hear Angela and Gina discuss Palestine and the struggle for liberty in a world of growing militarisation, privatised repression and the proliferation of prisons. In 2007, the British security company G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority to provide security systems and other services for major Israeli prisons, which hold Palestinian political prisoners. G4S also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank that form part of the route of Israel’...

Thanks to Deep Dish TV , we now have a great HD quality 2 hours film about the New York session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine available online. Watch it, share it, use it! http://youtu.be/HLgzUuuq21g All the best Frank Barat Coordinator Russell Tribunal on Palestine . Follow us on Facebook . Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation book about the London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine is out now. Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians my book with Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, is out now. Read my blog here .

There has been widespread acclaim, particularly from Palestinians, for musician Roger Waters' compelling speech at the UN, on 29 Novermber 2012, in support of Palestine's succesful application for enhanced status. Roger serves on the jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, to which he refers in his address. Roger Waters's speech on behalf of Russell Tribunal at the UN on 29 November is now available online. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/9DrSPFYXUfQ

On 20 November 2012, the House of Commons debated the Middle East, at the request of backbenchers. We begin this selection from the debate with Andy Slaughter’s percipient remarks about the pending mass killing of many more innocents in Gaza, should Israel proceed with its ground invasion. Arbuthnot and Ottoway, Select Committee Chairmen, marked low points in the Debate. Hague rather distanced himself from the more partisan comments of the many Friends of Israel in the House. He knows Hamas won the 2006 elections in Gaza by a street, and that they are serious interlocutors. That’s why Michael Ancram talked with them at length after that victory. (see Spokesman 97 ) House of Commons Tuesday 20 November 2012 Middle East Several hon. Members rose — Andy Slaughter Hammersmith) (Lab) : Palestinian victims of Israeli atrocities are so many that they often go unnamed. I would like to name the four youngest members of the El Dallo family: Sara, 7; Jamal, 6; Yusef, 4; and Ibrahim,...

Stop Israeli Atrocities against Palestinian Children and People in Gaza! On the occasion of the Universal Children's Day 20 November and - the 23rd Anniversary for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) we, the International Board on Books for Young People-Palestinian Section appeal to all Children Rights advocates and defenders, to express solidarity with Palestinian children, and to pressure their governments and the International organizations to force Israel to end it aggression and war crimes against the Palestinian children and people in Gaza. Palestinian children, civilians and whole families are being blatantly targeted by the Israeli military with bombs weighing up to one ton dropped by F-16 fighter jets (more than 1200 raids so far), knowing that Gaza has no safe place and no shelters. Moreover, Palestinians in Gaza have been enduring the shortage of basic human needs and the wrecked infrastructure because of the 6-years-long criminal siege and the criminal w...

Professor Richard Falk is the UN's respected rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights. He is well worth reading. The Latest Gaza Catastrophe: Will They Ever Learn? by Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service [ This post is an updated version of an article published in the online English edition of Al Jazeera, 17 Nov 2012, taking account of some further developments in the new horrifying unfolding of violence in Gaza .] President Obama, upon his arrival today in Bangkok at the start of a state visit to several Asian countries, reminded the world of just how unconditional U.S. support for Israel remains. Obama was quoted as saying, “There is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside of its borders. We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.” Much is missing from such a sentiment, most glaringly, the absence of any balancing statement along the following line: “and no country would tolerate the periodic assassinati...

Russell Tribunal on Palestine New York Session 6-7 October 2012 Leila Shahid and Raji Sourani, two Palestinians, were prevented from attending the New York Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, which met in the Grand Hall of Cooper Union during the first weekend of October 2012 with hundreds of people attending over the two days. They weren’t granted visas in good time by the US authorities. Their absence denied the Tribunal direct testimony from Gaza (Sourani maintains the human rights centre there), as well as the presence of one of its initiators (Shahid, together with Nurit Peled of Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Parents for Peace, and Ken Coates of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation issued the initial call for the Tribunal in 2008). Both Leila and Raji had been present when the Tribunal was publicly launched in Brussels in 2009. Since then, it has held sessions in Barcelona (on EU complicity against Palestine), London (on corporate complicity), Cape Town (on th...