Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. Mahatma Gandhi Editorial, The Harijan, 26-11-1938

tere aaqa ne kiyaa ek filistin barbaad mere zakhmoN ne kiye kitne filistin aabaad Your master brought to ruin one Palestine But so many Palestines have been greened by my wounds

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Retired Judge Hadassa Ben-Itto stated candidly in a conference in London that Israeli state has to learn from the Nazis. Not the first ranking Israeli to make this suggestion, and certainly she will not be the last. The fact that she is a retired judge does not say anything; we all know the "structural flaws" in the so-called Israeli justice system that the Goldstone report referred to, concluding that the system cannot be trusted to administer justice according to international standards.

The Israeli regime has now agreed to lift partially the blockade of Gaza: potato chips, mattresses, washing machines, honey – all of which were banned earlier can now enter Gaza. Predictably, the US and EU Governments have welcomed this Israeli step, without questioning the military significance of the earlier banning potato chips. Nor have these leaders of the “civilized world”, continuously teaching the virtues of human rights and democracy to their more “backward brethren” in the global south, questioned what is the military significance of banning Gaza exports and preventing exit of students to study in the West Bank? How do Gaza’s exports affect Israel’s security? How do preventing Gaza students from studying in the West Bank increase its security?

July 9 2010, New Delhi – Boycott initiatives grow across India - from the dockworkers to the academics - as the global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) marks the fifth anniversary since Palestinian political and social forces launched a united call for BDS against Israel.

"As we predicted in a May 2009 Op Ed in the New York Times -- before the Islamic Republic's controversial presidential election -- the Obama Administration has already "checked the box" to show that engaging Iran doesn't work.  Now it has started the process of "checking the box" to show that the "broadest and toughest" sanctions ever imposed on the Islamic Republic don't work.  And that will leave the Obama Administration with no other options except formal adoption of regime change military strikes against the Islamic Republic. as the explicit goal of its Iran policy -- and/or "

Fifty intellectuals write to Amitav Ghosh asking him to  to reconsider accepting the Dan David prize (to be awarded on 9th May by Israeli president Shimon Peres) and to respond to their appeal to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Veteran Journalist Sukumar Muralidharan comments on the iraqi elections and the current political scenario.

Prof Aijaz Ahmad, well known political analyst comments on the standoff between Iran and the U.S. over nuclear enrichment.

Etemaad, Iran's most prominent reformist daily paper, was closed along with two weekly publications, Irandokht and Sina, a week ago today. Since the disputed election in June, Iran has shut eight newspapers and has imprisoned more than 100 journalists and bloggers. At least 65 remain in jail – more than any country has imprisoned since 1996.

In 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that a member state had violated its Safeguards Agreement by carrying out covert uranium conversion and enrichment activities and plutonium experiments for more than two decades. The nature of certain of those enrichment activities, moreover, raised legitimate suspicions of interest in a nuclear weapons programme.