Zionism – Page 2 – Mike Marqusee

May 17, 2008

Zionism and the Palestinians

New Humanist, May-June 2008 Israel’s 60th birthday is being celebrated lavishly in Britain. The programme includes a gala fund-raising dinner at Windsor Castle in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh, a variety show at Wembley Stadium and street parades in London and Manchester. Meanwhile, Palestinians and their supporters will be recalling the same event… Read more

Apr 19, 2008

Against the grain

Daphna Baram salutes Mike Marqusee’s honest appraisal of his radical journey through religion and politics, If I Am Not for Myself Review in The Guardian, April 19 2008 The Mishnaic scholar Old Hillel is known, in both the Jewish and non-Jewish world, for his saying “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” It is no… Read more

Feb 25, 2007

Blurred at the edges

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 25 February A reference in my last column to Moses Maimonides as a “12th century Arab Jewish theologian” has perplexed some readers. An Arab and a Jew? Can such a hybrid exist? Like all ethnic designations, both terms are problematic, blurred at the edges. But in the case of Maimonides,… Read more

Dec 3, 2006

Beyond polarities

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 3 December IN the Draa Valley, in southern Morocco, flanked on one side by an oasis densely planted with date palms and on the other by the high crumbling mud walls of what had been the Jewish quarters of an old and now abandoned village, I read about the Israeli… Read more

Aug 19, 2006

“Proud of Israel”? The Chief Rabbi talks rubbish

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 20 August As a Jew, I’ve been asked if I’m ashamed at what Israel has been doing in Lebanon. And the answer I give is that I am disgusted, I am angry, I am appalled, but, no, I am not ashamed. Why should I be? I bear no personal responsibility… Read more

Mar 5, 2006

Who speaks for the Jews? Livingstone and the Board of Deputies

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 5 March The news that the elected Mayor of London was to be suspended from office for a month at the direction of an appointed tribunal startled Londoners, partly because few had any idea that there existed a body with the power to overturn their democratic preference, and partly because… Read more

May 31, 2004

Notes on Zionism, anti-semitism and Jewishness

Prepared for the Radical Activist Network (London), spring 2004 [In response to a discussion on Palestine, I prepared notes on some of the questions that had arisen relating to Judaism, Jews, Zionism, and anti-semitism. ] The Israel lobby routinely deploys the charge of anti-semitism against supporters of the Palestinians, and uses the sufferings of Jews to justify… Read more