Dates for your Diary

On 23^rd March, Israel held its fourth election in two years, but with no clear winner will Netanyahu be able to form a coalition government, or will a fifth election be needed in the next few months? Thirty-nine parties competed for 120 seats in parliament. Thirteen parties passed the electoral threshold, from which a coalition of 61 seats is necessary to form a government.  For most of the past three or four decades there have been few stable majorities thus coalitions are formed by a method of “horse-trading” in which the public has no influence. In addition, Israeli citizens do not have representatives and must select a party closest to one’s personal views and vote for whatever list of candidates it provides. So Israeli democracy is anything but participatory. Read more...

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BUT Jerusalem academic and activist Jeff Halper (below) is supporting a new vision – one democratic state where Israelis, Palestinians and all minorities are equal before the law. He outlines the idea in his new book - Decolonizing Israel: Liberating Palestine.

Dr Halper will be joined by our three other guests who will reflect on his ideas
•  Dr Amal Ghusain, Exeter PSC,
•  Zoughbi Zoughbi from Bethlehem’s peace and reconciliation organisation Wi’am and
•  Canon Jonathan Herbert, a former human rights monitor in Palestine.

1. This is a Sarum Concern for Israel/Palestine event open to members of adjoining groups in sympathy with our aims.
2. For joining instructions please email sarumconcern@gmail.com as soon as possible.*

The Nakba is not an isolated historic event, but an ongoing process. Ilan Pappe will describe the crucial role of the JNF and its leaders in developing the ideology and strategy of ethnic cleansing leading up to 1948. He will also illustrate some of the ways in which the JNF is implicated in the military operations for the expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands and how the JNF thwarted the Palestinian Right of Return.

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