A pragmatic path - Extremists block the way to peace as calls grow for two states
The Guardian Weekly|May 03, 2024
Beware the friend who is only trying to help. Not, perhaps, as a rule for life but certainly when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the clashes that battle provokes around the world. Often those who think they're doing their bit serve only to make an impossible situation even worse.
Jonathan Freedland
A pragmatic path - Extremists block the way to peace as calls grow for two states

Last week began with an instructive example, when Gideon Falter, head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, released a video clip of himself being steered away from one of London's weekly Gaza demonstrations by a police officer on the grounds that: "You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march." Falter argued that he had flushed out proof that the Metropolitan police regard the marches as an unsafe environment for visibly Jewish people, even though the Met allows them to go ahead week after week.

Was Britain's Jewish community grateful for this contribution from Falter? Some were troubled by his insistence that he had merely been out and about on a Saturday, when he happened to stumble across the Gaza demo, rather than admitting that he had deliberately set out to make a point. Falter would say he was only trying to help, but there were plenty for whom the whole episode was a headache they didn't need.

All this was relatively small beer compared with the pro-Palestinian demonstrations now spreading across US campuses, where mass protests and permanent solidarity camps have been broken up by sometimes brutal police action. There, too, debate rages.

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Finn family murals
The Guardian Weekly

Finn family murals

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I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
The Guardian Weekly

I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson

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A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The Guardian Weekly

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The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.

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4 mins  |
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'What will people think? I don't care any more'
The Guardian Weekly

'What will people think? I don't care any more'

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10+ mins  |
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I see you
The Guardian Weekly

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What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results

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10+ mins  |
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Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
The Guardian Weekly

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Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.

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Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
The Guardian Weekly

Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit

Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.

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Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
The Guardian Weekly

Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping

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2 mins  |
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'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
The Guardian Weekly

'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital

Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order

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3 mins  |
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Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
The Guardian Weekly

Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'

High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness

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5 mins  |
November 08, 2024