Their crisis – we pay

Some Colombians say their civil war has gone on for so long that most of the fighters now have no idea what started it in the first place. That’s perhaps not surprising, given that it began in 1957. Boris Johnson, however, has no such excuse.
    Johnson’s brief premiership has been marked by a seemingly endless round of scandals. No-one can remember when they began or indeed what they are all about as the reasons all seem to blur as time goes by. Now we’re all awaiting the final stab in the back that will trigger the leadership contest that could end his political career once and for all.
    When it comes the knives will sadly be wielded by Tory backbenchers and not by Sir Keir Starmer, the supposed leader of the Opposition who until recently seemed to prefer hounding out Corbynistas from his ranks rather than rallying Labour’s supporters to challenge the austerity regime of the Johnson government.
    Although some unions are supporting the protests that will take place at the Cost of Living Crisis – We Can’t Pay demonstrations organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity this weekend, the whole weight of the labour movement needs to be mobilised around the campaign if it’s to have any effect on the Government.

Israel is an apartheid state

For once, Amnesty International has got it right. Amnesty has published a 280-page report detailing “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity”, for which ​​“Israeli authorities must be held accountable”.
    The report, compiled over more than four years, analysed decades of legislation and policy that it said proved Palestinians were treated as an inferior racial group. “Israel has established and maintained an institutionalised regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis – a system of apartheid – wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians’ lives since 1948,” Amnesty said.
    “The USA, the European Union and its member states and the UK, but also those states that are in the process of strengthening their ties – such as some Arab and African states… must recognise that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid and other international crimes,” reads the report.
    Amnesty called on those actors to “use all political and diplomatic tools to ensure Israeli authorities implement the recommendations outlined in this report and review any co-operation and activities with Israel to ensure that these do not contribute to maintaining the system of apartheid”.
    It says that the UN Security Council must “impose targeted sanctions against Israeli officials implicated” and demands an arms embargo on Israel. Amnesty also called for the perpetrators of apartheid to be “brought to justice” through the International Criminal Court.
    The Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broadest Palestinian civil society coalition, has warmly welcomed the Amnesty report condemning Israel’s apartheid regime.
    Amnesty’s rigorously researched report outlines a brutal and intentional system of fragmentation, dispossession, segregation and oppression against the Palestinians Arabs in historic Palestine and around the world as refugees. This system, Amnesty concludes, meets the definition of apartheid under both the Rome Statute and the UN’s Apartheid Convention.
    Like the proverbial stopped clock that’s right twice a day, this human rights organisation that long served imperialism’s interests during the Cold War has finally got it right over Israel.