Peter Oborne

6 days ago | middleeasteye.net | Joseph Fahim |Peter Oborne

This article was initially set out to focus on The Encampments, Kei Pritsker and Michael T. Workman’s impassioned documentary that chronicles the Columbia University student movement that shook the US and captured imaginations the world over. But then it came to my attention that a sparring film has been released around in the same timeframe, offering a staunchly pro-Israeli counter-narrative that vehemently attempts to discredit the account offered by The Encampment.

1 week ago | middleeasteye.net | Fayha Shalash |Peter Oborne

Ayed Ghafri no longer allows his children to play in the yard. The Palestinian resident of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank is haunted by the recent uptick in settler violence against Palestinians. Surrounded by five Israeli settlements from east to west, the town north of Ramallah is often a target of settler violence, including arson attacks and the throwing of stones.

1 week ago | middleeasteye.net | Oscar Rickett |Peter Oborne

A coalition of workers and activists has launched a campaign targeting online travel agency Booking.com, which they accuse of profiting from Israeli war crimes. The “Stop Booking Apartheid” campaign, led by Palestinian and left-wing organisations including Progressive International and BDS Netherlands, is targeting Booking.com’s 55 listings in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

2 weeks ago | middleeasteye.net | Rayhan Uddin |Peter Oborne

For the first time, the state of Palestine has a vice president. Hussain al-Sheikh, a key ally of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, was appointed to the role on Saturday. Abbas has long delayed deciding on a deputy. There are at least two reasons for this, Qossay Hamed, an expert on Palestinian politics and academic at Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah, told Middle East Eye.

2 weeks ago | middleeasteye.net | Peter Oborne

In February, the ultra-right Spectator magazine launched a sudden and unexpected hatchet job on filmmaker Louis Theroux. The magazine, edited by former cabinet minister Michael Gove, told readers: “Theroux is once again making a film about Jews in Judea and Samaria - the region known as the West Bank - focusing on so-called ‘settlers.’” Spectator writer Jonathan Sacerdoti presumably used these scare quotes to signal scepticism about the mere use of the word “settler”.