"The best revenge is to live well"

So said George Herbert [17^th century poet] and who is to say he was not right? So much injustice is perpetrated by the powerful against those with no agency that living well is their greatest challenge. Lack of job, home, money afford little opportunity for a good life, though millions do their best to achieve this against their circumstances. They shame those who look down on them daily by their humanity and resilience.

I was born in the year of Nakba. Above all of the injustices of the world, the apartheid enacted against Palestinians in their own land is the one which has angered me most, exacerbated by the continuing support for its perpetrators by supposedly even-handed and humanitarian governments such as our own and that of the USA. Money and power always trump human rights, it seems, leaving yet again those without agency to live well against the odds. That power is increasingly today used to promote messages of self-justification and hostility to opposition. These are often simply lies and fiction. Typically, the Israeli government issues accusations of anti-semitism against those opposed to its racist policies and actions, citing “holy” texts as if they were incontrovertible truth; and uses the holocaust as justification and immunity from criticism for just about anything they choose to do to others.

Many who support the rights of Palestinians have neither the money nor the power though which to counter these fictions. Organisations campaign against injustice but this does nothing to help those affected to live well. Perhaps a more positive form of opposition to Israeli apartheid may be to find ways for Palestinians to live well. Support for medical aid in Gaza and the West Bank may offer well-being to some who would otherwise be ill or worse. Small loans to and buying goods from people trying to eke a living from their own business in those areas may offer a sense of independence as well as an income. Such interventions contrast greatly with the lavish military support and investments proffered so profusely by Western governments to the oppressors and may attune to the values of those concerned with this great injustice, in its 70^th anniversary year; and offer those concerned the revenge of living well against the odds so stacked against them.

www.map.org.uk – medical aid for Palestine

www.lendwithcare.org – microfinance lending

Double standards in hand-wringing

A new Foreign Secretary but how much difference? Talk tough about Russian-backed troubles in Ukraine but do nothing to upset the arms and finance sectors - could have been Hague or Hammond. Say nothing about Gaza except to express continuing support for the racist regime in Israel - could be any Foreign Secretary for decades: not even tough talk.

When almost 300 die at the hands of a Russian-backed militia, the Government talks tough [but will do nothing]. When over 300 die at the hands of a US-backed, UK arms customer there is barely a word of sympathy for the bereft or wounded and certainly no help to the underdog.  The Tory determination to base diplomacy on export potential, largely unfulfilled, has left this country looking like beggars in the international community, with little to offer except an order book for more guns and a cringing fear of retaliation against any real toughness, for fear that our beloved financial services sector will suffer and top mates' bonuses be reduced. Failure to build alliances has left UK isolated such that even the tough words are undeliverable and we are left with hand-wringing; and not even that for poor Gaza.

Israel has flouted UN resolutions galore with impunity. Its treatment of the indigenous population of the lands it has stolen would constitute reason for international action were these by any country other than the untouchable Israel. Is it not time, with historical perspective on UK's own role in causing the hopeless divisions in Palestine, to become the Palestinians' friend? A sea-port with internationally guarantees safe passage, perhaps protected by our otherwise pointless Navy, would seem a good start.