A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State

Source: nytimes.com

By: Stephen Castle & Jodi Rudoren

LONDON — Against a backdrop of growing impatience across Europe with Israeli policy, Britain’s Parliament overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution Monday night to give diplomatic recognition to a Palestinianstate. The vote was a symbolic but potent indication of how public opinion has shifted since the breakdown of American-sponsored peace negotiations and the conflict in Gaza this summer.

I want to help Syrians, why shouldn’t I go? (Video)

 Many young Britons such as Majid Freeman, a humanitarian aid worker have travelled to Syria to help ease the suffering of the people there. But the approach of the British government has been to discourage people from going. Majid Freeman explains his reasons for going and the pressures him and his family have been put under by the police.

British arms sales to Israel face high court challenge

Leading UK law firm claims government’s failure to suspend existing export licences is illegal

A Palestinian man carries a child killed in the blast outside a UN run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, earlier this month. Photograph: Hatem Ali/AP

By: Jamie Doward

Source: http://www.theguardian.com

The government faces being dragged into the high court over the sale of military hardware to Israel in an unprecedented legal move that puts the UK’s controversial export policy on a potential collision course with the EU.

Law firm Leigh Day, representing the Campaign Against Arms Trade(CAAT), has written to the business secretary, Vince Cable, claiming that the failure by the British government to suspend existing licences for the export of military components to Israel is unlawful as there is a risk that they may have been used in Gaza. It says that it has been instructed to seek a judicial review of the government’s reluctance to suspend licences unless it agrees to stop the export of the components.