sorry for all the typos. typed in a rush...just so you know...actually I can spell apartheid...

I only hope you will fight with the same strength against the Iranian,Syrian,North Corean and Chineses ambassadors, but hold on a moment...those countries do not opress muslims..why bother

israel doesn't oppress palestinians because they are muslim, as not all are. israel has a fine record of oppressing non-muslims too.

such as?

Apparently, someone bricked the glass revolving doors at the front of SOAS during the protest too...

Such as the Palestinian Christians as well. And the Samaritans in Nablus. And the Druze in the Golan Heights. And the odd international peace activist. And any Israeli who refuses to serve in the army.

Smash zionism, presumably because you don't like the occupation. So let's smash Syria for its occupation of Lebanon. Let's smash Turkey because of its occupation of Cyprus.

Well, there's the repression/human rights issue. Jordan is, I suppose, a relatively open society. But you can look at another Israeli neighbour, Syria, the inventor, together with N Korea of the hereditary president concept. Not exactly a liberal society. And don't try to be gay in Egypt, cos they'll look you up. Well, we could look further afield to Saudi Arabia, bastion of religious freedom. Maybe Iran, when you get 14 years in jail if you're a blogger. As for the Iranian trreatment of women ... Maybe Kuwait? Oman? Qatar?

So, out of about 12 countries in the region, Israel doesn't come out too badly by comparison. But do we see smashed doors for a Saudi ambassador, or Egyptian, or Iranian ambassadors? No. That's why some people think that Indymedia and its like are just a wee bit prejudiced.

We don't sell weapons to Syria or North Korea. We don't give millions of dollars in militiary aid either. Israel is part of the western sphere of influence, and thus we can affect it. In this regard it is similar to South Africa. There were worse examples of state sponsored terror in the world, but South Africa was the one which we had a chance of affecting.

Are you happy, therefore, that the situation with Israel and the Palestinians is comparable to that of other tyrannies? Begging us to let you oppress the Palestinians because other people are is not a sufficient moral argument. In fact, how can any argument about 'freedom' and 'democracy' coming from the states be taken seriously when it one-sidedly supports Israeli terrorism, detains and tortures people without trial, ignores the UN.

Before we deal with the Saudi's or North Korea, let's look in our own back yard. And lo and behold, in our back yard we can see the US and Britain supporting the oppressive policies of Israel all the way.

It's not a matter of bias. It's a matter of which country we're funding. Us activists have dealt with South Africa, Indonesia, countries who we sold weapons to and supported for so long. Now we are dealing with Israel. When the Palestinians are free from Israeli persecution, we'll move onto a different tyranny we're supporting with arms and money.

I am not supporting Israel's actions at all: what I am saying is that there are countires whose record is far far worse and which are overlooked.

The UK, to my knowledge, does not fund Israel. The US is free to do what it wants.

The UK sells arms to Israel, but you're right, it doesn't send militiary aid. But I tend to think of the US and UK as the same these days. Well, the US, UK and Israel are all part of the same US led international strategy. Therefore, I feel quite justified in criticising US policy, as it affects us all. They should not be free to 'do as they want', when what they want is global domination and access to resources.