Starvation is the constant companion of children in Gaza
Warwick McFadyen

Starvation is the constant companion of children in Gaza

Dear Child, I am the nothingness that will kill you. You do not know it, but you will feel the heaviness of your fate seep into your bones and flesh.

Message from the editor
Catriona Jackson

Message from the editor

It has been difficult to focus on much other than the terrible events in Palestine in recent weeks. It is beyond comprehension that the Israeli Government could have made the war even worse, but with the announcement that it will attempt full occupation of Gaza it has done just that.

Too late
William Grimm

Too late

President Donald Trump and his supporters have turned the US Government into a juggernaut that uses cruel and often immoral and illegal means to amass power and protect and increase the wealth of a select few, notably Trump himself.

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The recession door opens
Jack Rasmus

The recession door opens

This past week was punctuated by a perfect storm of negative US economic reports and events.

The British experience with nuclear-powered submarines: Lessons for Australia
Tim Deere-Jones

The British experience with nuclear-powered submarines: Lessons for Australia

My new report prepared for Friends of the Earth Australia demonstrates that the development of a nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed nuclear submarine fleet entails multiple public health risks and would inevitably suffer from delays and cost-blowouts.

Well-being, health and the Productivity Roundtable
Tony Lawson

Well-being, health and the Productivity Roundtable

In June 2025 I wrote about the National Well-being Budget and Measuring What Matters. Since then, a lot has happened that deserves attention, particularly with the government’s planned Productivity Roundtable in August.

Lessons from Aceh's peace agreement
Damien Kingsbury

Lessons from Aceh's peace agreement

This 15 August marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Aceh peace agreement which ended three decades of separatist war in Indonesia’s western-most province.

Reflections: public education past, present and future
Chris Bonnor,  Lyndsay Connors

Reflections: public education past, present and future

Readers of Pearls and Irritations may be aware of the Public Education Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which turns donations into life-changing scholarships for students and others in around 200 NSW schools.

NSW Premier and the right to protest
Shaoquett Moselmane

NSW Premier and the right to protest

Great Labor leaders are usually good communicators, persuasive, with a commanding presence.

When war criminals are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, what does 'peace' even mean?
Raghid Nahhas

When war criminals are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, what does 'peace' even mean?

In 1939, a member of the Swedish parliament nominated Adolf Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always Netanyahu’s intention
John Menadue

The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always Netanyahu’s intention

On 19 December 2023, in Pearls and Irritations I wrote: Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason. The real Israeli reason and objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long-term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba.

Latest on Palestine and Israel

Starvation is the constant companion of children in Gaza
Warwick McFadyen

Starvation is the constant companion of children in Gaza

Dear Child, I am the nothingness that will kill you. You do not know it, but you will feel the heaviness of your fate seep into your bones and flesh.

NSW Premier and the right to protest
Shaoquett Moselmane

NSW Premier and the right to protest

Great Labor leaders are usually good communicators, persuasive, with a commanding presence.

The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always Netanyahu’s intention
John Menadue

The occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always Netanyahu’s intention

On 19 December 2023, in Pearls and Irritations I wrote: Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason. The real Israeli reason and objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long-term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba.

Justice for Palestine: Why Hamas must be involved
Kym Davey

Justice for Palestine: Why Hamas must be involved

What next for Palestine? Gaza is a wasteland, a dystopian scene of devastation and starvation. The occupied West Bank is under siege from rampant Israeli settler gunmen.

From Hiroshima to Gaza: Eighty years of failing to contain violence
Refaat Ibrahim

From Hiroshima to Gaza: Eighty years of failing to contain violence

Note from the editor: For months Refaat Ibrahim has been writing for P&I from the centre of Gaza in unimaginable conditions. Today I add the note he sent with the piece, so you can see the sacrifice he makes every day.

Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war
Al Jazeera Staff

Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

How we at Physicians for Human Rights Israel decided that the Gaza war is a genocide
Guy Shalev

How we at Physicians for Human Rights Israel decided that the Gaza war is a genocide

When examining all the factors together, we identify a clear pattern that indicates Israeli intent to kill Palestinians in Gaza. The systematic nature is the smoking gun.

IDF chiefs break ranks
Keith Mitchelson

IDF chiefs break ranks

Israeli military and security chiefs are active participants in Netanyahu’s biblical holocaust on Palestinians.

John Menadue's book on Israel's war against Gaza

Israel's war against Gaza

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.

Download the PDF

Latest on China

Beijing steps up as Washington steps back
Jiao Wang

Beijing steps up as Washington steps back

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are having two broad impacts on the global economy – they are eroding international confidence in US leadership and disrupting global supply chains, and causing rapid geographic restructuring of international trade.

Is the ‘China threat’ real or trumped up?
Jia Qingguo

Is the ‘China threat’ real or trumped up?

In recent years, the ‘China threat’ theory has become a prominent theme in Western political discourse.

Why every China watcher must be on WeChat
Zichen Wang

Why every China watcher must be on WeChat

None of this is to glorify WeChat itself – it’s simply the reality of China’s digital ecosystem today.

John Menadue

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Pearls and Irritations leads the way in raising and analysing vital issues often neglected in mainstream media. Your contribution supports our independence and quality commentary on matters importance to Australia and our region.

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The Russians’ lost plot: will they find serenity or are they dreaming?
Andrew Fraser

The Russians’ lost plot: will they find serenity or are they dreaming?

Environment: Decisive action needed to avoid unmanageable climate tipping points
Peter Sainsbury

Environment: Decisive action needed to avoid unmanageable climate tipping points

Justice for Palestine: Why Hamas must be involved
Kym Davey

Justice for Palestine: Why Hamas must be involved

Spy novelist Stella Rimington, the first female head of MI5, was a ‘true trailblazer’
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Spy novelist Stella Rimington, the first female head of MI5, was a ‘true trailblazer’

From Hiroshima to Gaza: Eighty years of failing to contain violence
Refaat Ibrahim

From Hiroshima to Gaza: Eighty years of failing to contain violence

Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war
Al Jazeera Staff

Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war

Eighty years with the bomb: How long can our luck continue?
Gareth Evans

Eighty years with the bomb: How long can our luck continue?

How we at Physicians for Human Rights Israel decided that the Gaza war is a genocide
Guy Shalev

How we at Physicians for Human Rights Israel decided that the Gaza war is a genocide

As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility
Amin Saikal

As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility

IDF chiefs break ranks
Keith Mitchelson

IDF chiefs break ranks

Digital screen use by infants and toddlers risks long-term health and education outcomes
Toni Hassan

Digital screen use by infants and toddlers risks long-term health and education outcomes

Australia leads the world on rooftop solar, now it needs to catch up with how to manage it
Sophie Vorrath

Australia leads the world on rooftop solar, now it needs to catch up with how to manage it

Latest letters to the editor

Who's got Dibbs on the paranoia?

Les Macdonald — Balmain NSW 2041

Some of our more devoted Anglophiles have made substantial careers in Australia out of taking the British Empire's view of the rest of the world as threatening to the empire. That view was adopted by the new American empire which succeeded the collapse of the British in the early part of the last century. Most of these Anglophiles were attracted to the Conservative and often racist side of Australian politics. Paul Dibb fitted comfortably into this 18th century mould when associated with Beazley, who, even though in the ALP, shared the attachment to much of the US and...
Choctaws and Samaritans

Geoff Taylor — Perth

Re Paul Heywood-Smith’s article: US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson has just visited Northwest Palestine and declared that it should be called Judea and Samaria. If we follow the current state of Israel's logic based on ancient history, then Samaria belongs to the Samaritans, not to the Jewish state of Israel. Judaism stems from when Eli in the 11th century BC led a split in the people of the man Israel aka Jacob, leaving the Samaritans in Samaria. The Samaritans were not deported to Babylon by the Assyrians, unlike the Jewish people. What would be Johnson’s reaction...
Anti-racist Jews threatened by Zionist McCarthyism

Gideon Polya — Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria

Excellent article by Professor Henry Reynolds. Australians are subject to massive “antisemitism hysteria”. Antisemitism occurs in two equally repugnant forms, anti-Jewish antisemitism and anti-Arab antisemitism (including Islamophobia) but these three key terms (and indeed about 80 pertinent terms) were not mentioned in the recently released “Special Envoy’s plan to combat antisemitism”. Data published by expert epidemiologists in the leading medical journal The Lancet indicates that 136,000 Gazans died violently by 25 April 2025, with a “conservatively estimated” four times that number (544,000) dying from imposed deprivation for a shocking total of 680,000 deaths. However, in Australia (as...
Democracy or police state?

Bob Pearce — Adelaide SĄ

What the court system did was not legalise the march but słow the steady march towards a police state. Any attempt by the NSW premier to change that, by giving the police even more power, will bring us one step closer to a Trump-style dictatorship.

Catch up on other sections

Arts 122 China 1166 Climate 1372 Commendations 19 Defence 2429 Economy 2745 Education 687
Employment 34 Finance 2 Health 1506 History 50 Immigration 952 Indigenous Affairs 379 Israel Palestine 1207
Media 1791 Podcast 43 Policy 181 Politics 17687 Racism 16 Religion 1223 Review 20
The Human Future 50 Our Top Five Each Week 2079 USA 493 World 1289

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