Deja vu re Palestine

February 26, 2026

Refaat Ibrahim does well to point out how the “ceasefire” in Palestine has reduced the world’s attention to the plight of the Palestinians. But 400 Palestinian villages were emptied of 720,000 Palestinians in the Nakba, and now after the latest war, they live in a country of widespread destruction. Northeast Palestine is being eaten up by Israeli settlers. There is a Board of Peace but without Palestinian government involvement. The area within the Yellow Line in Southwest Palestine keeps shrinking. Why the title deja vu? Well, we have habit of forgetting easily, even events in Palestine twelve years ago. I have just reread 12 pages of renowned journalist and radio host Mike Carlton’s autobiography On Air. He describes his 2014 article in the Sydney Morning Herald which criticised both Israel and Hamas over the war that year in which nearly 2300 Palestinians were killed with 70 Israeli deaths, primarily IDF members. This nevertheless led to virulent accusations of antisemitism, although not from some of his Jewish friends. Nevertheless, such was the reaction, he records that the Herald, under great pressure from some quarters, suspended his contract indefinitely. He resigned.