Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
Rebutting Tory attack lines: Anti-semitism and Labour
How widespread is anti-semitism in the Labour Party? IAN SINCLAIR unearths some some surprising facts and statistics
Activists outside a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee in London which is expected to decide on whether to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
“JEREMY CORBYN’S anti‑semite army,” read the Times headline in April. “Labour is riddled with anti-semites,” announced the Sun last year. A Corbyn-led Labour government would pose an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country,” argued the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph in a joint editorial.
With the press having waged an intense campaign against Corbyn and the Labour Party since 2015 over anti-semitism, it was only natural their political opponents were going to use it as a stick to beat the Labour leader with during the general election campaign.
First up was cabinet minister Michael Gove, who earlier this month started trolling leftist figures on Twitter, including Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar, asking them to denounce anti-semitic tweets sent by a Labour Party and Momentum member (the person was neither a member of the Labour Party nor Momentum).
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In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
JAMES CROSSLEY charts how anti Jewish sentiment developed from ancient days and the dawn of Christianity to the Middle Ages, the birth of Protestantism and the sinister era of of the Nazis
The media’s shocking lack of interest in US-British involvement in Syria means it has effectively been a secret war, argues IAN SINCLAIR