Over 100 British artists announced on Friday that they are launching a cultural boycott of Israel, along with hundreds of others who have also signed up to the initiative.  (...) According to the letter, this includes accepting professional invitations to Israel or funding from any institutions linked to the Israeli government.

The largest Palestinian civil society coalition has condemned Canada’s escalating “disinformation campaign and repressive measures against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.” “Rather than seeking to hold Israel to account for its war crimes during the recent military assault on Gaza and its intensified colonization of the occupied West Bank,” the Canadian government “is further deepening its collaboration with Israel’s occupation and launching a shameful, propagandistic attack on free speech in the process,” Rafeef Ziadah, a member of the Boycott Na

A new election campaign brings about new stereotypes. It is now very common to hear that Israel does everything to maintain a policy of status quo with its neighbors, including the Palestinians. Looking at Israeli public opinion in the last twenty years, however, tells us that the opposite is true. If one takes election results as reliable indicators, it is possible to identify three characteristic phases in the mood of the Israeli public. 

A new report by Physicians for Human Rights accuses Israel of using human shields and attacking medical workers and facilities during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip. The report is based on testimony from eight overseas medical experts who made three visits to Gaza and interviewed doctors and wounded Palestinians.

In a world in which diplomacy has expanded from government-to-government contacts into public and cultural diplomacy, and in which nations are ranked as much for their performance in high-profile international tournaments as on other attributes, autocratic abuse of sports and its impact on football, including performance, is nowhere more prevalent than in the Middle East and North Africa. 

One of the problems with Israeli public diplomacy is that it is predictably reactive and generally negative. Suppose, for once, Israel were to take a different tack, one based on the principles used by judo experts--namely, to use the opponent's own strengths and moves against him

At times, digital diplomacy may be used to foster dialogue between two countries that have yet to establish diplomatic relations.  Last month, Twitter announced that another world leader had joined the world of digital diplomacy – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.