Asa Winstanley’s blog

Visualizing Palestine debuts with stunning graphic illustrating context of Khader Adnan's hunger strike

Asa Winstanley 22 February 2012

Visualizing Palesine is new project whose website is yet to fully launch but already they have used their Twitter account to release this amazing graphic. It combines a history of hunger strikes around the world with a factual illustration of what Palestinian political prisoner Khader Adnan must have been going through since he started the 66-day hunger strike that concluded yesterday after a deal to release him in April was reached. 

Israel student society attacks peaceful Palestine protest with water bombs at LSE

Asa Winstanley 20 February 2012

A student street theatre put on by the Palestine Society at the London School of Economics was attacked by members of the Israel Society today. Part of Israeli Apartheid Week, the peaceful mock checkpoint was attacked with water bombs, knocking down some of the set. LSE Palestine Society member Jen Izaakson said they shouted “Hamas” and “death to Israel” as they threw the water bombs. 

Palestinian student councils condemn UK Labour Students for breaking BDS picket line

Asa Winstanley 24 January 2012

A open letter from a huge coalition of Palestinian student groups published today, condemns the UK Labour party student officers who went on a recent propaganda tour of Israel and illegal Israeli settlements, for crossing “a picket line established by the entirety of the Palestinian civil society”. 

Israeli propaganda officer boasted of taking UK Labour Students partying in Tel Aviv, deletes Tweet

Asa Winstanley 18 January 2012

Since the story of the Labour party students officers who took an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel and its illegal West Bank settlements broke last week, they have been coming under increasing pressure from student activists. But strong evidence has now emerged the delegation spent a night clubbing in Tel Aviv with a spokesperson for the the Israeli occupation army in the West Bank. 

Israeli propaganda group HonestReporting denies encouraging employee to smear UK professor

Asa Winstanley 6 January 2012

My recent article exposing a smear by an Israeli pressure group worker seems to have touched a nerve. Israeli masters student Smadar Bakovic claimed in the Jewish Chronicle last month that Warwick University professor Nicola Pratt had given her a lower grade for her dissertation than she deserved because of anti-Israeli bias. But Warwick university strongly denied her story, saying that the new higher mark given was in fact for a revised version of her dissertation. A university spokesperson told me that Bakovic’s story was untrue, and has subsequently issued a press release with further details. The Jewish Chronicle’s reporter Marcus Dysch didn’t seem to think it relevant to mention that Bakovic works for MediaCentral  — a “free or low-cost” pro-Israel fixer agency in Jerusalem. But now her employer has defended her actions. 

Pinkwashing and the Israeli ads that wipe Palestine off the map

Asa Winstanley 11 December 2011

Two of the UK’s bestselling lifestyle magazines aimed at gay men have published the controversial Israeli advert that wipes Palestine and Syria off the map. Last Sunday I wrote about the “Think Israel” advertising campaign underway here in the UK. The Guardian received hundred of complaints after running a glossy advert that included a map in which the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories appear annexed to Israel. But it has now emerged that Attitude and Gay Times have both published the same advert (December and January issues respectively). Below are scans of all four pages of the ad as it appeared in Attitude, as a fold-out inside the front cover. 

Watch: Israeli professor describes "racist discourse" of official school books

Asa Winstanley 8 December 2011


Alternate Focus recently conducted this interview with Israeli academic Nurit Peled-Elhanan. She is author of the forthcoming book “Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education”, which I am hoping to review for EI. The interview is very much worth watching. It should give anyone deluded enough to think appropriate change can come within Israeli society serious pause for thought. 

Asa Winstanley's picture

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist who lives in London. He is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada and co-host of our podcast.

He is author of the bestselling book Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2023).