In the latest edition of Irish Pages, Israel, Islam and the West, the Irish Times journalist Lara Marlowe writes about the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who said that "Israel is built not next to Palestine, but on top of Palestine". She also writes of the intimidation she and other journalists and politicians have been subjected to after criticising Israel. There is an essay of Hubert Butler's from 1947 about a war-crimes trial. Emma Marx translates her uncle's description of his experiences as an inmate of Bergen-Belsen and one other concentration camp under the Nazis. Dervla Murphy's essay Hasbara in Action makes sobering reading – as, indeed, does the entire book. The photographic portfolio by Mark Cousins, of the city of Belfast, punctuates Chris Agee's perceptive essay, Troubled Belfast, first delivered at the John Hewitt summer school last year. Sheila Llewellyn contributes some fiction on an Iranian theme, while John McHugo tries to make some sense out of the tragedy that is Syria. Another excellent edition of this journal.
