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 passage of the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has been widely condemned as undermining any claim on Israel’s part to be a liberal democracy.
Aymen Odeh, the head of the Arab Joint List group of parties in the Knesset, described it starkly as representing “the death of our democracy.”
The reality is that Israel has never truly been a liberal democracy that treats all its citizens as equal regardless of race or ethnicity.
On International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, HUGH LANNING warns that the US-led “Comprehensive Plan” entrenches decades of Western complicity in Israel’s domination and denial of Palestinian land and rights
ASSAF TALGAM talks to an Israeli Communist lawmaker about the need to use every tool of democratic and non-violent struggle; how Israeli society has changed since October 7 2023; and the persecution of the left in the parliamentary arena
The decision highlights the tension between freedom of expression and the state’s role in shaping historical memory at former concentration camps, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI



