Neil Durkin

When Palestinian men suffer “light blows” at the hands of the Israeli police in East Jerusalem it’s apparently not worth prosecuting. Or so it appears. According to Yesh Din, a human rights group that has taken a case on behalf of some...

A couple of years ago I had two weeks off work because I was called up for jury service. A cushy number? Not really. Going to Snaresbrook crown court every morning to hear about a large-scale cocaine smuggling case was – interesting...

First it was Disney films and Robert Louis Stevenson adaptations ( Kidnapped !), the Bond films (Roger Moore period), then the adolescent stuff – Jaws , The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (couldn’t get in, it was an “18”-rater!), and then...

Alarming news from Iran (again). This time it’s the fact that there’s been a death sentence over the election protests. Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani , a 37-year-old, is now facing death by hanging for the crime of supposedly taking up arms...

At the weekend my partner was watching Gandhi , one of our DVD rentals from (the excellent) Sofa Cinema. “I’m not that interested”, I said. “Seen it”. “Not that good.” “Ben Kingsley as Gandhi? Hmm, not sure.” I was stubborn, adamant. I...

Looking forward to the London Olympics? Well, it’s a fair bet that so are the trafficking gangs who force people into prostitution, domestic servitude or no-or-low-pay labouring jobs. In less than three years’ time the athletes and...

Today’s Guardian reports on what appears to have been the appalling death of a man who was allegedly tortured to death in detention by members of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah-led intelligence services. According to the report...

… which, as middle-aged hippies like me will tell you, is a line from Neil Young’s student protest song “Ohio” (“Gotta get down to it / Soldiers are cutting us down / Should have been done long ago / What if you knew her and found her...

Morbidly enough, I’ve always thought songs about capital punishment were a pretty fascinating sub-genre. On this blog I’ve previously mentioned The Adverts’ punk classic “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” (a number 18 hit in 1977, pop-pickers!) and...

The finding from the UN investigator Judge Richard Goldstone that both the Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes in Gaza at the beginning of the year has met with two predictable responses. Response...

To kick off here are a couple of quotes: “While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus. It was a very beautiful place and it was really green.” “The wisdom never dies. On that kind of...

Who would be a journalist? It’s hard to get into. It’s tough work: frantic deadlines, high-pressure – get it wrong and your outfit might get sued! And there’s immense pressure to cut costs, especially on the inky-handed “Fleet Street”...

Comparisons to Nazi doctors conducting experiments on death camp prisoners are definitely overblown, but there’s something horribly sinister about news that the CIA used doctors extensively during “war on terror” torture sessions. My...

Let’s start with a numbers question. How many people is a thousand people? Not as easy as it sounds. Ever been at an event and someone asked you to say how many were there? You inevitably go: “Oh, about 200. No wait, maybe 300. No...

Strange interview by the Israeli ambassador on the radio this morning. In his 8.10am Today programme slot not only did Ron Prosor, Tel Aviv’s man in London, have a dig at Arab leaders who in his view buy football clubs like Manchester...

A confession, dear reader. The shockingly juvenile rock-metal band AC/DC were part of the soundtrack to my youth. They were always blasting away on mum and dad’s “stereogramme” when they (mum and dad) were up the pub on a Friday night...

Amnesty’s new report on how Tunisia is rounding up, torturing and imprisoning alleged Islamic terrorists is the sort of thing that any Amnesty blog reader will have heard before. Right, big surprise, you may think. I kind of thought...

It would be little exaggeration to say there’s only one story in town right now: Afghanistan. Well OK, there’s the business of the insanely fast “Lightning Bolt” (forget that old joke about languorous Jamaicans dahn at the beach ), and...

This time last year I wasn’t in a sweaty Amnesty office in London, I was … in a sweaty Amnesty office in Edinburgh . It comes to mind today because last August I was beavering away PR-ing Amnesty’s presence at the Edinburgh Festival...

Listen to Ivan Lewis stonewalling on the Today programme (8.10 interview) and you get the distinct impression that the government has … how can I put this, got something to hide . There, I’ve said it. I know, shocking isn’t it? A...