Expelled

Here's one I haven't made my mind up about.

A British man working for the charity Islamic Relief has been expelled by the Israelis. They accuse him of helping groups linked to Hamas. Read more here.

Islamic Relief have issued a categorical denial of the charges against them and Ayaz Ali, and it is, after all, possible that this can be taken at face value. If the Israeli military authorities have acted with counterproductive heavy-handedness it wouldn't be the first time.

On the other hand, the link at the end of Dumb Jon's post tells us that Mr Ali admitted the charges - not to mention the distinctly dodgy material found on his laptop.

It's interesting to note that Waseem Yaqub, UK director of Islamic Relief, popped up with a guest column in the winter issue of Christian Aid News - and as I recently argued, Christian Aid now sees advocacy for Hamas as part of its remit. One might suspect there is a pattern emerging here, and alliances being forged.

And as for the work that, as the unbiased BBC informs us, Mr Ali will be unable to carry on, thanks to the evil Israelis...

'According to colleagues, one of his projects was a toy and booklibrary for young Palestinian children.'

...we might recall some of the approaches to pre-school education current in the Middle East, before we automatically assume that this puts him on the side of the angels.

So I'm keeping an open mind.