Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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Africa must not abandon Palestine by granting Israel AU observer status
The current split in the African Union (AU) over Israel’s observer status within the organisation is emblematic of a larger conflict that has the potential to split the continent’s largest political institutions. Africa is currently facing one of its most crucial decisions regarding Palestine and Israel, the repercussions of...
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From Tantura to the Naqab, Israel’s roll call of shame is being exposed
A succession of events in recent weeks all point to the inescapable fact that nearly 75 years of Israel’s painstaking efforts to hide the truth about its origins and its racist apartheid regime are failing miserably. The world is finally waking up, and Israel is losing ground quicker than...
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Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua: The US-Russia conflict enters a new phase
As soon as Moscow received an American response to its security demands in Ukraine, it answered indirectly by announcing greater military integration between it and three South American countries, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. Washington’s response, on 26 January, to Russia’s demands of withdrawing NATO forces from Eastern Europe and ending...
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Instead of freeing Palestinian prisoners, new scheme aims at punishing their families
A scheme is under way to withhold or to reduce payments made by the Palestinian Authority to the families of Palestinian prisoners. According to Israeli media, the Biden Administration has requested that the PA entirely overhauls its support system of Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinian leadership had already expressed willingness...
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The Russians are coming: Are Beijing and Moscow at the cusp of a formal alliance?
It should matter little to the Chinese that American diplomats and a handful of their western allies will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. What truly matters is that the Russians are coming. The above is not an arbitrary statement. It is supported with facts. According to...
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Morality cannot be divided: How Netanyahu’s corruption has exposed Israel’s ‘democracy’
Former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his prosecutors are reportedly finalising the details of a plea deal that would practically water down, shelve, or drop altogether all three major corruption cases that have led to his high-profile trial in May 2020. If such news actualises, Israel would officially...
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Israel's Hasbara in Sheikh Jarrah: On Gilad Erdan's 'Terrorist' Rock and Faulty Logic
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, is leading his country’s anti-Palestinian propaganda, this time engaging in pre-emptive hasbara in anticipation of a Palestinian response to the ongoing evictions in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. “Would you consider it a terror attack if a rock like this...
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US doesn’t care for China’s Muslims: Boycotting the Olympics is about global competition
The diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games may go down in history as the official start of the cold war between the US, a handful of its allies and China. The American strategy, however, of using boycotts to pressure Beijing in the name of ‘human...
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How Israel’s ‘Facebook Law’ plans to control all Palestinian content online
It is ironic that even former right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had rejected a Knesset (Israeli Parliament) bill which proposed to give the government greater power to control and suppress online content. This was in 2016, and the bill was introduced by Netanyahu’s Likud party rival, Gideon Sa’ar. Some...
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In South Africa as in Palestine: Why we must protect the legacy of Desmond Tutu
Long before intersectionality became a prevailing concept which helped delineate the relationship between various marginalised and oppressed groups, late South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu said it all in a few words and in a most inimitable style. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be...
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The real ‘Doomsday Scenario’: How Palestinian hunger striker, Abu Hawash, forced Israeli concession
As soon as media reports emerged regarding a deal between Palestinian prisoner, Hisham Abu Hawash and the Israeli prison authorities, Israeli extremists, led by Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, angrily raided the Assaf Harofeh Hospital where Abu Hawash was being held. A Palestinian political activist, Abu Hawash, 41, is a father...
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Coming this 2022: Refugees, democracy and human rights
Although 2021 is now behind us, there are many issues that will linger for a while, or much longer, and will certainly dominate much of the news in 2022, as well. These are but a few of the issues. NATO-Russian brinkmanship Exasperated with NATO expansion and growing ambitions in the Black...
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As Israel plots an endgame in occupied Golan, Naftali Bennett should learn from the past
With Syria still embroiled in its own war, Israel has been actively rewriting the rule book regarding its conduct in the neighbouring Arab country. Gone are the days of the potential for the return of the illegally occupied Golan Heights to Syrian sovereignty in exchange for peace, as per...
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2021 in Palestine: A new generation has finally risen
At the onset, 2021 appeared to be another ordinary year, one of unrelenting Israeli occupation and continued Palestinian misery. While much of that remained true, the dynamics of the Israeli occupation of Palestine were challenged by an unprecedented sense of popular unity among Palestinians, not only in the occupied...
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Denying the Inevitable: Why the West Refuses to Accept China’s Superpower Status
An article by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times last July is a prime example of western intelligentsia’s limited understanding of China’s unhindered rise as a superpower. “Becoming a superpower is a complicated business. It poses a series of connected questions about capabilities, intentions and will,” Rachman wrote. To help us...
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Why is Israel Amending Its Open-Fire Policy: Three Possible Answers
At the outset, the Israeli military decision to revise its open-fire policies in the occupied West Bank seems puzzling. What would be the logic of giving Israeli soldiers the space to shoot more Palestinians when existing army manuals had already granted them near-total immunity and little legal accountability? The military’s...
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The US ‘Combating Islamophobia Act’ may signal a change towards hate crime
The result of a vote in the US House of Representatives on 14 December may signal a change in Washington’s approach to the social-political evil that is Islamophobia. However, we should not jump to hasty conclusions. Amazingly, Congress was nearly split on the vote. While 219 representatives voted in favour...
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Why is Israel allowed to own Palestinian history?
An investigative report in Haaretz — “Classified Docs Reveal Massacres of Palestinians in ’48 – and What Israeli Leaders Knew” — is a must-read. It should be read in particular by all who consider themselves to be “Zionists” as well as those who, for whatever reason, support Israel, anywhere...
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The Omicron shame: Why is the world punishing instead of helping Africa?
The decision by several governments across the globe to institute travel bans on seven African countries, starting on 27 November, due to the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was perceived to be hasty in the eyes of some and fully justifiable on medical grounds, in the view...
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On ‘Gassing the Arabs’ and other diseases: Is Israel a ‘Sick Society’?
For whatever reason, some mistakenly perceive the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, as liberal, progressive, and even ‘pro-Palestinian’. Of course, none of this is true. This misconstrued depiction of an essentially Zionist and anti-Palestinian newspaper tells of a much bigger story of how confusing Israeli politics is, and how equally confused...
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Belgium is on the right track, but Europe has failed Palestine
The Belgian government’s decision on 25 November to label products made in illegal Israeli Jewish settlements is welcome, although it will ultimately prove ineffectual. Belgium has historically shown solidarity with Palestine if compared to other European countries, for example, Britain, Germany and France. From the cancellation of trade missions to...
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Elitism is not the answer to populism: On ‘anti-vaxxers’ and mistrust in government
While “anti-vaxxers” continue to clash with police in various European cities, a whole media discourse has been formulated around the political leanings of these angry crowds, describing them in matter-of-fact terms as conspiracy theorists, populists and right-wing fanatics. While it is true that populist, right-wing movements throughout Europe and elsewhere...
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We do exist: Why the Palestinian voice should take centre stage
At a recent New York event, the President of the Foreign Press Association Ian Williams declared, before an approving audience, that it is time “to reclaim the narrative on Palestine”. This phrase – ‘reclaiming the narrative’ – is relatively new to the Palestinian discourse. Years ago, the concept, let alone...
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Raids, Arrests and Death Threats: Israel’s Strategy of Silencing Human Rights Defenders
On 21 October, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz announced the issuance of a military order designating six prominent Palestinian human rights groups as ‘terrorist organizations’. Gantz claimed that they are secretly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a socialist political group that Israel considers,...
