Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
-
On aid and war: How Israel has used starvation to subdue the Palestinians
Humanitarian aid should never be politicised though, quite often, the very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips. Sadly, Gaza remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the impoverished area virtually ‘unlivable’. That very term,...
-
The Altalena Affair: Is Israel heading towards a civil war?
Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 18 June, “There will be no civil war ,” he might be wrong. Netanyahu’s statement was made in the context of the growing popular protests in Israel, especially following the long-anticipated resignations of several War Cabinet Ministers, including Benny Gantz...
-
Armed vs. peaceful resistance - What you need to know about Muqawama in Gaza
The word Muqawama in Palestinian lexicon does not need elaboration beyond the immediate meaning it generates among ordinary Palestinians. Only recently, and specifically after the Oslo peace accords and the sudden infusion of western-funded NGOs, did such terms as ‘peaceful resistance’ and ‘non-violent resistance’ begin to emerge within some...
-
Growing up in Nuseirat – Where massacres become routine
I clearly remember my first day at an UNRWA school in a refugee camp in Gaza. I was five years of age. It felt like my life was over. The distance from Block 5 of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp to the New Camp – located within the municipal boundaries of...
-
Does Israel hold all the cards in Gaza?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is often criticised for failing to produce a vision for the “day after” the end of the Gaza war. Some of the criticism emanates from Israel’s traditional Western allies, who are wary of Netanyahu’s personal and political agendas, which are fixated on delaying his...
-
With America isolated, some Western capitals are shifting positions on Gaza
Spain joined South Africa’s case at the UN’s top Court on 6 June, accusing Israel of genocide. This move followed a decision by Madrid and two other western European capitals — Dublin and Oslo — to recognise the state of Palestine, thus breaking ranks with a long-established US-led Western...
-
Beyond two state solution - Why recognising the State of Palestine is important
In politics, context is crucial. To truly appreciate the recent decision by Ireland, Spain and Norway to recognise the State of Palestine, the subject has to be placed in proper context. On 15 November, 1988, Yasser Arafat, then Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, declared Palestine as an independent state. The proclamation...
-
The war is lost, so why is Netanyahu still killing civilians in Rafah?
Just hours after Israel carried out a gruesome massacre of displaced Palestinians in the Tel Al-Sultan area west of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on 26 May, it carried out yet another massacre in the Al-Mawasi area. The first is now known as the “Tents Massacre”. It took place...
-
The Global South has helped Palestine to challenge Western institutions
Even the most optimistic of political analysts did not expect that the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor would ever utter the words: “I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu… and Yoav Gallant… bear criminal responsibility for… war crimes and crimes against humanity…” Karim Khan included three Palestinians on...
-
For the Love of Gaza
When I first arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 24, 1994, I was both scared and torn by guilt. My fears were not merely those of any new immigrant trying to start a new life in some other place. As a Palestinian, the United States, as...
-
The latest Democracy Perception Index reveals shifts in global perceptions
The Democracy Perception Index (DPI) issued its 2024 report on 8 May, revealing important and interesting shifts in global perceptions about democracy, geopolitics and international relations. The conclusions in the report were based on the views of over 62,000 respondents from 53 countries, representing roughly 75 per cent of...
-
Nakba resurrected - How the Gaza Resistance ended segmentation of Palestine
Inadvertently, Israel has pressed the reset button on its war with the Palestinian people, taking back the so-called conflict to square one. Save a few self-serving Palestinian officials affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), most Palestinians do not seem consumed with the return to the peace process, or even engaged...
-
Beyond awards and accolades: Why Gaza journalists are the best in the world
By granting its 2024 World Press Freedom Prize to Palestinian journalists covering the Israeli war on Gaza, UNESCO has acknowledged a historic truth. Even if the decision to name Gaza’s journalists as laureates of its prestigious award was partly motivated by the courage of these journalists, the truth is that...
-
Israel wants to destroy Gaza and annex the West Bank, but what do the Palestinians want?
What is taking place in occupied Palestine is not a conflict between more or less equals, but a straightforward case of illegal military occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and outright genocide by one, heavily-armed side — Israel — against the largely unarmed other, the Palestinians. Those who insist on using...
-
Civilisational unity, not clash: How Gaza challenged Samuel Huntington's fantasies
Identity is fluid, because concepts such as culture, history and collective self-perceptions are never fixed. They are in a constant state of flux and revision. For hundreds of years, the map of the Roman Empire seemed more Mediterranean and, ultimately, Middle Eastern than European – per the geographic, or even...
-
What should we expect from the US intifada for Gaza?
The mass protests at dozens of US universities cannot be reduced to a stifling and misleading conversation about anti-Semitism. Thousands of American students across the country are not protesting, risking their own futures and safety because of some pathological hatred of the Jewish people. They are doing so because...
-
The ideological coup: How disciples of Kahane became the new face of Israel
Throughout history, fringe religious Zionist parties have had limited success in achieving the kind of electoral victories that would allow them an actual share in the country’s political decision-making. The impressive number of 17 seats won by Israel’s extremist religious party, Shas, in the 1999 election was a watershed moment...
-
Feeding war, killing peace: Why the US vetoed ‘Palestine’?
The outcome of the Palestine vote and the American veto at the United Nations Security Council on 18 April was predictable. Though European countries are becoming increasingly supportive of a Palestinian state, the United States is not yet ready for this commitment. These are some of the reasons that the...
-
NATO’s never-ending war: The 75-year-old bully is faltering
The western discourse on the circumstances behind the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 75 years ago, is hardly convincing. Yet, that over-simplified discourse must be examined in order for the current decline of the organisation to be appreciated beyond the self-serving politics of NATO’s members. The history records...
-
Cruelty of language: Leaked NY Times memo reveals moral depravity of US media
The New York Times (NYT) coverage of the Israeli carnage in Gaza, like that of other mainstream US media, is a disgrace to journalism. This assertion should not surprise anyone. US media is driven neither by facts nor morality, but by agendas, calculating and power-hungry. The humanity of 120 thousand...
-
When Namibia stands up to Germany, it shows that Gaza has revolutionised the Global South
The distance between Gaza and Namibia is measured in terms of thousands of kilometres, but the historical distance is much closer. This is precisely why Namibia was one of the first countries to take a strong stance against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Namibia was colonised by the Germans in...
-
Killing humanitarian workers as a strategy: Israel’s endgame in Gaza
Israel described its clearly deliberate killing of seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza on 1 April as a “grave mistake”, a “tragic event” of a kind that “happens in war”. Obviously, Israel was lying. In fact, this entire so-called war in Gaza — which is in reality a genocide...
-
Irremediable defeat: Israel’s other unwinnable war
Historically, wars tend to unite Israelis, but not any more. It’s not that Israelis do not agree with Benjamin Netanyahu’s war aims; they simply do not believe that the prime minister is the man who can win this supposedly existential fight. Netanyahu’s war remains unwinnable simply because wars of liberation,...
-
Beyond Political Saviors: The Biden-Trump Quandary
In his 2023 State of the Union address, US President Joe Biden, now 81, made lofty promises about tackling inflation, fighting climate change, reforming immigration policies and working for “more freedom, more dignity and more peace”. The implicit, but always obvious, message that Biden wanted to convey is that only...
