Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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An affront to history: Giro d’Italia’s ‘sport-washing’ of Israel Apartheid
For the first time since its inception in 1909, the legendary Italian cycling race, Giro d’Italia kicked off outside Europe and, strangely enough, from the city of Jerusalem on 4 May. The inherent contradictions in that decision are inescapable. Italy is a country that has experienced a ruthless forging occupation...
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Eclipsing Factionalism: The missing story from the Gaza protests
The Gaza border protests must be understood in the context of the Israeli Occupation, the siege and the long-delayed ‘Right of Return’ for Palestinian refugees. However, they should also be appreciated in a parallel context: Palestine’s own factionalism and infighting. Factionalism in Palestinian society is a deep-rooted ailment that has, for...
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Gazan Gandhis: Gaza bleeds alone as ‘Liberals’ and ‘Progressives’ go mute
Three more Palestinians were killed and 611 wounded last Friday, when tens of thousands of Gazans continued their largely non-violent protests at the Gaza-Israel border. Yet as the casualty count keeps climbing – nearly 45 dead and over 5,500 wounded – the deafening silence also continues. Tellingly, many of those...
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The Ghost of Herut: Einstein on Israel, 70 Years Ago
Albert Einstein, along with other Jewish luminaries, including Hannah Arendt, published a letter in the New York Times on December 4, 1948. That was only a few months after Israel had declared its independence and as hundreds of Palestinian villages were being actively demolished after their inhabitants were expelled. The letter denounced...
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Media cover-up: Shielding Israel is a matter of policy
The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the western corporate media’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partiality. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demonizing Palestinians. The current disgraceful coverage of...
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Why Israel feels threatened by popular resistance in Palestine
Why did Israel kill many unarmed Gaza protesters and wound over 2,000 on Friday, March 30 and on the following days, when they clearly posed no threat to Israeli soldiers? Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, many of them snipers, were deployed to the deadly buffer zone that the Israeli army has...
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Rim Banna and the cultural war that Palestinians must win
Rim Banna passed away at the age of 51. Her death on 24 March, after a decade-long battle with cancer, brought grief to Palestinians everywhere. Rim, a Palestinian Christian from Nazareth, united the Palestinian people across political and geographic divides. When she sang for the homeland, nothing mattered but Palestine. Christians...
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The last ‘peace process’ warrior: Abbas hanging by a thread
The “deal of the century” is a farce. We suspected that, of course, but, upon his return from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in more detail why the long-anticipated plan of the administration of US President Donald Trump has no basis in reality. Netanyahu told his Cabinet that...
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Who wants to kill Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah?
On March 13, while on his way to the besieged Gaza Strip, two 33-pounds bombs targeted the convoy of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah. Hamdallah was visiting Gaza, through the Israeli border checkpoint, Erez, to open a large sewage treatment plant that, if allowed to operate regularly, will make...
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Will Israeli policies change if Netanyahu leaves office?
If scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, exits his country’s political scene today, who is likely to replace him? And what does this mean as far as Israel’s Occupation of Palestine is concerned? Netanyahu, who is currently being charged with multiple cases of corruption, misuse of government funds and public...
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Ahed’s generation: Why the youth in Palestine must break free from dual oppression
As global voices continue to demand the freedom of 17-year-old teenage Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, Israeli authorities have arrested nine additional members of her family. Those who were detained on February 26 include Ahed’s 15-year-old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi. Israeli troops had shot Mohammed in the head last December, shattering his skull....
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Netanyahu’s corruption: How Israeli journalists project Israel’s crimes on to Palestinians
In an article published in Al-Monitor without a single verifiable citation, Israeli journalist, Shlomi Eldar, went to unprecedented lengths to divert attention from the corruption in his country. He spoke of Palestinian journalists – all speaking on condition of anonymity – who “applauded” and “admired” Israeli media coverage of corruption...
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More than a fight over couscous: Why the Palestinian narrative must be embraced
As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad “inspired by the flavours of Palestine”, a controversy ensued. Israel’s supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine. In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist – nor...
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Shababeek: Opening the Window to Palestinian Refugees
Following the signing of the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, Palestinian refugees vanished off the radar. The most pressing of all issues pertaining to the decades-long struggle and suffering of Palestinians became the least relevant, most marginalized. No Palestinian refugee community was hit...
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The Boomerang Effect: How Netanyahu Made Israel an American Issue, and Lost
Despite massive sums of money spent to channel public opinion in the United States in favour of Israel, unmistakable trends in opinion polls are attesting to the changing dynamics of Israel’s support among ordinary Americans. Not only is Israel losing its support and overall appeal among large sections of American...
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Foreign policy for sale: Greece’s dangerous alliance with Israel
For a brief historical moment, Alexis Tsipras and his political party, Syriza, ignited hope that Greece could resurrect a long-dormant Leftist tide in Europe. A new Greece was being born out of the pangs of pain of economic austerity, imposed by the European Union and its overpowering economic institutions –...
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‘Whitewashing’ Genocide in Myanmar
Although the genocide of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has gathered greater media attention in recent months, there is no indication that the international community is prepared to act in any meaningful way, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded in border camps between Myanmar and Bangladesh. While...
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The trials of Africa and the real Dr King they want us to forget
On 15 January, millions of Americans commemorated Martin Luther King’s Day. His famous speech, ‘I Have a Dream’ was repeated numerous times in media outlets as a reminder of the evil of racism, which is being resurrected in a most pronounced way in American society. But that is only one...
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In words and deeds: the genesis of Israeli violence
Not a day passes without a prominent Israeli politician or intellectual making an outrageous statement against Palestinians. Many of these statements tend to garner little attention or evoke rightly deserved outrage. Just recently, Israel’s Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel, called for more death and injuries on Palestinians in Gaza. “What is...
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Israel step closer to making Jerusalem Jewish-only city
The Israeli government is planning a series of measures aimed at fully denying Palestinians their legal rights in Jerusalem and precluding any future peace settlement based on sharing the city between Israel and a future Palestinian state. One of the most aggressive measures to date is a bill that was...
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Shadow armies: The unseen, but real US war in Africa
There is a real – but largely concealed – war which is taking place throughout the African continent. It involves the United States, an invigorated Russia and a rising China. The outcome of the war is likely to define the future of the continent and its global outlook. It is...
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Year in Review: Will 2018 Usher in a New Palestinian Strategy?
2017 will be remembered as the year that the so-called ‘peace process’, at least in its American formulation, has ended. And with its demise, a political framework that has served as the foundation for US foreign policy in the Middle East has also collapsed. The Palestinian leadership and its Arab...
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Whitewashing: The media’s two narratives on terrorism
Within hours after Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant, allegedly detonated a pipe bomb in New York City on 11 December, severely injuring himself and wounding four others, a most comprehensive official and media narrative emerged. The formulation of the narrative concerning Ullah’s motives, radicalisation and assumed hate for the US...
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Towards a new Palestinian beginning
Now that the American mask has completely fallen, Palestinians require an urgent rethink in their own political priorities, alliances and national liberation strategy. Business should not go on as usual after US President Donald Trump accepted Israel’s definition of Jerusalem as its capital, thus violating the overwhelming international consensus on...
