Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Daud Abdullah
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Killing Palestinian children rises to an industrial level
Of all the many crimes for which Israel has gained notoriety, the killing of Palestinian children ranks among the most heinous. Time has not erased the memories of the long list of innocents killed in the most ghoulish manner. They include the 2000 killing of 12-year-old Muhammad Al-Durra cowering in…
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Israel’s endgame in Gaza, an impossible mission
Throughout the war on Gaza the weapon of disinformation has been used with lethal effect. From the beginning, Israel’s Western allies led the assault on global public opinion. Untruths about the beheading of babies and rape of Israeli women were repeated and overblown without verification. Other fabrications that continue to…
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LFI’s recycled proposals have long been discredited
The Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) could not have chosen a worse time to release their briefing paper on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In the ten days that preceded the release, Israel had bombed eight UNRWA schools in Gaza.…
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Will Labour’s ‘change’ agenda include Palestine?
Throughout their election campaign the “changed Labour Party” solemnly promised to change the way politics is done. Now, with their absolute majority in parliament, Britons are rightfully expecting a meaningful change of government policy toward Palestine. Armed with all the levers of power there is no justification for the new…
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Together they arise, united against apartheid
The Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler-colonialism, from Balfour to Biden, is one of the most well-documented of all liberation struggles. Recent attempts to misrepresent its origins, development and significance have been thoroughly exposed and discredited. Israel’s narrative of the 7 October [2023] events is one episode that falls squarely into…
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‘We will never negotiate under pressure’, ex-Cuba envoy to US says
Jose Ramon Cabañas Rodriguez served in the Cuban diplomatic service for 37 years. In 2015 he became his country’s first ambassador to the United States in 50 years. During his long and distinguished career, Cabañas was involved in some of the most difficult diplomatic challenges Cuba faced in recent decades.…
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Britain’s missed opportunity to redeem itself
This year’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was yet another missed opportunity for Britain. There were no messages of support or atonement from Whitehall for the tragedy it inflicted on the Palestinian people when it enabled the UN partition of their land on 29 November 1947. Quite…
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What does the Iron Dome debate say about American politics?
There was a time when Israel’s requests for US aid, military or otherwise, were granted spontaneously and unreservedly. That is no longer the case. While the majority members of the House of Representatives and Senate remain staunchly committed to Israel’s security, a growing number are bucking the trend. Tel Aviv’s…
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Does Israel want to end its forever wars in Gaza?
Israel is finally waking up to the stark reality that it can no longer continue with its forever wars in Gaza. This was the critical message from Foreign Minister Yair Lapid when he spoke at a conference at Reichman University in Herzliya last weekend: “The State of Israel has a duty to tell its…
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Africa’s struggles with decolonisation are being replayed in Afghanistan
Within minutes after it was taken, the photo of US Major General Chris Donahue boarding a C-17 plane in Kabul went viral. The 20-year war had ended in a humiliating defeat and the retreat of the world’s most powerful army. That image evoked memories of the summer of 1962 when…
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Whether it’s Afghanistan or Palestine occupations don’t last forever
Establishing an army or security apparatus to serve the interests of an occupying power is no easy task, not even in the best of times. The US has finally come to this realisation, albeit reluctantly. Recent events in Afghanistan confirm this. Just 14 years ago, the US-funded security forces led…
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Dispelling the myths about refugees in Europe
The great floods which recently decimated parts of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands were much more than a warning on the perils of climate change. They also revealed some truths about political and social trends in Europe. In Germany, images of the “Syrian Volunteer Helpers” wading through mud and clearing…
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Saudi Arabia saw Turkey as a security guarantor in 2011, why not in 2020?
This is one of the uncomfortable questions raised by the newly declassified Clinton files. A diplomatic dispatch to the former Secretary of State dated 12 October 2011 revealed that the Saudis actually considered Turkey to be a possible security guarantor after the discovery of an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate…
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Britain’s colonial legacies and broken promises
Britain’s dramatic change of policy toward China has been underpinned by two charges. That Beijing violated its international treaty obligations in Hong Kong and secondly, that it has engaged in appalling human rights violations against its Uyghur population in Xinjiang Province. Seen from London, China’s National Security Law in Hong…
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Having refused negotiation, the Blockading Four must bear the consequences of arbitration
A press release issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 14 July described its judgement against Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE as “final, without appeal and binding on the Parties.” Since June 2017, the four countries have imposed a land, air and sea blockade against the State…
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Egypt deserves better
In August 2016 The Economist magazine published a leader article titled “The ruining of Egypt;” it spoke of a dangerous mix of repression and economic incompetence and the likelihood of another uprising. Since then, former Army General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has tightened his grip on power in such a manner…
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Annexation is still inadmissible, even by Israel
Israel’s project to annex 40 per cent of the occupied West Bank is hanging in the balance. Without the long-awaited green light from the Trump administration, it will remain stalled. After his abysmal mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, recent polls show the president is consistently…
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Palestine remembers Morsi
Anniversaries are usually occasions for reflection and soul searching and the first anniversary since the passing of Mohamed Morsi is no exception. It evokes memories of his life and times, which culminated as Egypt’s first democratically elected civilian president. For Palestinians, his one year in office was filled with hope.…
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Take back control from America too
Nothing new has come out of the virtual visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories by James Cleverly, Britain’s Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. It was simply more of the same, laden with symbolism but lightweight on substance. Palestinians have every right to be disappointed. Nonetheless,…
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The US has no right to claim leadership of the free world
Donald Trump’s refusal to address the legitimate grievances of America’s black population has underscored, yet again, why his country does not qualify to be the ‘leader of the free world.’ Until the systemic racism that underpins American society is eradicated, its claim to world leadership will continue to ring hollow…
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Israel’s flirtation with football stars won’t stop cultural boycott
Cultural boycott is one of the most effective methods of peaceful protest against institutional racism. It was used successfully against South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1980s. In order to prevent a similar fate, Israel has stepped up its charm offensive to woo celebrities from the entertainment industry and more…
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The truth about Corbyn and the Rabaa massacre
Desperate people do desperate things. They often discredit themselves and undermine their causes. Jeremy Corbyn’s critics fell into this trap when they attempted to smear him by publishing a photograph of him making the Rabaa hand gesture. The Daily Telegraph, one of several newspapers to publish the photo, believes it…
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Israel should back-off; Africa does not need a modern colonial master
The Twittersphere went into overdrive immediately after the cancellation of the controversial African-Israeli summit. “When you are on an Apartheid selling roadshow Africans don’t buy it,” tweeted the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In doing so, the South Africans had actually spoken for the whole continent. Having…
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A challenge from the Palestinian diaspora
The Palestinians Abroad Conference in Istanbul has presented nothing less than a challenge to the national authority installed and supported by Israel’s allies in Ramallah. Despite the best efforts of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Palestinians from the diaspora getting together in this way, well over 4,000 men and women…