Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Daud Abdullah
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Ban Ki-moon must do the honourable thing and resign
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s condemnation of Syria’s starvation policy is welcome. He was absolutely right to make clear that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. However, he seems to have overlooked the situation in the Gaza Strip, where two million Palestinians have...
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Although 2016 looks bleak for Gaza, there is a chink of light
Throughout the whole of 2015 the Rafah Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was open for just 21 days. On 31 December, the Egyptian authorities opened the border to deliver the corpse of a 28 year-old mentally-ill Palestinian, Ishaq Khalil Hassan, who was shot in full view of...
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Israel wants to treat Sweden as a banana republic
Diplomatic spats between Sweden and Israel have become a regular occurrence. Ever since the Scandinavian country recognised the state of Palestine in October 2014 relations between Stockholm and Tel Aviv have gone from bad to worse. At the heart of this stand-off is Sweden’s determination to pursue an independent...
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Abbas must be aware of the Arab-Israel threat
Time is running out for Mahmoud Abbas, the embattled President of the Palestinian Authority. Israel and the US are outraged because after two months he has failed to end the intifada in the occupied West Bank. US officials fear that the uprising could spiral out of control and make...
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The net is closing around Israeli war crimes suspects
Three and a half years have passed since Archbishop Desmond Tutu refused to share a platform with Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. The veteran anti-apartheid campaigner believed that Blair’s actions over the war in Iraq were both “morally indefensible” and criminally culpable. Apart from the dreadful consequences...
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Policy Paper: Building Solidarity for Palestine in Latin America
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies & Consultations presents the paper “Building Solidarity for Palestine in Latin America”, by Dr Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor. For more than 100 years, Palestinians and Latin Americans have been linked by a common aspiration for independence. That relationship is set to continue well into...
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The ANC and Hamas stand shoulder to shoulder against apartheid in Palestine
Whatever political and practical weaknesses it may have, there are some things that will remain forever constant within the African National Congress (ANC). Opposition to apartheid is one of them. It was, therefore, quite natural that South Africa’s ruling party should host leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement...
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Israeli lies will not deceive the British public
Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, scored a spectacular own goal with his recent article in the Guardian. In doing so, he caused considerable damage to the credibility of the newspaper and its editorial policy. It is astonishing that an item so factually incorrect and wilfully misleading could...
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Netanyahu is on the path of self-destruction
He has spent his entire political career preaching about threats to Israel’s security. When it was not “Palestinian terrorism” it was the Iranian nuclear programme. Now, Israelis are waking up to the dreadful reality that it is really their own Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who poses the main “existential...
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Like Brezhnev in Afghanistan, Putin will fail in Syria
President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch airstrikes against targets in Syria has effectively changed the rules of engagement in the war-torn country. In the long run, this may well be the most serious miscalculation that the Russian leader has made in his whole career. In some ways the gamble is...
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One more nail in the PLO’s coffin
When the chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) called a meeting of the body for 15-16 September the date reverberated darkly, for it was on 16 September 1982 that the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia, acting with the support of the Israeli army, perpetrated the Sabra and Shatila massacre...
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Latin America and Palestine have shared interests, so let’s build on them
This weekend, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) will be hosting an international conference on Palestine and Latin America around the theme “Building solidarity for the 21st century.” Though not the first of its kind, this event is convened at an important juncture in the history of the people of both...
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Even if Blair is not befriending Hamas, look for a new beginning
Do Tony Blair’s shuttle visits to Doha for meetings with the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement — Hamas — mean that he is about to befriend the Palestinian group? The short answer is no, with a capital “N”. They must not for one moment be interpreted as a...
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What does the trial of Hissene Habré mean for Egyptians?
From 1982 until 1990, he ruled his sub-Saharan desert country with an iron fist. Twenty-five years after he was overthrown, the ex-president of Chad, Hissene Habré, is being tried before the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. His trial undoubtedly...
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Why Jeremy Corbyn is a serious contender to lead Labour
Jeremy Corbyn’s entry into the race to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party was, initially, dismissed as a publicity stunt. With just over one month left before the poll takes place, he has emerged as the front runner and a serious contender for the job. In an...
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Netanyahu under pressure to repatriate captives held in Gaza
Over the past ten months, Israel’s right-wing government has maintained a news blackout about the disappearance of two of its citizens in the Gaza Strip. However, on the first anniversary of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge offensive last summer, the lid has been lifted on the situation dramatically. Although we...
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Sorry AIPAC, but Washington has given BDS a boost
Nothing that Israel does to stop the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign seems to be working, not even in Washington, where support for Israel is often taken for granted. President Barack Obama’s decision to sign into law a Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) renewal bill this week was,...
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The politicisation of the judiciary is not confined to the Middle East
Whenever the term “politicisation of the judiciary” is mentioned one immediately thinks of Iraq under Nouri Al-Maliki or Egypt under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. This dangerous, and sometimes deadly, disease is not, however, confined to the Middle East. It is spreading and now threatens the health and wellbeing of Western...
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Speaking to the enemy, but why now?
Palestinian and Egyptian media agencies reported this week that the outgoing Quartet Envoy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Khaled Meshaal in Doha recently. Since neither party has confirmed or denied the reports, it seems very likely that the two men did actually meet. Was it surprising...
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Never mind Israel, it's time to show the red card to the PA
For many observers, the fact that Sepp Blatter was re-elected as president of FIFA came as no surprise. As expected, he was determined to stay in office despite the arrests and corruption charges this week. That Israel, unlike the European countries, supported Blatter’s candidacy is also not surprising; it...
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Segregated buses may be off the Israeli agenda, but there’s a long way to go for real equality
The name Rosa Parks is one that is forever enshrined in the annals of Afro-American history. She was the courageous woman who refused to give up her seat for a white man on an Alabama bus in December 1955. For her action she was arrested and charged with civil...
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Reconciliation is meaningless without participation
When former US President Jimmy Carter offered to mediate between Fatah and Hamas two weeks ago, few observers expressed much optimism. While one of the parties, Hamas, welcomed the initiative, the other, Fatah, chose to send mixed signals that gave no reason to be hopeful. My sources within Hamas’s political...
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Important lessons from the Birzeit University elections
The conduct of public opinion polls may not be as well-entrenched in the Middle East as it is in the west but there are no doubt other credible means to gauge the public mood of which, in Palestine, university elections are one. This week the pro-Hamas “Wafa” bloc of...
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Veolia had no choice but to call time on its Israeli contracts
The decision by Veolia to end its operations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories sends a strong signal to similar multinationals that profiteering from Israel’s occupation industry is a risky business. It can only be a matter of time before they will also have to choose between small...