Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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The US President is authorised to invade The Hague if any Israeli is held by the ICC
On Monday, 20 May, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that his office is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, triggering a fierce competition among the American Republican law makers. Almost all of them went to work in drafting...
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Libya is under the spotlight again, but for all the wrong reasons
Libya, over last few weeks, has been creeping back into the headlines after being out for while, as the political process in the fractured country stalled and the United Nations’ efforts to bridge the gap between its ever-disagreeing politicians failed. Despite too little being worthy of news headlines is...
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Biden sanctions a few Israeli settlers, but what about the 1000s of US citizens in occupied Palestine?
The entire issue between the Palestinians and Israelis is about Israel’s occupation of Palestine; occupier and occupied. It’s not rocket science, and if the so called “two-state solution” is to see the light of day, Israel’s illegal Jewish settlements and settlers must leave the West Bank and East Jerusalem...
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Iran didn't attack Israel, it acted in self-defence
On 1 April Israeli fighter jets bombed the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing seven people described by various media outlets as “members” of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Among the dead was Brigadier-General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. As is usually the case, Israel never confirmed or denied that it carried out...
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UN envoy to Libya resigns, further complicating already complicated reconciliation
On 16 April, the United Nations envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, tendered his resignation to his boss, Secretary-General António Guterres, shortly after briefing the UN Security Council, for the last time, on the situation in Libya. Mr. Bathily, whose account on X, formerly Twitter, still says he is the...
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Hypocritical Arab and Muslim countries help Israel kill more Palestinians while condemning it
Most countries in the world, big and small, have expressed their condemnation and outrage at the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, ongoing for the last 194 days. In diplomatic language or just blunt wording, like South Africa, each state has told Israel what it thinks of its military...
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The unenviable position of the Palestinian Authority
The position of the Palestinian National Authority, known as the PA, has really been very awkward, to say the least. Here, the top Palestinian Authority, supposedly representing all the people inside and outside Palestine, is standing helpless and hopeless, while Israel, its “partner in peace”, slaughters, maims and jails...
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Why Israel insists on defending its lies about the October attack
When you try something and find out it is useless, it is stupid and much more useless to continue with it. At least, that is logic and that is how the human brain works. Not in Israel, though. Since the 7 October attack on its military bases and semi-militarised Kibbutzim,...
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How Gaza has changed the world and how to sustain the momentum it has created
Since October 2023, the entire world is clearly making its voice heard about Gaza, over and over again, and in many different ways. Wherever one looks around the world, one is likely to see people supporting Gaza, calling for a ceasefire, demanding aid flow into the Palestinian enclave, while...
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People power: The people against Israel’s occupation and genocide
On Sunday 25 February, 2024, Dyab Abou Jahjah was in his home with his family in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, when his doorbell rang. He opened the door to find three men standing at the doorstep. They were plain clothes police officers. The short interview started and finished on...
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Palestine taking centre stage in local elections is a warning to Israel and its friends
History is, sometimes, made in unexpected ways, in unknown places, by the few, to be remembered by the many. This is exactly what happened in the Borough of Rochdale in the Greater Manchester area in the North-west of the United Kingdom—a small place, hardly appearing on the map, yet...
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UNRWA means more than a sack of rice and bowl of soup
Israel is upset and when it gets upset the entire world must take note and do something to make little sweetie Israel happy. But what is the “only Jewish state” angry about that the rest of us can change to make it smile again? Nothing much. It just wants...
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A eulogy of innocence
The little girl begged the civil defence phone operator to come and rescue her. “Come take me, I am afraid,” pleaded the six-year-old child. The helpless phone operator tried to calm her down. “I am coming to take you,” she said, before leading her in reading Surah Fatiha, the...
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Foreigners fighting for Israel in Gaza are war criminals and mercenaries. Period
You are a terrorist if you support Hamas, but a war hero if you kill defenceless Palestinians kids....
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Danish revelations about Libya bombing 13 years ago could help victims’ families
Recently released documents show that Denmark’s Ministry of Defence has known about at least two air strikes in two different cities in Libya in which at least 14 civilians were killed during NATO’s air campaign. Denmark, a NATO member, took part in the alliance’s air strikes to topple the...
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Libya has no place for its young
In Libya today, according to the United Nations, there are around 1.1 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. That is some 51.4 per cent of the entire population of the North African country, estimated to be between 6.3 million and seven million people, depending...
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Impact of South Africa versus Israel genocide case before the World Court
When South Africa filed its case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of violating the International Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, few observers saw the repercussions of the case on the rest of the world. In the Global South, the case not only made history,...
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United Nations and Libya: when managing failures becomes the ultimate goal
The United Nations Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) was established in 2011 as Libya descended into chaos and lawlessness, starting in February 2011 when hundreds of young Libyans took to the streets demanding reform, jobs, housing and better living conditions. Before the end of the first week of protests, what...
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Why Israel has kept peddling the false narrative of Iran involvement in the October attack
The Israeli propaganda narrative linking Iran to Hamas’s 7 October attack has all but receded, after dominating the headlines in the aftermath of the attack and continuing for, at least, throughout October. It has not been completely forgotten, though. Instead, it is being replaced by a more fitting narrative...
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2023 was annus horribilis for the West with the Hamas attack delivering further miseries
Undoubtedly, 2023 has been a rather difficult year for the West, from Gaza to Ukraine and back to the African Sahel. The West’s geopolitical objectives and overall influence on the global stage are diminishing, if not in disarray. In the Middle East, the West, particularly the United States, wanted to...
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What is the ‘Hannibal Directive’ and how Israel uses it
On 15 December, an Israeli military spokesman told a press conference that the army had killed 3 Israeli hostages by mistake. All three victims were part of the 240 taken by Hamas fighters on 7 October. The Israeli official narrative goes like this: the three men emerged from a...
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Administrative detention is inherited from the British, perfected by the US and abused by Israel
Last month Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal with Hamas in which the latter released 105 hostages held in Gaza. Most of the released Palestinians were women and children, and almost all of them were held under Israeli’s so-called administrative detention process, a legacy of...
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How Israel turned world opinion against itself
Propaganda is an essential tool of war and can be as effective as actual fighting, as it helps sway public opinion one way or the other. Lies, though, are lies and, in many cases, fail even to be included in our understanding of propaganda since they are clear untruths...
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Israel’s mounting legal nightmares will make 2024 the hardest year for the Occupation State
For the first time in its bloody 75 year history, Israel could be facing its most serious legal troubles next year. The Jewish State finds itself facing two of the world’s top legal courts: first, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is due to give its legal opinion on...