Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
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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...
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How Israel has grown up as the spoiled boy of the world
President Joe Biden once said, “If there were no Israel, the US would have to invent one.” When he first made the comment as Senator, back in 1986, he explained that it is in America’s interest to support Israel in this vital region of the world which produces over...
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This is how Palestinians, young and old, are taught to hate Israel
According to B’TSELEM, an Israeli Human Rights Organisation in the Occupied Territories, Israel has been holding 146 Palestinian minors in different jails, all on “security grounds”. This was up to September this year but, since then, the number has increased, particularly during the Israeli brutal war on Gaza...
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Did the Al-Aqsa Flood operation leave any margin for a ‘Two-state solution’?
After offering their initial unequivocal support for Israel’s “wiping out Gaza Strip”, instead of “wiping out Hamas off the face of the earth” as the declared Israeli war objective, almost all Western governments and political leaders started to talk about what should happen when the current Israeli madness ends....
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President Macron’s two surprises in a month have upset Israel and French diplomats
In less than one month, French President, Emmanuel Macron, surprised almost everybody within France, the European Union, the Arab world and certainly the left, right and France’s Middle East policy watchers. The latest group surprised and equally upset is France’s professional diplomatic community. The energetic French President, nicknamed “the President...
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In flattening the Gaza Strip, Israel’s bleak choices for the day after
Undoubtedly, the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation launched by Hamas and its resident allies on 7 October is already having profound repercussions that will shape the political and strategic thinking for years to come. For Israel, the day after will only compound current chauvinist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s problems and could...
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On being militant, terrorist and human animal
Western mainstream media has, for the last three weeks, covered the war on the Gaza Strip quite professionally, in most cases. Exceptions, though, come in the analysis and further comments on events, which tend to be biased against the Palestinians, despite the apparent suffering of civilians. Reporting about Palestine, in...
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Why is the Gaza Strip overcrowded?
Despite its biased coverage of the war on the Gaza Strip, the Western mainstream media has kept repeating one important fact by referring to the Strip of land as being “the most crowded place on earth”. However, as is usually the case, no answer is offered to the question...
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How do you wipe out a ghost army?
First it was Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, who announced to the world that Israel will “wipe out” Hamas off the face of the earth. The General went on to say “this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, will cease to exist.” He made the announcement after a war cabinet was...
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Lessons from resistance history far and near: Hamas and the unthinkable
Apartheid Israel has lots of soul searching and thinking to do as it tries to figure out how Hamas could have mastered such an attack on Palestinian land, occupied since 1948. How could such an organisation in the Gaza Strip enclave, under complete siege since 2007, prepare itself and...
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What is ‘Firing Zone 918’ and how Israel uses it to grab more Palestinian land
Israeli firing zones are usually closed military areas exclusively reserved for military training purposes. They are scattered all over the Occupied West Bank, encompassing many small and equally scattered Palestinian villages of mostly Bedouin communities. The idea of the creation of “firing zones” was the brainchild of Ariel Sharon when...
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Does Libya have the ability to hold accountable those responsible for the Derna disaster?
Libya’s Prosecutor General (PG), Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, on 15 September toured the flood devastated Derna, five days after it was struck by Storm Daniel, resulting in the killing, injuring and displacing of tens of thousands of people and washing away at least one quarter of the city into the sea. Entire...
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Western media is one-eyed when it comes to the Derna tragedy
Before reaching Libya on Sunday, 10 September, Storm Daniel passed through Bulgaria, Greece and Turkiye, leaving behind a trail of destruction and death. However, in all three countries the total number of people who perished was less than 20. The obvious question is what was so particular about Libya for...
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What the PA should and should not accept if the Saudis join the normalisers
It appears that the Biden administration is working on a tight schedule with one of its top foreign policy priorities: normalisation between its two Middle Eastern allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Next year, the administration will be totally consumed in the presidential campaign, since Joe Biden is seeking a...
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Election laws still a hurdle in Libya, while the UN Envoy likely to leave soon
On 2 September, 2022, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, announced the appointment of Abdoulaye Bathily, a former Senegalese Minister, as his Special Envoy to Libya, after almost a year since the previous envoy, Slovak Jan Kubis, resigned. Mr. Bathily’s appointment was approved by the UN Security Council on the...
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A secret meeting and fleeing Foreign Minister leave Dbeibeh in deeper trouble
One has to be naive to believe that Libya’s former Foreign Minister, Najla Al-Mangoush, unwarily and innocently walked into a meeting hosted by the Italian Foreign Minister and found Eli Cohen, Israel’s Foreign Minister, and, out of courtesy, shook his hand and that was it. This is what Ms....
