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Jamal Kanj

Jamal Kanj is the author of Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books. He writes frequently on Arab world issues for various national and international commentaries. A version of this article was published on Al Mayadeen TV

 

Items by Jamal Kanj

  • Dilly-dallying must stop...

    On January first, it will be 50 years since the start of the modern Palestinian revolution; and on the 15th it will be 10 years since Mahmoud Abbas was first, and last, elected as the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Two years after becoming a non-member UN state, the...

  • Ethnic cleansing manifesto...

    Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and head of Yisrael Beitenu party published on November 28 a new manifesto outlining the party’s outlook for Israel. The updated platform entitled “Swimming Against the Stream” posted on Lieberman’s Facebook page demanded Israeli Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians “… to forfeit their Israeli...

  • Negotiations to end all peace...

    Following the historical recognition by the Swedish government, British legislators voted overwhelmingly on a non-binding resolution urging their government to recognise the state of Palestine. Ireland’s Seanad and Spain’s parliament passed similar motions on October 22 and November 18 respectively. Sweden, the home of the Nobel Peace Prize, has positioned itself...

  • Israeli Incremental genocide...

    It goes without saying that Gaza has taught the Israeli military a new lesson: the days of swift Israeli wars are over. While mostly one-sided, Israel has never before fought a war that lasted 50 days. The Palestinians (besieged by brothers and foes) were of no military match to...

  • An Islamic aberration

    Animals: was my instinctual response to photos of Syrian soldiers being executed by members of the so-called Islamic State (IS). The same gut feelings two days earlier to the news of the killing of American journalist James Foley in cold blood. My heart goes to Shirley Sotloff, the mother of...

  • Zionist lying unchecked

    Scene one: Disappearance of three illegal Jewish settlers in Hebron. Israel closes the West Bank, demolishes homes of supposed kidnappers, nonstop air raids on Gaza, kills two dozen Palestinians and imprisons more than 600 mostly newly released prisoners. Scene two: The kidnapped 15-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Abu Khudiar. Israel takes very...

  • The king of deception

    Outgoing Israeli president Shimon Peres talked in a recent interview about a peace agreement he reached with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in 2011. According to Peres, the Israeli prime minister rejected the draft understanding telling him “to wait a few days Tony Blair could get a better offer.” The President...

  • Intimidation of John Kerry

    Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon articulated publicly what Israeli leaders say privately: Give us your tax money, weapons and your veto power but “leave us alone.” He called the US peace efforts “not worth the paper it is printed on,” and accusing US Secretary of State John Kerry of being...

  • Maintaining Israel's demographic majority, but at what cost?

    In America, the Jewish community’s Anti-Defamation League (ADL) promotes racial integration, equality and multiculturalism within American society. The ADL and other Jewish organisations work closely at local levels with school administrators across the US to educate young children about the virtues of tolerance and multiculturalism. As a promoter of...

  • Nuclear irony is lost on the West

    It is ironic that Western nations seeking to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions are the same countries which sold nuclear technology to Tehran in the first place. Iran has worked with the US and Western nations since the 1950s to develop its nuclear energy capabilities. In 1975, German conglomerates Kraftwerk Union...

  • The real story of the Six-Day War

    Last Tuesday was the 45th anniversary of the outbreak of a war between Egypt and Israel that reshaped the Middle East. At 7.30am, on 5 June, 1967, 200 Israeli fighter jets took off in a massive surprise attack, neutralising Egypt’s air force on the ground before troops advanced to...

  • Syria on verge of civil war

    What started as an extension of the Arab Spring is pushing Syria to the verge of civil war. Bashar Al-Assad must stop deluding himself by blaming the frustration of the Syrian people on a foreign conspiracy. Indulging in such self-denial is what could eventually justify outside intervention. In addition, the...

  • US veto for sale

    Pre-empting Mitt Romney’s campaign visit to Israel, President Barack Obama last Friday signed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Co-operation Act of 2012. The bill was drafted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and co-sponsored by Israeli firsters Barbara Boxer and Howard Berman, of the US Senate and House...

  • By way of deception

    WESTERN and Israeli media are full of purported leaks giving details of the joint efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Ehud Barak to enlist reluctant military chiefs to their plan to attack Iran. All this is hogwash. Israel has no intention to move against...

  • 21st century robotic wars

    On the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a new “sanitised” kind of war is reshaping the future of America’s military industrial complex. The use of unmanned drones – robotic war – is carried out through a string of military sites stretching from the Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada...

  • Who gains from the latest anti-Islam film?

    ZIONISTS and right-wing Christian evangelists appear to be exploiting America’s freedom of speech to fuel sedition and hate between the people of two great religions. In response, right-wing religious elements are manipulating Muslims’ righteous indignation by turning lawful protests into uncontrollable violence. In the US, it is argued that inflammatory...

  • Another (made for Israel) global disaster derailed

    LAST August I predicted that as the US election drew closer, and as the President’s re-election became certain, a credible scenario would be for Israel to strike Iran, pre-empting Barack Obama’s new term in the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance at the United Nations (UN) General...

  • America is a partner in Israel's wars

    On 15 November, 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) National Council, a body representing all Palestinians, declared an independent Palestinian state. The gesture did not change life for Palestinians under occupation or in exile, but that wasn’t the intention. The pronouncement was sugar coating major, unreciprocated political concessions, for the...

  • Reconciliation and repression are incongruent

    Israel’s war on Gaza has not stopped since Palestinians exercised their democratic free will and voted for Hamas in the 2006 election. The relentless warfare has alternated between overt bloody and covert muted, but let’s clarify some distortions. Contrary to most Western media reports, the current escalation was sparked by...

  • A supreme Morsi mess

    EGYPTIAN democracy is alive and well. That is about the only positive observation on the current pro-Morsi and counter-demonstrations in major cities across the country. President Mohamed Morsi’s pronouncement on November 22 granting himself supreme powers instigated the current crisis. His far-reaching decrees came on the heels of a Gaza...

  • Israeli settlements, unsettling realities...

    A DAY after the UN vote to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN, the right-wing Israeli government responded by adding 3,500 illegal Jewish-only homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel was blatantly defying more than two- thirds of the international community, which recognised Palestine as a state...

  • New Israeli Herods and Christians

    I’m writing from Finland this week, where the omnipresence of snow and festive Christmas lights heralds another celebration of the birth of Jesus. In parallel, the descendants of the first Christians in Palestine – the “Living Stones” – are marking another year of abominable Israeli occupation. Indulged with indifference to the...

  • Obama and the Israel Lobby

    The Israel Lobby is flexing its muscles against Barack Obama’s expected nominee to be the next Secretary of Defence. Frontrunner Chuck Hagel is co-chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Committee. Hagel was a Republican Senator representing Nebraska from 1996 until his retirement in 2008 and was one of...

  • Megalomaniac versus monomaniacs in Syria

    SYRIAN President Bashar Al Assad has a penchant for blaming outside conspirators for the troubles in Syria. While plausible, he is mistaken in linking public demands for political reform with presumed plots against his country. His pompous speech three weeks ago on a political resolution for the carnage in Syria was...