Professor Kamel Hawwash

Professor Kamel Hawwash is a British Palestinian engineering academic based at the University of Birmingham. He is a commentator on Middle East affairs, Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and a founding member of the British Palestinian Policy Council (BPPC). He writes here in a personal capacity.

Items by Professor Kamel Hawwash

- February 7, 2017 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Trump’s status quo for Palestine-Israel isn’t so bad, unless you’re a Palestinian

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States appears to have emboldened Israeli politicians. Many clearly feel that their strongest ally will henceforth provide them with the chance to complete their colonial project and in the process end any hope of freedom or independence for the...
- January 16, 2017 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Only through unity can the Palestinians counter Paris and Trump

Many more air miles have been collected and many more fine dinners have been consumed in five-star Parisian restaurants off the backs of the Palestinian people, to bring together representatives of 70 countries at a conference to regurgitate the “only way forward” — the two-state solution — to solve...
- January 9, 2017 Professor Kamel Hawwash
UN resolution 2334 must be seen as a tool, not just a victory

The Palestinians were set to conclude that their cause had been severely damaged in 2016 when the UN Security Council delivered a timely Christmas gift on 23 December: Resolution 2334. The resolution declared the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be occupied illegally and that Israeli settlements in both areas...
- December 12, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
The Palestinians too should take back control of their destiny

2016 will be remembered for a new phrase that came to characterise popular uprisings against “the establishment” in the West. From the UK to the USA, “taking back control” struck a chord with the voters when it was adopted by Donald Trump in America and the leaders of BREXIT...
- December 5, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Palestinian Bedouins face Israeli discrimination from the river to the sea

Will they or won’t they and when? This has been the question being raised constantly over the past few weeks about Israel’s intention to expel the Bedouins of Um Al-Hiran village in the Negev. Their expulsion and the demolition of their village were to take place on Tuesday 22 November...
- November 7, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Israel’s ban on the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem is the tip of the iceberg

Something is in the air in Jerusalem and if Israel has its way it soon won’t be; the Muslim call to prayer – the adhaan – is under threat. The state which is built upon the ethnic cleansing of the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people is inching its...
- October 31, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Waleed Shaath is the two millionth reason for ending the siege on Gaza

The news that the population of Gaza has reached the 2 million mark was reported widely in the media but has stirred hardly any real action by the international community to ensure that Waleed Shaath — the milestone Palestinian baby — could look forward to a normal life. Waleed...
- October 15, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Lichfield Cathedral stands strong in the face of bullying by the pro-Israel Lobby

A few months ago I was invited to speak at a conference organised by an ecumenical planning group, to be hosted by Lichfield Cathedral on 7-9 October. The title of the conference was interesting: “Holding Palestine in the light: the context of the conflict”. My talk was titled, “Can...
- October 10, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Israel trumps Arab and Muslim world’s influence on US presidential candidates

As the United States’ presidential race enters its final stage, with elections due on 8 November, the two candidates have been making their final pitches to woo the voters in their direction. There is general agreement that the two candidates, US businessman and billionaire Donald Trump for the Republicans...
- September 26, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Israel’s attack on democracy for non-Jews from the river to the sea

If Israel is not lauding its army, the Israeli Defence Force, as the self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world”, it is claiming to be the “only democracy in the Middle East”. The IDF’s oppressive treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and its regular attacks on Gaza, the...
- September 23, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Netanyahu turns to ‘ethnic cleansing’ and sophistry to justify Israel's criminal acts

Having failed to convince most of the world to accept its colonisation of Palestine, Israel has been busy redefining the long standing meaning of words and phrases in the hope that their new definition becomes the accepted norm. Words and phrases such as terror, anti-Semitism, security, existential threat and,...
- August 29, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
If Israel wants to be treated like a normal state, it should act like one

Israel claims to be a Western-style “democratic” state but only certain inhabitants of the land it has controlled since 1967 - basically all of historic Palestine - have a right to vote in its elections...
- August 10, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Faced with a choice of peace and BDS, Israel chooses BDS

Israel’s recent decision to form a taskforce to target Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists for deportation is in stark contrast to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent claim that BDS had been defeated. Speaking at a special session of the State Control Committee on the Foreign Ministry and...
- August 6, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Britain should apologise for the Balfour Declaration, not 'celebrate' it

The Balfour Declaration is a letter from the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Walter Rothschild, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The critical part of this short letter said: “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national...
- July 15, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
What hope is there for Palestinians?

The exit of the UK from the EU raises uncertainty about the direction the EU will take on Palestine without the UK and indeed the UK's own direction....
- July 2, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
The two-state solution is dead; long live the two-state solution

The Middle East Quartet has released its long-awaited report and to no one’s surprise it is claiming that the two-state solution is “in danger”. It alleges that this “danger” comes from Palestinian terrorism and incitement, and Israeli settlement building and takeover of the West Bank’s area C. The report...
- May 30, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
Israeli society and its leaders are hastening its complete isolation

The news that the Israeli cabinet has confirmed the appointment of extremist settler and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as Defence Minister is troubling to Palestinians and their supporters. The leader of Yisrael Beiteinu is known for his hatred of Palestinians. In 2015, he said that “Israeli Arabs” who...
- May 3, 2016 Professor Kamel Hawwash
British Palestinians want anti-Semitism eradicated and sanctions on Israel

The current debate about alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and the ensuing clamour for eradicating this scourge from British politics is one that British Palestinians have followed with great interest; there has also been some concern. All British Palestinians I have spoken to over the past week or...

Professor Kamel Hawwash

Items by Professor Kamel Hawwash

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