Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Motasem A Dalloul
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Are the Israelis really helping the Palestinians?
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, hit out at the Palestinian representative at the international body at a Security Council meeting last Thursday because Riyad Mansour had blamed the Israeli occupation for the misery of the Palestinians. Mansour added that the occupation is undermining the Palestinian Authority’s...
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Coronavirus: Gaza copes efficiently despite severe resources shortage
As of 23 April, the number of coronavirus cases around the world has reached 2,699,462 and the number of deaths has peaked at 188,930. The numbers are still multiplying in many countries, posing grave challenges ahead of many countries, including the most developed, with the best medical equipment and...
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Sisi is using Covid-19 to increase his power, so pity the poor Egyptians
The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic is still with us, despite the efforts of governments and political leaders around the world, who have placed their countries in lockdown and suspended parliamentary sittings, normal economic activities and most domestic and international travel. Technology is being used to convene essential meetings to deal...
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Mr Bennett, don't teach us lessons about humanity
'The Israeli defence minister must know that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip put all their hostilities with the Israeli occupation aside and provided Israel with millions of medical face masks, while it faces an increasing outbreak of the coronavirus'...
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Netanyahu can’t be trusted, nor can Benny Gantz
Days after he was tapped by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to form the next government, the erstwhile head of the nominally centre-left Blue and White bloc, Benny Gantz, shocked everyone with an unexpected deal to join the government of his political rival and head of the right-wing Likud, Prime...
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Its coronavirus response provides more evidence of Israel’s racism
The coronavirus Covid-19 has spread around the world, with 372,757 confirmed cases and 16,231 deaths according to an updating dashboard run by the World Health Organisation. The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that it is “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread...
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Turkey’s battle in Idlib exposes US hypocrisy
On Sunday, Turkey and Russia launched their first joint military patrols along the strategic M4 highway, which connects Syria’s east and west. The patrols are part of a ceasefire agreement reached by the two countries at the end of last week that ended a Turkish operation in retaliation for...
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Abbas has enlisted the coronavirus in the battle against his political opponents
As the coronavirus continues to infect people around the world, the Palestinian Authority has announced measures to try to curb its spread in the occupied Palestinian territories. President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree for a state of emergency and has suspended the work of all PA ministries and institutions,...
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Who is betraying the Palestinians, Hamas or Abbas?
Donald Trump’s “peace plan” gives to Israel almost everything that it wants, while the Palestinians are to be bought off and given territorial crumbs from the occupation table. The “deal of the century” was criticised around the world as a prescription for perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, although many of...
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Netanyahu looks ready to do ‘anything’ to win next month’s General Election
It is a fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a fight for his political life, and doing everything possible to remain in the top job. Apart from anything else, he doesn’t want to go to prison for fraud and corruption. He has thus started to orchestrate mergers...
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Who is to blame for Tunisia’s political stalemate?
On Friday evening, Tunisia’s Ennahda movement announced its withdrawal from the talks on the formation of the government. “Ennahda has decided not to take part in the government or in a vote of confidence,” the Head of the movement’s Shura Council, Abdelkarim Harouni, told a press conference. Next day, Prime...
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A clash of former allies: Al-Sisi and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar
The venerable University of Al-Azhar in Cairo organised a two-day international conference on Islamic thought and practice at the end of January. Senior Egyptian and international scholars and politicians were invited to deliberate over the issue in a modern world. Sources within Al-Azhar said that the conference was organised under...
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The schizophrenia of Mahmoud Abbas as he looks for an ‘honourable end’
At the request of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Arab League held an emergency summit in Cairo on Saturday to discuss Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”. The US President’s plan envisages Israel’s annexation of major settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, with...
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This is America’s most generous deal ever for Israel
US President Donald Trump has revealed his long-awaited “deal of the century” which has been cunningly rebranded as a “peace plan” to bring “precise technical solutions” for the Palestinians and Israelis and make the Middle East “safer” and “much more prosperous”. He described it as a “win-win opportunity” for...
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Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist?
Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World...
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The Berlin conference benefited everyone except the Libyans
The international peace summit held in Berlin on Sunday to find a solution for the ongoing conflict between the UN-backed interim Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez Al-Sarraj and the renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Russia, France, Italy...
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Libya is blundering between Russia, US and the West’s interests
Confirmed calls for a ceasefire in Libya made by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin led the two sides of the conflict in the war-torn country to announce reaching a ceasefire agreement on 12 January. After discussions, the two sides agreed to sign the...
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US forces are unlikely to leave Iraq anytime soon
Just days after the US drone attack that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced that he had asked Washington to remove its troops from the country. Abdul-Mahdi said that he had asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “to send a delegation...
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Why did Hamas mourn Qassem Soleimani?
As soon as the assassination of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani was confirmed by the Pentagon, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement was among those mourning him and blaming the US for causing chaos in the region through its violations against the “resistance axis” in the Middle East, as well as...
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Israel fuels genocide and war crimes, and ‘turns blood into money’ via arms sales
Israel’s GDP was estimated at $387 billion in 2019, compared with $370 billion the previous year, and is expected to be $410 billion by the end of 2020. The Israeli economy is growing steadily which, when its size and population is taken into account, reflects outstanding economic progress. Breaking down...
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Gaza’s severe crises still unresolved approaching 2020
It was a very happy moment when the Palestinians knew that they would cast their votes in order to choose their representatives, after waiting a long time. They voted and unexpectedly, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, won the overwhelming majority of the parliament seats, but this was not...
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Turkey’s efforts to delimit its maritime boundaries have prompted a colonial response
At the end of November, after a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the head of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, the two countries announced that they have signed two memorandums of understanding. According to Anadolu news agency, the MoUs are related...
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Where is Hamas today, 32 years after it was founded
Hamas released its first statement on 14 December 1987, just five days after the start of the first intifada. The intifada was triggered when an Israeli lorry driver ran over a number of Palestinian labourers east of Gaza city while they were returning home after a long working day...
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Will Palestinians actually hold legislative and presidential elections?
The Palestinians have had some cause for optimism lately about holding democratic elections in the occupied Palestinian territories. This followed marathon meetings between the head of the Central Elections Committee (CEC), Hanna Nasir, and representatives of the Palestinian factions. After getting positive responses from both of the main factions –...