Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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The PA’s political contradictions are dangerous
Why does the Palestinian leadership never discuss the relationship between those responsible for the colonisation of Palestine and those who are complicit in its continuation? The PA remains locked in a cycle that ignores its own complicity with the international community and the Israeli occupation. Is the Palestinian Authority...
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Israel turns its diplomatic aggression against the international community
For decades since Israel established itself in Palestine, there has been no gradual relinquishing of slogans such as its “right to exist”. The Zionist colonial narrative, which is not only built upon the foundations of power imbalance, but also its preservation, maintains multiple possibilities to threaten and warn others,...
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The PA favours one form of normalisation over another
For all the rhetoric in which the Palestinian Authority tries to assimilate with the Palestinian people’s resilience, there is no reason to think that the Palestinian leadership is attempting a different political strategy. On the contrary, not even the compromise required of the PA by the international community has...
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The UN dismisses Palestinian activism to protect Israel
Since the normalisation agreements of the UAE and Bahrain with Israel were announced, the UN’s only response has been to communicate its approval for a new phase which, in international rhetoric, paves the way to reignite diplomatic negotiations for “peace”. The approach was beneficial for everyone except the people...
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The best hope for Palestine lies with its people
On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had the opportunity to deliver a powerful speech and back it up with a change in Palestinian politics. He did neither. On the contrary, Abbas’s mild criticism of the international organisation was mellowed...
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Abandoned regionally and internationally, will the PA analyse its shortcomings?
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, has said that it will forego its six-month presidency of the Arab League due to the organisation’s attitude towards the normalisation of relations with Israel at the expense of the Palestinian cause. “The State of Palestine has decided to relinquish and forsake...
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Palestinian narratives have been exploited to validate international designs on Palestine
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is reeking of fake accomplishments. The “conflict”, he has claimed, will be over with the normalisation agreements which Arab countries are seeking with Israel. Israel Hayom’s report is quite telling in several respects, notably the irrelevance of Palestinians as constructed by US-Israeli scheming,...
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The PA's legacy will be the thwarting of anti-colonial resistance
In the aftermath of the Arab League’s failure to condemn normalisation of relations with Israel, Palestinian unity is once again on the agenda. Whether this is a reaction to the realisation that Palestinians have been abandoned, or a sincere effort to bring politics to the people remains to be...
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In the interim before annexation, the international community is just not concerned
Reports in the Times of Israel indicate that the annexation of land from the occupied West Bank will be suspended until 2024, confirming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that annexation is still on the agenda. With a somewhat clearer picture of how Israel utilises delays for colonial gain, the...
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UAE-Israeli normalisation, ‘peace’ and the Nobel Peace Prize
Should we take the Nobel Peace Prize seriously? This year’s nominations include two polar opposites: Cuba’s Henry Reeves Brigade, whose medical interventions in the coronavirus context have placed the country’s internationalism on the world stage; and US President Donald Trump, nominated by a far-right Norwegian politician for his role...
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Rhetoric will eventually normalise Israel’s annexation plans
Prior to the UAE-Israeli normalisation agreement, when speculation over annexation of the occupied West Bank was rife, Israel’s Agriculture Minister Alon Schuster spoke in favour of “cultivating settlements”; his enthusiasm for breaking international law was shared by Defence Minister Benny Gantz. Such a move, according to Schuster and Gantz,...
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Palestinians need to discard and disregard US and international misrepresentations
Predictably, Donald Trump’s Senior Adviser Jared Kushner exhibited no historical discernment when justifying the normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE, and how this will affect the Palestinian people’s political rights. Palestinians, he declared, should not be “stuck in the past.” This was a sweeping statement typical not...
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The EU is rewarding Israel for merely postponing violations of international law
It was not a half-hearted scramble by the EU to get Israel to abide by international law, but rather another manoeuvre biding time to rekindle suspended diplomatic meetings. Following a meeting of Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi with his EU counterparts in Berlin, the bloc is seeking to reinstate...
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Sorry Abbas, but ‘bypassing the Palestinians’ is a tactic promoted by your PA
Following a brief interval in which all attention was focused on whether Israel would follow through with its annexation plans, world leaders are now back with their usual rhetoric about peace negotiations and “saving” the defunct two-state paradigm. The UN, of course, is at the helm of this narrative,...
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I Found Myself in Palestine
It is rare that we come across writings of how people identify with Palestine. Zionist colonisation has created both a displaced population and a contradiction in terms of affinity and belonging. I Found Myself in Palestine (Olive Branch Press, 2020) is a collection of narratives that explores the concept...
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Palestinians have human rights all the time, not just during this pandemic
Contrary to what the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Secretary-General Saeb Erekat stated confidently a few months ago, Israel has not stopped demolishing the homes of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, an agreement riddled with loopholes was reached in which Israel...
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Selling out Palestinians: From the UN to the PA
While Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) normalised relations, based upon a US-brokered deal, the United Nations (UN) in turn normalised this latest diplomatic aggression against Palestine, hoping it will: “Create an opportunity for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to re-engage in meaningful negotiations that will realise a two-state...
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The PA rises up to fail the Palestinians at every occasion
It is a pity that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas wasted so much time in declaring that no one has the right “to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people.” The statement was made within the context of the US-brokered deal normalising relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, which has allegedly stalled...
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Palestinians are deprived of a political voice, and their leaders do nothing about it
Palestinian refugees are at the core of Palestinian narratives. The international community has, however, classified Palestinian refugees as a humanitarian issue. In between these diverging depictions, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) seeks to grapple with both strands to push for “international protection” within the context of the coronavirus pandemic. With...
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Israel pushes to remove ‘occupation’ from the discourse, and Biden duly obliges
In perfect synchronisation with Israeli lobbying at an international level, pro-Israel organisations in the US have influenced Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden to remove references to the “occupation” from the party’s political platform. Biden’s intervention to ensure this change was interpreted as influencing party policy; any reference to...
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From the UN to Australia, Israel is making diplomatic inroads for colonial expansion
After five years as Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon has been appointed as the Zionist state’s Ambassador to Australia, although he still awaits official approval. Do the Australians know, I wonder, that back in 2011 Danon expressed anti-migrant sentiment and suggested to an Australian MP visiting Israel...
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The Palestinians are caught between ‘waiting’ and ‘the possibility’ of annexation
While the Palestine Liberation Organisation has been calling upon the EU to step up from rhetoric to action regarding Israel’s forthcoming annexation of occupied West Bank territory, Europe’s Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell invited Israeli Defence Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to Brussels to meet with the bloc’s foreign ministers. “While the...
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Palestinian Citizens in Israel: A history through fiction, 1948-2010
In the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, Palestinians have had to contend with different forms of erasure and fragmentation of Palestinian identity, while acquainting themselves, without choice, with a colonial reality which thrived upon exclusion. Manar Makhoul’s study regarding the evolution of Palestinian identity explored in Palestinian literature brings...
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Australia and Israel are two sides of the colonial legacy which undermines Palestinian rights
Like other countries prioritising international consensus and diplomatic relations with Israel simultaneously, Australia is trying to square a colonial circle. Whilst not averse to promoting the two-state paradigm and expressing “concern” at the forthcoming annexation, Australia also supports Israel against the International Criminal Court’s possible investigation into war crimes...