Middle East Near You

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s silence would be preferable to the ceremonial appropriation of the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle. On the 15th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, or possible murder,...

“The rain was not in a docile mood.” Huzama Habayeb’s opening sentence of her novel Velvet (Hoopoe Fiction, 2019), beckons the reader to delve into intertwining worlds: the extravagance...

The olive harvest in Palestine is an annual reminder of Israeli settler vandalism and violence. In 2018, the Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported on the extensive damage inflicted upon the...

Since allegations about the misconduct and corruption of some staff members at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) came to light, both defences and criticism...

It would be good if the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, defined his statement to the UN Security Council regarding Gaza, and which...

The Palestinian Authority’s promotion of its disengagement from Israel’s military occupation is mostly diplomatic jargon tied yet again to the two-state compromise. Whatever inference to resistance Prime Minister Mohammad...

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. True to form, UN, EU and Palestinian Authority representatives abandoned...

There is one thing the UN and its personnel would do well to keep in mind when pontificating about the purported peace process and to promote Israel’s security narrative:...

For decades, Palestine has been framed by international law. This convenient perspective, rendered mainstream by the international community and the Palestinian Authority, has made international law a weapon to...

The Zionist erasure of Palestinians from their landscape is no longer contested in the international arena. The dispossession of Palestinians is treated as a historical fact removed from their...

It was only a matter of time before the Palestinian Authority would renege on its word and accept the deducted tax revenues from the Israeli government. After all, the...

The European Union’s incoming Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has already signalled a continuation of the bloc’s prevailing politics when it comes to Palestine – preserve the two-state compromise...

US conspiracies against Palestine and the Palestinian people are allegedly for their benefit. In the words of outgoing US Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt though, with reference to all...

Before the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle became fragmented by concessions to Israel and the international community, Palestinian prisoners were considered an integral component of the struggle for liberation. After the...

Gardner Thompson’s book, Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel (Saqi Books, 2019) opens with a brief observation that contradicts all mainstream propaganda which spouts the...

The torture suffered by Palestinian prisoner Samer Arabeed at the hands of Israel’s Shin Bet interrogators has proved, once again, that the prohibition of such treatment as enshrined in...

The media has profited from pointing out the blunders of US President Donald Trump, yet it has failed persistently to draw attention to the connections between them which have...

The Joint List members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, have endorsed Benny Gantz to lead the next Israeli government following last week’s General Election. This is another betrayal...

The closest the international community ever got to an unequivocal condemnation of Israel’s settlement expansion since 1967 was through the UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016), albeit containing the...

The latest report on Palestine by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) displays the increasing deterioration of the Palestinian economy as a result of dependence upon...

Literature about Palestine by Palestinian authors is like a deluge of insights into what is missing from what we proclaim to know. Our knowledge is dominated by news reports...

If elected again, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, and the international community is scrambling to issue statements pointing out...

When the Great March of Return protests started in March last year, the Palestinian people’s call was clear, with a collective, entirely legitimate, demand to return to historic Palestine....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Hebron yesterday follows the plans to increase the settler presence in the city. Prior to the upcoming Israeli elections, Netanyahu continues to...

Despite financial setbacks caused by political agendas and misconduct allegations, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) ensured that its schools opened on time for the new academic year....

While the Amazon forest burns and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro continues to trade insults and blame, indigenous communities face displacement and annihilation. These communities pose the biggest obstacle to...

At the G7 summit in Paris, US President Donald Trump speculated publically about the purported “deal of the century”, which infuriated the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). If one had...

Official Palestinian media are playing a major role in disseminating Palestinian narratives, according to Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, that is. Departing from the fact that the Palestinian Authority and...

With the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) facing a financial deficit of $150 million, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat is calling upon the UN Secretary...

The Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic meetings with the US are a form of normalisation. In the last two years, the US has enabled Israel to fast-track its colonisation process, while...

The UN has advanced no further than acknowledging that Israel is seeking to “advance a claim of sovereignty” over settlements in the occupied West Bank. As the Israeli elections...

The Palestinian Authority has not ceased to display where its compromised loyalties lie. With each public statement or declaration, it is evident that the PA is working for diplomatic...