Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Canada's Prime Minister Harper passes Israel's loyalty test
The Canadian Prime Minister’s visit to Israel affirmed his political and diplomatic support for the Zionist state. In an atmosphere of mutual adulation, Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasised the imperialist concept of democracy, ignoring the subjugation of the Palestinians which Israel and its allies persist...
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Israel's policy of targeted assassinations and shifting the focus of blame
Israel’s practice of targeted assassinations against Palestinians, an evolution of ‘focused foiling’ or ‘liquidations policy’ by Israel, remains a contentious issue in the discourse on human rights and international human rights law. Perceived in a wider context, it is possible to discern a trend in the global media which fails...
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Financing humanitarian and human rights abuses
The popular dissemination that UNRWA provides ‘assistance and protection’ to Palestinian refugees helping them ‘to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight’ cannot be isolated from three important factors: Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, UN responses to Israeli atrocities and the mechanisms...
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Dismantling the myth of peace in Obama's discourse
Obama’s speech at the Jerusalem Convention Centre was the culmination of an attempt to further humiliate Palestinians. The affirmation of US support to Israel was imparted in selective rhetoric focusing on the necessity of Jews to struggle for the right to a national homeland. Israel is portrayed as an...
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Israel's impunity and its culture of torture
The recognition of torture in Israeli prisons is subject to a host of narratives, entrenching it within a distinct, yet hidden realm. Since the start of Israel’s illegal occupation, thousands of Palestinians have been tortured in a manner reminiscent of the macabre extravagance now associated with Guantanamo and Abu...
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A critical look at Zionist education and racism
Zionist narrative expects Israeli children to be imbued with a false sense of nationalism which is instrumental to the preservation of its illegally-acquired land. This abstract narrative, incorporating the unification of Jewish identity contrasted with the orientalist image of Palestinians, forms the basis of a culture based upon indoctrination...
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UNICEF's translation of torture to 'ill-treatment'
UNICEF’s report, Children in Israeli Military Detention, Observations and Recommendations, detailing the condition of Palestinian children detained in Israel’s military jails fails to address torture as a modus operandi, relying instead on euphemisms such as “ill treatment” or “duress” to describe solitary confinement, beatings and threats of sexual violence....
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Criticism of Israel's human rights record branded "anti-Semitism"
For two days at the end of May, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the “Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism” to discuss the “global challenge” of such racism. In his opening speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed “vilifications” against the state of Israel, essentially branding as an “anti-Semite” anyone...
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Reclaiming Palestinian collective memory of the Nakba
The treachery and massacres committed by the Zionists against Palestinians in 1948 marked an enforced physical disappearance of indigenous Palestinians, strengthening the myth of the barren land and the fictitious patriotism allegedly enshrined in religious texts. Last month’s discovery of the mass graves in Jaffa revisited the intentional exclusion...
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The Gates Foundation and its unethical investments in G4S
While three Dutch charities have announced that they will no longer accept donations by G4S due to the company’s support for the Israeli occupation, the Gates Foundation has deemed it ethical to invest in G4S, effectively exposing the often ignored link between philanthropy and human rights violations. The Gates Foundation,...
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Manipulating historical legitimacy in 'Facing Tomorrow'
Speeches by Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of the fifth presidential conference consisted of an exercise in manipulating historical legitimacy. Relegating Palestinians to a role even more meagre than that of spectators, the Israeli president and prime minister attempted to assert further dominance by citing delegitimization...
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The politics of selective compromise
“They already have a certain amount of self-determination – something that’s less than a state but covers almost all of the Palestinian population.” Elkin’s statement refers to the alleged lack of control over 60 per cent of the West Bank, dismissing Mahmoud Abbas’ constantly criticised economic dependency and security...
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Abbas forfeits Palestinian right to land and memory
Diplomacy and submission have been propelled to prominence with Mahmoud Abbas’s recent concession to Israel. Allegedly speaking on behalf of Palestinians, Abbas declared that the Palestinian Authority would agree to an epilogue to the “conflict” if a just agreement was offered. In return, he added, the Palestinian Authority would...
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Making the preservation of Palestinian memory a priority
Yasser Arafat’s assassination, confirmed by the Swiss report detailing the discovery of polonium in Arafat’s exhumed remains, has been mired within a political debate in danger of ensuring further depletion of Palestinian right to memory. Proof of assassination after years of hypothesis regarding the subject should have led to...
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Reinforcing compromising discourse regarding Palestinian refugees
An overview of the Fourth Committee’s meeting during the 68th UN General Assembly regarding the humanitarian work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was mired within discrepancies and allegations, creating the detachment of Palestinians from their own historical narrative....
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In defiance of internationalism - Israel's manipulation of humanitarian aid
As Israel’s heavily publicised humanitarian mission in the Philippines commenced, the IDF has been constantly updating its achievements in the ravaged land through a twitter account which briefly utilised the hashtag #IDFWithoutBorders, until activists exploited the irony implied within the chosen vocabulary, relating the implied lack of confines to...
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Questioning Israeli and imperialist implementations of legitimacy
The question of legitimacy has recently been the subject of a report by Israel’s secret agency, Mossad, claiming that a peace agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was impossible to achieve because of his failure to establish a wide support base among Palestinians. The report, which was discussed recently...
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Deconstructing the UN's symbolic solidarity with Palestinians
After decades of United Nations complicity allowing Israel’s colonisation of Palestine, the yearly International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has been upgraded symbolically to encompass a whole year. On November 26, the UN General Assembly voted to declare2014 as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian...
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Foreign dictates support the colonisation of Palestine
Opposition to the Palestinian prisoners’ release reverberated during a meeting organised by Deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon. According to reports in Maariv, Danon called upon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “reconsider the release of terrorists given the recent terror attacks,” adding that the meeting was a commemoration of...
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Transforming Palestinian solidarity into 'themes'
Contradictions regarding human rights and the exploitation of oppression emanating from the United Nations have culminated in Ban Ki-moon’s statement regarding the death of Ariel Sharon. Mingling sadness and glorification, the UN Secretary-General stuck to the imperialist strategy of obliterating the effects of Sharon’s policies endured by Palestinians. Pain...
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Visit of Arab foreign ministers shifts Palestinian discourse from isolation to unity
Operation Pillar of Cloud has shifted political rhetoric from concessions to resistance. After twenty years of negotiations which culminated in an Israeli policy of colonialism and apartheid, aided by an international community embracing the role of spectators, Gaza has catapulted to a prominence which contrasts sharply with the attention...
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Israel failed in its duty to protect journalists in Gaza
The targeting of journalists reporting on the Gaza massacre in recent days appears to have been a deliberate attempt by Israel to distort media coverage. On November 18, two buildings housing Palestinian and international media outlets were targeted. Eight journalists were injured; cameraman Khader al Zahhar’s leg was blown...
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Mobilisation of worldwide solidarity with Palestinians
Yesterday marked the commencement of the World Social Forum for a Free Palestine, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The global mobilisation is aimed at strengthening solidarity with the Palestinian people through diverse activities which encourage debate and the formulating of effective proposals. Today is the 65th anniversary of the...
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In the name of security and profits: Israeli-EU arms dependence
Israel seems to have acquired a permanent battleground with its defiant occupation of Palestinian territory and savage assaults upon Gaza. In Israeli terminology, as well as that of its allies, the definition is “security”. As defined by the Homeland Security Conference just a few days prior to the Gaza...
