The 13th of September will mark 20 years since the White House lawn signing ceremony between Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin, flanked by former US President Bill Clinton. The signing of Declaration of Principles initiated the related series of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization known as...

Muhammad Assaf, a Palestinian singer from a Gaza refugee camp won the Arab Idol reality TV show. I was in Ramallah on the night of his victory, and I too celebrated enthusiastically. I too felt as if the divided Palestinian national body, spread around Gaza, the West Bank and...

This Ramadan, Israeli restrictions on Palestinians worshippers in Jerusalem are as bad as ever. According to a weekly report of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: "age criteria and permit requirements continued to be applied and Palestinians from the Gaza Strip...

The Arab world is going through a turbulent period. A wave of popular uprisings that began in December 2010 with the self-immolation of Muhammed Bouazizi in Tunisia has had ripples as far west as Morocco and as far east as Bahrain. Complicated and unpredictable revolutionary processes have been set...

This month's historic disclosures about the US National Security Agency by tireless journalist Glenn Greenwald have embarrassed the Obama administration and its allies. Greenwald's source is Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has blown the whistle on a massive global snooping programme. The disclosures to date are massive...

A poll of American Jews published by Pew Research this week had a headline finding that many will perhaps find surprising: "Jews' feelings for Israel are equaled or even exceeded by those of white evangelical Protestants." Pew found that 82 percent of white evangelicals "believe God gave the land of...

This past week marked a decade since the sad, early passing-away by cancer of Edward Said, and I would like to dedicate this column to him. Edward Said was an intellectual and moral powerhouse. As an English literature professor at New York's Columbia University, for many years he was...

What has the record of 2011's Arab uprisings taught us so far? One could list many things, but to me, the most striking reality is the now open nature of the alliance between Saudi Arabia and Israel. This alliance represents a permanent counter-revolution which together dominates the region –...

Courageous American journalist Glenn Greenwald had another massive scoop this week, revealing a secret agreement that American spy agency the NSA made with Israel. A memorandum of understanding between the NSA and Israel's equivalent agency (which the Guardian published in full), provided to Greenwald by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, shows...

Of all the stupid justifications given for the American plan to bomb Syria, this week I read the stupidest one yet in a Guardian column. Probably the most common stupid reason is that which states America's "credibility" will be damaged if it doesn't bomb Syria. This is the "credibility"...

Media coverage of the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners last week, such as it was, tended to focus on their alleged crimes. Especially in the Israeli media, the reader is called to sympathise with Israeli victims and understand what a great sacrifice Israel is supposedly making for peace. Palestinian...

Due to the large number of complaints we've received which deemed this article to be offensive to the sacrifices of the Syrian people in their struggle for justice, it has been removed. Asa Winstanley stands by his article....

Palestinians have long suspected their leader Yasser Arafat was assassinated by Israel. Thanks to Clayton Swisher and his team at the Al Jazeera Investigations Unit, we have new evidence they were right all along. His 2004 death, in then-unclear circumstances, was almost certainly caused by a manufactured radioactive poison...

Only a week ago I wrote in this very column of my hope for more revelations about Israel emerging from the cache of secret National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward Snowden. My wish has been fulfilled already.   A long article published in last weekend's New York Times...

Glenn Greenwald is on a roll. This column has followed his historic coverage of Edward Snowden's leaked National Security Agency documents with great interest. Last week there was another intriguing revelation that implicated Israel.   In a Le Monde article co-written with a French journalist, Greenwald revealed that Israel...

This week, the pop star Rihanna played a gig in Tel Aviv, despite many requests made to her by Palestinian and solidarity activists to observe the cultural boycott of Israel. As usual, BDS campaigners tirelessly posted messages on Facebook and Twitter pages asking her to cancel her gig. She...

Fortress Europe's tyrannical border continues to claim lives. Last week there was another terrible shipwreck in the Mediterranean which claimed the lives of dozens of desperate, fleeing refugees. It came only a week after the last tragedy, off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which killed more...

During the recent media dust-up over the Daily Mail's attack on Labour leader Ed Milliband's father, many people on the left called attention to the right-wing tabloid's history of support for the Nazis. All well and good, but to me the more salient issue was the Mail's toxic coverage...

The alliance between the apartheid state of Israel and the absolutist monarchy of the Saudi royal dictatorship is no longer merely tacit. After recent diplomatic moves to cool tensions with Iran by the administration of US President Barack Obama, the Saudi royals seem to be engaging in a collective...

The death of South African liberation icon Nelson Mandela last night has brought in floods of well-deserved tributes. But the hypocrisy of many of these, often from the very same politicians who formerly denounced him a "terrorist," seems to know no bounds. The mythology that has grown up around...

The new Spinwatch report into BICOM, a leading force in Britain's Israel lobby, makes for essential reading. MEMO is to be commended for funding its publication. The Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, as its full title goes is not a particularly secretive organization. At the same time, however,...

The slow disintegration of living conditions in the West Bank continues apace. But this is no natural disaster or complicated economic malaise. This is a very deliberately created policy, one designed and implemented by a state – the occupying power Israel. The Zionist project in the land of Palestine...

Two indirectly-related stories from the US this week struck me in a particular way. Firstly, it was a big week for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. The membership of the American Studies Association (ASA) voted in favour of the academic boycott of Israel. The Native American and...

Last month during a debate in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, there was a disturbing comment made by one of the right-wing politicians. It was racist remark that revealed much about Zionism, the founding ideology of the state of Israel. It took place during a debate on the so-called Prawer...

The farce continues. Since the July coup that overthrew elected President Mohammed Morsi last year, Egypt has gone from disaster to disaster. As flawed and problematic as his administration was, Morsi was at least elected. Now, with the coup regime of the generals in place, led by Abdel Fatah...

What occurred in front of the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Al-Muqatam undoubtedly saddens the heart and troubles the national conscience; something absent from the hearts of those claiming to be revolutionaries today. These individuals have become full of hatred since President Mohammad Morsi came to office which signified the...

There is no way that an honest resistance committed to protecting its country and people, or a pure resistance that has given thousands of its youth in their prime for over 25 years, such as Hamas could commit a malicious criminal act. Moreover, no logical person could believe such...

We all know the famous saying about Churchill when he was told the war had damaged and destroyed everything in the country. He asked about the judiciary, and when he was told that it was the only thing that had survived, he immediately said, "Then Great Britain is well."...

Television channels are full of vicious attacks on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in an organised and systematic campaign intended to eliminate the movement. It has been said that their opponents aim to "burn them politically in the street and assassinate them morally amongst their own"; this statement illustrates that senior...

Several strange terms have maliciously crept into the media lexicon after the March 2011 pol. Since then, everyone realised how strong the Islamic trend was and how rooted it is, especially the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood). So, the private media, owned by businessmen linked to the former regime launched a...

The scenes witnessed in the Egyptian political arena have no parallel in any democratic country in the world. Those spearheading the scene while inflaming tensions are the same individuals who lost in the presidential elections. Since Egypt is the land of wonders, they are challenging the elected president; in...

What the media scene in our dear Egypt has witnessed over the last year has not been witnessed by the strongest democracies in the world; those who believe in freedom of speech, sanctify freedom of thought, and have built their countries on the foundations of such freedoms. Conversely, however,...

The World Bank envoy packed their bags and went back to where they came from, following negotiations with the government and meetings with leaders of the opposition that seemed to have stalled, for reasons unknown to me. Especially since we all know that the leaders they met have expressed...

The comic performance being acted out in Egypt nowadays – also known as Mubarak's trial, or the trial of the century – is actually the play of the century. Expertly written and directed by the Military Council with the help of members from the judiciary, media, and security, its...

It is amazing that some people are trying to present Iranian tourists in Egypt as some kind of Shia invasion. The same people say nothing about Israeli tourists, even though they are all over the country whereas the Iranians are largely outside Cairo. Israel is a country against which...

Many have warned that politics and the law don't mix, and that judges shouldn't seek the limelight in the media. The judiciary should rise above such foolishness and keep out of the political swamp. Sadly, though, it seems as if some Egyptian judges have succumbed to temptation and the...

We Arabs have unwittingly fulfilled the dreams of the Zionists. We have regressed and become distracted with our own internal issues and foolish disputes within the borders of our own countries, and lost sight of our most important issue. Although, Palestine is still in the heart and soul of...

We live in a time of media and moral laxity so, in Egypt, we must expect the illogical in every aspect of life; yesterday's friend is today's enemy, and yesterday's enemy, who you sought to overthrow with the help of yesterday's friend, is now your friend and the victor...

It has been 46 years since we lost East Jerusalem; Israel seized control of it in 1967, annexing the eastern half of the city illegally almost straight away. Israel celebrates this painful memory by holding an annual celebration in which it emphasises that Jerusalem is the "permanent capital" of...

At the end of August, a civil suit brought by the family of Rachel Corrie came to an end with a Haifa judge ruling that the State of Israel bore no responsibility for the death of the American activist in 2003. Despite the judge's decision, the case – including...

As the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, launched by Palestinian groups in 2005, has grown, some strategies and targets have attracted more controversy than others. The academic boycott campaign is one which is still rejected or viewed with ambivalence by some who would otherwise support other forms of boycott,...

Israel's approach to the Gaza Strip has never been static; it changes according to the government's priorities and short or long-term strategic goals. As early as 1991, Israel implemented the permit regime, regulating the movement of Palestinians in and out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in...

Anyone who denies that the Egyptian media, in both its visual and written form, is suffering from a professional and moral crisis is either too stubborn and proud or deceitful and glorifies unrighteousness to promote it as the truth. This has caused the cards to be mixed up and...

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the historic ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist movement, and the establishment of the State of Israel on the rubble of hundreds of emptied, destroyed villages. Nakba Day continues to grow in prominence as a time for remembrance and protest, an alternative...

In March 2012, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published unprecedentedly harsh concluding observations following Israel's periodic review. In what one expert called "the most cutting CERD recognition and condemnation of a legal system of segregation since apartheid South Africa", Israel was called out...

On 26 February, Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, the first such projectile attack since the ceasefire that brought an end to Israel's eight-day assault on the blockaded territory ('Operation Pillar of Defense'). For over three months, there were precisely zero rockets. Yet during...

The Palestinians' Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign is making headlines, thanks to pro-Israel advocates' attack on an event scheduled for tonight at Brooklyn College in New York. In a blow to the likes of Alan Dershowitz, the decision by the college's political science department to co-sponsor the discussion on...

With Israeli elections just around the corner, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to retain his position at the head of a coalition government. Tzipi Livni, former foreign minister and now head of her own party, has been one of the most vocal critics of Netanyahu during the campaign, even...

Imagine if the mayor of a major British city declared it official policy to keep the number of ethnic or religious minority residents as a proportion of the population below a certain ratio. In Jerusalem, this is not a hypothetical nightmare but the reality under Mayor Nir Barkat. In...

The right of return of Palestinian refugees is often presented as a stumbling block to peace, a 'final status issue' that will require a great and painful 'compromise'. But why would the return of refugees to their own country be so objectionable? Israel's opposition sheds light on the core...