Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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Spreading the virus of occupation: Spitting as a weapon in the hand of colonial Israel
Spitting at someone is a universal insult. In Israel, however, spitting at Palestinians is an entirely different story. Now that we know that the deadly coronavirus can be transmitted through saliva droplets, Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers are working extra hard to spit at as many Palestinians, their cars,…
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Solidarity in the age of coronavirus: What the Arabs must do
While the Coronavirus continues to ravage almost every nation on earth, Arab countries remain unable, or unwilling, to formulate a collective strategy to help the poorest and most vulnerable Arabs survive the deadly virus and its economic fallout. Worse, amid growing international solidarity, we are yet to see a pan-Arab…
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A Palestinian guide to surviving a quarantine: On faith, humour and ‘Dutch Candy’
Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily. Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual ‘lockdown’. My father’s ‘quarantine’ was experienced much earlier, as did his father’s ‘shelter-in-place’ before him. They…
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Tunisia Leads the Way: New Report Exposes Israel’s False Democracy
Tunisia is the Middle East’s greatest success story, according to the findings of the V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2019. One of the world’s most regarded annual reports on democracy and good governance, the V-Dem Report is produced by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in…
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Technology of death: The not-so-shocking report on Israeli weapons exports
The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need for peace, security, and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for military…
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BJP and Israel: Hindu Nationalism is Ravaging India’s Democracy
It was only a matter of time before the anti-Muslim sentiment in India turned violent. A country that has historically prided itself on its diversity and tolerance, and for being ‘the largest democracy in the world’ has, in recent years, exhibited the exact opposite qualities – chauvinism, racism, religious intolerance,…
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Death at the Greek border: Syrian refugees should not be used as political pawns
In a surprising move, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced on February 29 that he will be re-opening his country’s border to Europe, thus allowing tens of thousands of mostly Syrian refugees into Greece and other European countries. Expectedly, over 100,000 people rushed to the Ipsala border point in the…
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‘Zionist’ Biden in his own words: ‘My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel’
“I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 elections. Biden is, of course, correct, because Zionism is a political…
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‘A Policeman, A Pastor and A Palestinian’: The ‘Chilestinians’ as a Model for Palestinian Unity
I was only introduced to the term ‘Chilestinians’ last February at a conference in Istanbul, during a presentation by the Director of the Palestinian Federation of Chile, Anuar Majluf. When Majluf referred to the well-rooted Palestinian community in Chile, who number between 450,000 and half a million, using that unfamiliar…
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Abuse, Oppression and Murder: The PA Does Israel’s Dirty Work in the West Bank
Merely two weeks after Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that the PA will suspend all ‘security coordination’ with Israel, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank killed unarmed teenager, Salah Zakareneh. Zakareneh is not the first and, sadly, will not be the last Palestinian to be killed by the…
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A Terrifying Scenario: Coronavirus in ‘Quarantined’ Gaza
What if the Coronavirus reaches the besieged Gaza Strip? While the question carries great urgency for all Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation, the Gaza situation is particularly complex and extremely worrying. Nearly 50 countries have already reported cases of COVID-19 disease, one of several epidemics that are caused by…
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On Hanging from the Blades of a Bulldozer: Al-Naem is Every Palestinian
How is one to apply rational political analysis to what is inherently irrational? What kind of political theory must one consult to formulate and test hypotheses when the information at hand is so grizzly, sadistic, and reeking with unbearable contradictions? Seeing the gaunt body of Mohammed al-Naem hanging from the…
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Beyond Israeli Elections: Israel at the Cusp of a Bleak Era
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be channeling the spirit of Houdini as he continues to plot his escape from one of the most convoluted political dilemmas in Israel’s history. It is no secret that Netanyahu’s political behavior is almost entirely shaped by his desire to survive in office for…
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‘The Donald Trump I know’: Abbas’ UN Speech and the Breakdown of Palestinian Politics
A precious moment has been squandered, as Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, had the chance to right a historical wrong, by reinstating Palestinian national priorities at the United Nations Security Council on February 11, through a political discourse that is completely independent of Washington and its allies. For a long…
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Breaking with Washington: Arabs and Muslims must take a stand for Palestine
A negotiated solution to the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’, at least the way envisaged by successive US administrations, has failed. Now, Palestinians and their allies would have to explore a whole new path of liberation that does not go through Washington. It is easy to place all the blame on the current…
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Palestine Unleashed: How to Confront Annexation and ‘Deal of the Century’
Just because the Donald Trump administration has declared international law null and void regarding the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, the status of occupied East Jerusalem or the illegality of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories, does not mean that Israel has won and Palestinians have lost. To be…
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Crisis and opportunity: The ‘Deal of the Century’ challenge for Palestinians
After several postponements, US President, Donald Trump, has finally revealed the details of his Middle East plan, dubbed ‘Deal of the Century’, in a press conference in Washington on January 28. Standing triumphantly beside Trump, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must have surely understood that the timing of the announcement,…
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Pipeline or a Pipedream: Israel, Turkey Hydrocarbon Conflict is Brewing in the Mediterranean
Massive natural gas discoveries off the eastern coast of Israel and Palestine is slated to make Tel Aviv a regional energy hub. Whether Israel will be able to translate positive indicators of the largely untapped gas reserves into actual economic and strategic wealth is yet to be seen. What is…
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In the name of ‘Israel’s security’, retreating US gives it billions more in military aid
Billions of US taxpayers’ dollars will continue to be funnelled into Israel in the next fiscal year, and for many years in the foreseeable future. Republican and Democratic Senators have recently ensured just that, passing a Bill aimed at providing Israel with $3.3 billion in aid every year. The Bill,…
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Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know about Israel’s ‘Firing Zones’ in the West Bank
A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel’s so-called “firing zones” in the West Bank. “Israel has impounded the only vehicle available to a medical team that provides assistance to 1,500 Palestinians living inside an…
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Justice at Last? ‘Panic’ in Israel as the ICC Takes ‘momentous step’ in the right direction
At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”. Bensouda’s verdict has been…
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Embracing Palestine: How to Combat Israel’s Misuse of ‘Anti-Semitism’
At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of anti-Semitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative. In fact, my proposal was not meant to be…
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Who is Archbishop Atallah Hanna, and why does Israel hate him?
“They will run and not grow weary,” is a quote from the Bible (Isaiah, 40:41) that adorns the homepage of Kairos Palestine. This important document, which parallels a similar initiative emanating from South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle years, has come to represent the unified voice of the Palestinian Christian…
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A year in review: will 2020 be a game changer in Palestine?
This has been a defining year for Palestine and Israel. Despite the usual political stagnation of the Palestinian leadership, two factors contributed to making 2019 particularly eventful and, looking ahead, consequential as well: The unprecedented political power struggle in Israel, and the total US retreat from its own self-proclaimed role…