Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Haifa Zangana
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We can learn from Iraq when looking to the future in Palestine
Palestine, which lives in our hearts and souls, has within eleven days achieved a lot in the relentless struggle for freedom, albeit at a cost which we all know is extortionately high. In imposing such a cost, the Zionist enemy wanted the lives of children, women and the elderly to…
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The Palestine Book Awards and resisting the falsification of history
The gap between the Arab people and their governments has never been greater and deeper than what we are currently experiencing regarding Palestine. At a time when some governments have rushed to declare their normalisation of relations with the racist colonial state of Israel, the Palestinian resistance is becoming entrenched,…
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Iraq’s prime minister should be dismissed and prosecuted for his failures
Thirty-two dead and over 110 wounded people have been added to the list of bombing victims in Iraq. Two suicide bombers were responsible; strapped with explosives they blew themselves up, killing and maiming their innocent victims in a second-hand clothes market in Tayaran Square, central Baghdad last Thursday. What do…
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Having unemployed oil engineers in oil-rich Iraq is unacceptable
Engineering graduates gathered again on Sunday to protest in front of the headquarters of the Shuaiba Refinery near Basra in southern Iraq because of the government’s failure to respond to their demands to be hired by the oil companies. An earlier protest blocked the road leading to the refinery to…
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From Fallujah and Aleppo to Beirut… We are the children of Hiroshima
On Thursday 6 August, we were preparing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. But on Tuesday, we were shocked to see a similar event to that of Hiroshima take place in Beirut, mixing symbols of destruction between the past…
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Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day
For the first time since the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, women in the country are celebrating International Women’s Day, in a way that is reminiscent of the celebrations that their own mothers and grandmothers might have witnessed. Finally, after an absence that was intended to last, women…
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The Iraqi uprising is a quantum leap in collective awareness
Muhammad Allawi has recently been appointed as Prime Minister of the Iraqi transitional government, since when the auction for government positions has quickened; in this it is no different to previous governments. They are the same governments that the youth rose up against in October last year and they are…
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Iraq: Assassinating the press and the game of recycling politicians
Journalist Ahmed Abdel Samad and his colleague, photographer Ghali Al-Tamimi, were added to the list of Iraqi women and men martyrs after being assassinated three days ago by what has become officially known in Iraq as “gunfire of unknown gunmen” who fled to “unknown destinations.” This cliché, ready-made term confirms…
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The love-hate relationship between the US and Iran
As the American war drums against Iran grow louder, we are beginning to hear their joyous echoes in the hearts of Iraqi parties who view the war as “liberation” from the Iranian occupation. The enthusiasm and excitement have reached the point of some tweeting and congratulating each other for the…
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Prosecuting Tony Blair and resisting oppression in the Arab world
We in the Arab world are accused of violence on one hand and a lack of preparedness for democracy on the other, or both at the same time. Those who make these claims — politicians and intellectuals — usually call on the West to teach us and rid us of…
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Did Iraqi protestors receive a reforms package or a hollow promise?
The slogans of the demonstrators across 11 Iraqi provinces have developed over the past three weeks from demanding electricity to demanding the “thieving” officials be prosecuted, to demanding that the corrupt judiciary itself be prosecuted and purged of the corrupt, to accusing the ruling political party and religious figures of…
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Who is ruling Iraq?
When the Iraqis took to the streets in 16 of the 18 Iraqi governorates in 2011, the “silent” Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, invisible to the public, spoke up and warned the protestors against bad services and corruption as well as from the exploitation of their protests by “infiltrators” trying…
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Uprooting the Shia Dawa Party after the Baath
While the world is busy rallying politically and militarily against ISIS, I believe that in Iraq and America the blame is mainly put on ex-Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. He is regarded as the source of all corruption, ethnic cleansing and killing in Iraq during his eight years in government. The…
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Why did the people of Mosul welcome ISIS?
The streets are crowded. They are filled with pedestrians and cars. The market with its shops filled with clothing, household items, vegetables and fruits are all open. Women are shopping and the men are heading to work. There is a strange feeling about all this, as if you are in…
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Revenge and fuelling sectarian war in Iraq
The “new Iraq” government and its media are beating the drums of comprehensive sectarian strife. The Iraqi people, drowning in a flood of poverty, poor education and health provision, the destruction of the infrastructure, and corruption, as well as sectarian discrimination, are being exposed to a campaign of intimidation and…
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In search of the truth behind bombings and displacement in Iraq
The general picture of the reality in Iraq is that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s regime is begging America to supply sophisticated weapons to combat terrorism. Foreign Minister Zebari has informed the US that Iraq is in need of American assistance with intelligence analysis, surveillance and the presence of political advisers…