Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Motasem A Dalloul
-
Remembering the 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement
The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement was an early attempt to bring Arab and Zionist ambitions together in Palestine. Signed during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, it ended up having a lasting impact on the region, paving the way for Palestinian displacement and decades of conflict and occupation, which continues to...
-
Land Jihad propaganda: Muslims’ freedom curtailed in India
The Hindu nationalists have always dreamed of turning India into a “Hindu Nation”. In this dream, their biggest enemy is India’s largest minority, the Muslims. The most influential thinker of Hindu nationalist ideology, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, wrote in his book, “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu”: “India is the holy...
-
Will the Syrian rebels be able to protect their victory?
Following last week’s defeat of the Assad regime in Syria, Syrian rebels have been carrying out a peaceful takeover of the country’s offices and institutions. Rebel leader Ahmad Al Sharaa – known as Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani – tasked a representative to form a civil transitional government. The Israeli occupation...
-
Sectarian demographics are reshuffled in the new Damascus
The first Friday prayers held in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus after the collapse of the Bashar Al-Assad regime were attended by thousands, marking a symbolic transformation with immense religious and political significance. While the call to prayer and the majority Sunni worshippers were not barred under Assad, the...
-
With Assad gone, Israel looks to expand while rival NATO-backed groups will turn on each other
While others spoke of the revival of the Syrian revolution as an inevitability, especially with the weakening of Syria and the erosion of its allies capabilities, Hezbollah in particular, others have for years warned of the dire consequences of the alternative, given the domination of the armed opposition by...
-
Is the overthrow of Assad good for the Palestinians?
Yesterday morning thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Damascus and across Syria to celebrate living in a country free of the authoritarian regime of Bashar Al-Assad as the rebels had announced the overthrow of his regime of 24 years. Opposition fighters entered the capital Damascus around 5am...
-
‘All the destruction Israel has created in Gaza is nothing, if we remain firm on our land’, says Nakba survivor
Sitting in the corner of the tent trembling in the cold winter weather with cracks on her skin reflecting her suffering, 86-year-old Aisha Mohammad Abu Sultan continues to keep her spirits high. When I approached her and asked her to send a message to the world as an eyewitness...
-
2024: The year of setbacks for Iran and its axis
History will record that the year 2024 was a critical year with all its phases, developments and wars, inflicting severe harm to the project and status of Iran, its axis and its allies more than any year before it. Israel’s aggression continued in its war of extermination on Gaza....
-
‘Triggering the Zionists’: Fursan Al-Aqsa’s 7 October mission update
On 11 November, Palestinian-Brazilian games developer Nidal Nijm announced on platform Steam that his ground-breaking third person shooter, Fursan Al-Aqsa: Knights of Al-Aqsa Mosque, received an update. Called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” after the historic Hamas-led resistance operation in 2023, the update “allows you to relive the iconic day on...
-
Has Hezbollah failed Gaza?
After 53 days of intensified brutal Israeli strikes on Lebanon to destroy the military abilities of the Lebanese Hezbollah, a ceasefire brokered by the US and other countries came into effect at 4am local time (02:00 GMT) yesterday. Hezbollah has been involved in resistance action along with the Palestinian...
-
The race is on for ‘Anti-Semite of the Year 2024’: A badge of honour, thanks to Israel
The so-called “Antisemite of the Year” award, presented annually by StopAntisemitism—a self-proclaimed US watchdog—has once again become a spectacle of ridicule with online voting currently underway, revealing the absurd extremes to which the term “anti-Semitism” has been stretched and weaponised. What was once a label meant to genuinely combat...
-
‘I used to like winter, but I don’t like it now’
After her husband was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Beit Lahiya and the destruction of her house, Amal Abu Halima, 39, fled with her children to Gaza City. Passing through two Israeli military checkpoints inside Beit Lahiya where they were obliged to throw away what few clothes...
-
Are the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant a victory for Palestinians?
Rejecting the Israeli challenge against the lack of jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, over allegations of “crimes against humanity and war crimes”. This measure means that 124 states, which are members of...
-
Lessons unlearned, as Israel’s war against Hezbollah is starting to mirror its 2006 defeat
“Convinced they could force Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw from southern Lebanon by initiating an effects-based air campaign, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) began pounding targets across Lebanon. Although initially taken aback by the destructive air strikes, Hezbollah unleashed its own attack within 24 hours, launching an extensive rocket...
-
Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza fear this new Nakba
The most well-known football stadium in the Gaza Strip is chaotic, with masses of people flooding the pitch and seating. Everyone is carrying a bag on their back and some clothes. Some are helping sick people or carrying wounded relatives, while others are walking alone, struggling along on bare...
-
Media gaslighting after the double thrashing of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam
Thursday’s Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam ended in not only the Israeli football team getting thrashed 5-0, but also saw their racist and violent fan base get a double thrashing on the streets of the Dutch capital notably by Moroccan and other Muslim...
-
A Palestinian girl wounded in an Israeli air strike faced a painful journey to get treatment
The Israeli occupation forces are ethnically cleansing northern Gaza using lethal force. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, and many have been wounded. That much is clear to all but the fanatical Zionists. The statistics across Gaza are appalling: 43,340 killed; 102,100 wounded; 11,000 missing, presumed dead. Palestinians are...
-
Footage of late Muhammad Ali praying behind new Hezbollah leader resurfaces
Following Hezbollah’s announcement of the appointment of its new Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, footage of the late legendary US boxer Muhammad Ali praying behind the Shia Muslim cleric back when he was the Lebanese resistance movement’s Deputy Secretary-General, has been making the rounds on social media, sparking memories of...
-
The Revolution of 1936–1939 in Palestine: Background, Details, and Analysis
Published three months before the launch of last year’s Palestinian resistance operation Al-Aqsa Flood, The Revolution of 1936–1939 in Palestine: Background, Details, and Analysis by the late writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani, and translated by Hazem Jamjoum is an engaging account of one of the most pivotal and...
-
Israel: From Haniyeh and Nasrallah to Sinwar… A strategic failure
History teaches us that ideas and ideologies do not fade and end with the assassination and killing of their leaders and founders but, rather, they rediscover themselves through its members and staff who emerged, trained and acquired intellectual, ideological and even combat expertise and capabilities. Yahya Sinwar, the architect...
-
Lana Makes Purple Pizza: A Palestinian Food Tale
Since I reviewed Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine, which was published in 2020 and was on the recommend list for that year’s Palestine Book Awards (PBA), there has been a steady and growing surge in children’s literature centred around Palestinian themes. One recent addition...
-
Israel is playing even more dirty to force people out of Jabalia
For the 13th consecutive day, the Israeli occupation forces are carrying out a ground incursion and air strikes in northern Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya are all being targeted, although the occupation forces are concentrating their attacks in Jabalia refugee camp, where they are cutting-off all humanitarian...
-
‘My days just feel wasted in Gaza, living in fear, screaming from the sounds of rockets and bombs’
Like all Palestinians in Gaza, 30-year-old Abeer Harkali has lost everything over the past 12 months, she has been displaced from her home, and again from so-called ‘safe shelters’ numerous times. Her father has been killed, and she lives in constant fear as a result of Israel’s endless bombing...
-
Are Israel’s tactical gains becoming a strategic victory over the resistance?
The initial assessments of Israel’s response to the unprecedented resistance operation last October by Hamas echoed a familiar theme: observers predicted an equally unprecedented Israeli reaction, but like past conflicts, expected it to ultimately yield tactical gains without long-term strategic success. Israel’s early response mirrored these expectations, with heavy...