Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Motasem A Dalloul
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Who is responsible for Gaza’s tragic fire?
Last night 21 people, including women and seven children, died after a huge fire ripped through the third floor of their three-story residential building in Tel Al-Zaatar in the largest refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip. All of the victims were from the Abu Rayya family, who had come…
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Why has Qatar faced a campaign against its hosting of the FIFA World Cup?
Ever since Qatar was awarded the right in 2010 to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament, it has faced opposition from the West, its Arab neighbours, NGOs and football teams. The whole anti-Qatar campaign has been distasteful and derogatory, focusing on alleged disrespect for human rights in the small…
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Who’s going to stop the madness of extremist ministers of next Israeli government?
As Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the largest right-wing Israeli party Likud, is going to form the most right-wing government the country has ever had, expectations are rising that he will give influential ministerial portfolios to far right Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Prior to his victory and during his…
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Will the West really not deal with far-right Israeli ministers?
Since Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisive victory in last week’s Israeli General Election, several governments have said that they will not deal with any far-right ministers that he may appoint in the coalition that he eventually cobbles together. A possible coalition will be made up of Netanyahu’s Likud, ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and…
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After another Israeli election, will the Palestinians prepare for a new Nakba?
With what looks like a resounding election victory, Benjamin Netanyahu seems certain to return as prime minister of Israel, a post he has already held for twelve years. This time, though, his cabinet will not include left or centrist parties; it will be filled with far right religious fanatics. Netanyahu’s…
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Is Netanyahu making credible promises to Arab Israeli voters?
As Israel heads to the polls today, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping that Arab citizens of the occupation state will head to the polling stations “in droves” to cast their votes for him as a result of his election campaign promises. It is a far…
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Palestinians are not sorry to see the back of Liz Truss
After only 45 days as Britain’s Prime Minister — 45 days “marked by turmoil” — Liz Truss bowed to pressure and resigned last week. Her badly thought-out economic plans failed to excite anyone, least of all the financial markets, and created a lot of anger across the nation. At Prime…
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The Palestinians in Gaza must watch in silence as their natural resources are stolen
Since the beginning of October, news reports have mentioned a tripartite agreement between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel to develop a natural gas field off the shores of the besieged Gaza Strip. As recently as Monday, Wafa news agency reported PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh as saying that the…
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The West faces an energy crisis but still backs Israel as it imposes an energy crisis on Gaza
Russia’s war in Ukraine is about to enter its ninth month. While the Ukrainians have been suffering the more obvious effects of the war, Europe has been facing a crippling energy crisis due to Russia’s suspension of natural gas supplies. Europe has depended on Russian gas supplies for years to…
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The PA condemns Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, then attacks them itself
On Wednesday the Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned Israeli “crimes” against the Palestinian people. Commenting on the Israeli killing of a Palestinian youth in the occupied West Bank, the PA condemned “the unbearable daily aggression of the Israeli occupation.” In a statement the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said…
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The world allows Israel to act with impunity against everyone
Israel’s occupation forces have killed eight Palestinians over the past week, including three children, in a crackdown on legitimate Palestinian resistance against its occupation. All of those killed were teenagers, there of them were minors. Al Resalah pointed out that Ahmad Daraghma, who was killed on Saturday in the Jenin…
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Why is Israel allowed to annex occupied land, but Russia isn’t?
Russian President Vladimir Putin formally announced last Friday that his country is to annex four regions in Ukraine. He referred to them as “new regions” of Russia. “I want to say this to the Kyiv regime and its masters in the West: people living in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and…
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The US is preparing the heir of Israel’s security partner Abbas
The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Civilian Affairs and PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein Al-Sheikh is heading to Washington to meet senior officials from the Biden administration, even though the US president has not yet launched his vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. According to Haaretz, an Israeli official…
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Lapid’s misleading two-state solution
Addressing the world leaders on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, clearly declared his support for the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stressing this is even the best solution for all current problems for the State of Israel and for the future of Israeli children. “An agreement with the…
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Is Israel’s opposition to a new nuclear deal with Iran genuine?
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited himself for a security meeting with Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid last month to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. Afterwards, he said that Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz did not live up to their responsibilities for preventing a new nuclear deal with…
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After 3 decades, everything related to Oslo has died, except security cooperation
After almost 30 years, the Oslo Accords have brought Palestinians nothing but more destruction, killing, land expropriation, the desecration and Judaisation of holy sites and settlement expansion. Oslo established the Palestinian Authority (PA) -deemed the sole representatives of the Palestinian people, and provided a platform for negotiating borders, governance and…
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The PA’s loyalty is to Israel, not the Palestinians
Dozens of Palestinian families, activists and factional leaders organised a protest on Saturday in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. They called for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to release political prisoners. Sources in Ramallah said that the protesters raised placards which said that the PA “should…
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Israel is not a democracy, it’s a corrupt state
Israel has repeatedly been referred to as the only democracy in the Middle East. It is said that it was founded on democratic values including respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. As such, Israel holds periodic elections and claims that the rule of law, equality and the advancement of…
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Israel’s new rules for visitors to the occupied West Bank reveal an oppressive regime
The Israeli occupation authorities are set to impose new rules next week on Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, and foreign citizens who wish to visit the territory; the rules violate the basic human right to privacy. This is defined by jurists as the right to have personal information…
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Israel attacks UN human rights commissioners to divert attention from its crimes
Just one day before the end of her tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet called on the Israeli government to meet its international obligations, not least towards her staff. Bachelet made her comment in a press release that condemned Israel’s failure to grant visas for UN…
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Will the world ever recognise Palestinian tragedies?
During a joint press conference in Berlin for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week, a German journalist asked Abbas whether he was ready to apologise to Israel over the 1972 attack on Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. “If we want to dig further into…
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The world lets Israel evade punishment for killing Palestinians
When five Palestinian children were killed during Israel’s brutal three-day assault on the besieged Gaza Strip recently, occupation officials claimed that their deaths were due to a rocket fired by the Islamic Jihad movement. Now, officials have admitted to Haaretz that the Israeli occupation forces killed cousins Jamil Najmudine Nijm,…
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How Israel oppresses the Palestinians
In a pre-dawn raid of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem this morning, Israeli Special Forces burst into a home and opened fire at its residents, killing one of them. According to his father, Mohammad Ibrahim Shaham, 21, was “executed”. “They opened fire at…
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As Israel was killing civilians in Gaza, the hypocritical world stood by and watched
Israel launched yet another military offensive against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip last Friday. The initial target was an apartment in a high-rise residential building in Gaza City. Israeli missiles killed an Islamic Jihad commander along with several other civilians. This unjustified Israeli attack on Gaza prompted Islamic…