Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Jinwar and Other Stories
Alex Poppe’s collection of short stories is a turbulent itinerary of the marginalised. At face value, the observations laid out in Jinwar and Other Stories tend to border on humour at times. Yet, a cautious approach spells out layers of pain and oblivion as the protagonists in her literature grapple…
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Zionist settlement expansion extends the violence started during the Nakba
“In the face of enemy violence, the Zionist answer has always been settlement, security and immigration,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared during a visit to the illegal Elkana settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Days earlier, the Israeli rights organisation Peace Now announced that Israel had approved…
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International silence over Israel’s media repression is also an attack on Palestinian narratives
While there is still much focus on the extrajudicial killing of Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, calls for justice will remain resonant, at least presently. However, Israel has perfected its tactics of denial and impunity. The international community has not gone beyond its usual statements and Israel has already got…
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Israel’s impunity and security narrative take priority over extrajudicial killings
The extrajudicial killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper last week has led to Israel’s media clamouring for the occupation state’s impunity to be upheld. Abu Akleh was covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday this week, when she was shot and…
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World Bank observations on Palestine’s economy gloss over Israel’s colonialism and apartheid
Humanitarian aid, which has played a major role in stagnating Palestine and Palestinians, is one of the factors mentioned in the latest World Bank analysis of the dire economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, as reported by the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, Wafa. The report notes that, despite…
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The EU response to Israel’s latest forced displacement of Palestinians is — again — really weak
The European Union is, as usual, taking the wrong approach when it comes to dealing with Israel’s violations of international law. With over 1,200 Palestinians facing forced eviction from Masafer Yatta, also known as “Firing Zone 918”, after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favour of demolishing eight villages, the…
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The international community works against anti-colonial resistance in Palestine
Around 600 Palestinians are currently being held by Israel under administrative detention orders, according to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked. The number is the highest since 2016 when Palestinians resorted to acts of armed resistance in protest against Israel’s ongoing colonial expansion. In March this year, Israel issued 195…
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The international community must adopt the Palestinian narrative
Since 2021, criticism of Israel has focused heavily on its apartheid system and practices. The gradual awareness within the international community, since B’Tselem’s declaration, which was followed by that of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as other institutions, validated the Palestinian people’s earlier assertions of apartheid. Unfortunately,…
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The PA’s compromised calls for international protection
Earlier this month, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called for “international support for returning calm to Jerusalem” when tweeting about updating US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the occupied city. Of course, Israel was portrayed as exerting “responsible and measured efforts” in order to maintain the colonial security narrative…
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Time to confront Israel’s aggression with Palestinian narratives of the ongoing Nakba
The international community’s non-committal attitude towards Israeli colonial violence in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is not new. It does, however, build upon the established narrative in 2019, when the former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, blamed the Israeli bombing of Gaza on the Palestinians. Likewise,…
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The UN keeps contradicting its human rights agenda
At an international level, Israel continues to be rewarded for its human rights violations. As momentum gains over Israel’s apartheid practices, even by the UN’s own Special Rapporteurs, the Institution is following its own trajectory when it comes to normalising Israel and its violations. Last week, Wafa News Agency reported…
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Palestinian refugees are being marginalised by the focus on UNRWA
Can we speak of the sustainability of humanitarian aid in the face of ongoing colonial expansion and perpetual dispossession? Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini who heads the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) met recently with PLO executive committee member Ahmad Majdalani to discuss the financial crisis facing the…
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US approach confirms the two-state demise
In March 2021, a leaked memo from the US addressed to Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, indicated that the Biden administration might take a different approach from that of former US President, Donald Trump. Falling back within the parameters of international consensus, the memo detailed the US plan “to advance…
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The UN offers no protection to Palestinians per se, let alone journalists
When the UN does nothing but perfunctory duties, human rights and civil society organisations are brought to full stop; a dead end. Earlier this week, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) called upon the international community to adopt the UN Security Council Resolution 2222, agreed in 2015,…
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The international community invalidates its purported support for Palestine
A recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) places Israel in 10th place when it comes to the share of global arms exports from 2017 to 2021, with its primary recipients being India, Azerbaijan and Vietnam. Israel placed 14th in arms imports, its main suppliers being the…
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The latest UN report highlights international leniency towards Israeli apartheid
UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk has issued one of his strongest condemnations yet of Israeli apartheid in a report to the 49th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council for Agenda Item 7; the session which, claims Israel, singles it out unfairly. Referring to various statements, including those of…
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The Palestinian Authority and the US are on the same page
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, gave additional proof that Palestine is far from a priority for the Biden administration. During a press briefing in Ramallah following a meeting between Blinken and Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, the discrepancies in diplomatic expectations could not have been more evident. The PA…
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PA appeals to the international community are only for its own survival
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and Finance Minister Shukri Bishara met with World Bank senior directors this week in Ramallah, urging that pressure should be placed on Israel to release the tax revenues that the occupation state is withholding. The PA’s financial crisis, despite diplomatic efforts by the US…
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Being There, Being Here: Palestinian Writings in the World
Maurice Ebileeni’s study of Palestinian literary narratives and the imaginings of the Palestinian homeland highlights the need to rethink both. Being There, Being Here: Palestinian Writings in the World takes the reader on a multifaceted journey through land, continents and languages as these intertwine with Palestinian authors’ perceptions, imaginings and…
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The US should be reminded that Israel’s settlement expansion is a war crime
US Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, engaged in further diplomatic contradictions, as he fluctuated between asserting the Biden administration’s stance purportedly against Israeli settlement expansion, yet making concessions for earlier encroachment upon Palestinian land. “We can’t do stupid things that impede us from a two-state solution,” Nides reportedly told Americans…
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Protection for Palestinians and international complicity with Israel
Calls for the international community to step in and protect the Palestinian people from Israeli violence are always juxtaposed against a complex web of complicity with Zionist colonisation of their land. This week the Arab League called upon the UN Security Council to assume such responsibilities, after the Israeli military…
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Palestinian refugees are more politically isolated than ever
Financial support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is dwindling, despite the renewed mandates and financial contribution pledges by world leaders. “The almost unanimous political support expressed by the UN General Assembly to the Agency is not translated into matching financial resources,” UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Philippe…
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Israel’s selective humanitarian façade
Once again, Israel feels entitled to play the humanitarian card, with only Palestinians pointing out its selectivity when it comes to opening its doors to refugees. In February, The Jerusalem Post reported that 10,000 Jewish Ukrainian refugees would be entering Israel. The move was confirmed by Israel’s Ministry of Immigration,…
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The PA mirrors international hypocrisy over Palestine
The Palestinian Authority has caught up belatedly with the international community’s double standards when it comes to professing support for Palestine while upholding the impunity with which Israel is allowed to act. However, the PA is still a long way from acknowledging these tactics in its own politics, which in…