Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the struggle should frame the call for freedom, not Covid-19
The annual commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day can turn easily into a travesty of remembrance. This year, 17 April will be marked with statements calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails on humanitarian grounds due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, there will be scant realisation that the…
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Who benefits from the PA’s financial crisis?
The Palestinian Authority’s current financial crisis may be blamed on the coronavirus pandemic, yet the international community itself designed and maintained its dependence upon external financial aid as the means to prevent state building and Palestinian autonomy. A recent statement by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace…
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There is no humanitarian value in Israel temporarily halting Palestinian home demolitions
As the international community steps up its humanitarian rhetoric with regard to Palestinians during the coronavirus pandemic, Israel is also aiming to get on board the trend. The Civil Administration announced it will suspend home demolitions in Area C – not out of any concern for Palestinian rights, but in the…
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Palestine On the Air
From 2013 to 2016, academic and activist Karma Chávez hosted a radio programme which gave voice to people supporting the Palestinian struggle for their rights and justice. Palestine on the Air (University of Illinois Press, 2019) brings together a collection of eleven transcribed radio interviews that highlight America’s role in…
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When humanitarian aid demeans political rights for Palestinians
As Gaza tries to impede the spread of coronavirus, humanitarian aid, albeit necessary, is yet another reminder of how the international community continues to deny Palestinians their political rights and, as a result, the opportunity for autonomous decision-making. In March, Qatar announced it will provide $150 million to help Palestinians thrive during the pandemic. To…
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Palestinian prisoners simply don’t matter to Israel’s security narrative, even in a pandemic
Unsurprisingly, Israel has not heeded requests to safeguard the health of Palestinian prisoners in its jails. Besides recommending “precautionary measures”, which are likely to provide no protection in confined spaces, it seems that Israel will persist with its medical neglect strategies, which have resulted in Palestinian prisoners dying. Yet again,…
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Security and politics determine the degree of coronavirus cooperation
Cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding the spread of coronavirus Covid-19 is similar to security coordination. The only real difference is that Israel can play the humanitarian card, even as it persists with its daily routine of violations against the Palestinian people. Earlier in March, Israeli President Reuven…
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The EU supports UNRWA to safeguard its own diplomatic stance
The European Union is coming closer to admitting that there are political aims behind its funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). In announcing its €82 million contribution to the Agency at a time when preparations for a possible spread of coronavirus in the refugee…
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The UN during the coronavirus pandemic is as pro-Israel as ever
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, is not averse to seizing opportunities for outrageous rhetoric, even at a time when countries around the world are struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The UN is not immune to the consequences of the virus; several activities have been postponed as diplomats…
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UNRWA funding will never be enough without an end to international complicity with Israel
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has launched an appeal for funds in preparation for a possible outbreak of the coronavirus in Palestinian refugee camps. It has called for $14 million to cover a three month period, in addition to the regular budget allocated for UNRWA’s…
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Forced displacement and the US-Israel special relationship
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asking the government to ensure that Israel is not using military equipment supplied or financed by America to perpetuate the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. “As supporters of the US-Israel special relationship and…
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There are precedents for America’s eradication of Palestinian identity
The international community has stated repeatedly that it will not accept any changes to issues related to Palestine upon which global consensus has been reached. The unilateral decision taken by the US to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is one such example; so is the current stance regarding Donald Trump’s…
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International complicity aids US-Israel efforts against the ICC
Aside from lobbying governments to oppose the International Criminal Court’s investigation and possible war crimes charges, Israel is planning a joint response with the US to counter the process. The plan, according to Israeli media reports, is to exert US influence globally and entice more governments to support Israel’s impunity.…
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Brazil is adopting Israel’s terror narrative, which is anything but democratic
Brazilian federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of right-wing dictatorship fanatic President Jair Bolsonaro, announced recently that the country will be moving to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. “Inside the government, we are debating the ways to stop terrorist groups from coming to Brazil,” Bolsonaro stated. “We are going…
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There will be no sustainability for the Palestinians without their legitimate right of return
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) remains in perpetual financial crisis. Spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna has warned that apart from a possible cessation of services by May, there are no funds for emergency programmes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Only $125 million has…
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Palestine as Metaphor
“It is particularly in Darwish’s poetical progression that Palestine endured and became metaphor.” This observation in the introduction to Palestine as Metaphor (Olive Branch Press, 2019) resonates throughout the five interviews with Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, which together make up this book. Darwish narrates Palestine, conflict and confrontation, love, exile,…
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Another Israeli offensive against Gaza will expose US and UN complicity
Ever since Israel’s Operation Protective Edge military offensive in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy has been to seek the normalisation of bombing the Gaza Strip. This has involved evading the kind of lengthy, wide-ranging aggression which attracts unwanted media attention, and has regaled Israel with a shift in international…
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Speaking against settlement expansion is just a chore for the EU
The European Union’s fluctuations on Israel’s colonial settlement expansion are more prominent since the bloc’s refusal to issue a statement regarding US President Donald Trump’s so-called deal of the century. In response to Israel’s announcement that it would be building additional settlements in Har Homa and Givat Hamatos, the EU…
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The PA is blindly accepting international impositions on Palestinians
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been trading the same rhetoric about not having a suitable partner for diplomatic negotiations. The senior adviser and spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, recently took the statement further to again assert the PA’s distaste for legitimate armed resistance. This was his attempt…
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EU delaying tactics bring it closer to Trump’s deal
For all its purported peace-building efforts and support for Palestinian rights, the EU is committed to supporting Israel’s colonial-settler expansionism. Its feeble response to US President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” was accentuated in the recent decision to refuse to pass any official resolutions until after next month’s…
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From a boycott to another peace conference, Abbas is rejecting Palestinian demands
We should forget all about Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s hyperbole regarding a full boycott of Israel and the US, including security coordination. During his address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, he communicated the expected diplomatic suggestion, another international peace conference “to bring real peace between the Palestinians…
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PA acquiescence to UN resolutions determines Palestine’s disappearance
Further proof of the Palestinian Authority’s rejection of Palestinian land, history and memory was articulated recently by Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, who basically discounted Zionist colonisation and the Nakba by referring to a lacerated map as “the only recognised map of the State of Palestine”. As expected, the…
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Abbas is a mouthpiece for international impositions on Palestine
The Palestinian Authority has learned nothing from decades of futile UN Security Council Resolutions. Do the people of Palestine really need international consensus regarding the already very clear illegality of US President Donald Trump’s so-called deal of the century? Pushing on regardless, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is pursuing repetitive, useless…
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These Chains Will Be Broken. Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons
What the news reports eliminate, Ramzy Baroud’s new book, These Chains Will be Broken: Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, 2019), pushes to the fore. Palestinian prisoners, misrepresented through statistics, news reports, exploitation and glorification, tell slivers of their stories in this collection of first-hand narratives…