Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Kerry’s obsolete rhetoric
Every time US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Jerusalem and Ramallah, initial encouraging signs rapidly dissolve into a perpetual descent towards “a pivotal point”. Besides the constant alienation from the ramifications of colonisation, decades of diplomatic jargon have also rendered the significance of many of America’s words obsolete in…
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More symbolic solidarity at the UN General Assembly
The annual “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”, as articulated by the UN, was held yesterday, resulting in several condemnations of Israeli policy including settlement expansion. Described by the Times of Israel as “an annual event sponsored by the Palestinians” the UN General Assembly has once again resorted…
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Solitary confinement and the incarceration of Palestinian narratives
According to reports in the Palestinian media, Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has ordered the extension of solitary confinement for three Palestinian prisoners in Megiddo Prison, citing stale “security concerns” as a pretext. In a statement by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society paraphrased by Ma’an news agency and the Palestinian…
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UNRWA’s institutional presence and neutrality
In his address to the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on Decolonisation, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl gave a detailed overview of the restrictions faced by the organisation which, in turn, affect the lives of Palestinian refugees. From a recapitulation of the repercussions of Operation Protective Edge, which formed the…
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The international undermining of Palestinian resilience
The current Palestinian uprising has provided an opportunity to analyse, and reject, the dissociation imposed upon Palestine by the international community. Social media has been replete with graphic images of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians, which is normally referred to as “escalating tensions” by international organisations and media.…
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The shared ambitions of Abbas, Al-Sisi and the international community
While Egypt proceeds with facilitating Israel’s colonial oppression of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Abbas met President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo on Saturday, ostensibly to discuss the recent violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. More rhetoric about “ending these practices” – a reference to Israel’s illegal settlement…
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Palestinian uprising has eclipsed resistance movements’ rhetoric
In further proof that the current Palestinian uprising has overshadowed Palestinian resistance factions, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have recently reasserted their rhetorical hypothesis that the movements would join the current resistance “if the occupation continues to execute Palestinians”. According to reports by Ma’an news agency, the declarations by both factions…
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Balfour Declaration anniversary exposes complicity and complacency
The 98th anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration has elicited some repetitive commentary from PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat. In a brief statement published on the organisation’s “Negotiations’ Affairs Department” website, he declared: “Ninety-eight years ago, the destiny of our nation changed due to the action of a foreign colonial…
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The intentional abandonment of Palestinians
Addameer has published the text of an open letter by the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) to foreign ministers on the “Need for International Intervention in Palestine”. The letter, dated 20 October 2015, requests action from the international community in restraining Israel and its unsustainable “occupation and colonialist enterprise”.…
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The Palestinian uprising should provoke a rethinking of resistance factions
Palestinian collective resistance in the occupied West Bank has been characterised by various levels of defiance. Apart from taking a stance against settler-colonial terror, Israeli state brutality and the Palestinian Authority’s cherished security-coordination with the occupier, the current uprising is also shaping Palestinian unity, away from the impositions dictated by…
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UN anxious to safeguard Israel’s colonial brutality
Prior to visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recorded a speech in which the current Palestinian resistance in the West Bank was again mangled beyond recognition. In his introduction, Ban stated: “Let me be clear. Violence will only undermine the legitimate Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the longing…
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Despite professed support for Palestinians, Russian rhetoric falls within set parameters
The “Jerusalem Intifada”, as Hamas calls it, has elicited predictable statements by the international community urging caution and calm; most are based upon an unfounded premise that makes no distinction between the coloniser and the colonised. In recent days, Hamas has been escalating its rhetoric, stating that the resistance movement…
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Resistance movements should incorporate historical Palestinian memory
After much speculation and debate about whether Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank constitutes a third intifada, Palestinian leaders have incorporated the term into their discourse. However, labelling the current surge in Palestinian resistance as an “uprising” is irrelevant. It is far more important to delve into the premise…
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EU concordance with Israeli state terror
The latest upsurge in Israeli state and settler terrorism is not without recent precedent and precautions which are easily overlooked as the world resumes its spectator stance while Palestinians fall as its victims. Since the terrorist arson attack by Jewish settlers in Duma in July, Netanyahu’s government has incited violence…
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EU concordance with Israeli state terror
The latest upsurge in Israeli state and settler terrorism is not without recent precedent and precautions which are easily overlooked as the world resumes its spectator stance while Palestinians fall as its victims. Since the terrorist arson attack by Jewish settlers in Duma in July, Netanyahu’s government has incited violence…
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Erekat demonstrates extent of the PA’s incompetence
Among the various statements made by Palestinian leaders regarding Israeli settler and state violence, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat epitomised the height of political incapacity yesterday when he declared that “the Palestinian leadership will not remain silent in the face of persisting Israeli escalation in the occupied territories, and will…
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Israeli violence, Palestinian resistance and Abbas’s pleas for foreign interference
Israeli settlers and soldiers have increased their use of violence in recent days following the murder of 19 year old student Hadil Hashlamoun last month. The latest extrajudicial killing by Israel, of Palestinian teenager Fadi Alloun, has once again demonstrated that, despite general outrage and notorious publicity, the world’s attention…
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More diplomatic concessions at the UN for Israel’s existence
Fabricated claims of UN bias against Israel continue to fuel Israeli media reports covering this year’s UN General Assembly. As Mahmoud Abbas played the usual game of fluctuating threats mellowed into diluted warnings, Israel embarked upon its own predictable propaganda tactic to portray international leaders as being intent on ignoring…
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Abbas’s gratitude for Al-Sisi’s duplicitous role
After much speculation about Mahmoud Abbas’s allegedly forthcoming bombshell, which officials in Ramallah have claimed will be an announcement to end the Oslo Accords, a meeting between the Palestinian Authority president and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has proved, once again, the extent of collaboration between the PA and…
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Statistics, complicity and the erosion of Palestinian rights
In the wake of government-supported, Zionist settler violence in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, violations and destruction have been documented and analysed by Euro-Med Monitor. A report titled “Fire under the ashes provoking Muslims in Jerusalem” insists that the Israeli incitement against Palestinian Muslims is likely to trigger an uprising “that would…
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Expect more delusional rhetoric from Abbas at the UN
A lot of speculation has gripped the media with regard to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s forthcoming speech at the UN General Assembly on 29 September. Reports in the Times of Israel have cited contradicting claims, with European diplomats insisting that he will not dismantle the PA or annul the…
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Focus activism on individuals as part of the wider struggle to be really effective
Triumphs for Palestinian political prisoners placed under administrative detention by Israel are generally short-lived. Operation Brother’s Keeper last year provided the Zionist state with an excuse to re-arrest former hunger striker Samer Issawi under the pretext of maintaining security following the deaths of three Israeli-settler teenagers. On Wednesday, the Israeli…
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The Israeli ambassador, the UN and intentional deception
The outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, is utilising the final days of his posting to regurgitate an abbreviated appeal of his earlier speeches. From selective statistics to contemptuous tirades against the United Nations, Prosor’s agenda throughout an interview with Ynet news is to convey the erroneous depiction…
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Palestinian education remains compromised by UNRWA
UNRWA has long propagated the slogan that education is the only hope for Palestinians in Gaza. Undergoing various forms of paraphrasing, the emphasis placed by the agency upon education, however, remains hampered by the fact that compromise is still an integral component of what’s on offer. Prior to the commencement…