Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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UN needs more than ‘concern’ over murder of Palestinians
Israel’s most recent murderous rampage elicited a spectrum fluctuating between statements and silence from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and James Rawley, UN deputy special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Riddled with the usual rhetoric in which murder is mellowed into “incidents”, “cases”, or transformed into an unacknowledged…
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Obama’s interpretation of peace and the intention to restrict Palestinian resistance
Heroic illusions with regards imperialist intervention and rhetoric about a hypothetical peace agreement characterised an interview which US President Obama granted to Bloomberg. During a discussion hailing the restraint of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to declare his allegiance to Palestinians, the intentional division of Palestine to accommodate a…
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The political violence of recognising Israel as a Jewish state
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s belligerent insistence upon the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is magnified to the extent that the Zionists’ hegemonic narrative attempts to dispel the tenacious Palestinian resistance against enforced oblivion. Embarking upon the premise that recognition of the Jewish state “is the first foundation…
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Deconstructing revolutionary struggle
Israel National News published a news report concerning historically displaced rhetoric uttered by Argentinean rabbi and Member of Parliament Rabbi Sergio Bergman, who claimed that during his impending visit to Bethlehem and Israel, Pope Francis intends to define himself as “the Che Guevara of Palestinians”. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev…
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Challenge Israel’s distorted ‘peace’ plans
Contradictory reports regarding the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to recognise Israel as a Jewish state keep infiltrating Israeli media. According to the Times of Israel, PA official Nabil Shaath declared the timing in raising the issue inappropriate and “suspicious”, given that other litigious issues pertaining to Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967…
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EU highlights commitment to maintain Israel’s settler-colonial project
Excerpts of an interview with the EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen exhibit the compromise accompanying the mainstream dialogue of the current negotiations. Published in the Times of Israel, Faaborg-Andersen attempts to illustrate the EU as an entity critical of Israel while being careful to apportion blame to Palestinians for…
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Israel sells defence systems as protection from Gaza “terror”
Amidst increasing discourse regarding alleged threats to Israel’s security, the US and Israel have signed an agreement deemed “of strategic value” that ensures a continuation of production for the Iron Dome air defence system. According to reports in the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and YNet News, the US…
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Israeli president’s comments priorities the fragmentation of Palestinian identity
In a recent interview with Arab news website Panet, Israeli President Shimon Peres indulged in a discussion about alleged cooperation, while using language which intensified the consistent fragmentation of Palestinian identity, manipulated Palestinian resistance and sought to portray the benefits of negotiating over an elusive peace with PA President Mahmoud…
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Abbas perfects his capitulation to Israeli demands
Reports in the Jerusalem Post about Mahmoud Abbas’s latest discourse portrays his capitulation to Israeli demands, even as the PA President reiterates his remote threat to resort to international organisations for recognition of a Palestinian state. The perfunctory statements are countered by Abbas’s own open mockery of the Palestinian right…
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UNRWA’s human rights curriculum suffocates Palestinian resistance
The curriculum taught to students in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been criticised by Hamas through a statement issued by the Education Ministry, which declared the human rights textbooks provided by UNRWA to be detached from…
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Preserving dependency to support settler-colonialism
The European Union’s financial aid to Palestinians has been a source of discussion in light of the fabricated peace negotiations which have been deemed a failure. Discourse concerning “the maintenance of the occupation”, humanitarian concerns and the absence of an established Palestinian state have contributed to an analysis which, as…
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UN appointment endorses fabricated Israeli human rights advances
Only a few months after rejoining the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and a few days after being allowed to participate in JUSCANZ, an advisory group affiliated with the UN providing consultation on human rights to UN bodies including the HRC, Israel has been awarded for its constant contempt and…
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Palestinian refugees rendered spectators with regard to the right of return
The right of return for Palestinian refugees remains conditioned by symbolism, external dictates and signs of agreement from the Palestinian Authority. As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently declared an alleged flexibility in order to aid Israel maintain its settler-colonial structure, Israel Radio reported that the US allegedly offered its help…
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Gaza stands between acknowledgement and oblivion
Once again, “concern” has graced the rhetoric of official United Nations statements about Palestinians. Following a visit to Gaza, the UN Special Coordinator, Robert Serry, elaborated upon the ramifications of the Israeli-enforced blockade, expressing “concern” about hardships and lifestyle deterioration. However, the rhetoric conformed to the incessant inconsistencies, attempting, erroneously,…
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Sustaining dependence through democracy
A recent op-ed published in the Israel National News claims that the foundations for a democratic Palestinian state can be traced back to the 2003 Bush “Roadmap for Peace”. Apart from misrepresenting colonisation as a “Jewish-Arab conflict”, the article provides a simplistic hypothesis regarding a possible omission of “democracy” within…
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Recognition requests and changing narratives
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps undermining Israel’s self-imposed legitimacy by requesting recognition of the Jewish state from the Palestinian leadership, narratives remain involved in dominating and compromising discourse. While Netanyahu reiterated the importance of the international community’s assistance in persuading Palestinians to grant the acknowledgement, the Palestinian Authority…
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Abbas seeks further imperialist collaboration
Only a few days after Tawfik Tirawi ambiguously called upon Palestinians, including the Palestinian leadership, to embrace resistance, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has once again revealed his allegiance to Israel and imperialism by compromising upon border security, should the hypothetical Palestinian state become a reality. In a televised interview with…
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Palestinians urged to embrace resistance
The illusions of establishing a Palestinian state based upon the US-brokered negotiations have shifted discourse partly to incorporate the necessity of resistance. Tawfik Tirawi, a senior Fatah official, has admitted the futility of the negotiations publicly and called upon his movement to embrace resistance. In a televised message on Lebanese…
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Discussing Israel’s colonial expansion at the UN Security Council
Recurring trends regarding the peace negotiations have emerged from the latest United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting. Language shifted from heroic to compromising, within a veneer of fabricated equality which rarely challenged Israel’s imperialist-supported policies. Despite the alleged concern to implement a just solution enabling Palestinians to achieve self-determination, the…
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Canada’s Prime Minister Harper passes Israel’s loyalty test
The Canadian Prime Minister’s visit to Israel affirmed his political and diplomatic support for the Zionist state. In an atmosphere of mutual adulation, Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasised the imperialist concept of democracy, ignoring the subjugation of the Palestinians which Israel and its allies persist in…
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Israel’s policy of targeted assassinations and shifting the focus of blame
Israel’s practice of targeted assassinations against Palestinians, an evolution of ‘focused foiling’ or ‘liquidations policy’ by Israel, remains a contentious issue in the discourse on human rights and international human rights law. Perceived in a wider context, it is possible to discern a trend in the global media which fails…
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Financing humanitarian and human rights abuses
The popular dissemination that UNRWA provides ‘assistance and protection’ to Palestinian refugees helping them ‘to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight’ cannot be isolated from three important factors: Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, UN responses to Israeli atrocities and the mechanisms of…
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Dismantling the myth of peace in Obama’s discourse
Obama’s speech at the Jerusalem Convention Centre was the culmination of an attempt to further humiliate Palestinians. The affirmation of US support to Israel was imparted in selective rhetoric focusing on the necessity of Jews to struggle for the right to a national homeland. Israel is portrayed as an inspiration…
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Israel’s impunity and its culture of torture
The recognition of torture in Israeli prisons is subject to a host of narratives, entrenching it within a distinct, yet hidden realm. Since the start of Israel’s illegal occupation, thousands of Palestinians have been tortured in a manner reminiscent of the macabre extravagance now associated with Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.…