Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Defining political unity
The announcement that Fatah and Hamas will be embarking upon reconciliation has raised the ire of Israel and the US. As the formation of an interim unity government within five weeks moves towards a possible implementation, rhetoric of peace mingled with renewed Israeli airstrikes upon Gaza, while the US considered…
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Latin American support for Palestine thwarts Zionist ambitions to dominate the region
A recent op-ed in the Jerusalem Post glorifying the international influence of Israel with particular reference to Guatemala has once again sparked the conviction that the settler-colonial state should turn to Latin America for political support. The op-ed, a mixture of misplaced patriotism and an exaltation of Israel’s humanitarian and…
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Israel, settler violence and calculated differentiation
Settler-colonial violence has rarely prompted any condemnation from Israel and its institutions. Regularly dismissed as isolated incidents despite the constant phenomenon and its deleterious effects upon Palestinians, settler violence is sanctioned by the Zionist state. Its perpetrators are regaled with impunity for upholding the historical violence that facilitated the establishment…
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Solidarity, concessions and complicity
In the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the United Nations deems it pertinent to issue a reminder to Palestine with regard to the rapacious imperial benevolence. On April 14, the UN website published a news brief stating that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had spoken to Mahmoud Abbas…
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Rhetoric of blame and recognition
Within Zionist perspectives, essential components of “peace” are the urge to assign blame upon Palestinians and the tendency to wallow in the mild “condemnation” of the settler-colonial state by the international community. Having accomplished this sequence, peace is then constructed as “an Israeli need”. Recent rhetoric by Israeli Foreign Minister…
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Rejecting resistance, defending acceptance
“In response to the Palestinian violation of their commitments under peace talks…Israeli government ministers have been told to refrain from meeting their Palestinian counterparts,” reported the Times of Israel. The retaliation against the belated decision on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to seek international recognition seems destined to oppress…
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Palestinian prisoners’ struggle disappearing from mainstream narrative
After Israel predictably failed to uphold its terms in the agreement, as confirmed by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, to release the fourth group of Palestinian political prisoners, the Ma’an News Agency has reported that prisoners in Israeli jails are to embark on a series of protests. According to the undersecretary…
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Reconciliation as a prelude to unified resistance and challenge to the UN
As speculation regarding reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas erupts intermittently in the media, Hamas spokesperson Ihab Al-Ghussein identified the political necessities for the Palestinian people, emphasising unity and resistance as essential components. As Hamas persists in the struggle against the illegal blockade imposed by Israel, Al-Ghussein explained the dynamics that…
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Abbas’ last resort and the pitfalls of international oppression
The belated decision to resort to international institutions has been hailed as a surprise by the media, signalling a dramatic shift from compliance to independence. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ prior decision to forfeit access to international treaties as a precondition to the commencement of the US-brokered diplomatic manoeuvring has…
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Deconstructing Israeli claims of incitement
Claims of incitement and delegitimisation against the settler-colonial state are a matter of regular occurrence. Israel Hayom has reported that a survey by the Near East Policy Research Centre found that Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks contained widespread incitement against Israel. The claim has been contradicted by UNRWA, which asserts the…
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Slandering Richard Falk exposes the tarnished UN
According to the US, the United Nations’ reputation has been “tarnished” by Richard Falk’s constant denunciations regarding Israel’s record of international law violations. In a statement to Reuters, which has been echoed in the Times of Israel, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power declared, “The United States welcomes Mr…
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Haniyeh’s speech shows unity in resistance
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza commemorated the 10th anniversary of the targeted assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin at a rally organised by Hamas under the banner “Loyalty and adherence on Martyred Leader’s Anniversary”. The rally was also held in remembrance of two other Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel, Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi…
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Choosing capitulation over resistance
The peace negotiations which have embroiled Palestinians in further loss of land and autonomy have descended into a major capitulation to imperialist demands. Compromised before commencement due to an agreement brokered by the US, in which PA President Mahmoud Abbas forfeited the right to resort to international institutions, the rapid…
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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…