Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Yvonne Ridley
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Change is possible in Syria despite Arab leaders normalising Assad’s genocide
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad must be buoyed by the support that he has these days across the Arab world. Such support includes the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), the Palestinian Authority’s official news channel, opening a new bureau in Damascus. The campaign to rehabilitate Assad’s brutal regime continues more or less…
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Zionism, its links with the far right and increasing anti-Semitism
I was privileged to be invited to speak at a Holocaust Memorial Day event last week. Taking my duties as a speaker seriously, I researched the subject and decided to base my talk to young healthcare students on the late Sir Nicholas Winton. I chose Sir Nicholas because he was…
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Hang your head in shame, world; normal life does not exist for Palestinians in Hebron
Israel breaks international law with sickening and often deadly regularity. This is pointed out frequently by detractors of the Zionist State, which just as frequently attracts accusations of “anti-Semitism”; the obvious aim being to stifle any and all criticism of Israel. I’m wondering, therefore, how a new report by an…
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From Aberfan to Aleppo, the deaths of innocents count for nothing
Whenever I travel to the Middle East it is usually to document a war, the aftermath of a war or a massive tragedy which is more often than not the by-product of man-made blunders, power hungry leaders and political misjudgements. The only constants in all of this are the suffering…
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Regev tweet ignites campus fury
The troubled director of one of the most prestigious university colleges in the world has become mired in controversy since it emerged that she invited the new Israeli ambassador in London for tea. Controversial Mark Regev had been in the job less than two days when he sent out a…
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Palestinian Christians are not alone in their suffering this Easter
Millions of Christians around the world have come together to celebrate the religious festival of Easter. As a former Christian myself, I remember it very well as being a period of quiet reflection combined with family celebrations. Sadly, Easter 2016 will probably be remembered for the bloody attack of a…
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Don’t allow the far-right to hijack the Paris terror trial
It would be fair to say that there was a collective sigh of relief across Europe when terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels on Friday after a four-month international search. The end of Europe’s biggest manhunt came to…
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The tragedy of Ahmed and Palestine’s feral children
Ahmed is an angry young man; a very angry young man. Unlike most 12 year-olds who are on the cusp of their teens with wild ambitions and high aspirations, he abandoned such grand expectations a long time ago. Life has dealt him a series of cruel blows leaving him with…
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Are we on the verge of a Palestinian exodus to Europe?
A Palestinian exodus from the Middle East to Europe is being predicted as tensions between refugees in Lebanon reach breaking point. Nearly two million Syrians have fled their war torn country for neighbouring Lebanon with many moving in to the already overcrowded UN camps built for Palestinian refugees. The Palestinians,…
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France puts a spoke in Israel’s wheel
The world is growing weary of Israel’s ongoing settlement activity which continues unabated. It is a bitter irony that while the settler-colonial construction in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem is illegal and unnecessary, thousands of Palestinian families in the war-torn Gaza Strip are still living under canvas almost 18…
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With democracy a distant memory, Western support for Sisi is backing for a loser
Five years ago next month ordinary Egyptians looked on in amazement as British Prime Minister David Cameron swept through Tahrir Square with a huge security detail in tow to congratulate the people on their revolution. Just 10 days earlier they had overthrown one-time friend of the West — and close…
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Déjà vu in Fallujah’s ‘Frankenstein’ maternity wards
Once famous for its heroic resistance to the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, Fallujah is now better known primarily as the epicentre of children born with horrendous deformities. The defects are blamed on the liberal use of depleted uranium (DU), white phosphorous and other deadly munitions by the US military…
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Downing Street dumbs down as flimsy Muslim Brotherhood report is published
Was it a bizarre tribute to the dictators in the Middle East who appear to be able to influence decision-making at the heart of the British Government or was it just a desperate measure of throwing out some Whitehall rubbish in the hope that no one would notice on a…
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War-mongering politicians are running out of ammunition and time
It is incredible that an internationally-renowned movement like Stop the War, which brings together the broadest coalition of peace activists drawn from all sections of multi-cultural Britain, is now coming under fire from a gaggle of disgruntled career politicians. The latter seem to have forgotten that at the height of…
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The brutal reality of being a Palestinian
Signing a petition demanding justice for the Palestinian people as a 13-year-old schoolgirl marked the start of what has become my lifetime commitment to their cause. From reading about the atrocities of Sabra and Shatila through to witnessing the aftermath of the Jenin Massacre and climbing on board a boat…
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Will Nicola Sturgeon silence windbag Trump?
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been asked to use her influence to ban US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from visiting Scotland. While other US candidates seeking nomination in the Republican and Democrat parties have been left reeling and helpless by the outpourings of racism, bigotry and xenophobia unleashed in…
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Are Zionists at the heart of the Tory bullying scandal?
A political scandal which has rocked the British government, forcing the resignation of a Conservative minister, also reveals the powerful influence of pro-Israel Zionists at play. Grant Shapps has already quit his post of international development minister after damning evidence emerged of bullying following the death of a young political…
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The meddling West offers the Arab world no solution
The Arab world is in chaos, so much so that artificial borders drawn carefully by Western imperialists a hundred years ago have today become meaningless. Colonial powers like Britain and France are now beginning to taste the unwelcome fruits of those ruler-straight lines mapped out in the dying days of…
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Is Palestine the answer?
In the aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities, the then US President George W Bush convinced his fellow Americans that revenge was the only way to respond, and so he unleashed his never-ending War on Terror. No one stopped to ask why the attacks in New York and Washington took place,…
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Criminalising medics who help Palestinians
Helping Palestinians in Gaza is not officially a crime; not yet, anyway, but the reaction of the British government and pro-Israel lobby towards those who use their medical skills to try and save Palestinian lives is disturbing. Earlier this week the government refused to give visas to a group of…
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To France’s motto of “liberty, equality, fraternity” must now be added “hypocrisy”
You could not make this up; the country that prides itself as a world leader in free speech has now basically banned one of the most powerful boycott movements launched by ordinary citizens. The cries of “liberty, equality, fraternity” are now beginning to ring hollow in France where the powerful…
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Blair has been exposed, but who will bring him down?
Thanks to an old memo, the world now knows that Tony Blair was preparing to go to war in Iraq a year before the actual invasion and long before any dodgy dossiers were spawned by his Downing Street propagandists. The emergence of the 2002 document penned by the then US…
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Netanyahu should know better than to minimise Hitler’s role in the Holocaust
In today’s incendiary social and political climate, where so-called hate preachers are arrested and speakers who incite hatred are roundly condemned, there would be universal outrage if anyone addressed a public meeting and declared, “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews…” Cries of “anti-Semitism” and “Holocaust denier” would ring around…
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Shaker Aamer: The Guantanamo detainee who knows too much
There was great excitement among journalists gathered inside the British parliament a few days ago as the new opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn prepared to face Prime Minister David Cameron in their first official exchange across the floor of the House of Commons. It turned out to be an unremarkable encounter…