Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Yvonne Ridley
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Friends of Israel smears of brave Gaza paramedic Razan Al-Najjar and Christchurch Muslims are vile
Four more Palestinians, three of them teenagers, have sacrificed their lives and been killed by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. They have been added to the 190 others who have paid the ultimate price for freedom over the past 12 months while taking part in the powerful peace protests…
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Israel’s US Lobby rocked by hate-filled tweets
One of the most influential donors to the powerful AIPAC pro-Israel lobby group will not be speaking at its annual conference this weekend after being taken to task for sending out a string of hate-filled tweets aimed at two of America’s rising Muslim politicians, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. This…
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A British Palestinian MP seeks recognition for Palestine in the home of the Balfour Declaration
Britain’s first Member of Parliament of Palestinian descent is preparing for a historic debate on Friday to have the government give official recognition to the state of Palestine in what she says is probably the “most personal and poignant” piece of legislation she has submitted since arriving in Westminster. Rising…
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Wake up Westminster: Netanyahu is loud and proud about Israel the apartheid state
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have driven a coach and horses through the implied claim of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism by announcing that the Zionist State belongs to the Jewish people alone. In other words, the 1.5 million Palestinian Israelis are not equal citizens,…
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Israeli bombs and rhetoric are dropped on both Palestine and Kashmir
While Israel is still dodging questions about why it has been secretly arming the genocidal Myanmar military regime during its ethnic cleansing operations against Rohingya Muslims, it has emerged that the Zionist war machine is also at the heart of the rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Earlier this week,…
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Britons who fight for Israel must also be held to account when they return to the UK
The thorny issue of foreign soldiers serving in the Israeli military is back in the headlines, triggered by the debate over the future of Shamima Begum, the British schoolgirl who ran away from home to join terror group Daesh in Syria. Thousands of young men and women from around the…
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The treatment of Shamima Begum and Asma Al-Assad reveals Britain’s double standards
The British government’s decision to strip Daesh runaway Shamima Begum of her citizenship not only exposes the country’s double standards, but also reveals that the United Kingdom’s notorious class system and institutional racism are both as entrenched as ever. The treatment of the teenager from East London is very different…
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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…