When the chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) called a meeting of the body for 15-16 September the date reverberated darkly, for it was on 16 September 1982...

Do Tony Blair’s shuttle visits to Doha for meetings with the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement — Hamas — mean that he is about to befriend the Palestinian...

From 1982 until 1990, he ruled his sub-Saharan desert country with an iron fist. Twenty-five years after he was overthrown, the ex-president of Chad, Hissene Habré, is being tried...

Jeremy Corbyn’s entry into the race to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party was, initially, dismissed as a publicity stunt. With just over one month left before...

Over the past ten months, Israel’s right-wing government has maintained a news blackout about the disappearance of two of its citizens in the Gaza Strip. However, on the first...

Nothing that Israel does to stop the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign seems to be working, not even in Washington, where support for Israel is often taken...

Whenever the term “politicisation of the judiciary” is mentioned one immediately thinks of Iraq under Nouri Al-Maliki or Egypt under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. This dangerous, and sometimes deadly, disease...

Palestinian and Egyptian media agencies reported this week that the outgoing Quartet Envoy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Khaled Meshaal in Doha recently. Since neither...

For many observers, the fact that Sepp Blatter was re-elected as president of FIFA came as no surprise. As expected, he was determined to stay in office despite the...

The name Rosa Parks is one that is forever enshrined in the annals of Afro-American history. She was the courageous woman who refused to give up her seat for...

When former US President Jimmy Carter offered to mediate between Fatah and Hamas two weeks ago, few observers expressed much optimism. While one of the parties, Hamas, welcomed the...

The closest fought UK General Election for many years has produced an unexpected victory for David Cameron and the Conservative Party. With predictions of a hung parliament built around...

The conduct of public opinion polls may not be as well-entrenched in the Middle East as it is in the west but there are no doubt other credible means...

Social media has been awash with comments about the antics of the Quilliam Foundation’s Maajid Nawaz since a Daily Mail article splashed details of his “stag night” held last...

The decision by Veolia to end its operations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories sends a strong signal to similar multinationals that profiteering from Israel’s occupation industry is...

Now that Palestine has formally become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), its political forces can no longer afford to delay national reconciliation. It has been overdue...

In the same way that the “Seventh Cavalry” was the staple means for American settlers in the Old West to be rescued in the movies, calls for a multinational...

The resignation of William Schabas from his post as head of the UN commission to investigate possible war crimes during Israel’s 2014 onslaught on Gaza was always on the...

By international donor standards $720 million is small change. Yet, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has only managed to...

The search for a successor to President Mahmoud Abbas is getting nastier every day. His bitter rival, Mohamed Dahlan, has emerged as the front runner and favoured candidate. Regional...

Desperate people often do desperate things. This is perhaps the only way to explain the visit to Jerusalem by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General, Iyad Madani....

The news that the right-wing Henry Jackson Society has pulled funds for parliamentary groups rather than disclose who its own donors are will be no surprise to those who...

With the necessary political will, President Barack Obama’s 17 December announcement that “it’s time for a new approach” towards Cuba could be applied to Palestine. There is, indeed, a...

Three fundamental and one extraneous force are currently colliding in our region. Each of these forces has its own agenda and because none of them is truly dominant, the...

The decision by the General Court of the European Union to annul the decision to place Hamas on the European list of terrorist organisations was long overdue. It should...

It is now official. The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has placed Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi on its “wanted” list. The decision to issue a “red alert” for the arrest...

For all its bravado, Israel is terrified of bad publicity. So it should be, for neither the legions of public relations companies nor well-paid lobbyists have been able to...

Hamas has options should the parties charged with reconstructing the Gaza Strip fail to do so, a senior member of the group said yesterday. Deputy leader Mousa Abu-Marzouk told...

The first thing that catches the eye about the newly-released United Arab Emirates list of 83 “terrorist organisations” is its broad sweep. It contains Islamic institutions from across Europe,...

Just when the new Al-Aqsa intifada was gathering momentum the homes of senior Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip were bombed this week. Those responsible must be rubbing their...

Not for the first time the Obama administration and the Israeli government have been hanging out their dirty linen in public. On the face of it, the Americans are...

Are there similarities between the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria and the self-styled “Jewish State” in Palestine? Quite a few. For a start, both thrive on religious...