Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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Abuse, Oppression and Murder: The PA Does Israel’s Dirty Work in the West Bank
Merely two weeks after Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that the PA will suspend all ‘security coordination’ with Israel, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank killed unarmed teenager, Salah Zakareneh. Zakareneh is not the first and, sadly, will not be the last Palestinian to be killed by the…
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A Terrifying Scenario: Coronavirus in ‘Quarantined’ Gaza
What if the Coronavirus reaches the besieged Gaza Strip? While the question carries great urgency for all Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation, the Gaza situation is particularly complex and extremely worrying. Nearly 50 countries have already reported cases of COVID-19 disease, one of several epidemics that are caused by…
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On Hanging from the Blades of a Bulldozer: Al-Naem is Every Palestinian
How is one to apply rational political analysis to what is inherently irrational? What kind of political theory must one consult to formulate and test hypotheses when the information at hand is so grizzly, sadistic, and reeking with unbearable contradictions? Seeing the gaunt body of Mohammed al-Naem hanging from the…
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Beyond Israeli Elections: Israel at the Cusp of a Bleak Era
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be channeling the spirit of Houdini as he continues to plot his escape from one of the most convoluted political dilemmas in Israel’s history. It is no secret that Netanyahu’s political behavior is almost entirely shaped by his desire to survive in office for…
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‘The Donald Trump I know’: Abbas’ UN Speech and the Breakdown of Palestinian Politics
A precious moment has been squandered, as Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, had the chance to right a historical wrong, by reinstating Palestinian national priorities at the United Nations Security Council on February 11, through a political discourse that is completely independent of Washington and its allies. For a long…
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Breaking with Washington: Arabs and Muslims must take a stand for Palestine
A negotiated solution to the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’, at least the way envisaged by successive US administrations, has failed. Now, Palestinians and their allies would have to explore a whole new path of liberation that does not go through Washington. It is easy to place all the blame on the current…
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Palestine Unleashed: How to Confront Annexation and ‘Deal of the Century’
Just because the Donald Trump administration has declared international law null and void regarding the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, the status of occupied East Jerusalem or the illegality of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories, does not mean that Israel has won and Palestinians have lost. To be…
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Crisis and opportunity: The ‘Deal of the Century’ challenge for Palestinians
After several postponements, US President, Donald Trump, has finally revealed the details of his Middle East plan, dubbed ‘Deal of the Century’, in a press conference in Washington on January 28. Standing triumphantly beside Trump, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must have surely understood that the timing of the announcement,…
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Pipeline or a Pipedream: Israel, Turkey Hydrocarbon Conflict is Brewing in the Mediterranean
Massive natural gas discoveries off the eastern coast of Israel and Palestine is slated to make Tel Aviv a regional energy hub. Whether Israel will be able to translate positive indicators of the largely untapped gas reserves into actual economic and strategic wealth is yet to be seen. What is…
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In the name of ‘Israel’s security’, retreating US gives it billions more in military aid
Billions of US taxpayers’ dollars will continue to be funnelled into Israel in the next fiscal year, and for many years in the foreseeable future. Republican and Democratic Senators have recently ensured just that, passing a Bill aimed at providing Israel with $3.3 billion in aid every year. The Bill,…
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Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know about Israel’s ‘Firing Zones’ in the West Bank
A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel’s so-called “firing zones” in the West Bank. “Israel has impounded the only vehicle available to a medical team that provides assistance to 1,500 Palestinians living inside an…
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Justice at Last? ‘Panic’ in Israel as the ICC Takes ‘momentous step’ in the right direction
At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”. Bensouda’s verdict has been…
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Embracing Palestine: How to Combat Israel’s Misuse of ‘Anti-Semitism’
At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of anti-Semitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative. In fact, my proposal was not meant to be…
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Who is Archbishop Atallah Hanna, and why does Israel hate him?
“They will run and not grow weary,” is a quote from the Bible (Isaiah, 40:41) that adorns the homepage of Kairos Palestine. This important document, which parallels a similar initiative emanating from South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle years, has come to represent the unified voice of the Palestinian Christian…
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A year in review: will 2020 be a game changer in Palestine?
This has been a defining year for Palestine and Israel. Despite the usual political stagnation of the Palestinian leadership, two factors contributed to making 2019 particularly eventful and, looking ahead, consequential as well: The unprecedented political power struggle in Israel, and the total US retreat from its own self-proclaimed role…
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On the Road to Gaza: The Freedom Flotilla Will Sail Again
What is Gaza to us but an Israeli missile, a rudimentary rocket, a demolished home, an injured child being whisked away by his peers under a hail of bullets? On a daily basis, Gaza is conveyed to us as a bloody image or a dramatic video, none of which can…
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Palestine and the stifling status quo
“All attempts at trying to limit UNRWA’s mandate or defund it or attack it have failed, and we hope that the international community will continue to come to the rescue.” These were the words of senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, Dr Hanan Ashrawi, in response to the news that…
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From a blessing to a curse: how UN resolution 2334 accelerated Israel’s colonisation in the West Bank
Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. With fourteen members voting in favour and one abstention, the Resolution was the equivalent of a political earthquake. Indeed, it was the first time in many years that the international body roundly condemned Israel for its illegal settlement policies…
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‘Elected by Donors’: The University of Cape Town fails Palestine, embraces Israel
It was a scandal of the highest caliber. On 23 November, the senate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa was practically bullied into reversing an earlier decision calling for the academic boycott of Israel. While the story may seem relevant in South Africa’s political and academic…
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Money, Power and Turf: Winning the Middle East Media War at Any Cost
It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose…
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The unfinished ‘coup’ signals the end of the Netanyahu era and a political earthquake ahead
Nothing seems to be working for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and avoid a possible prison sentence. Nevertheless, for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the end is almost certainly nigh. Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, bribery…
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Israel’s next move is the real danger in the US decision to normalise illegal Jewish settlements
It is hardly a major surprise that the US government has finally decreed that illegal Jewish settlements built in defiance of international law are somehow “consistent” with the said law. US foreign policy has been edging closer towards this conclusion for some time. Since moving into the White House in…
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How Western media bias allows Israel to getaway with murder in Gaza
An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”. The answer came…
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The infallible warrior: Honest reflections on the legacy of Yasser Arafat 15 years after his death
15 years after the passing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian people continue to reflect on his legacy. Thousands of images of “Abu Ammar” have been shared across numerous social media platforms remembering a man whose nom de guerre has been affiliated with the Palestinian struggle for decades. Arafat’s…