Damascus Street Notes
By Franklin Lamb – Damascus ‘Who does that obnoxious woman think she is?’ demanded a staffer who works in the Russian Embassy media office inside the vast windowless soviet style massive high walled compound which […]
Year: 2012
An Open Letter to President Mahmoud Abbas
By Fakhry Abu Shakra – Amman And Now, Where to Mr. President: After the failure of years of relentless negotiations, which our leaders hoped will produce an independent Palestinian State, it is high time to […]
Hamas Supporters Celebrate Anniversary in Hebron
Years after Hamas stopped celebrating its anniversary in Hebron in the southern West Bank, around 6,000 supporters rallied Friday in the city center. The rally kicked off from al-Haras Mosque marching toward Ibn Rushd school. […]
Israeli FM Resigns after Indictment
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, has said he was resigning after being charged with fraud and breach of trust, Reuters news agency has reported. Lieberman made the announcement on Friday a day after being […]
Israel, Palestinian Civil Society, and Political Prisoners
By Patrick O. Strickland – Ramallah (An interview with a representative of Addameer Prisoner Support Network, a Palestinian human rights organization dedicated to documenting and protecting the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention – […]
Israeli Settlements, Unsettling Realities
By Jamal Kanj A day after the UN vote to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN, the right-wing Israeli government responded by adding 3,500 illegal Jewish-only homes in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel […]
Iran Dialogue or US Diplomatic Detour?
By Ismail Salami – Tehran It is very unfortunate to note that the United States has constantly sought to depict the Islamic Republic in the light of a tenacious nation resilient to any logic and […]
Egyptians Should Give Democracy a Chance to Work
By Ali Younes When Egyptian president Mohamad Mursi announced his constitutional declaration last November granting himself unchecked powers, as well as announcing his intentions to go ahead with plans of enacting an Islamist-backed constitution he […]
‘Agent’ Cameron Rewards Israeli Crimes
By Stuart Littlewood Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has again shown why he should stand down from British politics. In a speech to Conservative Friends of Israel at a lunch the other day he said […]
Egypt’s Constitution, Opposition, and Dialogue of the Deaf
By Esam Al-Amin December 8 was the day President Muhammad Morsi had chosen two nights earlier during his address to the nation. In his speech, he called for an open dialogue with the opposition and […]
Khaled Mashaal, Eli Yishai and Others
By Rashid Shahin Eli Yishai is an Israeli Jewish cleric, the head of Shas Bloc in the Israeli Knesset, occupying an official portfolio, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. Khaled Mashaal is a Palestinian Moslem […]
Hamas, Mashaal and Prospects for Sustainable Peace
By Richard Falk In the aftermath of Khaled Mashaal’s emotional visit to Gaza in celebration of Hamas’ 25th anniversary, commentary in Israel and the West has focused on his remarks at a rally as ‘defiant’ […]
Gaza Government to Rebuild Ministries, Headquarters
The government in Gaza will start rebuilding ministries and headquarters destroyed in Israel’s 8-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the cabinet said Wednesday. A ministerial committee has been appointed to survey the damage and assess […]
Palestinian Teenager Shot Dead in West Bank
A Palestinian teenager has been shot dead in the southern West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil), after Israeli security forces stationed at a checkpoint opened fire on him. Israeli news source Ynet described the incident […]
Gaza 2012: Palestine’s Long Walk to Freedom
By Haidar Eid – Gaza “Injustice is human; but more human still is the war against injustice.” — Bertolt Brecht The long walk to South Africa’s freedom is marked by two immense tragic events, the […]
Israeli Army Raids West Bank NGO Offices
Israeli soldiers have raided the offices of three civil society organizations in the heart of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Entering before dawn on Tuesday, troops wrenched open the doors of the Women’s Union, […]
Abbas Warns of ICC Action if Israel Implements Settlement Plans
President Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that Palestine would file a petition to the International Criminal Court if Israel follows through on announced plans to build settlements in the flashpoint E1 area of the occupied West […]
Gazan Farmers at Work in Kuzaa – Photos
By Joshua Brollier – Gaza Today, Gazan farmers from Kuzaa, a small village near Khan Younis, worked on their land in defiance of Israeli military harassment. Farmers ploughed approximately seven dunams and then sewed wheat […]
Understanding Hamas at 25: Beyond the Tired Language
By Ramzy Baroud “In a moment of high theatre he dropped to his knees, placed his lips on the ground and kissed the land he has commanded by proxy”. This is how Robert Tait of […]
A Most Familiar Drama – A Poem
By Soraya Boyd Aided and abetted by its coalition of the willing Plundering Israel tears a thirst-deprived people and its parched land asunder Under the auspices of its American heel Raiding Israel steals away every […]
Palestinian Trail of Tears: Harjo’s Missed Opportunity for Indigenous Solidarity
By Sa’ed Adel Atshan Ever since my childhood, I have always felt a deep connection with Native Americans. At the Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker institution established in Palestine over a century ago, we learned […]
Leila Khaled: Palestinians United behind Resistance
The Palestinian people are united behind the resistance, which is legitimate as long as Israel occupies Palestinian land, national icon Leila Khaled said Monday. “Your people in the diaspora kiss the ground you walk on […]
Arab States Agree on Aid for Palestinians
Arab League foreign ministers have agreed during a meeting to send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority to make up for punitive measures imposed by the Israeli government after a […]
Is There a Soul for Israel to Lose?
By Issa Khalaf Is it real or fantasy, the Jewish American liberal Zionist insistence that, after 1967, with the occupation, Israel lost its liberal democratic, human rights, pluralist soul? Many Western liberal Zionists and their […]
Joy Harjo ‘Didn’t Know’
By Richard Lightbown I didn’t know about Joy Harjo until she had crossed the picket line. I didn’t know that a “human rights supporter” (her words) would dare to write “I didn’t know about the […]
Regaining Initiative: Palestinians Must ‘Seize Their Destiny’
By Stuart Littlewood Some commentators have been saying that Israel’s latest land-grab has effectively killed off the two-state solution (if such a thing was ever truly feasible). And this has led to questions like, what […]
From the City of Destruction to the Promised Land
By William A. Cook Dare we believe that the people of the world through their representatives at the United Nations have openly expressed not only their desire to confirm the rights of the Palestinians but […]
Contesting Egypt
By Mustafa Salama – Cairo Watch western TV news features on Egypt; you will find an almost identical discourse that de-contextualizes current events. It always emphasizes President Morsi’s declaration that gave him unmatched powers and […]
Egypt and Argentina: Right-Left Alliance
By James Petras Once again world public opinion faces a most bizarre political event: an alliance between political forces on the extreme Right and the Left, including collaboration between NATO regimes and Marxist sects. The […]
People Refusing War – Book Review
Reviewed by Ludwig Watzal – Bonn, Germany (William T. Hathaway, Radical Peace. People Refusing War, Trine Day LLC, Waterville, OR 2012, 170 pp.) US President Barack Obama promised his fellow Americans peace. His humanitarian rhetoric […]
