Author's Posts
When illness is a ‘death sentence’: The victimization of Gaza women
September 1st, 20180 Hanan al-Khoudari, a Gaza resident, resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her 3-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. The boy is suffering from an “aggressive soft tissue sarcoma.” Israeli authorities then justified their decision based on...
Gaza without cancer medicine as Haley blames Arabs for Washington’s sins
August 26th, 20180 On Sunday August 12, news from Gaza was distressing: The Ministry of Health announced that it would no longer be able to treat cancer patients in the Israel-besieged Strip. "Colon and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma patients, cannot be provided with the necessary therapy now," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Silmiya, director of Abdulaziz...
Mission accomplished: Why solidarity boats to Gaza succeed despite failing to break the siege
August 18th, 20180 When Mike Treen, the national director of the "Unite Union" in New Zealand arrived at the airport in the capital, Auckland, on August 1, a group of people were anxiously waiting for him at the terminal with Palestinian flags and flowers. They hugged him, chanted for Palestinian freedom and performed the customary native Haka...
Mahmoud Abbas: Stop exploiting Ahed Tamimi for personal gain
August 13th, 20180 The father of 11-year-old Abdul Rahman Nofal contacted me, asking for help. His son was shot in the leg during Gaza's "Great March of Return" protests. The Strip's dilapidated health care system could not save the little boy's leg, as it was later amputated. His father, Yamen, himself a young man from the Buraij Refugee Camp in...
Common enemy: Why Israel is embracing fascism in Europe
August 5th, 20181 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on July 19, where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with...
Jewish nation-state Law: Why Israel was never a democracy
July 27th, 20181 The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish nation-state law as "the death of our democracy." Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy? Seventy years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing,...
Beating the U.S. ‘veto’: Palestinians need urgent protection from Israel
June 15th, 20181 What is taking place in Palestine is not a "conflict." We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word "conflict" is misleading. It equates between oppressed Palestinians and Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions. It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United...
Israel’s premature celebration: Gazans have crossed the fear barrier
May 25th, 20180 Sixty Palestinians were killed in Gaza on May 15, simply for protesting and demanding their Right of Return as guaranteed by international law. Fifty more were killed since March 30, the start of the “Great March of Return”, which marks Land Day. Nearly 10,000 have been wounded and maimed in between these two...
My home is Beit Daras: Our lingering Nakba
May 18th, 20180 When Google Earth was initially released in 2001, I immediately rushed to locate a village that no longer exists on a map, which now delineates a whole different reality. Although I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp and then moved to and lived in the United States, finding a village that was erased from the map decades...
Eclipsing factionalism: The missing story from the Gaza protests
May 11th, 20180 The Gaza border protests must be understood in the context of the Israeli occupation, the siege and the long-delayed “Right of Return” for Palestinian refugees. However, they should also be appreciated in a parallel context: Palestine’s own factionalism and infighting. Factionalism in Palestinian society is a deep-rooted ailment...
Gazan Gandhis: Gaza bleeds alone as ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ go mute
May 4th, 20180 Three more Palestinians were killed and 611 wounded last Friday, when tens of thousands of Gazans continued their largely non-violent protests at the Gaza-Israel border. Yet as the casualty count keeps climbing — nearly 45 dead and more than 5,500 wounded — the deafening silence also continues. Tellingly, many of those who long...
Rim Banna and the cultural war that Palestinians must win
April 6th, 20180 Music unites Palestinians when politicians fail. In fact, while for years the collective calls for "Palestinian unity" has gone unheeded, Palestinian music has continued to bring Palestinians closer. Rim Banna passed away at the age of 51. Her death on March 24, after a decade-long battle with cancer, brought grief to...
The last ‘peace process’ warrior: Abbas hanging by a thread
March 30th, 20180 The "deal of the century" is a farce. We suspected that, of course, but, upon his return from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in more detail why the long-anticipated plan of the administration of President Trump has no basis in reality. Netanyahu told his cabinet that there are "no concrete details" to...
Who wants to kill Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah?
March 23rd, 20180 On March 13, while on the way to the besieged Gaza Strip, the convoy of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was targeted by two 33-pounds bombs. Hamdallah was visiting Gaza, through the Israeli border checkpoint, Erez, to open a large sewage treatment plant that— if allowed to operate regularly— will make life...
Will Israeli policies change if Netanyahu leaves office?
March 16th, 20180 If scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exits his country’s political scene today, who is likely to replace him? And what does this mean as far as Israel's occupation of Palestine is concerned? Netanyahu, who is currently being charged with multiple cases of corruption, misuse of government funds and public......
Ahed’s generation: Why the youth in Palestine must break free from dual oppression
March 9th, 20180 As global voices continue to demand the freedom of a 17-year-old teenage Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, Israeli authorities have arrested nine additional members of her family. Those who were detained on February 26 include Ahed's 15-year-old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi. Israeli troops had shot Mohammed in the head last December,...
Netanyahu’s corruption: How Israeli journalists project Israel’s crimes on to Palestinians
March 2nd, 20180 What is not normal, and should never be normalized, is that Israel is the only country in the world that continues to practice Apartheid, many years after it was disbanded in South Africa. In an article published in Al-Monitor without a single verifiable citation, Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar went to unprecedented lengths to divert...
More than a fight over couscous: Why the Palestinian narrative must be embraced
February 23rd, 20180 As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad "inspired by the flavors of Palestine", a controversy ensued. Israel's supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine. In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist —...
The boomerang effect: How Netanyahu made Israel an American issue and lost
February 16th, 20180 Despite massive sums of money spent to channel public opinion in the United States in favor of Israel, unmistakable trends in opinion polls are attesting to the changing dynamics of Israel's support among ordinary Americans. Not only is Israel losing its support and overall appeal among large sections of American society, but among......
The trials of Africa and the real Dr. King they want us to forget
January 26th, 20180 By Ramzy Baroud On January 15, millions of Americans commemorated Martin Luther Kings Day. Dr. King's famous speech, "I Have a Dream", was repeated numerous times in media outlets as a reminder of the evil of racism, which is being resurrected in a most pronounced way in American society. But that is only one version of Dr. King...
Three years after the war: Gaza youth speak out
September 8th, 20170 "At bedtime, I am afraid to turn the lights off. I am not a coward, it is just that I worry that this bulb hanging from the ceiling is the last light that remains (shining) in my life." Soon after he penned these words, Moath Alhaj, a young artist from a Gaza refugee camp, passed away in his sleep. After he'd disappeared for two days,......
Power to the people: Why Palestinian victory in Jerusalem is a pivotal moment
August 4th, 20170 Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, half-hearted European "concern about the situation" or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation,...
Fear and trepidation in Tel Aviv: Is Israel losing the Syria war?
July 28th, 20170 Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking. The six-year-old Syria war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while ISIS is losing ground fast......
