How do we keep our democracy healthy?
November 20th, 20190 Representative democracy is based on a simple premise. It’s that ordinary citizens can make satisfactory judgments on complex public policy and political issues — or at least grasp them well enough to decide who should be dealing with them. But the significance of that premise isn’t simple at all. It means that our country’s...
How Western media bias allows Israel to get away with murder in Gaza
November 20th, 20190 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 on...
A lesson for the Palestinian leadership: Real reasons behind Israel’s arrest and release of Labadi, Mi’ri
November 13th, 20190 The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri, from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of...
Haley Stevens should focus on serving her constituents in Michigan, not Israel
November 8th, 20191 This week, four members of the United States House of Representatives sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General expressing their "concern about the continuing, serious violations of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the resulting threat our ally Israel faces on its northern border." Resolution 1701 led to...
Microsoft should not fund Israeli spying on Palestinians
November 6th, 20190 The act of Palestinian activists covering their faces during anti-Israeli occupation rallies is an old practice that spans decades. The masking of the face, often by Kufyias — traditional Palestinian scarves that grew to symbolize Palestinian resistance — is far from being a fashion statement. Instead, it is a survival technique,...
It’s election time: Exercise your right and perform your duty
November 2nd, 20190 The following editorial is a collaboration between our newsroom and our editorial board: Voters from Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Inkster, Hamtramck and many of the surrounding communities in Southeast Michigan will go to the polls this Tuesday to exercise their constitutionally protected right and to perform their duty of voting on...
She deserves our support: Betty McCollum wants the U.S. to stop subsidizing torture of Palestinian children
October 23rd, 20190 In December 2018, a 17-year-old Palestinian teen, Ayham Sabah, was sentenced by an Israeli military court to 35 years in prison for his alleged role in a stabbing attack targeting an Israeli soldier in an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Sabah was only 14-years-old when the alleged attack took place. Another alleged...
The last lifeline: The real reason behind Abbas’ call for elections
October 16th, 20190 The call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for elections in the occupied territories is a political ploy. There will be no true, democratic elections under Abbas’ leadership. The real question is: Why did he make the call in the first place? On September 26, Abbas took on the world’s most important political...
Administrative torture: Free Heba al-Labadi, a Jordanian citizen in Israeli prison
October 9th, 20192 On August 20, Heba Ahmed al-Labadi fell into the dark hole of the Israeli legal system, joining 413 Palestinian prisoners who are currently held in so-called administrative detention. On September 26, Heba and seven other prisoners declared a hunger strike to protest their unlawful detention and horrific conditions in Israeli prisons....
The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa must lead the way
October 3rd, 20190 On September 16, I visited South Africa, a country where many Palestinians have always felt welcomed, if not overwhelmed by the degree of genuine and meaningful solidarity. While having the honor to address many audiences in six, major cities, I have also learned a great deal. An important and sobering lesson is that while apartheid...
Apartheid made official: Deal of the Century is a ploy and annexation is the new reality
September 23rd, 20190 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving quickly to alter the political reality in Palestine, and facing little or no resistance. On September 10, Netanyahu declared his intentions to annex swathes of Palestinian land adjacent to the Jordan River, an area that covers 2,400 square kilometers, or nearly a third of the...
With friends like Israel, who needs enemies?
September 20th, 20190 In April of 2018, the Associated Press reported that the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it had detected unauthorized cellular phone surveillance devices operating in Washington, DC. Commonly known as “StingRays,” the devices are designed to mimic cell phone towers. Essentially, when a StingRay is activated it...
‘Justice is indivisible’: Screams of Israa Ghrayeb should be our wake-up call
September 13th, 20190 The death of Israa Ghrayeb has ignited furious reactions regarding the so-called “honor-killings” in Palestine and throughout the Arab world. It also wrought confusion with respect to the jurisprudential foundation of such crimes, which are often committed in the name of protecting the honor of the family. Israa, a 21-year-old...
There’s cause for both concern and optimism when it comes to democracy
September 3rd, 20190 Sometimes, you wonder if the world is doomed to descend into autocracy. Certainly, that’s what the coverage of the past few years suggests. We read about the nations that are already there, like China and Russia, of course, and Saudi Arabia and Iran. Or about countries like Hungary, Turkey and Poland that are nominally...
Jewish settlers rule the roost in Israel, but at what price?
August 25th, 20190 Israeli Jewish settlers are on a rampage in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. While settler violence is part of everyday routine in Palestine, the violence of recent weeks is directly linked to the general elections in Israel, scheduled to be held on September 17. The previous elections, on April 9, failed to bring about political......
Harassed at border crossings and airports? You should know your rights!
August 23rd, 20191 "Land of the free and home of the brave" — This sentence would have a stronger ring to it when people learn about their rights as Americans, regardless of their race. People in the Arab American community — like many other minority groups — have been dealing their version of discrimination based on race. With a series of...
Democracy won’t die if we don’t let it
August 23rd, 20190 Democracy’s premise is that ordinary citizens can make solid decisions on complex issues. But this basic principle and the structure of laws and practices erected over the centuries to safeguard it are being questioned as rarely before. It’s not just that political leaders in various Western democracies seem to have little regard...
Our grandparents need doctors trained abroad
August 22nd, 20190 By G. Richard Olds, M.D. America's population is aging rapidly. And that means demand for health care will explode in the coming years. By 2030, one in five Americans will be older than 65. Nearly 80 percent of those seniors will suffer from two or more chronic diseases. There aren't enough U.S.-educated doctors to treat all these...
Census 2020 will impact our communities and futures
August 17th, 20190 The 2020 Census will officially take place on April 1, 2020. That may seem a ways off, but the stakes of the census are high. We cannot afford a moment of complacency. People of color, along with other groups including seniors, students, and rural residents, have been under counted by previous censuses. This not only affects......
Paul Findley: A man of courage
August 17th, 20190 Paul Findley, one of the most remarkable Congressmen that the U.S. House of Representatives had produced since the Second World War, passed away on Aug 9. He was 98-years-old. He was first elected to Congress in 1960 from a district in Illinois once represented by Abraham Lincoln, his immortal hero. Findley was elected 11 times...
Saudi Arabia blocks Palestinians fleeing Syria’s war from Hajj
August 10th, 20190 BEIRUT - On top of being refugees who have been displaced twice, Palestinian refugees who previously resided in Syria and fled the war to Lebanon have been rejected entry visas to visit Mecca for the holy pilgrimage. Tens of Palestinian refugees with "stateless" passports from Syria have been denied the chance to perform Hajj by Saudi......
The war on innocence: Palestinian children in Israeli military court
August 10th, 20191 On July 29, 4-year-old Muhammad Rabi’ Elayyan was reportedly summoned for interrogation by the Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem. The news, originally reported by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), was later denied by the Israeli police, likely to lessen the impact of the PR disaster that followed. The Israelis are not...
Rouhani to Trump: Lift sanctions first
August 9th, 20190 TEHRAN — Iranian president Hassan Rouhani denounced "economic terrorism" and stated that the U.S. "maximum pressure" campaign through sanctions will not change anything in the Iranian regime. Rouhani reiterated that if President Trump wants to start negotiations with Tehran, he must lift all sanctions against his country "before......
