No other place in Palestine was as qualified to spawn a major Islamic movement as was the Gaza Strip.
By RAMZY BAROUD
While various Western governments are struggling to define a possible relationship with the Palestinian movement Hamas, some progressive and leftist circles are also uneasy regarding their own perception of the Islamic movement.
Some have even made the claim that Hamas is, more or less, an Israeli concoction. In fact, t
The more the PLO of the 1970's met conditions, the more Yasser Arafat rose to prominence.
By RAMZY BAROUD
The political outcomes of the Gaza war are yet to be entirely decided with any degree of certainty. However, the obvious political repositioning which was reported as soon as Israel declared its unilateral ceasefire promised that Israel’s deadly bombs would shape a new political reality in the region.
Why an alternative to the PLO, and why the fury over a call for a new leadership structure?
By RAMZY BAROUD
When Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared before a cheering crowd in Doha, Qatar, on January 28, the need for a new leadership, his words generated panic amongst leaders of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority as well as traditional Palestinian leadership elites stationed in various Arab capitals.
'Freedom or death,' is the popular Palestinian mantra; not simply words, but a rule by which Palestinians live and die.
By RAMZY BAROUD
My three-year-old son Sammy walked into my room uninvited as I sorted through another batch of fresh photos from Gaza.
I was looking for a specific image, one that would humanise Palestinians as living, breathing human beings, neither masked nor mutilated. But to no avail.
What has Israel won exactly, aside from the haunting images of dead Palestinian youngsters?
By RAMZY BAROUD
"We are all Hamas," screamed a scrawny Mauritanian, repeatedly, as he determinedly drew his face closer to a TV camera. Behind him, thousands more tunefully chanted similar words, chants that were heard in different Arabic dialects, in fact in many different languages all across the globe.
The passion soon spilled to the streets of Arab capitals, of course under the ever-vigilant eyes of Arab police and secret services.
By RAMZY BAROUD
In times of crisis, most Arabs tune in to Aljazeera television. Sometimes it's comforting for the truth to be stated the way it is, with all of its gory and unsettling details, without blemishes and without censorship. When Israel carried out massive air strikes against Gaza on Saturday, December 27, terrorizing an already host
Conquerors came and went, and Gaza stood where it still stands today.
By RAMZY BAROUD
It’s incomprehensible that a region such as the Gaza Strip, so rich with history, so saturated with defiance, can be reduced to a few blurbs, sound bites and reductionist assumptions, convenient but deceptive, vacant of any relevant meaning, or even true analytical value.
Gazans are still flipping through the channels and cranking the radio dials, left and right, as these calls continue to fall on deaf ears.
By RAMZY BAROUD
When Gaza's electricity is in working order, most Palestinians in the impoverished and overcrowded Strip huddle around their television screens. It's neither "American Idol" nor "Dancing with the Stars" that brings them together. It's the news.
Gazans' relationship to news media is both complex and uni
Palestinian uprisings are often a collective response to hard questions.
By RAMZY BAROUD
At a recent conference I was repeatedly asked about the prospects for a third Palestinian uprising, or Intifada. The question, although seemingly uncomplicated, is both loaded and important, and cannot be answered in a mere two minutes or less.
A 'third Intifada' would imply that the second has already ended. But has it
It's no secret that the EU is positioning itself to play a greater role.
By RAMZY BAROUD
Europe has showed greater willingness in recent months to play a larger part in the Middle East's most protracted conflict, that of Israel and Palestine. But willingness doesn't necessarily indicate readiness.
For the European Union (EU) to be truly ready to take on a conflict of such magnitude, it must fully and clearly
Palestinian children deserve more than words of sympathy. They deserve their childhood back.
By RAMZY BAROUD
I was ecstatic as I read an email sent by a manager at a Canadian toy company. The company donates a large number of toys each year to inner city kids throughout North America, using various NGOs. A few years ago, they decided to ship several thousand toys to Palestinian children. They asked for my help.
Palestinian farmer harvests wheat in a field in the West Bank village of Beit Liqqiya.
By RAMZY BAROUD
The numbers are grim, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian economy is in one of its most wretched states, and the disaster is mostly, if not entirely manmade, thus reversible.
The World Bank made no secret of the fact that Israeli restrictions are largely to blame, as poverty rates in the Gaza Stri
Arrested members of Hamas seen in their cell at a PA prison in the West Bank city of Jenin. (Photo: Getty Images/AFP)
By RAMZY BAROUD
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa used exceptionally tough language during a Cairo news conference 9 September, when he lashed out at Palestinian factionalism, saying that the League is going as far as studying the possibility of imposing sanctions on quarrelling Palestinians.
Yet more haunting images of blindfolded, stripped down Palestinian men being contemptuously dragged by soldiers in uniform from one place to another. Yet more footage o
Ahmed Moussa was a 12-year-old Palestinian boy from the West Bank village of Nilin, near Ramallah. Mohamed Bahloul is a 12-year-old Palestinian boy from Gaza City. The former was shot and killed 29 July by Israeli
