By Ramzy Baroud I still remember that smug look on his face, followed by the matter-of-fact remarks that had western journalists laugh out loud. “I’m now going to show you a picture of the luckiest man in Iraq,” General Norman Schwarzkopf, known as ‘Stormin’ Norman, said at a press conference sometime in 1991, as he […]
Friends, on Nov 29, I will be running my ninth full marathon in Seattle Washington. That is a distance of 26.2 miles (42.195k). This run, like others, is dedicated to a good cause: the Rachel Corrie Tournament for People with Disabilities to be held in Gaza in December. The Gaza tournament coincides with the United […]
By Ramzy Baroud Writing in the New York Times in an article entitled “Myanmar generals set the stage for their own exit,” Thomas Fuller expressed his and the media’s failure to recognise the total fraud that is Myanma democracy. “The official results are still being tabulated,” he wrote, “but all signs so far point to […]
By Ramzy Baroud US Secretary of State John Kerry is often perceived as one of the “good guys”, the less hawkish of top American officials, who does not simply promote and defend his country’s military adventurism but reaches out to others, beyond polarizing rhetoric. His unremitting efforts culminated partly in the Iran nuclear framework agreement […]
By Ramzy Baroud There is a possibility that you have heard of the famed British author, J.K. Rowling, writer of the popular fantasy series ‘Harry Potter’. While I knew of her books – through my teenage kids – I knew little about the author herself, until recently. Using generalised, ambiguous terminology that offered little by […]
In Arabic – Palestinian Author and journalist Dr. Ramzy Baroud addresses the question of the ‘Third Intifada’, its historical origins, political and social context, in addition to the issue of collective identity in modern Palestinian history.
By Ramzy Baroud Saeb Erekat is an enigmatic character. Despite minimal popularity among Palestinians, he is omnipresent, appears regularly on television and speaks with the moral authority of an accomplished leader whose legacy is rife with accolades and an astute, unwavering vision. When Palestinians were polled by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) in […]
Interviewed by Info-Palestine (This interview was originally published in French.) Info-Palestine: Our interview with Ramzy Baroud is concerned with the situation in Palestine, the raging conflicts in the Middle East and the role of the International Solidarity Movement. — Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is […]
The current Intifada in Palestine cannot be separated from the past or reduced to a simple term linked to a failed peace process. It is a rebellion which is rooted in a much deeper and larger context, and that has to be appreciated in its entirety. The defining event that led to his exile was […]
By Ramzy Baroud My first stop, after living for 22 years in a refugee camp in Gaza, was the city of Seattle, a pleasant, green city, where people drink too much coffee to cope with the long, cold, grey winters. There, for the first time, I stood before an audience outside Palestine, to speak about […]
Israel wants to drag the resistance in Gaza to an open military confrontation to repeat the same scenario that preceded the war and massacres of last year, with the ultimate aim of quelling the intifada in the West Bank. This will also serve the interests of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and various Arab regimes, […]
Dear friends and readers, Please kindly be informed that I am not responsible for the editorial policies of media organizations that I managed or was affiliated with whether those based in the EU, the Middle East or Asia. Readers have been regularly inquiring on why I am allowing certain articles to published. While I always […]
When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists.’ The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative […]
By Ramzy Baroud When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists’. The interrogative questions were aimed at […]
By Ramzy Baroud Imagine the Syrian war from the point of view of ordinary Syrians from a variety of backgrounds. They are most likely to offer a different perspective and to hold entirely different expectations than most other parties involved. A resident of Idlib, a villager from Deraa, a housewife, a teacher, a nurse or […]
By Ramzy Baroud It has been recently announced that Arab ‘media experts’ plan to ‘celebrate’ Arab Media Day on April 21, 2016. The theme for the first day, of what is meant to be an annual tradition, is: “The Role of the (Arab) Media in Combatting Terrorism”. The mockery is surely multi-faceted. One is the […]
By Ramzy Baroud The State of Israel was established on the ruins of Palestine, based on a series of objectives that were named after letters from the Hebrew alphabet, the consequences of which continue to guide Israeli strategies to this day. The current violence against Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem is […]
By Ramzy Baroud When Zionist Haganah militias carried out Operation Yiftach on 19 May, 1948, the aim was to drive Palestinians in the northern Safad District outside the border of Israel, which had declared its independence a mere five days earlier. The ethnic cleansing of Safad and its many villages was not unique to that […]
By Ramzy Baroud What does it mean to be a ‘liberal Arab’? Even in the West, definitions of the ‘liberal’ vary. In the American context, the demarcation of the ‘liberal’ overlaps cultural and political lines. Republicans use the term in a derogatory way to describe their opponents. Watch ‘Fox News’ to understand. (On second thought, […]
أعزائي الفلسطينيون في كل مكان يقود المؤلف والمؤرخ والصحفي الفلسطيني د. رمزي بارود مجموعة من الباحثين والصحافيين للمساعدة في كتابة كتابه الجديد حول الشعب الفلسطيني. الفكرة من وراء الكتاب المساعدة في جسر الهوة بين السياسة، الأيديولوجيا، الدين، والجغرافيا، وذلك بالنظر للتاريخ، والماضي والحاضر الفلسطيني بطريقة تساعد في الإجابة على أسئلة متعلقة بالوحدة، والهوية والأمة الفلسطينية. […]
By Ramzy Baroud The crisis of leadership throughout Palestinian history did not start with Mahmoud Abbas and will, regrettably, be unlikely to end with his departure. Although Abbas has, perhaps, done more damage to the credibility of the Palestinian leadership than any other leader in the past, he is also a by-product of a process […]
Dear Palestinians Everywhere, Palestinian Author, historian and Journalist, Dr. Ramzy Baroud is leading a group of researchers and journalists to help write his new book about the people of Palestine. The idea behind the book is to bridge politics, ideology, religion and geography to look at Palestinian history, past and present in a way that […]
By Ramzy Baroud Another war is in the making in Libya: the questions are ‘how’ and ‘when’? While the prospect of another military showdown is unlikely to deliver Libya from its current security upheaval and political conflict, it is likely to change the very nature of conflict in that rich, but divided, Arab country. An […]
By Ramzy Baroud So far this year, “nearly one quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe”, reported Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, citing the International Organisation for Migration. The situation is indeed bleak, not only because the number of refugees is constantly on the rise, but also because Europe appears rather disinterested […]
By Sputnik International The scale of the crisis in the Mediterranean can’t be ignored. Two thousand migrants have died already this year on their journey to Europe. Fifty migrants remain unaccounted for after their rubber dinghy sank, this came just days after 200 migrants were presumed dead after their boat capsized off the coast of […]
By Ramzy Baroud On April 26, 2011, a meeting that can only be described as sinister took place between the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The most pressing issue discussed at the meeting in Rome was how to deal with African immigrants. Sarkozy, who was under pressure from his […]
By Ramzy Baroud Strange how intellectual discussion concerning the so-called “Arab Spring” has almost entirely shifted in recent years – from one concerning freedom, justice, democracy and rights in general, into a political wrangle between various antagonist camps. The people, who revolted across various Arab countries are now marginalized in this discussion, and are only […]
By Ramzy Baroud The legacy of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas is draped in contradictions and utter defeat. His reign can only be regarded as an astounding failure, during which not a single Palestinian national objective was attained, nor a liberation vision put forward. Alas, the 80-year-old leader remains at the helm of […]
By Ramzy Baroud One-and-a-half year old Ali Saad Dawabsha became the latest victim of Israeli violence on July 31. He was burnt to death. Other members of his family were also severely burnt in a Jewish settlers’ attack on their home in the village of Duma, near Nablus, in the West Bank. A spokesman for […]