By Ramzy Baroud In a statement published last July, Amnesty International called on UN member states to control arm shipments to both Sudan and South Sudan. It accused the US, Russia and China of fuelling violations in the Sudan conflict through the arms trade. While China was reportedly supplying the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with […]
By Ramzy Baroud ‘My Lords, I was in Gaza six weeks ago,’ began Baroness Tonge, when she spoke at the House of Lords in January 2009. ‘Now, as a result of the impotence of the international community, not just in Gaza, but…over 40 years of occupation of Palestine by Israel, those institutions that I visited […]
By Ramzy Baroud A few years ago, after I spoke at a conference in South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils, then the country’s Minister for Intelligence Services, leaned towards me and said, "I agree with everything you said, but in order for the boycott of Israel to become adopted by world governments, the call has to be […]
By Ramzy Baroud The intentional misreading of UN security council resolution 1973 resulted in Nato’s predictably violent Operation Odyssey in Libya last year. Not only did the action cost many thousands of lives and untold destruction, it also paved the way for perpetual conflict – not only in Libya but throughout north Africa. Mali was […]
By Ramzy Baroud Last week Marwan Barghouti, the prominent Palestinian political prisoner and Fatah leader, called on Palestinians to launch a ‘large-scale popular resistance’ which would ‘serve the cause of our people.’ The message was widely disseminated as it coincided with Land Day, an event that has unified Palestinians since March 1976. Its meaning has […]
By Ramzy Baroud When will the Palestinians revolt? The answer, according to an Israeli official: not this year (as quoted by Agency France Press). An internal Israeli Foreign Ministry report last month also concluded that a third Palestinian intifada or uprising was ‘unlikely’ this year. According to the unnamed official, “This report, which is more […]
By Ramzy Baroud Like Vietnam, Afghanistan is a lost cause, and more troops will do nothing but push the US deeper into the quagmire. Some of us warned about the Vietnamisation of Afghanistan as early as the first months of the war in 2001. The Afghans are a proud people with a long and formidable […]
By Ramzy Baroud The Afghans are a proud people with a long and formidable history of resistance to foreign occupation. The fact that they have always prevailed, however, should not distract from the horror they still routinely experience. The latest atrocious episode against Afghans took place on March 11 in the village of Balandi, when […]
By Ramzy Baroud The first Israeli missile sped down to its target, scorching the Gaza earth and everything in between. Palestinians collected the body parts of two new martyrs, while Israeli media celebrated the demise of two terrorists. Zuhair Qasis was the head of the Popular Resistance Committee. He was killed alongside a former Palestinian […]
By Ramzy Baroud On March 8, Palestinian women rallied in Gaza and Ramallah to mark International Women’s Day. Activities were held in various cities, villages and refugee camps. Women in Palestine are united by a shared struggle, untold hardship, and also a legendary ability to withstand, survive and flourish under the harshest of circumstances. Even […]
By Ramzy Baroud (Based on talks delivered by Ramzy Baroud at Israeli Apartheid Week conferences in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Canada – March 5, 6 2012) In the Winter 2012 Edition of Palestine News – published by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK – and more specifically on page 5, there is a photo […]
By Ramzy Baroud Despite all of Hamas’ assurances to the contrary, a defining struggle is taking place within the Palestinian Islamic movement. The outcome of this struggle – which is still confined to polite political disagreements and occasional intellectual tussle – is likely to change Hamas’ outlook, if not fundamentally alter its position within a […]
By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News The initial clarity of Egypt’s revolutionary discourse has been replaced by perplexing discussions involving a range of issues from ‘Islamists vs liberals’ to football violence. The latest such issue involves the rift between the US and the Egyptian government over the latter’s crackdowns on organizations with questionable sources […]
By Ramzy Baroud On two occasions in my life I found myself living close to the South China Sea. The sea became my escape from life’s pressing responsibilities. But there is no escaping the fact that the deceptively serene waters are now also grounds for a nascent but real new cold war. China takes the […]
By Ramzy Baroud The issue is not about hummus, chocolate bars or Dead Sea vacations. It is about civil society taking full responsibility for its own action (or lack of). The issue is not exactly about Israeli products either, but rather about how even a seemingly innocent decision like buying Israeli dates may enable the […]
By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News While top officials representing rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, signed yet another unity agreement on February 6 in Doha, Qatar, Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan crossed the 50-day mark of his hunger strike. His health was rapidly deteriorating. Since his arrest on December 17, “Khader was subjected to […]
By Ramzy Baroud On April 10, 2002, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons, ‘Saddam Hussein’s regime is…developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked.’ A year later, Blair, enthusiastically joined a US-led coalition that launched an illegal war against Iraq. Their hunt for weapons of […]
By Ramzy Baroud In a recent article, columnist Yaniv Halili described British author Ben White as ‘anti-Semitic’. He also denounced Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi for writing a forward to White’s latest book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy. Those of us who can see through such distorted thinking know that White is a […]
By Ramzy Baroud The British Foreign Office and the US State Department are seriously concerned. Human rights officers in the United Nations are angry. Canada, for some reason, seems particularly enraged. The target of all this fury is Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), which is berated for failing to curtail widespread human rights violations throughout […]
By Ramzy Baroud The country that has long been known to abuse its powers and privileges in the United Nations is now leading a campaign to reform the same organization. While UN reforms are welcomed, if not demanded, by many of its member states, there is little reason to believe the recent US crusade is […]