- June 9, 2025
Articles
Omar and the Checkpoint: Everyday a Nightmare
By Ramzy Baroud Omar is a 7-year-old boy from Gaza. His family managed to obtain the necessary permits that allowed him to cross the Erez checkpoint to Jerusalem, through the West Bank, in order to undergo surgery. He was accompanied by his father. On the way back, the boy and his father were stopped at […]
The Libyan Bedlam: General Hifter, the CIA and the Unfinished Coup
By Ramzy Baroud On Friday, Feb 14, 92 prisoners escaped from their prison in the Libyan town of Zliten. 19 of them were eventually recaptured, two of whom were wounded in clashes with the guards. It was just another daily episode highlighting the utter chaos which has engulfed Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Ghaddafi […]
Preserving the Abu Ghraib Culture: The Harrowing Abuse of Iraqi Women
By Ramzy Baroud “When they first put the electricity on me, I gasped; my body went rigid and the bag came off my head,” Israa Salah, a detained Iraqi woman told Human Rights Watch (HRW) in her heartrending testimony. Israa (not her real name) was arrested by US and Iraqi forces in 2010. She was […]
Iraq near Implosion: The ‘Bad Years’ Are Back
By Ramzy Baroud As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hurried to his helicopter ready to take off at the end of a visit to Iraq last year, it was becoming clearer that the Americans have lost control of a country they wished to mold to their liking. His departure on March 24, 2013 was […]
Principles to Guide the Young Activist
By Ramzy Baroud In a recent radio interview with a National Public Radio affiliate in Juneau, Alaska, I was asked if I had advice for a 16-year-old Palestinian student, Haitham. He had just arrived in the US as part of a school exchange program, and, admirably began reaching out to his peers in his and […]
The Strange but ‘Stable’ Alliance: US Senate Await Israeli Instructions
By Ramzy Baroud Israel is often viewed by Washington politicians as the most ‘stable’ ally in the Middle East. But stability from the American perspective can mean many things. Lead amongst them is that the ‘ally’ must be unconditionally loyal to the diktats of the US administration. This rule has proven to be true since […]
The Whitewashing of Ariel Sharon
By Ramzy Baroud The death of former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon enlivened US media’s interest in the legacy of a man considered by many a war criminal, and by some a hero. In fact, the supposed heroism of Sharon was at the heart of CNN coverage of his death on January 11. Sharon spent his […]
Starving Refugees: How We Disowned Palestinians in Syria
By Ramzy Baroud A worst case scenario is unfolding in Syria, and Palestinian refugees, particularly in the Yarmouk refugee camp, are paying a heavy price for Syria’s cruelest war. They are starving, although there can be no justification, nor logistical explanation for why they are dying from hunger. Spokesman for the UN Relief and Works […]
2014: Failure of Palestinian Authority, BDS Success to Continue
By Ramzy Baroud 2013 was a year in which the so-called peace process charade was allowed to continue, leading Palestinians on yet another futile journey of broken promises. Meanwhile, the Israeli colonial project in the West Bank and East Jerusalem carried on unabated. But it was not entirely a year of doom and gloom either, […]
2013: Assessing the Conflict in Syria and Egypt – The War Continues
By Ramzy Baroud 2013 has expectedly been a terrible year for several Arab nations. It has been terrible because the promise of greater freedoms and political reforms has been reversed, most violently in some instances, by taking a few countries down the path of anarchy and complete chaos. Syria and Egypt are two cases in […]
BDS: Permanent Address for Palestinian Solidarity
By Ramzy Baroud The intellectual dishonesty of Israel’s supporters is appalling. But in some odd way, it is also understandable. How else could they respond to the massively growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign? When a non-violent campaign – empowered by thousands of committed civil society activists from South Africa to Sweden and most […]
Beit Sahour: Boycott is Historically Palestinian
By Ramzy Baroud As the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement continues to grow, and thus Israel’s international isolation, one must remember that the boycott is an authentically collective Palestinian strategy that is rooted in history. The BDS debate is at such an advanced stage that it has indeed surpassed all expectations. A few years […]
From the Middle East to Lausanne: Arabic Thoughts amidst the Alps
By Ramzy Baroud Here in Switzerland, the train chugs along nicely between Geneva and Lausanne. The Alpine mountain range desperately fights to make its presence known despite the irritating persistence of low- hanging clouds. A friend had just introduced me to the music of J.J. Cale, but my thoughts were moving faster than the speed […]
Impossible Dialogue: The Choice in Yemen
By Ramzy Baroud Chances are dim that elections will be held in Yemen next February. Yet without elections, the push for reforms and change that were inspired by the Yemeni revolution would become devoid of any real value. Yemenis might find themselves back on the street, repeating the original demands that echoed in the country’s […]
With Leaders Like These: Yet a New Threshold for Gaza’s Misery
By Ramzy Baroud It is impossible to predict the future. But one can state with a degree of certainty that little good can possibly be awaiting Palestinians when their political leadership seems to value their ties with Israel more than the fate of Gaza and all of its inhabitants. An exaggeration? Hardly. In an interview […]
Underneath the Washed White Wall of Cynicism and Hope
By Ramzy Baroud – Outpost Magazine (Lebanon) The houses in my old refugee camp felt enormous. My neighbors’ homes had grown into strange dimensions because they had to make use of every inch of available space out of desperation. My old house stood still and unbending, vacant of glory and burdened with memories. It was […]
The Plot Thickens: Gaza is Flooded with Sewage and Conspiracies
By Ramzy Baroud The latest punishment of Gaza may seem like another familiar plot to humiliate the strip to the satisfaction of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, and the military-controlled Egyptian government. But something far more sinister is brewing. This time, the collective punishment of Gaza arrives in the form of raw sewage that is […]
Bernard Henri Levy and the Destruction of Libya
By Ramzy Baroud While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “the world’s most influential Jew”, Bernard-Henri Levy is number 45, according to an article published in the Jerusalem Post, on May 21, 2010. Levy, per the Post’s standards, came only two spots behind Irving Moskowitz, a “Florida-based tycoon considered the leading supporter of Jewish construction […]
When Falsehoods Triumph: Why A Winning Palestinian Narrative is Hard to Find
By Ramzy Baroud (Editor’s Note: Ramzy Baroud will be conducting a speaking tour in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxemburg starting Dec 2. For more information click here.) In an initially pointless exercise that lasted nearly an hour, I flipped between two Palestinian television channels, Al Aqsa TV of Hamas in Gaza and Palestine TV of Fatah […]
Asking the Wrong Questions: Did Arab Revolutions Fail?
By Ramzy Baroud Challenging the falsehoods and simplifications that surrounded the so-called Arab Spring from the very start doesn’t necessarily mean that one is in doubt of the very notion that genuine revolutions have indeed gripped various Arab countries for nearly three years. In fact, the revolutionary influx is still underway, and it will take many years […]
Lebanon Haunted by Ghosts of Civil War
By Ramzy Baroud Throughout the years, Lebanon’s demographics have experienced periodic influx. But in the last two years, the demographic shift has become overwhelming due to the influx of Syrian refugees in desperate need of shelter. The situation is highly charged, if not perilous, considering Lebanon’s unmanageable sectarian balances and the direct involvement of Lebanese […]
Sectarianism: Redrawing the Map of Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud The warm waters of the Gulf look quiet from where I am sitting in Doha, but such tranquility hardly reflects the conflicts this region continues to generate. The euphoria of the so-called Arab Spring is long gone, but what remains is a region that is rich with resources and burdened with easily […]
South vs. North: Yemen Teeters between Hope and Division
By Ramzy Baroud On Oct 12, tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Eden in the South of the country, mostly demanding secession from the north. The date is significant, for it marks the 1967 independence of South Yemen, ending several decades of British colonialism. But for nearly five decades since then, […]
‘Defined Voices’: Giap, Wallace, and the Never-Ending Battle for Freedom
By Ramzy Baroud “Nothing is more precious than freedom,” is quoted as being attributed to Vo Nguyen Giap, a Vietnamese General that led his country through two liberation wars. The first was against French colonialists, the second against the Americans. And despite heavy and painful losses, Vietnam prevailed, defeating the first colonial quest at the […]
As Gaza Dies Slowly, Waiting Game is on
By Ramzy Baroud Since the Hamas election victory in January 2006 — and particularly after the Hamas-Fatah clashes and split between Gaza and the West Bank in the summer of 2007 — Gaza has undergone a disturbing human experiment, whose toll is unprecedented in the history of the impoverished Strip. The plotters involve the usual […]
People’s History of Gaza and Egypt: The Bond Cannot Be Broken
By Ramzy Baroud Egypt’s new ruler, General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, may not realize that the bond between Egypt, Palestine and especially Gaza is beyond historic, and simply cannot be severed with border restrictions, albeit they have caused immense suffering for many Palestinians. Gaza is being ‘collectively punished’, and is now facing economic hardship and a […]
New York Times Fiction: On Obama’s Letter to Rouhani
By Ramzy Baroud Mark Landler is a White House correspondent for The New York Times. Under the title “Through Diplomacy, Obama Finds a Pen Pal in Iran”, Landler wrote of President Barack Obama’s deep “belief in the power of the written word,” and of his “frustrating private correspondence with the leaders of Iran.” (NYT, Sep. […]
Syria’s New Game: The Russian Factor
By Ramzy Baroud Many US media commentators were fairly accurate in labeling some of the language used by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a New York Times article as “hypocritical”. But mainstream US media should be the last to point out anyone’s hypocrisy as it has brazenly endorsed every military intervention unleashed by their country […]
Tale of Two Cities: Ramallah, Gaza and the Identity Crisis
By Ramzy Baroud The distance between Gaza and Ramallah in sheer miles is hardly significant. But in actuality, both cities represent two different political realities, with inescapable cultural and socioeconomic dimensions. Their geopolitical horizons are vastly different as well – Gaza is situated within its immediate Arab surroundings and turmoil, while Ramallah is westernized in […]
Oslo Dead but Still Matters: Abbas’s Village Leagues and Palestinian Silence
By Ramzy Baroud Suppose several armored vehicles belonging to a branch of the Palestinian Authority raided an Israeli border village at the eve of a new round of peace negotiations. One can picture PA President Mahmoud Abbas defending the killings, stating that the attack was made in the cause of protecting the security of the […]
