- June 9, 2025
Articles
Funding and Denouncing Israeli Occupation: Hypocritical EU Must Make a Stand
By Ramzy Baroud More bad news emerged from Israel in recent weeks. Indeed, good news is seldom associated with Israel and its military occupation and institutionalized discrimination and mistreatment of Palestinians. But now even those international organizations that are often supportive of Israel’s militancy seem to be joining the consensus that Tel Aviv is on […]
Ignoring Genocide: Rohingya People Deserve to Live
By Ramzy Baroud One fails to understand the unperturbed attitude with which regional and international leaders and organizations are treating the unrelenting onslaught against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, formally known as Burma. Numbers speak of atrocities where every violent act is prelude to greater violence and ethnic cleansing. Yet, western governments’ normalization with the Myanmar […]
Changing Nature of Palestine’s Struggle Caught on Five Cameras
By Ramzy Baroud – The National Those who watched Emad Burnat’s 5 Broken Cameras were perhaps reminded of Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali’s iconic character, Handala – a barefooted boy whose role in Al Ali’s drawings is to stand and bear witness to the tragedy that transpires before him. His hands are folded behind him, […]
Turkey Cornered into Israeli Embrace
By Ramzy Baroud An Israeli-Turkish rapprochement is unmistakably underway, but unlike the heyday of their political alignment in the 1990s, the revamped relationship is likely to be more guarded and pose a greater challenge to Turkey rather than Israel. Israeli media last week referenced a report by Turkish newspaper Radikal regarding secret talks between Turkey […]
Photographing Tragedy: What the Victims Actually Want
By Ramzy Baroud When one looks at scenes of feeling refugees from Syria, browse through images of their squalid refugee camps, hears their plea for solidarity, for mercy, for God’s help to end their suffering, one finds eerie similarities between their experiences and those of Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis. The worse part of the tragedy, however, […]
Iraq at the Brink: A Decade after the Invasion
By Ramzy Baroud Soon after the joint US-British bombing campaign ‘Operation Desert Fox’ devastated parts of Iraq in Dec 1998, I was complaining to a friend in the lobby of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. I was disappointed with the fact that our busy schedule in Iraq – mostly visiting hospitals packed with injured or Depleted Uranium […]
What Palestinians Can Expect from Obama
By Ramzy Baroud – Special to Gulf News Judging by the final statement of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit held in Cairo on February 6-7, Arab and Muslim countries have little to offer Palestinians — or anyone else for that matter — apart from the ever-predictable rhetoric and promises of financial assistance. Fiery speeches […]
New Actors in Palestinian Peace Charade
By Ramzy Baroud Despite much saber-rattling by Israel and the US administration and hyped-up expectations by the Palestinian leadership, the recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state last November is fast becoming yet another footnote in the protracted conflict. Only hours after the announcement of Palestinian’s “state” status, Israel had its own to make: […]
No Security Firms for African Refugees: Opportunities and War in Mali
By Ramzy Baroud The British security firm G4S is set to rake in massive profits thanks to crises in Mali, Libya and Algeria. Recognized as the world’s biggest security firm, the group’s brand plummeted during the London Olympics last year due to its failure to satisfy conditions of a government contract. But with growing unrest […]
Arab Springboard for Intervention? Two Years of Revolution and War
By Ramzy Baroud Reform movements in the Arab world are indicative of the rise of new players in a political game historically reserved for the locals and their western benefactors. On January 25, Egyptians commemorated the second anniversary of their revolution. Some spoke of historic achievements, others bemoaned lost opportunities and many more were just […]
Exploited and Misused: The Impossible Discourse of the ‘Arab Spring’
By Ramzy Baroud A reductionist discourse is one that selectively tailors its reading of subject matters in such a way as to only yield desired outcomes, leaving little or no room for other inquiries, no matter how appropriate or relevant. The so-called Arab Spring, although now far removed from its initial meanings and aspirations, has […]
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Intifada
By Ramzy Baroud If Palestinian leaders only knew how extraneous their endless rounds of “unity” talks have become, they might cease their enthusiastic declarations to world media about yet another scheduled meeting or another. At this point, few Palestinians have hope that their “leadership” has their best interests in mind. Factional interests reign supreme and […]
The Forgotten Palestinians: Factionalism and Its Discontents
By Ramzy Baroud In and around the southern mountains of Hebron (Al Khalil) there are thousands of people who dwell in tents, huts and caves. Before Israel came to existence in 1948, they moved about unhindered in the vast area, tending to their crops, sheep and traditional way of life as they had done for […]
History of the People: Articulating ‘Palestine’ Despite Israeli Hasbara
By Ramzy Baroud What does a Palestinian farmer who is living in a village tucked in between the secluded West Bank hills, a prisoner on hunger strike in an Israeli jail and a Palestinian refugee roaming the Middle East for shelter all have in common? They are all characters in one single, authentic, solid and […]
‘The Iranians Are Coming’: The Imagined, ‘Sinister’ Iranian Threat in Latin America
By Ramzy Baroud Reading the text of a bill that was recently signed into law by US President Barack Obama would instill fear in the hearts of ordinary Americans. Apparently, barbarians coming from distant lands are at work. They are gathering at the US-Mexico border, cutting fences and ready to wreak havoc on an otherwise […]
Nakba Revisited: Tragedy of Syria’s Palestinians and Centrality of Right of Return
By Ramzy Baroud It must have been 2007, although I cannot remember the exact date. I do recall getting lost in what seemed like a futile search for the headquarters of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Rome. There was a meeting of NGOs and some General Assembly body, consisting of several UN ambassadors, […]
The War in Mali: Stability at Stake in West Africa
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Many of us may not be able to point to Mali on a map,’ began National Public Radio show host Neal Conan last Thursday, “but this landlocked nation in West Africa has emerged as a crisis.” The buzzword is, of course, Al Qaeda. Although it is the least urgent component of the […]
Understanding Hamas at 25: Beyond the Tired Language
By Ramzy Baroud “In a moment of high theatre he dropped to his knees, placed his lips on the ground and kissed the land he has commanded by proxy”. This is how Robert Tait of the British Telegraph worded the moment Khaled Meshaal arrived in Gaza on Dec 07. Tait’s report on what many in Gaza […]
Palestine’s New Status: A History Rerun or a New Palestinian Strategy
By Ramzy Baroud Palestine has become a “non-member state” at the United Nations as of Thursday November 29, 2012.The draft of the UN resolution beckoning what many perceive as a historic moment passed with an overwhelming majority of General Assembly members: 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. It was accompanied by a passionate speech […]
Of ‘Symbolic’ Victories and Real Defeats
By Ramzy Baroud A small group of students affiliated mostly with leftist Palestinian factions meandered through the streets of the small town of Birzeit near Ramallah in the summer of 1993. It was an impromptu political rally. They denounced what they understood as the relinquishing of basic Palestinian rights in exchange for meagre returns: Self-autonomy […]
A Different War in Gaza, and the War Ahead
By Ramzy Baroud In life, some phenomena cannot be explained by ordinary logic or technical language, let alone official discourses. How did Gaza manage to fight back with such ferocity and undying vigor in quelling the latest Israeli war despite years of a bloody siege and one-sided war in 2008-9? It simply cannot be explained […]
Netanyahu’s High-stakes Game in Gaza: Same Time, Same Place
By Ramzy Baroud Many key phrases have been presented to explain Israel’s latest military onslaught against Gaza, which left scores dead and wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is flexing his muscles in preparation for the Israeli general elections in January, suggested some. It is Israel’s way of testing the administration of Egyptian President Mahmoud Morsi, […]
Lip Service to Peace: EU as an Enabler of Netanyahu’s Colonial Policies
By Ramzy Baroud Europe is different, as we are often reminded. The general wisdom is unlike the United States’ unconditional support for Israel. European countries tend to be more balanced in their approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their politicians are less receptive to being bought and sold by pro-Israeli lobbies. Their media is far more […]
Palestine Entangled: The Politics of Money
By Ramzy Baroud In Malaysia, a small group of community activists are busy at work developing projects that benefit most vulnerable members of Palestinian society in Gaza. Working under the umbrella of Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM), the group shows solidarity through empowerment projects: interest free loans for micro projects, providing employment for women, supplying thousands […]
Manipulating History: The Different Faces of ‘Popular Resistance’ in Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud Apparently, ‘popular resistance’ has suddenly elevated to become a clash of visions or strategies between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and its rivals in Gaza, underscoring an existing and deepening rift between various factions and leaderships. Addressing a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) meeting in Ramallah on July 2011, PA President Mahmoud Abbas […]
‘Popular Resistance’ in Palestine: Beyond Political Doublespeak
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Popular resistance’ is a progressively unifying force among Palestinian civil society groups, political factions and society at large. While the discussion regarding its political viability is somewhat new, Palestinian history of popular resistance is as old as the British, then Zionist colonial projects in Palestine which started nearly a century ago. It […]
Rhetorically Speaking: US Election and the Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud US elections are manifestly linked to the Middle East, at least rhetorically. In practical terms, however, US foreign policies in the region are compelled by the Middle East’s own dynamics and the US’s own political climate and economic woes, or ambitions. There is little historic evidence that US foreign policy in the […]
Much at Stake for Turkey: Border Violence Meant to Be a Defining Point
By Ramzy Baroud ‘We expected a greater Turkish response than this, but you know, every country has its own special affairs.’ Taken alone, the remarks by Bashir Hajjo, introduced by BBC Arabic TV last Thursday as the spokesperson of the Tawhid Brigade, are no cause for alarm, except, of course, when placed within context. By […]
No Election Fervor, But Much at Stake
By Ramzy Baroud Come November 6, American voters will decide whether to extend Obama’s mandate by four more years, or hand the former Massachusetts Governor the fate of a country that has long crossed the line of economic recession into territories uncharted since the Great Depression in 1929. Romney, the archetypal American elite with ample […]
The Empire Trapped: The US’ Unpromising Role in the New Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud Editors representing many Asian newspapers stood in a perfect line. They were nervous and giddy at the prospect of meeting Li Changchun, China’s powerful member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee. Personally, the Great Hall of the People and the fortitude of Chinese society mesmerized me. Despite its challenges and repeated […]
