- November 23, 2024
Articles
The Palestinian Left: A Lost Opportunity
By RAMZY BAROUD When Hamas members were elected as the majority bloc of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and as it became apparent that a US-led international embargo would be an adjoining price to that victory, I contacted many intellectuals and writers in Palestine, mostly those who often positioned themselves as part of the Palestinian Left. […]
Finding Lessons in Gaza’s Bloodshed
By RAMZY BAROUD The Hamas-Fatah clash that has culminated into a mini-civil war in recent weeks is both old and new, and while some of its elements are uniquely Palestinian, much of it was manufactured at the behest of US-Israeli intelligence and governments. The tensions between Fatah and Hamas are decades old. Fatah has – […]
Democracy Defeated
By RAMZY BAROUD All my forewarnings have suddenly been actualised, all at once: Gaza has descended into total and utter chaos; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has capitulated to Israel and to the United States without a shred of reservation; and the Palestinian democratic experiment, which was until recently an astounding success, has been smashed to […]
War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire
By RAMZY BAROUD When I resorted to Mark Twain’s writings I attempted to escape, at least temporarily from my often distressing readings on war, politics and terror. But his “The Mysterious Stranger”, although published 1916, still left me with an eerie feel. The imaginative story calls into question beliefs that we hold as a “matter […]
Losing Afghanistan: Firepower Doesn’t Always Win Wars
By RAMZY BAROUD In a statement made available through the country’s Foreign Office, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri chastised the “international community” for the “abandonment” of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989. In his estimation, it was this attitude that created the conditions which eventually culminated in the rise of the […]
For Boycott to Be Effective, an International Coalition Is Indispensable
By RAMZY BAROUD South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils whispered to me as I sat down following a most enthusiastic speech I gave at a recent conference in Cape Town: "if you want the world to heed to your call for boycotting Israel, the call has to originate from the Palestinian leadership itself." Kasrils […]
Cape of Good Hope: One Apartheid Regime Down; One More to Go
By RAMZY BAROUD I stand at the southernmost corner of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. The grand mountains underneath and behind infuse a moment of spiritual reflection unmatched in its depth and meaning. Before me is an awe-inspiring view: here the Atlantic’s frigid waters gently meet the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. They […]
From Palestine to Rotterdam: The Perfect PR Disaster
By RAMZY BAROUD In Rotterdam, Holland’s third largest city, thousands of Palestinians gathered on May 5 for the annual Palestinians in Europe conference. I too opted to participate only to witness a PR disaster, which could have not possibly taken place at a more critical time. This article is another attempt at self-critique and reflection, […]
Darfur: The Hourglass of Blood
By RAMZY BAROUD The Darfur crisis in Sudan is perhaps the most politically convoluted conflict in the world today. Its underpinnings involve local, regional and international players, all selfishly vying for power and economic interests. Alliances shift like quicksand, reminiscent of Lebanon. Neither the interest of the people of Darfur, nor the sovereignty of Sudan […]
Mismanaging Iraq: Stealing from the Poor and Giving to the Rich
By RAMZY BAROUD Locating Dartmouth House, where Hans von Sponeck, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq was scheduled to speak in London 18 April, was a challenge. Yet having been lost for an hour in the ever-confusing and expanding city of London was the least of my concerns the moment I slipped quietly into the […]
Freedom for Alan Johnston
By RAMZY BAROUD In Trafalgar Square in London, dozens of journalists representing every major news organisation descended on a designated corner in the tourist infested area in support of Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent kidnapped in Gaza on March 12, 2006, one month after his ordeal began. Awaiting the arrival of Alan’s family to a […]
A Paradigm Shift: America as Proxy
By RAMZY BAROUD Conflicts in the Middle East are often orchestrated from afar, using proxies — the least risky method to fight and win a war. Despite its geopolitical fragmentation, the Middle East is loosely united insofar as any major event in any given locale can subsequently be felt throughout the region. Thus Lebanon, for […]
Not an Intellectual Squabble
By RAMZY BAROUD In a spacious yet fortified United Nations compound in Rome, members of a Palestine committee at the General Assembly repeated old mantras: vowed support for Palestinians, issued a Press release and went for lunch. The committee consisted of several UN ambassadors; all well-intended, sympathetic and concerned; nonetheless, they also knew too well […]
War Anniversary: Israel, Palestine Links Absent
By RAMZY BAROUD The Stockholm air was too cold, even for the most animated speaker to excite a crowd. But I had little choice: thousands of anti-war protesters had descended on the capital’s main square to show their support of the Iraqi people on the four-year anniversary of the US invasion, and to demand an […]
The Arab Peace Initiative and the Changing Middle East
By RAMZY BAROUD The rapid, almost hasty, developments on the Arab Israeli front, almost immediately following the Saudi sponsored Makkah Agreement on February 2, should be examined in their proper context, as a part and parcel of the regional shifts, exasperated by the US war in Iraq and the dramatic adjustment in Iran’s position vis-à-vis […]
Articulating a Just Peace: Whose Responsibility?
By RAMZY BAROUD [From a speech for Stockholm Conference 16-19 March 2007] In my speech today, I will refrain from stating the obvious: those who are yet to recognize the injustices committed daily against the Palestinian people, have either succumbed completely to Israel’s propaganda or are simply uninterested in the whole matter. Although confronting both […]
Palestinians Must Redefine Struggle
By RAMZY BAROUD It’s never easy to admit that the Palestinian front, both at home and abroad, remains as fragmented and self-consumed, thus ineffective, as ever before, and got worse during the disastrous post-Oslo period. Such realisation wouldn’t mean much if the inference concerned any other polity; but when it’s made in regards to a […]
Losing Focus: Peace and Justice Movement in Britain at Crossroad
By RAMZY BAROUD Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, it was a very familiar encounter: Israeli soldiers storming our house accompanied by shouts of terror and a barrage of insults. Such recollections make me shudder to this day. Just the mere summoning of those memories of my childhood in the […]
A Democracy in Crisis: Who is Really in Control?
By RAMZY BAROUD Years back, an old and astute professor at the University of Washington ended a fascinating lecture to a small group of freshmen with the following contention: "Our country might find itself in a position that could force it to deprive its citizens from certain freedoms to preserve basic rights." The political atmosphere […]
The Final Punch: Removing Iran from the New Middle East Equation
By RAMZY BAROUD The configuration of the New Middle East — as envisaged by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the Israeli war against Lebanon in July-August 2006, most certainly has no place for more than one regional power broker, namely Israel. Under such an arrangement — subservient Arabs and Iran governed by an […]
The Makkah Agreement: What Should We Expect?
By RAMZY BAROUD The Makkah agreement, signed between rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah on February 8, under the auspices of the Saudi leadership, was welcomed by thousands of cheering Palestinians throughout the occupied territories, and seen as the closing of a chapter of a bloody and tumultuous period of their history. Officially, although more […]
Countdown for Iran: When Commonsense is Nonsense
By RAMZY BAROUD The relationship between Iran and the United States is one of peculiar temperament: intense but accommodating at times, barefaced and seemingly self-destructive at others. Currently, the latter estimation rings truer: the US naval military build up in the east Mediterranean and the Gulf, conjoined with an intense and sinister propaganda campaign that […]
Shameless in Gaza: Inching Toward a Palestinian Civil War
By RAMZY BAROUD The most recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has left many people dead, confirms that the internal strife plaguing the Occupied Territories since the advent of Hamas to power in January 2006 was not entirely the outcome of outside meddling in Palestinian affairs. It is, in most part a violent expression […]
While Going Under: The Things We Take for Granted
By RAMZY BAROUD I opened my eyes to the sound of my children, so innocently unaware of what had befallen their father: "is Daddy going to die?" asked one, in a voice engulfed with a worry that transcended her years; "no, but I think that he will have to use a wheelchair for the rest […]
The Arabs’ Feelings of Love and Hate for Saddam Hussein
By RAMZY BAROUD Amid the anticipation and strange secrecy regarding the day of Sadaam Hussein’s execution, images of his lifeless body after his hanging flooded internet, the world media seemingly and conveniently forgot the tenants of international law regarding such images. Even such photos plagued my screen on Al-Jazeera that morning. Later, scenes of Iraqi […]
One Last Chance for Sanity in Iraq
By RAMZY BAROUD US President George W Bush’s new war strategy due to be officially announced on Wednesday, which will likely meet an uphill battle at the now Democrat-controlled Congress, is a slap in the face of the majority of American voters, and indeed the democratic process. The majority of American voters made their voices […]
New Year Reflections
By RAMZY BAROUD 2006 was yet another year of tribulations in the ever tumultuous Middle East. It defied all early expectations that 2005 would be the worst for many years to follow. It ended on a sad note in Palestine, and left wide open the chance for many appalling possibilities that stretch from Baghdad, to […]
Middle East Peace Process: Stagnation by Design
By RAMZY BAROUD I began the preface of my latest book, “The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle,” by making the following claim: “The second Palestinian uprising will be etched in history as an era where a major shift in the rules of the game has occurred.” But have they? If they […]
Al Jazeera English: The Plot Thickens
By RAMZY BAROUD The launch of Al Jazeera English on Nov. 15 was hardly an ordinary event. It was another notable addition to the growing global efforts aimed at counterbalancing American-European domination over world media: Deciding on what story is to be told and how, thus shaping public opinion, reinforcing Westerns policies, disseminating its own […]
Hudna or Not: Palestinian Rights Must Be Preserved
By RAMZY BAROUD Palestinian groups have recently suggested a ceasefire, in exchange for a cessation of Israeli violence. Ehud Olmert responded with a conciliatory speech, cleverly timed with President Bush’s arrival to Jordan on November 29 for a two-day conference with top Iraqi officials. Israel, then, accused Palestinians of firing five rockets into Israel in […]
