By RAMZY BAROUD Prepared for the Conference on People’s Foreign Policy, Mumbai, India: December 7-8 2006. I am honored and delighted to have the opportunity to address you today. But it is unfortunate and tragic that I address you in a time where circumstances on the ground have deteriorated so much that the desperation which […]
By RAMZY BAROUD “The term ethnic cleansing refers to various policies of forcibly removing people of another ethnic group. At one end of the spectrum, it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population transfer, while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide.” According to this definition, and others including those emerging in […]
By RAMZY BAROUD The astounding results of the US Congressional elections of November 7 were undoubtedly a welcomed sign of change, not in the American political apparatus per se, but in the unmistakable public reclamation of their role as the driving force behind the nation’s political posture. That said, one must not confuse the redefining […]
By RAMZY BAROUD God is greater than Israel and America, was the echoing cry of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who descended onto the graveyard in grief-stricken Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. They congregated in yet another familiar scene, to bury their loved ones, killed by Israel’s brutal war against the Palestinians. This time, […]
By RAMZY BAROUD Attempts to coerce Palestinians into submission have not always manifested themselves in the crude form of a tank, a bullet, the withholding of aid, or the denial of freedom of movement. These efforts were at times more imaginative and shrewd, through the sponsoring and espousing of factionalism, the purchasing of the integrity […]
By RAMZY BAROUD Thousands of people recently marched in London to commemorate Quds Day, an annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people that emanated from Tehran some 26 years ago. I neither wish to contend nor corroborate the sincerity of the call, made by Ayatollah Khomeini, in a time when the Palestinian people endure, […]
By RAMZY BAROUD How critical is the situation in Iraq? It depends on who you ask and when. Common sense tells us that the situation there has always been critical. In fact, one could dare claim that the country has been stricken with political and social upheaval since the early 1990s, when the US led […]
By RAMZY BAROUD The US administration’s double standards in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further strengthens the argument that President George W Bush’s colonial designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred by their lethal preparedness. Considering the US-North Korea protracted standoff, one can only imagine how […]
By RAMZY BAROUD It is no secret that the Palestinian people have always struggled with the problem of impotent, self-seeking leaderships, who have historically invested far greater time fending for their own status and position at the helm – however worthless – than representing the legitimate rights and aspirations of an occupied nation. Alas, the […]
By RAMZY BAROUD An expert in international law and an old friend of the Palestinian people wrote me with utter distress a few days after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh were reported to have reached an agreement Sept. 11 to form a national unity government. The content of his message was […]
By RAMZY BAROUD US President George W. Bush once again blamed Arab media for his country’s image problem. "I recognise we’ve got an image issue, particularly when you have television stations, Arabic television stations that are constantly just pounding America — saying America is fighting Islam, Americans can’t stand Muslims, this is a war against […]
By RAMZY BAROUD The ongoing war of words between US President George W. Bush and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, coupled with deluded western media misconceptions or intentional misrepresentations of the true nature of the escalating conflict, can be utterly misleading, and must promptly be brought back to their sensible parameters of analysis. Following President Ahmadinejad’s fiery […]
By RAMZY BAROUD People imagine that their opinions are their own, not those of corporate moguls who compete to colonise the public sphere. We are not as free in thought as we think. German philosopher and political scientist Jèrgen Habermas is often credited for his immense contribution to sociology and critical theory among other areas […]