- November 24, 2024
Palestine/Israel
Justice at Last? ‘Panic’ in Israel as the ICC Takes ‘Momentous Step’ in the Right Direction
By Ramzy Baroud At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”. Bensouda’s verdict has been in the […]
Embracing Palestine: How to Combat Israel’s Misuse of ‘Anti-Semitism’
By Ramzy Baroud At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of anti-Semitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative. In fact, my proposal was not meant to be a sentimental […]
Who is Archbishop Atallah Hanna, and Why does Israel Hate Him?
By Ramzy Baroud “They will run and not grow weary,” is a quote from the Bible (Isaiah, 40:41) that adorns the homepage of Kairos Palestine. This important document, which parallels a similar initiative emanating from South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle years, has come to represent the unified voice of the Palestinian Christian community everywhere. One […]
A Year in Review: Will 2020 Be a Game Changer in Palestine?
By Ramzy Baroud This has been a defining year for Palestine and Israel. Despite the usual political stagnation of the Palestinian leadership, two factors contributed to making 2019 particularly eventful and, looking ahead, consequential as well: The unprecedented political power struggle in Israel, and the total US retreat from its own self-proclaimed role as an […]
Palestine and the Stifling Status Quo: Extending UNRWA’s Mission is a Pyrrhic Victory
By Ramzy Baroud “All attempts at trying to limit UNRWA’s mandate or defund it or attack it have failed, and we hope that the international community will continue to come to the rescue.” These were the words of senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, in response to the news that the United […]
On the Road to Gaza: The Freedom Flotilla Will Sail Again
By Ramzy Baroud What is Gaza to us but an Israeli missile, a rudimentary rocket, a demolished home, an injured child being whisked away by his peers under a hail of bullets? On a daily basis, Gaza is conveyed to us as a bloody image or a dramatic video, none of which can truly capture […]
From a Blessing to a Curse: How UN Resolution 2334 Accelerated Israel’s Colonization in the West Bank
By Ramzy Baroud Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. With fourteen members voting in favor and one abstention, the Resolution was the equivalent of a political earthquake. Indeed, it was the first time in many years that the international body roundly condemned Israel for its illegal settlement policies in the Occupied Palestinian […]
‘Elected by Donors’: The University of Cape Town Fails Palestine, Embraces Israel
By Ramzy Baroud It was a scandal of the highest caliber. On November 23, the senate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa was practically bullied into reversing an earlier decision calling for the academic boycott of Israel. While the story may seem relevant in South Africa’s political and academic contexts, in […]
Money, Power and Turf: Winning the Middle East Media War at Any Cost
By Ramzy Baroud It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose only goal is […]
The Unfinished ‘Coup’: The End of the Netanyahu Era and the Political Earthquake ahead
By Ramzy Baroud Nothing seems to be working for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and avoid a possible prison sentence. Nevertheless, for Israel’s longest-serving leader, the end is almost certainly nigh. Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of […]
Israel’s Next Move: The Real Danger in the US Decision to Normalize Illegal Jewish Settlements
The US decision to defy international law on settlements is not dangerous because it violates international law, for the latter has hardly ever been a concern for Washington.
O próximo passo de Israel é o verdadeiro perigo contido na decisão dos EUA de normalizar assentamentos ilegais
Não é de surpreender que o governo dos EUA finalmente tenha decretado que os assentamentos judaicos ilegais construídos em desafio ao direito internacional são de alguma forma “consistentes” com a lei. A política externa dos EUA está se aproximando dessa conclusão há algum tempo. Desde que se mudou para a Casa Branca em janeiro de 2017, o presidente Donald Trump desencadeou uma reversão total e completa da política externa de seu país em relação à Palestina e Israel.
The Infallible Warrior: Honest Reflections on the Legacy of Yasser Arafat 15 Years after his Death
By Ramzy Baroud 15 years after the passing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian people continue to reflect on his legacy. Thousands of images of “Abu Ammar” have been shared across numerous social media platforms remembering a man whose nom de guerre has been affiliated with the Palestinian struggle for decades. Arafat’s legacy, however, […]
How Western Media Bias Allows Israel to Getaway with Murder in Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”. The answer came on November 12, when […]
A Lesson for the Palestinian Leadership: Real Reasons behind Israel’s Arrest and Release of Labadi, Mi’ri
By Ramzy Baroud The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of hardships […]
Microsoft Should not Fund Israeli Spying on Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud The act of Palestinian activists covering their faces during anti-Israeli occupation rallies is an old practice that spans decades. The masking of the face, often by Kufyias – traditional Palestinian scarves that grew to symbolize Palestinian resistance – is far from being a fashion statement. Instead, it is a survival technique, without […]
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinian Christians that Nobody is Talking about
By Ramzy Baroud Palestine’s Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel. Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: “The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective”. […]
She Deserves our Support: Betty McCollum Wants US to Stop Subsidizing Torture of Palestinian Children
By Ramzy Baroud n December 2018, 17-year-old Palestinian teen, Ayham Sabah, was sentenced by an Israeli military court to 35 years in prison for his alleged role in a stabbing attack targeting an Israeli soldier in an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Sabah was only 14 years old when the alleged attack took place. Another […]
The Last Lifeline: The Real Reason behind Abbas’ Call for Elections
By Ramzy Baroud The call by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for elections in the Occupied Territories is a political ploy. There will be no true, democratic elections under Abbas’ leadership. The real question is: why did he make the call in the first place? On September 26, Abbas took on the world’s most important […]
Administrative Torture: Free Heba al-Labadi, a Jordanian Citizen in Israeli Prison
By Ramzy Baroud On August 20, Heba Ahmed al-Labadi fell into the dark hole of the Israeli legal system, joining 413 Palestinian prisoners who are currently held in so-called administrative detention. On September 26, Heba and seven other prisoners declared a hunger strike to protest their unlawful detention and horrific conditions in Israeli prisons. Among the prisoners is Ahmed Ghannam, […]
On Racism and ‘Wild Beasts’: Why Israel Besieges Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud The Israeli Apartheid Wall, which is being built largely on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, once more underscores the ugliness of military occupation. As such, it truly epitomizes the nature of Israeli apartheid and also delineates the siege-driven, isolationist mentality that dominates the ruling-class thinking in Israel. Even years before the establishment […]
The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa Must Lead the Way
By Ramzy Baroud On September 16, I visited South Africa, a country where many Palestinians have always felt welcomed, if not overwhelmed by the degree of genuine and meaningful solidarity. While having the honor to address many audiences in six, major cities, I have also learned a great deal. An important and sobering lesson is that while […]
Netanyahu on Steroids: What a Gantz-led Government Means for Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud Experience has taught Palestinians not to pay heed to Israeli elections. But to every rule, there is an exception. Although it is still true that no Israeli Zionist leader has ever been kind to the Palestinian people, the dynamics of the latest Israeli elections on September 17 are likely to affect the […]
Apartheid Made Official: Deal of the Century is a Ploy and Annexation is the New Reality
By Ramzy Baroud Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving quickly to alter the political reality in Palestine, and facing little or no resistance. On September 10, Netanyahu declared his intentions to annex swathes of Palestinian land adjacent to the Jordan River, an area that covers 2,400 square kilometers, or nearly a third of the Occupied West Bank. […]
Israeli Folly: How Netanyahu Cemented the Hezbollah-Hamas-Iran Alliance
By Ramzy Baroud To serve his limited political agenda, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have unwittingly unified various resistance groups in the Middle East after years of separation and discord. On August 24-25, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to strike several targets of parties he perceives to be allies of Iran in the region. The unprecedented […]
Humanity Denied: What Is Missing from the Omar, Tlaib Story
By Ramzy Baroud Israel’s decision to bar two United States Democratic Representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from entering Israel and visiting Palestine has further exposed the belligerent, racist nature of the Israeli government. But our understanding of the Israeli decision and the massive controversy and discussion it generated should not stop there. Palestinians, who have been at the […]
Jewish Settlers Rule the Roost in Israel, but at What Cost?
By Ramzy Baroud Jewish Israeli settlers are on a roll as they rampage across the occupied Palestinian West Bank. While settler violence is part of the daily routine in Palestine, the violence of recent weeks is linked directly to the General Election in Israel, scheduled to be held on 17 September. The previous election, just four months […]
Bassam Shakaa: The Making of a Palestinian ‘Organic Intellectual’
By Ramzy Baroud It would be unfair to claim that Palestine has not produced great leaders. It has, and Bassam Shakaa, the former Mayor of Nablus, who passed away on 22 July at the age of 89, was living proof of this. The supposed deficit in good Palestinian leadership can be attributed to the fact […]
Israel’s War on Innocence: Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Courts
By Ramzy Baroud On July 29, 4-year-old Muhammad Rabi’ Elayyan was reportedly summoned for interrogation by the Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem. The news, originally reported by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, was later denied by the Israeli police, more than likely in an attempt to lessen the impact of the PR disaster that followed. The Israelis are not […]
‘Clear and Decisive Win’: Why Netanyahu Needs a War on Gaza More Than Ever Before
By Ramzy Baroud Media reports of an impending Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip are now a regular occurrence. The frequency of these reports fluctuates based on Israel’s own political landscape. Empirical experience has taught us that when Israeli leaders are in trouble, they wage a war on Gaza. Now that Israeli Prime Minister […]
