- February 24, 2025
Palestine/Israel
Roots of the Conflict: Palestine’s Nakba in the Larger Arab ‘Catastrophe
By Ramzy Baroud On May 15th of every year, over the past 68 years, Palestinians have commemorated their collective exile from Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make room for a ‘Jewish homeland’ came at a price of unrelenting violence and perpetual suffering. Palestinians refer to that enduring experience as ‘Nakba’, or ‘Catastrophe’. However, […]
A Palestinian Perspective on Britain’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Controversy
By Ramzy Baroud There is a witch-hunt in the British Labour Party. Britain’s Opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is being hounded for not rooting out alleged anti-Semitism in his party. Those leading the charge are pro-Israel Zionists and their supporters within the party, members who are mostly allied with the former Prime Minister, the largely […]
The Spirit of Nelson Mandela in Palestine: Is His Real Legacy Being Upheld?
By Ramzy Baroud I had mixed feelings when I learned that Palestine has erected a statue of Nelson Mandela, the iconic South African anti-Apartheid leader. On the one hand, I was quite pleased that the unmistakable connection between the struggles of Palestinians and South Africans is cemented more than ever before. On the other hand, […]
By Sparing Israel, Abbas Deepens Palestinian Split
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinian National Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, is playing a very dangerous political game. At the same time as he is placing less pressure on the belligerent Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, he is keeping Palestinians further apart. Even when the 81-year-old leader no longer maintains his position, the legacy he has stubbornly […]
Did the Arabs Betray Palestine?
By Ramzy Baroud At the age of 21, I crossed Gaza into Egypt to pursue a degree in political science. The timing could have not been worse. The Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had resulted in a US-led international coalition and a major war, which eventually paved the road for the US invasion of […]
At 80, Failed Abbas is Probed, Derided and Scapegoated
By Ramzy Baroud “We won’t act like them, we will not use violence or force, we are peaceful, we believe in peace, in peaceful popular resistance.” This was part of a message issued by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in October, only days after a few incidents took place in which Palestinian youth were […]
The Logic of Murder in Israel: A Culture of Impunity in Full View of the Entire World
By Ramzy Baroud “Whether he made a mistake or not, is a trivial question,” said an Israeli Jewish man who joined large protests throughout Israel in support of a soldier who calmly, and with precision, killed a wounded Palestinian man in al-Khalil (Hebron). The protesting Jewish man described Palestinians as ‘barbaric’, ‘bestial’, who should not be […]
Non-violent BDS Should Be Welcomed, Not Condemned
By Ramzy Baroud A thousand Israelis and their supporters gathered in Jerusalem’s International Convention Center on March 28 at a conference aimed at combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). The conference was a display of “fear, paranoia, anger and determination,” as described by Antony Loewenstein, and featured top government officials, members of the […]
Israel Cannot Win the Fight with BDS
By Ramzy Baroud Serious efforts are being galvanized in Israel and outside to slow down the fast-moving momentum of the Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS). The latest of these efforts was a large, angry conference in occupied Jerusalem, which followed a series of conferences in the US. And more are being planned. This […]
Intifada for Dummies: Why a Popular Uprising is Yet to Take off?
By Ramzy Baroud The nature of the current uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is a testament to that claim. Previous uprisings were massive in their mobilization, clear in their message and decisive in their delivery. Their success or failure is not the point of this discussion, but the fact is that they […]
How Impunity Defines Israel and Victimizes Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif was killed. In the style typical of Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinians, he was first wounded after allegedly attempting to stab an Israel occupation soldier in the occupied city of Hebron. He lies on his back, his arms stretched across the road, and his head moving about. A […]
Why BDS Cannot Lose: A Moral Threshold to Combat Racism in Israel
By Ramzy Baroud A foray of condemnations of the boycott of Israel seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Calls from Western governments, originating from the UK, the US, Canada and others, to criminalize the boycott of Israel have hardly slowed down the momentum of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). On the […]
Journalism in Times of Conflict, Occupation and Political Strife – FOA Interview with Ramzy Baroud
FOA speaks to media consultant, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud about his tips and tricks of the trade and the importance of journalism and media in times of conflict, occupation and political strife. Social media and digital media has become a driving force for the future and the rise of citizen journalism […]
‘Good Labor – Bad Likud’: Dispelling the Myth of ‘Democracy’ within Israel’s Political Establishment
By Ramzy Baroud The Israeli ‘Right’, as demonstrated by a scary coalition of rightwing nationalists, ultranationalists and religious zealots, deserves all the bad press it has garnered since its formation last May. But none of this should come as a shock, as the ‘Right’ in Israel has never been anything but a coalition of demagogues […]
Next Onslaught in Gaza: Why the Status Quo is a Precursor for war
By Ramzy Baroud It is not true that only three wars have taken place since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Other wars that were deemed insignificant or ‘skirmishes’ also took place. Operation Returning Echo in March 2012, for example, killed and wounded over 100 people. But since the death […]
The Logic of Hunger Striking Palestinians: When Starvation Is a Weapon
By Ramzy Baroud By Friday, January 29, Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeq had spent 66-days on hunger strike in Israeli jails. Just before he fell into his third coma, a day earlier, he sent a public message through his lawyers, the gist of which was: freedom or death. Al-Qeq is 33-years of age, married and a […]
Why is Trauma Missing from Syria Refugee Debate?
By Ramzy Baroud The 12 million Syrian refugees may differ regarding the reasons why they had to flee their homes and country in the last five years. Yet, they are united in their plight and in the collective trauma of the violent dislocation they have all experienced. Half of those refugees are estimated to be […]
Gaza Speaks: This is What the Decade-long Siege Has Done to Us
By Ramzy Baroud (With reporting from Yousef Aljamal in Gaza) Whenever Mariam Aljamal’s children hear the sound of thunder at night, they wet their beds. Their reaction is almost instinctive, and is shared by a large number of children throughout the Gaza Strip. Mariam’s three children – Jamal, Lina and Sarah – were all born […]
Defined by Nakba and Exile: The Complex Reality of ‘Home’ for Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud When ISIS militias swept into Mosel, Iraq, in June 2014, Ibrahim Mahmoud plotted his flight, along with his whole family, which included 11 children. Once upon a time, Ibrahim was himself a child escaping another violent campaign carried out by equally angry militias. In his life-time, Ibrahim became a refugee twice, once […]
The Compelling Memoirs of Ali Abumghasib
By Ramzy Baroud Ali Abumghasib knows little about the current intrigues of the Fatah Movement, or, perhaps, he is just not interested. Although he has dedicated most of his life fighting within its ranks, he never saw his membership in Fatah as his defining identity. For him, it was, and will always remain, about Palestine […]
Palestine after Abbas: The Future of a People at Stake
By Ramzy Baroud Although intended to inspire his Fatah Party followers, a televised speech by Mahmoud Abbas on the 51st Anniversary of the group’s launch highlighted, instead, the unprecedented crisis that continues to wreak havoc on the Palestinian people. Not only did Abbas sound defensive and lacking in any serious or new initiatives, but his […]
A Crushed Generation: Photography under Siege in Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud Taghreed has never been outside Gaza. Her family were exiled to the impoverished Gaza Strip when Palestine was ethnically cleansed, to make room for the state of Israel in 1948. She was born in Gaza City 30 years ago, where she dreamed of a world beyond the confines of sand, water and […]
Hungry Warrior: The Untold Story of Hana Shalabi
By Ramzy Baroud Throughout her hunger strike, that of exactly 47 days, Hana Shalabi never slept consistently for a number of hours. In the first few days of her strike, she would doze off only to wake up with the sudden fear that someone was trying to hurt her. But after the first week of […]
Open Rafah Now: Siege on Gaza is a Cruel and Political Failure
By Ramzy Baroud When Egypt decided to open the Rafah border crossing which separates it from Gaza for two days, December 3 and 4, a sense of guarded relief was felt in the impoverished Strip. True, 48 hours were hardly enough for the tens of thousands of patients, students and other travelers to leave or […]
Reclaiming Palestine: How Israeli Media Misread the Intifada
By Ramzy Baroud Israeli commentators, Yaron Friedman, of “Ynet News” and Haviv Rettig Gur, of the “Times of Israel” are clueless about the driving force behind the Palestinian mobilization and collective struggle. In two recent articles, and with unmistakable conceit, they attempted to highlight what they perceive as the failure of the current Palestinian uprising, […]
Sorry, JK Rowling, You’re Wrong over The Israel Boycott
By Ramzy Baroud There is a possibility that you have heard of the famed British author, J.K. Rowling, writer of the popular fantasy series ‘Harry Potter’. While I knew of her books – through my teenage kids – I knew little about the author herself, until recently. Using generalised, ambiguous terminology that offered little by […]
Confronting the Obvious Truth: Palestinian Authority vs. the People
By Ramzy Baroud Saeb Erekat is an enigmatic character. Despite minimal popularity among Palestinians, he is omnipresent, appears regularly on television and speaks with the moral authority of an accomplished leader whose legacy is rife with accolades and an astute, unwavering vision. When Palestinians were polled by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) in […]
Ramzy Baroud: Palestine Remains the Core Struggle in the Middle East
Interviewed by Info-Palestine (This interview was originally published in French.) Info-Palestine: Our interview with Ramzy Baroud is concerned with the situation in Palestine, the raging conflicts in the Middle East and the role of the International Solidarity Movement. — Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is […]
Recasting the Rules over Palestine: An Intellectual Intifada in the Offing
By Ramzy Baroud My first stop, after living for 22 years in a refugee camp in Gaza, was the city of Seattle, a pleasant, green city, where people drink too much coffee to cope with the long, cold, grey winters. There, for the first time, I stood before an audience outside Palestine, to speak about […]
Of course, It is an Intifada: This is What You Must Know
By Ramzy Baroud When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists’. The interrogative questions were aimed at […]
