- February 24, 2025
Palestine/Israel
Israel’s High-Stake Game in Al-Aqsa and Why Netanyahu May Prevail
By Ramzy Baroud The State of Israel was established on the ruins of Palestine, based on a series of objectives that were named after letters from the Hebrew alphabet, the consequences of which continue to guide Israeli strategies to this day. The current violence against Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem is […]
How Yarmouk Came About: Israel’s Unabashed Role in the Syrian Refugee Crisis
By Ramzy Baroud When Zionist Haganah militias carried out Operation Yiftach on 19 May, 1948, the aim was to drive Palestinians in the northern Safad District outside the border of Israel, which had declared its independence a mere five days earlier. The ethnic cleansing of Safad and its many villages was not unique to that […]
دعوة الي الفلسطينين في كل مكان: ساعدونا في كتابة تاريخ الشعب الفلسطينى
أعزائي الفلسطينيون في كل مكان يقود المؤلف والمؤرخ والصحفي الفلسطيني د. رمزي بارود مجموعة من الباحثين والصحافيين للمساعدة في كتابة كتابه الجديد حول الشعب الفلسطيني. الفكرة من وراء الكتاب المساعدة في جسر الهوة بين السياسة، الأيديولوجيا، الدين، والجغرافيا، وذلك بالنظر للتاريخ، والماضي والحاضر الفلسطيني بطريقة تساعد في الإجابة على أسئلة متعلقة بالوحدة، والهوية والأمة الفلسطينية. […]
Palestine’s Crisis of Leadership: Did Abbas Destroy Palestinian Democracy?
By Ramzy Baroud The crisis of leadership throughout Palestinian history did not start with Mahmoud Abbas and will, regrettably, be unlikely to end with his departure. Although Abbas has, perhaps, done more damage to the credibility of the Palestinian leadership than any other leader in the past, he is also a by-product of a process […]
A Call to Palestinians Everywhere: Help Write Our History
Dear Palestinians Everywhere, Palestinian Author, historian and Journalist, Dr. Ramzy Baroud is leading a group of researchers and journalists to help write his new book about the people of Palestine. The idea behind the book is to bridge politics, ideology, religion and geography to look at Palestinian history, past and present in a way that […]
Missing Link in Palestinian Baby’s Murder
By Ramzy Baroud The legacy of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas is draped in contradictions and utter defeat. His reign can only be regarded as an astounding failure, during which not a single Palestinian national objective was attained, nor a liberation vision put forward. Alas, the 80-year-old leader remains at the helm of […]
The Palestinian Bubble and the Burning of Toddler, Ali Dawabsha
By Ramzy Baroud One-and-a-half year old Ali Saad Dawabsha became the latest victim of Israeli violence on July 31. He was burnt to death. Other members of his family were also severely burnt in a Jewish settlers’ attack on their home in the village of Duma, near Nablus, in the West Bank. A spokesman for […]
Why Palestinians Fight Back: The Logic of Life and Death in Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud Another row is brewing between Israel and the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, over the release of Avraham Mengitsu, an Israeli citizen who, according to Israeli military sources, ‘slipped into Gaza’ on September 7, 2014. The circumstances of Mengitsu’s entry into Gaza remain unclear, especially since Hamas’ political leader, Khaled Mashaal, denied that […]
Baskin’s Generous Offer: Making Peace with Israeli Occupation
By Ramzy Baroud It would be fair to assume that Gershon Baskin’s recent article in the Jerusalem Post – Encountering Peace: Obviously no peace now, so what then? (June 24) – is not a mere intellectual exercise aimed at finding ‘creative’ solutions to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Baskin is a regular contributor to the […]
The Good, Bad and Uncertain about Recognizing ‘Palestine’
By Ramzy Baroud No matter what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does, his popularity is declining. In some ways, Abbas’ threshold for popularity was really never impressive to begin with, a trend that is unlikely to change in the near future. But now that a power struggle in his Fatah party is looming, and his […]
Nakba and the Question of ‘Palestinian Strategy’
By Ramzy Baroud “What is the Palestinian strategy?” is a question that I have been asked all too often, including on 15 May, the day that millions of Palestinians around the world commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1947-48. The question itself doesn’t require […]
The Arab Boat: It’s an Arab-Palestinian Nakba, and We Are All Refugees
By Ramzy Baroud In a western capital far away from Gaza and Cairo, I recently shared a pot of tea with an “Egyptian refugee”. The term is familiar to me, but never have I encountered an Egyptian who refers to himself as such. He stated it as a matter of fact by saying: “As an […]
Birzeit Wins again: Students of the West Bank Unite
By Ramzy Baroud In November 1993, I was on a mission. At the age of 21, I wanted to change the world, starting with Birzeit University, the second-largest Palestinian university in the West Bank, situated near Ramallah, in the heart of the occupied territories. Back then I had made a name for myself with my […]
Stuck in Area A: How We Were Duped into Disowning the Palestinians
By Ramzy Baroud Are you surprised that there has been little mobilisation to help Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which is overrun by militants, and besieged by the Syrian army? Palestinians – and Syrians – there are killed in a myriad of ways, including starvation. As we stand and watch […]
My Missing Family in Syria: Naming and Shaming in Yarmouk
By Ramzy Baroud Members of my family in Syria’s Yarmouk went missing many months ago. We have no idea who is dead and who is alive. Unlike my other uncle and his children in Libya, who fled the NATO war and turned up alive but hiding in some desert a few months later, my uncle’s […]
Eight Urgent ‘Musts’ Needed for Palestinians to Defeat Apartheid
By Ramzy Baroud Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation – torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora – will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to […]
Netanyahu the Mythbuster: ‘Special Relationship’ No More
By Ramzy Baroud Imagine if an American presidential candidate made a plea to his supporters on election day with the following statement: “The Republican administration is in danger. Black voters are going en masse to the polls. Liberal NGOs are bringing them on buses.” Even in a country where Chris Matthews is a media celebrity […]
The Secret History of My Geography Teacher, Also Co-founder of Hamas
By Ramzy Baroud This is not my geography teacher, or, more accurately it is not at all how I remember him. A series of APA images published by the British Daily Mail and other newspapers showed Hamad al-Hasanat lying dead in a mosque, surrounded by a group of Hamas fighters. On top of his lifeless […]
Mending ‘Axis of Resistance’: Hamas Goes Back to Square One
By Ramzy Baroud Despite its success in repelling Israeli military advances in Gaza, Hamas’s regional political manoeuvres of recent years are not bearing fruit. Jointly isolated by Israel and other Arab parties, unaided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas, the Islamic Resistance Movement is once again facing difficult choices, and it seems to […]
Dear Syria: From One Refugee to Another
By Ramzy Baroud Whenever the word “refugee” is uttered, I think of my mother. When Zionist militias began their systematic onslaught and “cleansing” of the Palestinian Arab population of historic Palestine in 1948, she, along with her family, ran away from the once peaceful village of Beit Daras. Back then, Zarefah was six. Her father […]
Time to Move out: The Problem with Mahmoud Abbas and His Authority
By Ramzy Baroud It was the moment many had been waiting for. On January 2, Palestine’s United Nations envoy, Riyad Mansour formally requested membership at the International Criminal Court (ICC). “We are seeking justice for all the victims that have been killed by Israel, the occupying power,” he said. There was no explanation why Palestine’s […]
5 Reasons Why 2014 was a Game Changer in Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the […]
The Mockingjay of Palestine: ‘If We Burn, You Burn with Us’
By Ramzy Baroud Raed Mu’anis was my best friend. The small scar on top of his left eyebrow was my doing at the age of five. I urged him to quit hanging on a rope where my mother was drying our laundry. He wouldn’t listen, so I threw a rock at him. I didn’t mean […]
PFLP Soul-searching: The Rise and Fall of Palestine’s Socialists
By Ramzy Baroud The PFLP is back in the headlines after a recent attack in Jerusalem, raising questions about the current relevance of the group When news reports alleged that the two cousins behind the Jerusalem synagogue attack on 18 November were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a level of […]
Talk of a Third Intifada: Where to from Here, Palestine?
By Ramzy Baroud When a journalist tries to do a historian’s job, the outcome can be quite interesting. Using history as a side note in a brief news report or political analysis oftentimes does more harm than good. Now imagine if that journalist was not dependable to begin with, even more than it being “interesting”, […]
Phantoms of the Past: Britain’s Vote on Palestine is a Nonstarter
By Ramzy Baroud It would be intellectually dishonest to reflect on the British House of Commons’ vote of Monday, 13 October, on a Palestinian state without digging deeper into history. Regardless of the meaning of the non-binding motion, the parliamentary action cannot be brushed off as just another would-be country to recognise Palestine, as was […]
Nothing about us without Us: The Token Palestinian and Authentic Narrative
By Ramzy Baroud I recall, with particular awkwardness, my first talk to a socialist student gathering at the University of Washington in Seattle nearly two decades ago. When I tried to offer an authentic view of the situation in Palestine from the viewpoint of a refugee, my hosts were distinctly unimpressed. However, the bespectacled head […]
Losing the Plot: Israel’s Premier to Face New Gaza Reality
By Ramzy Baroud Netanyahu’s war-turned-genocide in Gaza has backfired badly – his strategy has helped resurrect Hamas, the very movement he tried desperately to crush Aside from being a major military setback, Israel’s war on Gaza has also disoriented the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like never before. Since the announcement of a ceasefire […]
Netanyahu vs. Abu Ubaydah: On Victory and False Victory
By Ramzy Baroud In the rush to analyze the outcome of Israel’s 51-day war in Gaza, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, some may have neglected an important factor: this was not a war by traditional definitions of warfare, thus the conventional analyses of victory and defeat is simply not applicable. That being the case, how can […]
Gaza Changed Everything: Things Cannot Stay the Same after Israeli Genocide
By Ramzy Baroud After every bloody episode of violence perpetrated by Israel, media spin doctors are often deployed with one grand mission: to absolve Israel of any responsibility in their acts of carnage. Not only do these apologists demonize Palestinians, but anyone who dares to take a stand on their behalf. The main staple of […]
