- May 10, 2025
Palestine/Israel
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 […]
Hashtag Genocide: Why Gaza Fought Back
By Ramzy Baroud My old family house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza was recently rebuilt by its new owner, into a beautiful three-story building with large windows adorned by red frames. In Israel’s most recent and deadliest war on Gaza, the house sustained significant damage. A large hole caused by Israeli missiles can […]
On Heroes and Preachers: Gaza’s New Resistance Paradigm
By Ramzy Baroud “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? In Israeli prison, of course!,” was the title of an article by Jo Ehrlich published in Modoweiss.net on Dec 21, 2009. That was almost exactly one year after Israel’s concluded a major war against Gaza. The so-called Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009) […]
Gaza’s Resistance Will Not be Crushed
By Ramzy Baroud On the 13th day of Israel’s so-called Operation Protective Edge, stories of entire families collectively pulverized, women and children keenly targeted by Israeli soldiers saturate the media. Until now, 430 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 18 Israel soldiers been killed at the hands of the Resistance. In Shejaiya, […]
Israel Awakens the Palestine It Tried to Crush
By Ramzy Baroud When the bodies of three Israeli settlers – two teenagers, Aftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 – were found on 30 June near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Israel went into a state of mourning and a wave of sympathy flowed from around the world. The […]
Ramadan, Socialism and the Neighbour’s Beat-up Car
By Ramzy Baroud For those who spent childhoods in Gaza, the spiritual month of abstinence provokes reflection on how it enabled Palestinians to uncover the collective strength of their beleaguered community When I was a child, I obsessed with socialism. It was not only because my father was a self-proclaimed socialist who read every book […]
Missing Settlers Become Weapons in a War on Unity
By Ramzy Baroud When three teenage Israeli settlers from the illegal Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion went missing on 12 June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw an opportunity to discredit the fledgling Palestinian unity government. His statements and the actions of the Israeli army since have centered on indicting the Palestinian movement Hamas, while […]
Why True Palestinian Unity Rremains Elusive
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinians are yet to achieve national unity despite the elation over the ‘national unity government’ now in operation in Ramallah. One has to be clear in the distinction between a Hamas-Fatah political arrangement necessitated by regional and international circumstances, and Palestinian unity. What has been agreed upon in the Shati’ (Beach) refugee […]
66 Year Nakba: I Saw Yafa, Land of Oranges
By Ramzy Baroud In ‘Jaffa: Land of Oranges’, Ghassan Kanafani described his exile from the Palestinian coastal city of Yafa. As a 12-year-old boy, he struggled to understand, but “on that night, though, certain threads of that story became clearer .. a big truck was standing in front of our door. Light things, mainly sleeping […]
Palestinian Unity: Hope and Gloom in the Beach Refugee Camp
By Ramzy Baroud For years, Palestinian factions have strived for unity, and for years unity has evaded them. But is it possible that following several failed attempts, Fatah and Hamas have finally found that elusive middle ground? And if they have done so, why, to what end, and at what cost? On April 23, top […]
Why Israeli Officials are Chuckling: The ‘Stable’ West Bank Dilemma
By Ramzy Baroud Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Ze’ev Elkin, is a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his predominantly rightwing cabinet. In a recent interview with The Economist, Elkin used the familiar tone of being conceited and oblivious to such notions as international or human rights, and reaffirmed his rejection of a Palestinian state. […]
What Middle East Crisis? Peace Process as a Successful US Investment
By Ramzy Baroud Crisis seemed to loom large as Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed applications to join 15 international treaties on April 1. The decision prompted irate reactions from Israel, and sent US Secretary of State John Kerry into panic mode, unsuccessfully attempting to salvage the peace process. Yet something is strangely familiar […]
Mahmoud Abbas vs Mohammed Dahlan: The Showdown Begins
By Ramzy Baroud When late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was confined by Israeli soldiers to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mohammed Dahlan reigned supreme. As perhaps the most powerful and effective member of the ‘Gang of Five’, he managed the affairs of the ruling Fatah movement, coordinated with Israel regarding matters […]
