- February 23, 2025
Palestine/Israel
Gaza. Somalia. Humanity Lives on
By Ramzy Baroud I remember how exhilarated I felt when I was told I was old enough to fast for the month of Ramadan. My feelings had little to do with abstention from food and drink between dawn and sunset each day. For a child, there is little joy in that. The meaning and implications […]
Confused Strategy: How the PA Sold Out Palestinian Unity
By Ramzy Baroud If you happen to be a Palestinian government employee, chances are you will receive only half your usual salary this month. The other half will only be available when international donors find it in their hearts to make up for the huge shortage of funds currently facing the Palestinian Authority (PA). With […]
Gaza Border ‘Opening’ is Just Rhetoric
By Ramzy Baroud For most Palestinians, leaving Gaza through Egypt is as exasperating a process as entering it. Governed by political and cultural sensitivities, most Palestinian officials and public figures refrain from criticising the way Palestinians are treated at the Rafah border. However there is really no diplomatic language to describe the relationship between desperate […]
One Missile, One Playground: The Will of Gaza
By Ramzy Baroud – Gaza A ‘Hamas commander’ drove a beat-up gray van in northern Gaza and theatrically spoke on his walkie-talkie as I sat in the passenger seat. The van was almost barren, save for the most basic equipment propelling it to move forward over the bumpy roads of an overcrowded refugee camp. Iyad […]
Crushed Ice in Nuseirat: My Gaza Refugee Camp Revisited
By Ramzy Baroud – Gaza ‘Do you remember Mahmoud?’ asked Abu Nidal, my neighbor from nearly 20 years ago, when I lived in Gaza. “Yes, of course, I do,” I answered. I remembered him as yet another troublemaking child among the Nuseirat Refugee Camp’s numerous rabble-rousers. He was defined by a stream of snot that […]
Welcome to Gaza: Revolution and Change at the Rafah Border
By Ramzy Baroud The Palestinian security officer at the Rafah border was overly polite. He wore a black uniform and walked around self-assuredly, as he instructed weary travelers on their next moves before being allowed back into Gaza. On the other side of the border, in Egypt, there was much anxiety, fear and anticipation. ‘Things […]
Unity is Not Compromise: Towards a Real Palestinian Strategy
By Ramzy Baroud As the Palestine Papers demonstrated, the major obstacle to a real, lasting and just peace in Palestine is the Israeli leadership’s unwillingness to accept anything less than full domination over the Palestinians. Not only do Israeli leaders refuse to partake in any serious peace talks, they also refuse to agree on universally […]
Gaza Marathon: A Race for Freedom and Summer Camps
By Ramzy Baroud Nader al-Masri is an inspiration. The 31-year-old Gaza athlete seems completely oblivious to challenges that would seem insurmountable to most. On May 5th, he led a small pack of nine runners into the finish line of Gaza’s first marathon. Behind them, 1,300 children ran various distances. Many of the children who participated […]
Gaza War and Goldstone’s Moral Collapse
By Ramzy Baroud Shocking is not a sufficient term to describe Justice Richard Goldstone’s decision to recant parts of the 2009 report on alleged war crimes in Gaza. The document, known as the Goldstone Report, was compiled after a thorough investigation led by the South African judge and three other well-regarded investigators. They documented 36 […]
War on Palestinian Memory: Israel Resolves Its Democracy Dilemma
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinian citizens of Israel must have been proud of the fact that their collective tenacity always proved stronger than any Israeli attempt at dislocating them from their rightful historical narrative. Now, they are being told to cease and desist from commemorating al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948, which saw the brutal seizure and […]
For the Love of Egypt: When Besieged Palestinians Danced
By Ramzy Baroud A dear friend of mine from Gaza told me that he hadn’t slept for days. "I am so worried about Egypt, I have only been feeding on cigarettes and coffee." My friend and I talked for hours that day in early February. We talked about Tahrir Square, about the courage of ordinary […]
Natural Flow of History: Hamas Should Rethink Charter
By Ramzy Baroud ‘Now it is time to naturalize the flow of history,’ wrote Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (British Guardian, March 16). The process of naturalization is now underway in the region Davutoglu refused to describe as the Middle East (arguing that the term is “orientalist”, and preferring to call the region […]
Civil Society and Palestine: The Growing Power of the Ordinary
By Ramzy Baroud The global boycott movement (BDS) and other related campaigns were aimed at exposing Israeli transgressions against the Palestinian people and galvanizing international solidarity. What is so uplifting to see now is how their achievements have far surpassed these initial aims. The campaigns have animated, accentuated and actually legitimized Palestinian civil society – […]
Till September: The PA’s Meaningless Deadlines
By Ramzy Baroud Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his supporters in the Fatah party want us to believe that dramatic changes are underway in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is part of a strategy intended to offset any public dissatisfaction with the self-designated Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. The PA hopes the ‘news’ […]
Palestine Papers: The Palestinians’ ‘Generous Offer’
By Ramzy Baroud As Palestinians are becoming increasingly confident about the authenticity of the Palestine Papers – 1,600 leaked documents that Al Jazeera began publishing on January 23 – they can also find little to be proud of in their contents. According to Palestinian political commentator Mazin Qumsiyeh, the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat “comes […]
The Palestine Papers: Offering Palestine, Selling Out Its Refugees
By Ramzy Baroud The Palestine Papers had damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians The Palestine Papers, the 1,300 leaked documents that Aljazeera began publishing starting January 23, are the Palestinian response to the Israeli ‘generous offer’, an Israeli diplomatic ruse that was aimed at discrediting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat following […]
Failure of Academia: A Book Not Meant to Be Published
By Ramzy Baroud Deepak Tripathi’s most recent book, Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism (Potomac Books) raises several issues, both within and outside of its content. It is based on research for his doctoral dissertation, the qualification for which he never received. Tripathi, a former BBC producer, is immensely proud of his […]
Declaring Palestine: Revisiting Hope and Failure
By Ramzy Baroud When late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat read the Declaration of the Palestinian Independence just over 22 years ago, Palestinians everywhere were enthralled. They held onto his every word during the Palestinian National Council (PNC) session in Algeria on November 15, 1988. The council members incessantly applauded and chanted in the name of […]
Insisting on Their Humanity: ‘The Plight of the Palestinians’
By Ramzy Baroud When a copy of William A. Cook’s latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians arrived in my mailbox, I initially felt a little worried. The volume, featuring the work of over 30 accomplished writers, is the most articulate treatise on the collective victimization of Palestinians to date. From Cook’s own introduction, ‘The […]
A Follow Up on My Fifth Grade Essay: Education at Gunpoint
By Ramzy Baroud I recall the first sentence of my fifth grade essay on ‘Education and Youth’. Written with the occasional aid of my father, and dotted with clichés, it might have read something like this: “Youth is the backbone of any nation, and education is essential to arm the youth with the knowledge they […]
Teaching the Oppressed How to Fight Oppression
By Ramzy Baroud An American activist once gave me a book she wrote detailing her experiences in Palestine. The largely visual volume documented her journey of the occupied West Bank, rife with barbered wires, checkpoints, soldiers and tanks. It also highlighted how Palestinians resisted the occupation peacefully, in contrast to the prevalent media depictions linking […]
The Tide Has Changed: A Musical Essay and a Lesson in Humanity
By Ramzy Baroud If one tried to fit music compositions into an equivalent literary style, Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble’s latest release would come across as a most engaging political essay: persuasive, argumentative, rational, original, imaginative and always unfailingly accessible. But unlike the rigid politicking of politicians and increasingly Machiavellian style of today’s […]
Behind the Israeli Wall: A Lesson in Reality
By Ramzy Baroud Writers often romanticize their subjects. At times they even manipulate their readers. A book – or any piece of writing for that matter – is meant to provide a sense of completion. Sociological explanations are offered to offset the confusion caused by apparent inconsistency in human behavior. At times a reader is […]
Bourj el-Barajneh: Searching for Meaning in a Refugee Camp
By Ramzy Baroud – Beirut, Lebanon Two young girls stood, as if frozen, starting below them at an ever vibrant Beirut. Their balcony, like the rest of their house and most of their refugee camp was of an indistinct color. It was dirty, as were their clothes. They, on the other hand, looked beautiful and […]
Why Muslims Should Rethink Palestine
By RAMZY BAROUD Thousands of faithful assiduously listened as I outlined the challenges facing Palestine and its people. Cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ – God is Great – occasionally resounded from a corner of the giant South African mosque. Many whimpered as I described the tragedy that had befallen Gaza as a result of the Israeli […]
Redundant but Dangerous Language
By RAMZY BAROUD Each time Israel fails to keep its ‘side of the bargain’, the Palestinian Authority responds with the same redundant language. The cycle has become so utterly predictable that one wonders why the Palestinian Authority officials even bothers protesting Israeli action. They must be well aware that their cries, genuine or otherwise, will […]
Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon: Righting a Perpetual Wrong
By RAMZY BAROUD Finally, a parliamentary debate in Lebanon over the human rights of Palestinian refugees. What is unfortunate though, is that granting basic civil rights to over 400,000 Palestinians – 62 years after their expulsion from their historic homeland and the issuing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – has been a topic […]
The Old Gaza Boy and the Sea
By RAMZY BAROUD I grew up by the Gaza sea. Through my childhood, I could never quite comprehend how such a giant a body of water, which promised such endless freedom, could also border on such a tiny and cramped stretch of land – a land that was perpetually held hostage, even as it remained […]
The Price of Courage: On Goldstone’s Bar Mitzvah and Finkelstein’s Book
By RAMZY BAROUD In his report on Gaza issued late last year, prominent South African jurist Richard Goldstone accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes. His language also showed awareness of the fact that the former is an occupying power with most sophisticated weapon arsenal (as reflecting in the number of Palestinian victims), and […]
Activism is Change, Not academic Squabbles and Bickering
By RAMZY BAROUD An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause and who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realizing this cause. This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means. I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where the daily struggles […]
