Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
-
The ‘painful march for freedom’ reveals the triumphant legacy of Palestinian prisoners
“As soon as I left prison, I went to Nael’s grave. It is adorned with the colours of the Palestinian flag and verses from the Holy Qur’an. I told my little brother how much I loved and appreciated him, and that, one day, we would meet again in paradise.” That...
-
The road to fascism: How the war in Ukraine is changing Europe
As soon as I landed in Rome, I discovered that I was no longer able to access any Russian media whatsoever. Unfortunately, threats by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Europe should sever all links with “Russia’s propaganda machine” were taken seriously by the Italian government. As a...
-
Investigating the victim exposes the depravity of Israeli propaganda
“There was no Massacre in Jenin” was the headline of a Haaretz editorial on 19 April, 2002, one week after Israel ended its deadly onslaught on the besieged Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank. This unwarranted conclusion by the Israeli daily, other Israeli media and, ultimately, numerous...
-
Deliberate misrepresentation: Western media bias makes Israeli war on Palestinians possible
While US and western mainstream and corporate media remain biased in favour of Israel, they often behave as if they are a third, neutral party. This is simply not the case. Take the New York Times coverage of the latest Israeli war on Gaza as an example. Its article on...
-
Will the idea of the ‘West’ survive the scourge of the Russia-Ukraine war?
The “West” is not just a term, it is also a concept that acquires new meanings with time. To its advocates, it can be analogous to civilisation and benevolent power; to its detractors, mostly in the “East” and “South”, it is associated with colonialism, unhinged violence and underserved wealth. The...
-
Israel’s ‘victory’ celebration was premature: the defining war in Gaza is yet to be fought
For years, Palestinians and Israelis have laboured to redraw the battle lines. The three-day Israeli war on Gaza, starting on 5 August, manifested this reality clearly. Throughout its military operation, Israel underscored the point repeatedly that the war was targeting Islamic Jihad only, not Hamas or any other Palestinian...
-
Hamas’ next move is critical: Palestinian resistance faces greatest test yet
Today, Israel assassinated a top Palestinian commander, Ibrahim Nabulsi, in Nablus, along with two other fighters, Islam Sabbouh, and Hussein Taha. This bloody action is intrinsically linked to the bloody events in Gaza over the last few days. One of Israel’s main objectives of the war on Gaza was to demonstrate that Tel Aviv...
-
Don’t write off the Arabs yet: Palestine is still an Arab cause
It seemed that it was all but a done deal: Israel was finally managing to bend the Arabs to its will, and Palestine was becoming a marginal issue that no longer defined Israel’s relations with its neighbours. Indeed, normalisation with Israel was, well, normal, and the Arabs, it seemed,...
-
The Intricate Fight for Africa: the Legacy of the Soviet Union vs. Western Colonialism
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent tour in Africa was meant to be a game changer, not only in terms of Russia’s relations with the continent, but in the global power struggle involving the US, Europe, China, India, Turkiye and others. Many media reports and analyses placed Lavrov’s visit to...
-
Why resistance matters: Palestinians are challenging Israel’s unilateralism, dominance
Until recently, Israeli politics did not matter to Palestinians. Though the Palestinian people maintained their political agency under the most demoralising conditions, their collective action rarely influenced outcomes in Israel, partly due to the massive discrepancy of power between the two sides. Now that Israelis are embarking on their fifth...
-
Washington is the problem, not the solution, so why is Abbas seeking new ‘powerful’ sponsors?
To describe US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a “failure” in terms of activating the dormant “peace process” is to use a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate that it had even a nominal desire to push...
-
Fassino vs Albanese: Is Italy on the wrong side of history when it comes to Palestine?
The new United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, is faced with a colossal task. She is expected to champion Palestinian human rights in a political institution that, for now, is largely dominated by the US and...
-
The war ‘diplomat’: How the West lost the ‘global battle of narratives’
In a blog entry, reflecting on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on 7-8 July, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, seems to have accepted the painful truth that the West is losing what he termed “the global battle of narratives”. “The global battle of...
-
The shameful UN ‘List of Shame’: Equating between the Israeli perpetrator and the Palestinian victim
“We regret we failed to protect you.” This was part of a statement issued by United Nations human rights experts on 14 July, urging the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Manasra. Only 14 years old at the time of his arrest and torture by Israeli forces, Manasra...
-
As the chaos gets worse, political instability is now the norm in Israel
The collapse of the short-lived Israeli government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid validates the argument that the political crisis in Israel was not entirely instigated and sustained by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett’s coalition government consisted of eight parties, welding together arguably one of the oddest coalitions...
-
The Rise of BRICS: The economic giant that is taking on the West
The G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, June 26-28, and the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, two days later, were practically useless in terms of providing actual solutions to ongoing global crises – the war in Ukraine, the looming famines, climate change and more. But the two events were important,...
-
15 years of failed experiments: Myths and facts about the Israeli siege on Gaza
Fifteen years have passed since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, subjecting nearly two million Palestinians to one of the longest and most cruel politically-motivated blockades in history. Back then, the Israeli government justified its siege as the only way to protect Israel from Palestinian “terrorism...
-
Palestinians ‘are not animals in a zoo’: On Kanafani and the need to redefine the role of the ‘victim intellectual’
Dedicated to the memory of Ghassan Kanafani, an iconic Palestinian leader and engaged intellectual who was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad on July 8, 1972...
-
Chomsky on Israeli apartheid, celebrity activists, BDS and the one-state solution
This is, said Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci, the “interregnum”; the rare and seismic moment in history when great transitions occur, when empires collapse and others rise, and when new conflicts and struggles ensue. The Gramscian interregnum, however, “is not a smooth transition”, for these profound changes often embody a...
-
Cultural warriors: Why Palestine’s sports victories should inspire us
The Palestine National Football Team has, once more, done the seemingly impossible by qualifying for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. By any standards, this is a great achievement, especially as the Palestinians have done it with style and convincing victories over Mongolia, Yemen and the Philippines, without conceding a...
-
Palestinians ‘are bound to win’: Why Israelis are prophesying the end of their state
While it is true that Zionism is a modern political ideology that has exploited religion to achieve specific colonial objectives in Palestine, prophecies continue to be a critical component of Israel’s perception of itself, and of the state’s relationship with other groups, especially Christian messianic groups in the United...
-
The end of ‘laissez-faire’: Russia’s attempt to reshape the world economy
Starting on 31 May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a tour of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where he visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. Lavrov’s main objective of these visits is to strengthen ties between Russia and GCC nations amid...
-
Palestine new resistance model: How the last year redefined the struggle for Palestinian freedom
What took place between May 2021 and May 2022 is nothing less than a paradigm shift in Palestinian resistance. Thanks to the popular and inclusive nature of Palestinian mobilisation against the Israeli occupation, resistance in Palestine is no longer an ideological, political or regional preference. In the period between the...
-
Mali has become another front in the Russia v NATO war in Ukraine
The distance between Ukraine and Mali is measured in thousands of kilometres, but the geopolitical distance is much closer. So close, in fact, that it appears as if the ongoing conflicts in both countries are the direct outcomes of the same geopolitical currents and transformation underway around the world. After...