Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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This is how Israel plans to annex the occupied West Bank
Israel’s Supreme Court has decided that the Palestinian region of Masafer Yatta in the southern hills of Hebron is to be appropriated entirely by the Israeli military and that the local population of more than 1,000 Palestinians is to be expelled. The court’s decision on 4 May was hardly...
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Right of return: Nakba is back on Palestinian agenda
The Nakba is back on the Palestinian agenda. For nearly three decades, Palestinians were told that the Nakba – or Catastrophe – is a thing of the past. That real peace requires compromises and sacrifices; therefore, the original sin that has led to the destruction of their historic homeland should...
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Will Israel be held accountable? In conversation with the new UN Special Rapporteur in Palestine
The position of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, has never been occupied by a woman. Until 1 May, 2022, that is. Francesca Albanese, an international lawyer and respected academic, was selected for this important role at a particularly...
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Constantly on the verge of collapse: How Palestinians became a factor in Israeli politics
Israel’s coalition government of right-wing Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is on the verge of collapse, which is unsurprising. Israeli politics, after all, is among the most fractious in the world, and this particular coalition was born out of the obsessive desire to dethrone Israel’s former leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. While Netanyahu...
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Ending the West’s neocolonial oppression is leading to new global language and superstructures
The Russia-Ukraine war has turned quickly into a global conflict. One of the likely outcomes of this is the redefinition of the current world order, which has been in effect at least since the collapse of the Soviet Union over three decades ago. Indeed, there is a growing sense that...
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The limits of Israeli Intelligence: Does Israel have a Yahya Sinwar problem?
Like typical analyses offered by western intelligence when trying to assess risks or understand major political phenomena in the Middle East, Israeli intelligence is equally short-sighted. It insists on analyzing the attitudes and body language of individuals instead of focusing on the behaviour of collectives. This is the case...
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By redefining UNRWA, Washington destroys the foundation for a Just peace in Palestine
Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a...
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Cost of the Ukraine war felt in Africa, Global South
While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria,...
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Bennett has to tread carefully or the ‘Sword of Jerusalem’ could be unleashed again
Ever since 15 April, the Israeli occupation army and police have raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem on a daily basis. Under the pretence of providing protection for provocative “visits” by thousands of illegal Israeli Jewish settlers and right-wing fanatics, the occupation army has wounded hundreds of Palestinians, including...
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Palestine needs immediate attention to stave off a major food crisis
A young journalist friend of mine in Gaza, Mohammed Rafik Mhawesh, told me that food prices in the besieged territory have rocketed in recent weeks. Already impoverished families are struggling to put food on the table. “Food prices are surging dramatically,” he explained, “particularly since the beginning of the...
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With a multipolar world order in sight, is this the end of US hegemony?
The meeting between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the eastern Chinese city of Huangshan on 30 March is likely to go down in history as decisive in the relations between the two Asian giants. It was not only important due to its...
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Palestine’s widening geography of resistance: Why Israel cannot defeat the Palestinians
There is a reason why Israel is insistent on linking the series of attacks carried out by Palestinians recently to a specific location, namely the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. By doing so, the embattled Naftali Bennett’s government can simply order another deadly military operation in...
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Can Israel exist without America? The facts suggest a changing reality
When Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Turkey on 29 March reached an initial understanding regarding a list of countries that could serve as security guarantors for Kyiv should an agreement be struck, Israel was one of those mentioned. The other countries included the US, Britain, China, Russia, France,...
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Is Europe really more civilised? Ukraine conflict a platform for racism and rewriting history
When a gruesome six-minute video of Ukrainian soldiers shooting and torturing handcuffed and tied-up Russian soldiers circulated online, outraged people on social media and elsewhere compared this barbaric behaviour to that of Daesh. In a rare admission of moral responsibility, Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, quickly reminded...
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From Korea to Libya: on the future of Ukraine and NATO’s never-ending wars
Much has been said and written about media bias and double standards in the West’s response to the Russia-Ukraine war, when compared with other wars and military conflicts across the world, especially in the Middle East and the Global South. Less obvious is how such hypocrisy is a reflection...
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Gaza’s next crisis might be worse than anything we have ever seen
“The water is back,” one family member would announce in a mix of excitement and panic, often very late at night. The moment such an announcement was made, my whole family would run to fill every tank, container or bottle that they could find. Quite often, the water supply...
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Time is ticking: Israel’s balancing act in Ukraine is likely to backfire
Israel’s balancing act in the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to falter soon, simply because the resulting NATO-Russia conflict is expected to last for years, not weeks or months. Eventually, Israel would have to make a choice. Alas, whatever that choice may be, Israel will stand to lose. From the first...
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The billion dollar deal that made Google and Amazon partners in the Israeli occupation of Palestine
“We are anonymous because we fear retaliation.” This text was part of a letter signed by 500 Google employees last October, in which they decried their company’s direct support for the Israeli government and military. In their letter, the signatories protested a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web Services...
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In the new Great Game, can Venezuela negotiate an end to deadly US sanctions?
The tables have turned. A high-level US delegation visited Venezuela on 5 March, hoping to repair economic ties with Caracas. One of the world’s poorest countries, in part due to US-Western sanctions, Venezuela is, for once, in the driving seat and capable of alleviating an impending US energy crisis...
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Weathering the global storm: Why neutrality is not an option for Palestinians
A new global geopolitical game is in formation, and the Middle East, as is often the case, will be directly impacted by it in terms of possible new alliances and resulting power paradigms. While it is too early to fully appreciate the impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war on...
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Sport and politics do mix, as FIFA’s hypocrisy demonstrates
Israel’s war on Palestinian sport is as old as the settler-colonial state itself. Sport is a critical aspect of popular Palestinian culture, and since culture itself is a target for the decades-old Israeli attack on Palestinian life in all of its manifestations, sport and athletes have been targeted purposely...
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As ‘La Françafrique’ comes to an End, Russia is ready to replace France in West Africa
Finally, France will be leaving Mali, nearly a decade after the original military intervention in 2013. The repercussions of this decision will hardly be confined to this West African nation, but will likely spread to the entirety of the Sahel Region; in fact, the whole of Africa. France’s decision to...
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Why Israel is no longer the exception to international norms
Can Israel be pressured? Or is it the only exception to international norms and the global political order in which every country, big or small, is subjected to pressures and subsequent changes in attitude and behaviour? Events in recent days bring the question of Israel’s legal and moral accountability to...
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The next step in Palestine's anti-Apartheid struggle is the most difficult
When Nelson Mandela was freed from his Robben Island prison on February 11, 1991, my family, friends and neighbours followed the event with keen interest as they gathered in the living room of my old home in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. This emotional event took place...