Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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100 years of shame: Annexation of Palestine began in San Remo
One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that the...
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Placing Palestine back at the centre of Muslim discourse in the West
Almost twenty years ago at a Muslim conference in Washington DC, I heard the distressing argument that Palestine should not be a central topic on the American Muslim political agenda. That point, which took many by surprise, was enunciated by a young American Pakistani Muslim academic, whose name is...
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Hating Arabs as a Common Ground: Why Israel's Coalition Government is Likely to Survive
Shortly after an agreement to form a “national emergency government” in Israel, leader of the Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) party, Benny Gantz, tweeted triumphantly that ‘democracy’ in Israel has been ‘safeguarded’. But how is a deal that would grant Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a veto power over...
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Portugal leads the way: How European countries fared in their treatment of refugees
As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading its tentacles throughout China and eventually to the rest of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO), along with other international groups, sounded the alarm that refugees and migrants are particularly vulnerable to the deadly disease. “We strongly emphasize the need for...
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Will the Coronavirus Change the World? On Gramsci’s ‘Interregnum’ and Zizek’s Ethnocentric Philosophy
The prophecies are here and it is a foregone conclusion: the post-coronavirus world will look fundamentally different from anything that we have seen or experienced, at least since the end of World War II. Even before the ‘curve flattened’ in many countries that have experienced high death tolls – let...
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A Machiavellian Fiasco: How ‘Centrist’ Gantz Resurrected Netanyahu, Israel’s Right
It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to destabilize the political fabric of Israeli society for years to come. In a surprising move, Gantz has entered...
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Spreading the virus of occupation: Spitting as a weapon in the hand of colonial Israel
Spitting at someone is a universal insult. In Israel, however, spitting at Palestinians is an entirely different story. Now that we know that the deadly coronavirus can be transmitted through saliva droplets, Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers are working extra hard to spit at as many Palestinians, their cars,...
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Solidarity in the age of coronavirus: What the Arabs must do
While the Coronavirus continues to ravage almost every nation on earth, Arab countries remain unable, or unwilling, to formulate a collective strategy to help the poorest and most vulnerable Arabs survive the deadly virus and its economic fallout. Worse, amid growing international solidarity, we are yet to see a pan-Arab...
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A Palestinian guide to surviving a quarantine: On faith, humour and 'Dutch Candy'
7 lessons from Palestine on surviving lockdown...
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Tunisia Leads the Way: New Report Exposes Israel’s False Democracy
Tunisia is the Middle East’s greatest success story, according to the findings of the V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2019. One of the world’s most regarded annual reports on democracy and good governance, the V-Dem Report is produced by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in...
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Technology of death: The not-so-shocking report on Israeli weapons exports
The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need for peace, security, and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for...
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BJP and Israel: Hindu Nationalism is Ravaging India’s Democracy
It was only a matter of time before the anti-Muslim sentiment in India turned violent. A country that has historically prided itself on its diversity and tolerance, and for being ‘the largest democracy in the world’ has, in recent years, exhibited the exact opposite qualities – chauvinism, racism, religious intolerance,...
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Death at the Greek border: Syrian refugees should not be used as political pawns
In a surprising move, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced on February 29 that he will be re-opening his country’s border to Europe, thus allowing tens of thousands of mostly Syrian refugees into Greece and other European countries. Expectedly, over 100,000 people rushed to the Ipsala border point in the...
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‘Zionist’ Biden in his own words: ‘My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel’
“I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 elections. Biden is, of course, correct, because Zionism is a political...
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‘A Policeman, A Pastor and A Palestinian’: The ‘Chilestinians’ as a Model for Palestinian Unity
I was only introduced to the term ‘Chilestinians’ last February at a conference in Istanbul, during a presentation by the Director of the Palestinian Federation of Chile, Anuar Majluf. When Majluf referred to the well-rooted Palestinian community in Chile, who number between 450,000 and half a million, using that unfamiliar...
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Abuse, Oppression and Murder: The PA Does Israel’s Dirty Work in the West Bank
Merely two weeks after Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that the PA will suspend all ‘security coordination’ with Israel, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank killed unarmed teenager, Salah Zakareneh. Zakareneh is not the first and, sadly, will not be the last Palestinian to be killed by the...
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A Terrifying Scenario: Coronavirus in ‘Quarantined’ Gaza
What if the Coronavirus reaches the besieged Gaza Strip? While the question carries great urgency for all Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation, the Gaza situation is particularly complex and extremely worrying. Nearly 50 countries have already reported cases of COVID-19 disease, one of several epidemics that are caused by the...
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On Hanging from the Blades of a Bulldozer: Al-Naem is Every Palestinian
How is one to apply rational political analysis to what is inherently irrational? What kind of political theory must one consult to formulate and test hypotheses when the information at hand is so grizzly, sadistic, and reeking with unbearable contradictions? Seeing the gaunt body of Mohammed al-Naem hanging from the...
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Beyond Israeli Elections: Israel at the Cusp of a Bleak Era
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be channeling the spirit of Houdini as he continues to plot his escape from one of the most convoluted political dilemmas in Israel’s history. It is no secret that Netanyahu’s political behavior is almost entirely shaped by his desire to survive in office for...
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‘The Donald Trump I know’: Abbas’ UN Speech and the Breakdown of Palestinian Politics
A precious moment has been squandered, as Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, had the chance to right a historical wrong, by reinstating Palestinian national priorities at the United Nations Security Council on February 11, through a political discourse that is completely independent of Washington and its allies. For a long...
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Palestinian prisoner Khalida Jarrar in her own words: The age of freedom will come
Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian feminist, a lawyer, educator and an elected parliamentarian. Over the years, she came to symbolize Palestinian popular resistance in the occupied West Bank, enraging the Israeli occupation authorities that arrested her repeatedly. Despite her failing health, as she is suffering from multiple ischemic infarctions and...
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Breaking with Washington: Arabs and Muslims must take a stand for Palestine
A negotiated solution to the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’, at least the way envisaged by successive US administrations, has failed. Now, Palestinians and their allies would have to explore a whole new path of liberation that does not go through Washington. It is easy to place all the blame on the current...
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Palestine Unleashed: How to Confront Annexation and ‘Deal of the Century’
Just because the Donald Trump administration has declared international law null and void regarding the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, the status of occupied East Jerusalem or the illegality of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories, does not mean that Israel has won and Palestinians have lost. To be...
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Crisis and opportunity: The 'Deal of the Century' challenge for Palestinians
After several postponements, US President, Donald Trump, has finally revealed the details of his Middle East plan, dubbed ‘Deal of the Century’, in a press conference in Washington on January 28. Standing triumphantly beside Trump, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must have surely understood that the timing of the announcement,...