Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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A question every American must confront: Apartheid Israel or US democracy?
Bahia Amawai is a US citizen and Texas-based language specialist who helps autistic and speech-impaired children overcome their impairment. Despite the essential and noble nature of her work, she was fired by the Pflugerville Independent School District, which serves the Austin area. Every year, Amawai signs an annual contract that allows...
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Is there a plot to depopulate Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon?
An eerie video of a photo of one “Hajj Jamal Ghalaini” with a prayer on a backing track pops up occasionally on Facebook. The voice is that of an allegedly religious sheikh, praying for the well-being of the man in the photo for saving the Palestinian refugee youth of...
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The real face of Justin Trudeau: Are Palestinians Canada’s new Jews?
How does one explain Canada’s contradictory foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel? On December 4, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, praised Canada’s commitment not to follow the footsteps of the US Donald Trump Administration by transferring its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But there is...
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From Central America to Syria there is a conspiracy against refugees
Watching the ongoing debate between liberal and right-wing pundits on US mainstream media, one rarely gets the impression that Washington is responsible for the unfolding chaotic situation in Central America. In fact, no other country is as accountable as the United States for the ongoing chaos and resulting refugee...
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Netanyahu's predicament is that the era of easy wars is over
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army to carry out a limited operation in the besieged Gaza Strip on 12 November, he certainly did not anticipate that his military adventure would destabilise his government and threaten the very survival of his right-wing coalition. However, it did, far...
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The tide is turning: Israel is losing on two war fronts
The botched Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on 12 November is delineating Tel Aviv’s failure to utilise its army as a tool to achieve Palestinian political concessions. Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction...
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In breach of human rights, Netanyahu supports the death penalty for Palestinians
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is escalating his war on the Palestinian people, although for reasons almost entirely related to Israeli politics. He has just given the green light to legislation that would make it easier for Israeli courts to issue death sentences against Palestinians accused of carrying...
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Israel is afraid of Khalida Jarrar because she shatters its false democratic image
When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer Khalida Jarrar on 2 April, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, she had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her research on that very evening was related...
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It Is a new era, but China’s balancing act will fail in the Middle East
Although ties between Washington and Tel Aviv are stronger than ever, Israeli leaders are aware of a vastly changing political landscape. The US’ political turmoil and the global power realignment – which is on full display in the Middle East – indicate that a new era is, indeed, in...
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‘A cruel choice’: Why Israel targets Palestinian schools
Several Palestinian students, along with teachers and officials, were wounded in the Israeli army attack on a school south of Nablus in the West Bank on 15 October. The students of Al- Sawiya Al-Lebban Mixed School were challenging an Israeli military order to shut down their school based on...
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The UN ‘Sheriff’: Nikki Haley elevated Israel, damaged US standing
US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has made her post a “more glamorous” position than her predecessors – as President Donald Trump described Haley’s 2-year term at the UN, following her resignation announcement. We may never know the nature of Haley’s purported ‘glamour’ at the UN, but we certainly...
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That Single Line of Blood: Nassir al-Mosabeh and Mohammed al-Durrah
As the frail body of 12-year-old Nassir Al-Mosabeh fell to the ground on Friday, September 28, history was repeating itself most tragically. Little Nassir was not just another number, a ‘martyr’ to be exalted by equally poor refugees in Gaza, or vilified by Israel and its tireless hasbara machine. He...
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End of hegemony: UN must reflect changing world order
There is a rational explanation of why India and Brazil, two countries with vast populations and significant and growing economies, are not permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The Council – made up of 5 permanent and ten rotating members – was designed to reflect a world...
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Why Israel Demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as Representation of Greater Genocide
Like vultures, Israeli soldiers descended on Khan Al-Ahmar, on Sep. 14, recreating a menacing scene with which the residents of this small Palestinian village, located East of Jerusalem, are all-too-familiar. The strategic location of Khan Al-Ahmar makes the story behind the imminent Israeli demolition of the peaceful village unique amid...
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The Veiled Danger of the ‘Dead’ Oslo Accords
Yossi Beilin is back. This unrepentant Israeli ‘peacemaker’ is like the mythical phoenix, continually resurrecting from its ashes. In a recent article in Al-Monitor, Beilin wrote in support of the idea of a confederation between Israel and Palestine. A confederation “could prevent the need to evacuate settlers and allow those interested to...
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What Lies Beneath: The US-Israeli Plot to ‘Save’ Gaza
Israel wants to change the rules of the game entirely. With unconditional support from the Trump Administration, Tel Aviv sees a golden opportunity to redefine what has, for decades, constituted the legal and political foundation for the so-called ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ While US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has, thus far,...
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When Illness is a ‘Death Sentence’: The Victimization of Gaza Women
Hanan al-Khoudari resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her three-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. The boy is suffering from an ‘aggressive soft tissue sarcoma’. Israeli authorities then justified their decision based on a vague claim...
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Gaza without cancer medicine as Haley blames Arabs for Washington’s sins
On Sunday, August 12, news from Gaza was distressing: The Ministry of Health announced that it would no longer be able to treat cancer patients in the Israel-besieged Strip. “Colon and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma patients, cannot be provided with the necessary therapy now,” said Dr Mohammed Abu...
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Mission accomplished: Why solidarity boats to Gaza succeed despite failing to break the siege
When Mike Treen, the national director of the Unite Union in New Zealand, arrived at the airport in the capital, Auckland, on 1 August, a group of people were anxiously waiting for him at the terminal with Palestinian flags and flowers. They hugged him, chanted for Palestinian freedom and...
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Mahmoud Abbas: Stop Exploiting Ahed Tamimi for Personal Gain
The father of 11-year-old, Abdul Rahman Nofal contacted me, asking for help. His son was shot in the leg during Gaza’s ‘Great March of Return’ protests. The Strip’s dilapidated health care system could not save the little boy’s leg, as it was later amputated. His father, Yamen, himself a young man from...
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A common Enemy: Why Israel is embracing fascism in Europe
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on 19 July where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders...
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Jewish Nation-state Law: Why Israel Was Never a Democracy
The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish Nation-state Law as “the death of our democracy.” Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had lived in a true democracy? 70 years of Israeli Jewish supremacy, genocide,...
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The Massacre of Inn Din: How Rohingya Are Lynched and Held Responsible
“In my four years as High Commissioner, I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools.” These were some of the remarks made by outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for...
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Europe’s Iron Curtain: The Refugee Crisis is about to Worsen
A recent European Council summit in Brussels was meant to articulate a united policy on the burgeoning refugees and migrant crisis. Instead, it served to highlight the bitter divisions among various European countries. Considering the gravity of the matter, Europe’s self-serving policies are set to worsen an already tragic...