Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Ramzy Baroud
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The extraordinary Palestinians of Jenin will not surrender
A large Israeli military force raided the northern Palestinian town and refugee camp of Jenin on 19 June, from multiple directions. Not only did the raid fail, though, but it also backfired. Moreover, it also created a precedent in Israel’s decades-long war on the ever-rebellious Palestinian region. Israel killed eight...
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The beloved ‘Cavaliere’: Berlusconi’s death will not resolve Italy's democracy problem
“Berlusconi is there because others have failed.” These words by Italian columnist Massimo Franco were made to the Washington Post in 2018, shortly before the Italian elections. They sum up the story of Italy’s modern politics. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s adored but also loathed longest-serving prime minister died on 12 June. His party, Forza Italia, is...
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The irony of ‘World Refugee Day’: ‘Celebrating’, then blaming the victims
Fadi, a Syrian teenager, with curly hair and an acne-covered face, has miraculously survived one of the greatest migrant boat disasters in the modern history of the Mediterranean. Only 104 people have been rescued from a boat that carried an estimated 750 refugees after it capsized on 13 June in...
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Permanent Apartheid in Palestine: This is why Israel wants to reactivate E1 Plan
The Israeli government is at it again, actively discussing the construction of thousands of illegal settlement units as part of a massive settlement expansion scheme known as E1. Though Israeli construction in the East Jerusalem area has supposedly been halted under international pressure, the Israeli government has found ways to...
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Neoliberalism, geopolitics and ideology: The taming of Giorgia Meloni
Europe keeps reminding us that geopolitical interests often trump ideology. European politics is the prime example of how states and political parties are willing to ditch their ideological foundations to hold on to power, even if briefly. The unmistakable political shift of attitude by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and...
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China’s criticism of America’s ‘piecemeal crisis management’ in Palestine is based on international law
Remarks on 24 May by China’s Ambassador to the UN on the situation in Occupied Palestine were impeccable in terms of their consistency with international law. Compared with the position of the US, which perceives the UN and the Security Council in particular as a vehicle to defend Israeli...
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A man without a strategy: How Netanyahu is provoking armed Intifada in the West Bank
After signing a military decree on 18 May, allowing illegal Israeli Jewish settlers to reclaim the abandoned Homesh settlement located in the northern Occupied West Bank, the Israeli government has informed the US Biden Administration that it will not turn the area into a new settlement. The latter revelation was...
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Prophets of doom: Kissinger and the ‘intellectual’ decline of the West
It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers? Every major global conflict that involved the US and its NATO...
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Why Karim Khan froze the Palestine file: The ICC and Israeli war crimes in Gaza
Israel’s latest war on Gaza, starting on 9 May , killed 33 Palestinians, including six children, and wounded hundreds more. Most of those killed and wounded were civilians. On the first day of the war, Maurice Hirsh, former head of IDF Military Prosecution, made a ‘legal’ case for the Israeli...
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Not on our dime! Why US Democrats are growingly challenging Israel
Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed ‘unbreakable bond’ with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. Following the provocative ‘Flag March’ on 18 May, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the...
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New rules of engagement: How Palestinians defeated Netanyahu and redefined 'unity'
All Israeli wars on the Palestinians throughout the years have been promoted and justified by Tel Aviv in the name of ‘security’ and ‘fighting terrorism’. Israel’s biggest challenge throughout many of these wars was hardly the Palestinian Resistance, however steadfast and resilient. The challenge has always been Tel Aviv’s ability...
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Led by China and India: On the Global South efforts to fix the UN
In anticipation of next month’s United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China’s Foreign Policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country’s demands. “The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries, allowing more...
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‘My family, my people’: How Khader Adnan unified Palestinians from his prison cell
Khader Adnan was not a ‘terrorist’ with ‘Israeli blood on his hands,’ as pro-Israeli propagandists have been repeating in the news and on social media. If the former Palestinian prisoner, who died in his Israeli prison cell following 87 days of an uninterrupted hunger strike was, indeed, directly involved in...
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For Palestine: A guide to running a meaningful marathon
On Sunday, 23 April, I completed the Madrid International Marathon. It was my 14th overall full marathon. It was not an easy feat. This time around, my run was dedicated to raising awareness of independent Palestinian media and encouraging readers to support important platforms, such as The Palestine Chronicle and...
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Who said BDS has ‘already failed’?: European cities boycott Apartheid Israel
A succession of events starting in Barcelona, Spain, in February, and followed in Liège, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, in April sent a strong message to Israel: The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is alive and well. In Barcelona, the city’s Mayor cancelled a twinning agreement with the Israeli...
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Winners and losers in Sudan: On proxy wars and superpower rivalries in the Global South
The world is changing. In fact, it has been undergoing seismic change that long preceded the Russian-Ukraine war, and the recent US-Chinese tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In fact, the US debacle in Iraq and the Middle East, and the humiliating retreat from Afghanistan were only signs of the decline in...
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Erasure or steadfastness: how the Nakba came to define the collective Palestinian identity
The Palestinian Nakba will be 75 years old on 15 May. Palestinians all over the world will commemorate the “Catastrophe” when nearly 800,000 of their ancestors were driven at gunpoint from their homes and land, and 500 of their towns and villages were wiped off the face of the...
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Losing ‘Deterrence’: How Palestinian, Arab Resistance changed rules of war with Israel
When Israel launched a war against the Gaza Strip in August 2022, it declared that its target was the Islamic Jihad only. Indeed, neither Hamas nor the other Gaza-based groups engaged directly in the fighting. The war then raised more questions than answers. Israel rarely distinguishes between one Palestinian group...
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The rise of the South: can BRICS weaken the dominance of the World Bank and IMF?
Who would have expected that the BRICS nations could rise and become the potential rival of the G7 countries, the World Bank and the IMF combined? That once seemingly distant possibility now has real prospects which could change the equilibrium of world politics. BRICS — an acronym for Brazil, Russia,...
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In its quest for religious war, Israel is uniting Arabs and Muslims around Palestine
By ordering a brutal attack against Palestinian worshippers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque on the 14th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew very well that the Palestinians would retaliate. Netanyahu’s motive should be obvious. He wanted to divert attention from the mass protests...
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The price of solidarity: Palestine, Indonesia and the ‘human rights’ dilemma
When I shared the news on social media that Indonesia had refused to host the Israeli team at the Under-20 FIFA World Cup scheduled from 20 May 20 to 11 June in Indonesian cities, some readers were unimpressed. Although any news related to Palestine and Israel often generates two...
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Lying about lying: Why we must revisit the definition of ‘fake news’
The phrase “fake news” continues to be deployed routinely in US politics. In a polarised political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organisations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is “fake news” for Republicans, and much of what...
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Selective outrage in Palestine: the problem is not just Smotrich, but Zionism
By his own admission, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is a “fascist homophobe”. This declaration, which he made on 16 January, should be enough to illustrate and emphasise the violent nature of the latest political coalition concocted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December. Although Smotrich is not the only...
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Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa
The final exchange, caught on camera between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian host and counterpart, Vladimir Putin, sums up the current geopolitical conflict, still in its nascent stages, between the United States and its Western allies on the one hand, and Russia, China and their allies,...