Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Motasem A Dalloul
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Racism, radicalism and incitement fuel Israel’s election campaign
Weeks of polarisation in Israel’s General Election campaign have ended with surprising mergers and the parties submitting final candidate lists to the Central Elections Committee. From left to right, Israeli politicians are aiming for the Knesset with various manifestos which have a common factor of incitement of hatred towards...
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Emmanuel Macron should save his virtual sympathy and clean up his own act first
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country is making 24 April a National Day for the commemoration of the Armenian genocide which, it is alleged by Europe, the US and Israel, was committed by the Ottoman Empire during World War One. Such virtual sympathy for a...
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Should the Palestinians retaliate for Friday’s killings by Israel?
Israeli occupation snipers killed two Palestinian children and wounded 104 others during the peaceful protests last Friday, the 46th of the Great March of Return protests along the nominal border of the occupied Gaza Strip. Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights reported that 43 children, five women and one paramedic...
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Are UN envoys allowed to monitor Israeli violations or just Hezbollah’s?
It is very nice to see the delegation of the UN ambassadors touring the Israeli-Lebanese borders early week to follow up closely on Israeli efforts to fight the alleged Hezbollah tunnels. It is a fantastic moment when you see the international diplomats, who live and work far from the...
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Israel’s confusion after Hamas’ ‘courageous’ position on Qatar funds
Israeli officials have been left confused by Hamas’ refusal to receive much needed funds from Qatar. The $15 million grant had been delayed twice this year with Israel insisting that “calm” needed to be achieved on its western border with the Gaza Strip before any money would be allowed in...
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Israeli leaders appeal to voters with pride in their crimes against Palestinians
Earlier this week, the former chief of staff of the Israeli Army, General Benny Gantz, started his election campaign by taking pride in the destruction of the Gaza Strip and his troops’ killing of hundreds of Palestinians. He published a series of short videos, one of which included horrific...
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Are the US and the West really concerned about freedoms of Sudanese protesters?
On 19 December, the Sudanese government decided to triple the price of bread, prompting a wave of anti-government protests which swiftly escalated into demonstrations calling an end to the three-decade rule of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The demonstrations were chaotic, as the demonstrators torched several buildings of Al-Bashir’s ruling...
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Something really bad is being prepared for the Palestinians in Gaza
A senior member of the Hamas Political Bureau said on Monday that “the worst is still to come” as far as the Gaza Strip is concerned. Mousa Abu Marzook’s remarks followed the announcement by the Palestinian Authority that it will withdraw its security officers from the Rafah Border Crossing,...
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What would a Palestinian state look like?
Israel and its Western and Arab allies have for decades been claiming that, one day, the Palestinians will have a state of their own. The premise is based on Israel withdrawing from the land it has occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, which would be the capital of the...
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Why pursue the two-state solution when it is clearly a waste of time?
Jordan’s King Abdullah II met the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Tuesday and reiterated the importance of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution. At the same time, the Jordanian monarch slammed Israel’s ongoing settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as “an obstacle...
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Forget Danny Danon’s spin at the UN, Israel has neither the legal nor the moral high ground
In the wake of the UN General Assembly rejection of the US-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement and some of the other Palestinian factions, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN resorted to the usual lies and propaganda about Hamas and resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. “There is...
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The significance of the US-Israel failure at the UN General Assembly
A US-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and other Palestinian factions has failed to get the required majority for adoption by the UN General Assembly. This was despite the US “warning” countries which planned to vote against the proposal. The US and Israel exerted a lot of effort...
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Is the Israeli military operation along the border with Lebanon for real?
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced suddenly on Tuesday morning the start of a massive military operation along the border with Lebanon. The reason, said the IDF, is to search for “offensive” tunnels dug by Hezbollah which, according to a report on Israeli Army Radio, are “penetrating Israeli soil...
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Palestinian resistance imposes new rules of engagement with Israel
A ceasefire brokered by four international mediators took effect in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon, ending two days of violence which started when Israel assassinated a senior Hamas commander during an incursion by Special Forces, an act to which the Palestinians retaliated. The Israelis killed seven Palestinians and...
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Will Qatar’s money ease Gaza’s crises?
Israeli, Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials have exchanged verbal blows over Qatar’s efforts to ease the crises in the Gaza Strip by paying $15m for the salaries of civil servants. Some Israeli officials claim that this is a boost for the “terrorist” organisation, Hamas, which is the de facto...
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Has the Great Return March achieved its goals?
It has been 32 weeks since Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launched mass protests calling for the lifting of the Israeli siege and for their right to return to homes from which they were forced out in 1948 to make way for the creation of the state of Israel. Eight...
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Is Palestine-Israel security coordination coming to an end?
The Central Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is chaired by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas, announced on 30 October its decision to end all of its commitments towards Israel, including all kinds of security coordination and economic ties. Commenting on this decision, Yair...
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Israel evades demands to end the Gaza protests and reach a truce
Despite Palestinian attempts to calm the Great March of Return, Israeli occupation snipers stationed along the eastern fence of the besieged Gaza Strip escalated their crackdown on the protesters this weekend. During the 31st Friday of the Great March, Israel killed six Palestinians and wounded more than 230 others,...
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Resistance rockets are a lifeline for Israeli officials
The Palestinian resistance groups launched two rockets against Israel on Tuesday night to let the occupation authorities know that their firepower is more accurate and effective. The intention was to provide Israeli officials with an excuse to accept a peaceful solution for the Gaza protests, because the military way...
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The World Jewish Congress petition to the UN ignores the environmental disaster created by Israel’s occupation
The CEO and Executive Vice President of the World Jewish Congress submitted a petition to the Deputy Director of the UN Environment Programme last week signed by over 22,000 people. Robert Singer asked the UN body to condemn what he described as the “environmental crimes” caused by the incendiary...
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The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi has made international headlines
The disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after entering the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon has made international headlines. Although a Saudi official denied the reports about his disappearance and insisted that he had left the building, Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée, who waited for him for...
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Israel’s judicial system whitewashes the crimes of its soldiers
An Israeli military court in Jaffa extended the detention of two Israeli army corporals on Friday over allegations that they stole money from Palestinian travellers and sexually abused women during body searches at the notorious military checkpoint which is the only route for Palestinians to get from Ramallah to...
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After 25 years of Oslo, is there any hope for peace?
The 1993 Oslo Accords were only ever a “Declaration of Principles”; a timetable for the peace process which was supposed to be the starting point for reaching a “comprehensive peace agreement” by 1999. The aim was a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority running an interim government in the...
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We condemn US measures against the Palestinians, but must condemn those by Abbas too
The US State Department announced on Monday that it is closing the office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Washington, claiming that it did not help to promote a peaceful solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict. “We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of...