Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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The PA’s failure in protecting Palestinians
The Palestinian anti-colonial resistance has provided ample proof it will no longer take its cues from political factions, leaving both the Palestinian Authority and Israel facing a changing political dynamic among the people. The PA has been rendered irrelevant both by its own collaboration with Israel and acquiescence to...
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Only Abu Akleh’s US citizenship is of concern to Washington
Israel is once again, albeit temporarily, under the spotlight for the targeted killing in May of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. This follows the revelation that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is conducting an investigation into the crime. In September, after many denials, Israel conceded there...
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Abbas is already submitting quietly to Netanyahu
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas continues to demonstrate that he has no political standing. In a recent interview, for example, he described Israeli Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as “not a man who believes in peace.” Given that Netanyahu will once again be at the helm of a decades-old colonial...
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US complicity with Israel will enhance any future annexation plans
The US will push back against annexation, according to US Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, as the Abraham Accords are set to feature as a continuation of an internationally approved US policy. “Our position is quite clear: We do not support annexation. We will fight any attempt to do...
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Palestinians need more than Blinken’s empty words
With Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu set to return as Israeli prime minister, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, spouting yet another round of futile rhetoric about improving the quality of life for Palestinians and, of course, reaffirming Washington’s adherence to the — surely...
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The UN’s ‘shared goal’ excludes the Palestinians
What the Palestinian people want is far removed from what is being decided by governments and UN officials. As the Arab League held its first summit, in Algiers, since the signing of the Abraham Accords, Arab leaders reaffirmed their “commitment” to the Palestinian “cause”. Such vague language was necessary,...
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The Palestinian narrative is eliminated at the UN Security Council
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, extended the illusion of equivalence in speaking about the coloniser and the colonised. It is incumbent upon Israel and the international community to stop the violations against Palestinians, yet Wennesland called “on both leaderships to recognise what...
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The UN wastes Palestinian lives and time
Israel’s colonial expansion has taken almost all of Palestine, and yet the UN is still wasting time on telling everyone what should be, and really is, blindingly obvious. Israel’s occupation of Palestine, says a recent report by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry established in May 2021 and mandated...
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Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine
This complex subject is presented with meticulous research by Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi in Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022). The book goes beyond the 1948 Nakba to portray how Israel’s settler-colonial violence cannot be removed from the Palestinian experience and its psychological impact, and...
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Australia’s Jerusalem move doesn’t help Palestinian political demands
In December 2018, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison emulated the Trump administration and recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, although it kept its embassy in Tel Aviv. Australia thus kept partly in line with international consensus, which is in any case inherently hypocritical, given that Palestinians are subjected...
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Looking beyond US violence and PA dependence
Belatedly, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has issued a statement of clear mistrust in US diplomacy towards Palestine. “We don’t trust America and you know our position. We don’t trust it, we don’t rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party...
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The US National Security Strategy promotes the Abraham Accords
In another nod to former US Donald Trump’s legacy, the Biden administration has outlined its approach to Israel and Palestine in the 2022 National Security Strategy. The Abraham Accords, Trump’s parting legacy, have now eclipsed the two-state compromise in US rhetoric. Just like the EU did in its statement...
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The PA and the UN should stop their complicity in Israel’s colonial violence
Calling upon the UN to protect Palestinian civilians from Israeli violence is not effective diplomacy on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. A recent letter by the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates to the UN summarised Israel’s targeting of Palestinian children since the beginning of this year, while...
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Palestine’s humanitarian paradigm only serves Israeli interests
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has once again exposed how the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Palestinian refugees themselves are subject to a cycle of exploitative violence which does more to serve the international organisation’s humanitarian paradigm. During a meeting on the sidelines of...
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‘A political horizon’ where there is none in sight
When the Palestinian Authority announces that talks have been held with US officials, it does so with the intent of portraying itself worthy of diplomatic acknowledgement. Within a few sentences into the updates, however, the PA confirms that the Palestinian people are right to be disillusioned with the leadership...
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The EU prioritises the Abraham Accords
At the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, defined Israel’s security concerns as the motivating factor behind supporting the two-state paradigm, even as the US has been repeating that it does not envisage any resolution in the immediate future. With the Abraham Accords being the main driving...
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The targeted killing of Palestinians is the next Israeli crime to be normalised
For decades, the international community has sought to portray the occupied West Bank as being distinct from Gaza by focusing on the Palestinian Authority in terms of diplomacy, and showcasing Ramallah as an example of prosperity. Israel’s colonial violence in the occupied West Bank and the PA’s “sacred” security...
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The EU-Israel Association exposes the bloc’s reliance on the occupation state
Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association agreement states, “Relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.” When...
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Despite his assertions at the UN, Abbas has no political will to deliver
If Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was serious about holding the international community and Israel accountable for the ongoing colonisation of Palestine, his UN General Assembly speech would have been more definite. “Today, on behalf of the Palestinian people, to whom I am proud to belong, I tell you...
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Blog: Chile’s Boric wasted an opportunity for Palestine at the UN General Assembly
Chilean President Gabriel Boric may currently be the most outspoken leader in Latin America on Palestinian rights and Israeli violations. However, his rhetoric leaves much to be desired. It, in turn, raises questions about how Chile – the country with the largest Palestinian community in the region – can...
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Vehicles of Decolonisation: Public Transit in the Palestinian West Bank
A prominent part of Israel’s colonial violence is the deprivation of free movement for Palestinians. Maryam S. Griffin’s book, Vehicles of Decolonisation: Public Transport in the Palestinian West Bank (Temple University Press, 2022), provides details of the ways in which Israel collectively denies mobility for Palestinians and how, as...
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The EU should stop exploiting Palestinian NGOs
If the EU did not embark upon “shows of support”, to use the phrase synonymous with anything related diplomatically to Palestine, there would be nothing to its name through which the bloc could claim any semblance of accomplishment in this arena. We saw one such “show of support” last...
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America’s need to bolster the PA is indicative of the strength of Palestinian resistance
The US preoccupation with the Palestinian Authority possibly losing control over the Israeli-occupied West Bank has resurfaced, at a time when Mahmoud Abbas is adamant about pursuing full UN membership for Palestine, despite Washington threatening to use its veto. The message is clear: the US wants the PA to...
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Israel and the US are accomplices in ambiguity and impunity
No criminal investigation will be opened to establish who killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) released an ambiguous statement that merely echoed the US State Department’s non-committal tone when it said that no conclusive evidence was provided by the ballistic analysis. “There is...