Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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The two-state compromise drives arguments for and against Palestine’s UN membership
The Palestinian Authority is once again seeking full membership of the UN, and the US has already expressed its opposition. The two-state compromise continues to form the premise for the arguments both for and against UN membership, as presented by the PA and the US respectively. However, the PA’s...
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The EU sensationalises hunger strikes and protects Israel’s violations
Had the wife of hunger striking Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh not publicised photos of her husband’s emaciated body, the EU would have felt no urge to call for his release. “Shocked by the horrible picture of Awawdeh who is hunger striking now for 169 days in protest against his...
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Israel’s visible violence is protected by its own impunity
When Israel’s violations are caught on camera, it seeks to scapegoat the identifiable individuals only in order to safeguard the state’s institutions. Israeli media quoting the Israeli Defence Forces’ Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi concerning the recent (and normal) brutality of soldiers beating up Palestinian detainees must be seen...
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EU concern about Palestinian NGOs will not override its support for Israel
Israeli forces raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organisations last week and shut down the premises, following accusations of ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The doors of the premises were welded shut and documents left behind by the soldiers specified no...
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Gantz and Lapid are on the same page in their intentions towards the Palestinians
For Israeli officials who disagree with the meetings between Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, the latter’s remarks during a press conference in Germany provided an opportunity to showcase their opposition. Abbas later retracted his statement about Israel committing 50 holocausts against the Palestinians...
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The US ambassador’s rhetoric bolsters Israel’s oppression of Palestinians
We expect better terminology from a diplomat, not uncouth jargon with no other purpose except to misrepresent a bad situation. US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides spoke out recently in favour of the colonial-occupation state’s latest aerial offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. His words were reminiscent...
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Mansour Abbas lends support to Israel’s colonial narrative
Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas has exposed how exploitative his role is within the coalition government formed by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. His political party, he claims, has “no influence” when it comes to Israel’s security concerns. “We have no influence on military operations. We are in...
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Israel’s fake security narrative is bolstered by the Abraham Accords
“The deaths of innocent people, particularly children, is heart-breaking,” said Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, without any signs that his heart was breaking. All Palestinians, including children, have been regarded as legitimate targets by Israel for decades, and in a densely populated strip of land such as Gaza, the...
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Symbolic recognition damages Palestinian prospects
Although US President Joe Biden is merely paying lip service to the two-state compromise, given that the Trump administration’s legacy still holds sway over US foreign policy with regard to Israel’s settler-colonial expansion, the Palestinian Authority persists in seeking symbolic recognition of a “State of Palestine” to keep a...
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The PA is gradually being cornered by Palestinian society
Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, does not tolerate any political thought that is divergent from his brand of corruption. While the murder of Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, last year by the PA’s security services was marked with prominence, the PA has persisted in persecuting Palestinian activists, university students and...
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The US ‘investigation’ into Abu Akleh’s killing tells us that Israeli impunity is a priority
The developments in the “investigation” into the targeted killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh point rather too obviously to the preservation of Israel’s ability to act with impunity. Matters went downhill in the aftermath of Abu Akleh’s killing when Israeli military spokesman Ran Kochav put forward...
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Mansour Abbas’s endorsement of Israeli colonialism demeans Palestinians everywhere
Of all the political fragmentation that Palestinians have experienced, the United Arab List’s leader and Knesset member Mansour Abbas has definitely forged his own niche. Upon joining the coalition government led by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2021, Abbas basically legitimised Israel’s colonial violence against Palestinians. His...
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The PA has decades of diplomatic failures behind it
The Palestinian Authority is spending considerable time informing the US of its ambivalence towards Washington’s foreign policy. From blind faith, to trust, to a sense of urgency because diplomatic rhetoric remains unaccounted for, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has long hit a dead end built out of his own collaboration. Mere...
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Abbas is endorsing an altered status quo after Biden’s visit
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s bleating during US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank has of course achieved nothing apart from entrenching his subjugation to Israeli colonialism. “Our confidence in you and your administration is very great,” Abbas told Biden. “And we assure you...
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Biden’s visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank entrenches the humanitarian paradigm
When the Palestinian Authority leader jumped on the US bandwagon spouting status quo rhetoric, he should have remembered President Joe Biden’s dedication to Zionism and colonial Israel. Upon arriving in Israel yesterday for a two day visit during which he will also go to the occupied West Bank, Biden...
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A Palestinian State must not be defined as an Israeli interest
Last June, the Israeli organisation, Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project released a report describing how the Bennett-Lapid government increased settlement expansion planning by 26 per cent. Under the heading, ‘The government of unequivocal annexation: one year of the Bennett-Lapid government’, the report shows how the coalition government entrenched former...
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The PA is facilitating the exploitation of Palestine
Last March, senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein Al-Sheikh met with now Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to stress “the need for a political horizon” based – of course – upon the two-state politics. Lapid was not receptive at the time, stating that when he would eventually take up the...
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Israel’s impunity is boosted by the US whitewash of Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing
The Palestinian Authority’s refusal to hand over the bullet which killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was short lived. So was any hypothetical expectation of justice from an Israeli investigation supervised by the US. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israeli soldiers did not fire deliberately at Abu...
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Palestinians reject international impositions on themselves and their land
A recent poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research showed that there is significant disillusion with Palestinian politics. Arguably most notable is the opposition to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s decision-making, a further deterioration in his popularity as leader and, more importantly, a decrease in support...
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The UN has a role in maintaining the permanent status of Palestinian refugees
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) may well be operating with a permanent financial deficit. UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini warned again recently that after September, its 28,000 workers might not receive their salaries as the agency is facing a $100...
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Occupying Habits. Everyday Media as Warfare in Israel-Palestine
“Sovereignty is made out of a patchwork, weaved together from institutions, private companies, and most significantly technology itself, which dictates certain behaviour and habits.” Israel’s security narrative has become heavily reliant on media technology, as Daniel Mann’s book “Occupying Habits: Everyday Media as Warfare in Israel-Palestine” (I.B.Tauris, 2022) shows....
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Abbas’s spectacle of begging for less
Out of hundreds of UN Resolutions on Palestine, Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has recently said he only wants one resolution implemented, digging a deeper hole for himself in terms of leadership. “We want the international community to implement only one of them, which was adopted during 74 years....
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Israel’s colonial violence must be named as the cause of Palestinian suffering
The two-state compromise facilitates the international community’s alienation from the repercussions faced by Palestinians as a result of Israel’s ongoing settler-colonialism and violence. Imagining Palestine through the imposed (and moribund) two-state framework creates desensitisation from the suffering of the Palestinian people, which is almost never brought into the spotlight...
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Biden’s visit will expose the PA’s weak status
This week, the White House announced US President Joe Biden’s forthcoming visit in July to Israel and the occupied West Bank. Needless to say, the Palestinian Authority will increase its rhetorical disillusion with the current US government and its overtures to Israel, while nurturing its gratitude that, as a...