Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Nabil Anani: Palestine, Land and People
The introduction to Nabil Anani: Palestine, Land and People (Saqi Books, 2018) sets the pace for delving into the art collection in this book which weaves an intricate trail of memory, where its participants and inhabitants beckon for our sensibilities first and foremost to see the laceration of land...
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The politicisation of the Palestinian right of return is imperative
In its annual report to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People recommended that Israel acknowledges the Palestinian Nakba. The backdrop for such an acknowledgement remains the two-state compromise, which defeats the purpose of the recommendation. Such recognition, according...
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It is not up to the UN to determine Palestinian resistance and narratives
The Great Return March protests in the Gaza Strip have provided the foundations for Palestinians from which they can articulate their demands, away from the political bickering, opportunism and exploitation which has rendered the people dependent solely on their own determination to survive. Since 30 March, they have not only...
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UN General Assembly charades offer publicity stunts but nothing for Palestinians
While speculation about Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the UN General Assembly continues, the trends unfolding on the sidelines are indicative of increasing restrictions, to the point that it will no longer be plausible to claim the UN podium to make the case for Palestinian rights. After...
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The blocking of Palestinian rights at an international level is endorsed by the PA
As the UN General Assembly meeting approaches, the entire international community is engaged in a collective spectacle discussing the obsolete two-state compromise as the only way forward for Palestinians. There is no debate about how the facts on the ground contradict the diplomatic hyperbole. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is...
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Joint endeavours to exploit Palestinians in Gaza
Human rights are universal. Or so we were taught. But the simplistic notion has been overturned, mutilated and manipulated to the point that the only universal aspect about human rights is the bureaucratic process that dictates the trajectories of the oppressed. Gaza and human rights are such an example. As...
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Redrawing the Middle East – Sir Mark Sykes, imperialism and the Sykes-Picot agreement
Michael Berdine’s succinct analysis of his subject Sykes’s political involvement in the Middle East is also a reflection that can be extended to the present-day turmoil in the region. “As a man of his time and class,” he writes, “Sir Mark Sykes was an imperialist driven more by ego...
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Exploiting Gaza tops the UN’s humanitarian agenda
What would prompt the UN to assert, without reservations or calculated statements, that Gaza has collapsed in terms of humanitarian necessities? So far, the international organisation has relied on projecting extended timeframes; the result being that Gaza was forced into a currently irreversible situation while the UN saves face,...
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The EU favours a two-state ‘solution’, in Israel’s interests
There is increasing evidence that international overtures, ostensibly to safeguard Palestinian rights, are nothing but pretence. Following Israel’s High Court ruling in favour of the destruction of Khan Al-Ahmar, which will displace the entire community, the EU has subjected Palestinian rights to the dictates of Israeli interests. In a letter...
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Recent developments highlight the enforced separation of Palestinians from their rights
The US decision to close down the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s office in Washington is reported to have been made in retaliation for the Palestinian Authority’s decision to reject negotiations and call for Israel to be investigated at the International Criminal Court. Neither of these decisions is a novelty. The...
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The debate on UNRWA takes focus away from the realities of Palestinian refugees
In the aftermath of the US decision to end its funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the EU has pledged to continue its financial support. In terms of the agency being able to continue providing services to Palestinian refugees, the news is undoubtedly welcome. However,...
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Palestinians are dispensable as far as the PA is concerned
The rhetoric of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas fools nobody. Less than a week after meeting retired Mossad officer Ari Shaul and reiterating his concerns about Israel’s demography, Abbas confirmed to Knesset members that a PA delegation is in Washington for talks with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The aftermath...
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Clarifying the PA’s role in diluting the Palestinian right of return
It is not only the Trump administration that wants to alter, to the point of negating, the Palestinian right of return. On Tuesday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas made statements that conform to the scheming of Israel and the US. Apart from insisting upon a future demilitarised Palestinian state,...
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Where the bird disappeared
Memory and metaphor intertwine in Ghassan Zaqtan’s “Where the Bird Disappeared” (Seagull Books, 2018), to the point that, at times, seeking to distinguish one from the other is akin to lacerating an insoluble bond. There is barely enough time to ponder the existence of Yahya and Zakariyya before the Nakba...
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Collusion to preserve UN authority thwarts the Palestinian right of return
It is possible that the arguments in favour of retaining the Palestinian right of return are falling into the semantics trap which Israel has been perfecting overtly over many decades. As the Trump administration is reported to be preparing its own definition of who are to be classed as...
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Only compromised Palestinian leaders could describe their right to Jerusalem as ‘compensation’
Not only has the Palestinian Authority lagged behind in matters of urgent decision making, but it also persists in making defeatist comments which will generate additional repercussions for the people of Palestine in relation to US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century”. In response to Trump’s statement...
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Palestinian popular resistance must be free of PA impositions
With the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar still targeted by Israel for demolition, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has availed himself of the opportunity to call for mobilisation in the form of popular resistance. This, he maintains, is “the only means of struggle towards independence and statehood”, to the...
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A ‘national betrayal’ by Fatah … or Hamas?
As the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, brokered by the UN and Egypt, went into effect yesterday, Ramallah erupted into a litany of abominable comments. Senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad was quoted by Wafa news agency stating: “The truce between Hamas and Israel a few days ago is a...
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Netanyahu has an ally in Argentina’s Mauricio Macri
Argentina’s Foreign Ministry has recently demonstrated its competence in disseminating Zionist propaganda, as well as showing how the “two-state solution” continues to serve Israeli interests. In a series of tweets from its official account, “deep concern” was expressed over “the escalation of violence caused by the launching of rockets...
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Fractured Destinies
When a last request turns into a journey, Palestine becomes tangible. Rabai Al-Madhoun’s novel, Fractured Destinies (Hoopoe Fiction, 2018), weaves narrations of love, exile and loss, while edging continuously closer to understanding memory departing from choices that might have turned out differently without British and Zionist collusion to colonise...
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When humanitarian aid and rhetoric serve the interests of the Israeli oppressors
There has been yet another instance where the UN has preferred to try to predict the future instead of acknowledging the current deterioration in Gaza with the aim of permanently reversing colonialism. Israel has yet again refused the entry of fuel into the enclave which is needed to power...
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‘Farmer terrorism’ is the new Jewish settler slogan justifying the destruction of crops
In less than three months, Jewish settlers have destroyed over 2,000 trees and grapevines in the occupied West Bank. Rights group B’Tselem has issued a detailed report on this destruction, including testimony from Palestinian farmers. Bales of hay and barley fields were also destroyed. The destruction wrought by Israel’s...
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Playing with words and children’s lives in occupied Palestine
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (UNOCHA) yesterday published a joint statement calling for the protection of children’s rights. As usual, the UN has expressed its perpetual and purported “deep concern” about the violation of children’s rights and has demanded that...
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Netanyahu visits Colombia, and the international community perfects its silence
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Colombia for the inauguration of the country’s new President, Iván Duque Márquez, the international community should clarify its role once and for all as an intentional accomplice working against Palestinian rights. The last few weeks have been fraught with comments regarding Israel’s...