Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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The PA is developing a penchant for coercion and intimidation
The Palestinian Authority is continuing with its reconciliation charade, this time through a visit by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. He has met with a delegation from Hamas to reiterate the PA’s preconditions and manipulate Palestinian resistance aims. Dictating terms in the name of reconciliation is a fraudulent gesture, particularly when...
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'Ten Myths About Israel'
“Historical disinformation, even of the most recent past, can do tremendous harm.” Ilan Pappé’s latest publication, “Ten Myths About Israel” (Verso Books, 2017), opens with an overview of the intentional violence inflicted upon Palestinians through several forms of colonial violence. Applying a thorough analysis of the myths perpetuated by...
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Abbas suspends security coordination with Israel but continues assaulting journalists
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is still enjoying the limelight after insisting that security coordination with Israel will not be reinstated before certain demands are met, yet the PA’s security services are still deploying oppressive tactics upon Palestinian journalists. In fact, suspending security coordination only tackles a fragment...
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What is the PA doing for Jerusalem?
In a speech last Saturday evening, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas evoked narratives of belonging with regard to Jerusalem, departing from the collective Palestinian mobilisation against Israeli oppression over Al-Aqsa Mosque. His spurious words, ostensibly celebrating Palestinian resistance, portray a political faction which navigates between two extremes. As the...
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Palestinian leaders are far from embodying the spirit of unity displayed by the people
Palestinians have displayed amazing unity in the past couple of weeks over the issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque; their political and resistance protest rendered as mere spectators the political factions. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas continue with the sporadic trend of attempting reconciliation. There are, of course, differences between...
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The slow extermination of Gaza
Gaza continues to make headlines, to no avail. It has become a putrid metaphor of unsustainability and the political actors responsible for the deprivation are content to allow the enclave to fester. Three years since “Operation Protective Edge”, 4,000 homes are still awaiting reconstruction and 1,500 other dwellings are...
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I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See: Photographs from the Refugee Crisis
“They asked me to follow my heart.” With a simple statement that rings only truth, Giles Duley embarked upon a photography project commissioned by the UNHRC titled “I Can Only Tell You What My Eyes See”. The trajectory followed by Duley flows from the heart to the eyes, creating...
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Israel is continuing the Nakba
Choosing and implementing narratives according to circumstances continue to define Israel’s stance towards Palestinians. Recently, Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi threatened Palestinians with a third Nakba in a Facebook post. Appropriating Palestinian remembrance to suit his brief rant, warned of impending ethnic cleansing against the backdrop of incited Israeli violence which has...
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Exploiting the Palestinian divide has never been easier, as the PA and Israel know well
The Palestinian Authority continues to make news for the wrong reasons, a trend which it copies from Israel which is also seeking to increase Palestinian fragmentation. Yesterday, Israeli media reported on a ruling issued by the Jerusalem District Court, which allows Palestinians detained by the PA and who collaborated...
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Netanyahu wants undue influence over EU policies
During a meeting with the leaders of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, Benjamin Netanyahu revealed his antagonism towards the European Union in remarks which were “accidentally” transmitted to journalists. Voicing displeasure at the EU’s conditioning of relations with Israel, the Israeli Prime Minister urged the assembled leaders...
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The negotiations impasse has exposed a seamless agreement between Israel and the PA
Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fond of claiming that there is a stalemate with regard to peace negotiations, it is clear that the international community and the Palestinian Authority are fully in tune with what Israel ultimately desires. Now that the two-state paradigm is recognised as convenient...
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“Where the line is drawn: Crossing boundaries in Occupied Palestine”
It is a conflicting memoir, so Raja Shehadeh’s latest book “Where the line is drawn: Crossing the boundaries in occupied Palestine” (Profile Books, 2017) must be read with an instilled acceptance of understanding on various levels. From the very first pages, Shehadeh imbues the reader with varying contrasts. Palestine’s...
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Scapegoating Hamas doesn’t hide the fact that the UN’s prime concern remains Israel
A report issued this month by the UN — “Gaza: ten years later” — once again reminds us that 2020 is the date by which Gaza is estimated to become unliveable. The date is drawing closer and there is no sign of things getting any better for the Palestinians...
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Preventing the sabotage of Palestinian rights
Israeli antics at UNESCO over the vote which recognised the old city of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site were accompanied by other tirades against the international institution. US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, declared the decision “an affront to history” and a discredit to “an already...
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Palestinians fear fragmentation
A recent poll carried out by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research has seen Palestinians reject the current political developments. A majority of respondents rejected the PA’s measure of cutting public sector employees’ salaries and power-sharing between Hamas and Mohammad Dahlan. The divide between the political statements...
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When Abbas lauds Trump, he is trying to deflect his own accountability
In his address to the African Union’s 29th Summit in Addis Ababa, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave an example of how to engage in double standards that are mostly ignored. He was thus allowed to have a negative impact on Palestinian prospects for autonomy. Wafa news agency reported that,...
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Blocking Palestine and Palestinians at the UN
US Ambassador Nikki Haley is on another mission to block Palestinian visibility at the UN. In February, the US opposed the appointment of former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as UN envoy to Libya. On Tuesday, Haley explained that the US position was based on the fact that...
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The disappearing Palestinian right of return
Although the mainstream impression regarding Palestine and Israel is one of conflict, there is silent complicity with an agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community to eliminate the possibility of the Palestinian right of return ever being implemented. Despite the right – enshrined in UN Resolution...
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PA participation in Israel’s security conference is an obscene celebration of Palestine’s isolation
Despite last year’s outrage at its attendance, the Palestinian Authority is once again participating in the Herzliya Conference in Tel Aviv. In the current climate of Mahmoud Abbas aligning himself overtly with the oppressor, the move should not come as a surprise. The 17th annual “security” conference — which is...
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The PA is trying to enforce a political blackout on Gaza
Prior to the extreme electricity cuts in Gaza, the ongoing violation was treated as a daily tribulation. Now that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have collaborated in plunging the enclave into near total blackout, cautious reports have reached the media in such a way that they echo the preferred...
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Warnings from international organisations are failing Gaza
Amnesty International’s latest warning about a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Israel’s illegal blockade on the enclave is not lifted is the latest in a series about the Gaza Strip. As the electricity supply is restricted even further, Palestinians in Gaza face not only domestic disruption, but also huge gaps in...
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Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994
In “Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994” (University of Chicago Press, 2017), Andy Clarno presents a different perspective on settler colonialism and how this plays into the inequalities experienced by Palestine and South Africa at different ends of the political spectrum. The Palestinian struggle for liberation is...
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Minister’s UN demand should prompt reference to Israel as a settler-colonial state
The UN is fast becoming a playground for Israel’s outrageous antics. The international organisation has normalised settler-colonialism and the ensuing violence, and bequeathed Palestinians with a jeopardised visibility due to its collaboration with Israel. Now, it faces yet another demand made by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who...
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Dismissing the PA’s tactics of collaboration
The Palestinian Authority has made it clear this week that Palestine and Palestinians are commodities for exploitation when it comes to rights and legitimacy. Since US President Donald Trump’s visit which, despite feeble attempts to portray it otherwise, was another exercise in belligerent bullying and wilful acquiescence, the PA...