Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Exporting Israel’s settler-colonial narrative by exploiting children
As Palestinians marked a year since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on 7 October, Israel’s settler-colonial society marked the occasion in selective oblivion. One example is a children’s book published by Yediot Books titled The Heroes of October 7th: Heroic Stories for Children, which the Times...
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The consequences of ignoring the 1947 Partition Plan and the 1948 Nakba
World leaders will never admit that “7 October” actually started well before 7 October last year; that the entire history of the Zionist state brought to fruition through enabling colonisation in Palestine is to blame for the current Israeli genocide in Gaza and the unleashing of its killing machine...
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The UN wants what Israel wants: genocide and its spillover across the region
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council on Friday, “We must avoid a regional war at all costs.” Gaza, he added, remains the epicentre of the violence. After Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and was lauded by the US for doing so as “a measure...
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We need to call out the hypocrisy of the humanitarian paradigm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Lebanese people before bombing their country was eerily similar to the rhetoric usually associated with Gaza. Hezbollah, he told the Lebanese, are using them as human shields and hiding weapons in their homes; the latter was made to sound more familiar...
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Internationalism is needed urgently to stand against the politics of genocide
Western leaders want to stop the repercussions of genocide from hitting non-Palestinians, but stopping Israel from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza is not on the political or humanitarian agenda. At the UN General Assembly, Australia will be inviting countries to sign a pledge to protect humanitarian aid workers....
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Israeli and international dehumanisation of Palestinians
After almost a year of genocidal intent and action, the Israeli military said it would be investigating “a serious incident that is not in line with IDF values and what is expected of Israeli soldiers.” The statement was regarding footage of soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinian resistance...
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The UN’s protection of pariahs
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told a recent press conference in Geneva, “I think it is unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault of the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.” She also asked: “Should there be a...
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Harris or Trump? They are two sides of the same imperialist, settler-colonial coin
The US presidential election debates expose the fact that there is no real choice, other than opting for the lesser of two evils, when it comes to Washington’s policy on Palestine. When US President Joe Biden took office in January 2020, the mainstream narrative of getting rid of Donald...
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The perils of pathetic political games
Israeli media outlets are stirring up a frenzy about the occupation state facing a serious threat from a draft resolution which the Palestinian Authority has presented to the UN General Assembly. The resolution seeks to implement the International Court of Justice’s 19 July advisory opinion. The opinion reiterated the...
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The failure of the UN humanitarian paradigm
As Palestinian children in Gaza start to receive the polio vaccines, the contradictions regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid, ceasefires and hostages surface incessantly. “Great progress! Every day in the Middle Areas of Gaza, more children are getting vaccines against polio,” Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief...
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Invoking international law to shield genocide and complicity in genocide
The UK has suspended 30 out of 250 arms licences for exports to Israel over concerns that the weapons may be used in violation of international humanitarian law. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy was, however, quick to reassure us all that, “The UK continues to support Israel’s right to...
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Speaking about Palestine by leaving Palestinians out
EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell reiterated recently the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza to avoid “a full blown war” in the Middle East. Ceasefires started out as the means to get humanitarian aid into Gaza; the reasons given now are as far removed from Gaza as can...
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Weapons’ shipments and ceasefire absurdities
The US, which says it is tirelessly working for a ceasefire, has also tirelessly supplied Israel with military equipment and weapons. Yesterday, the 500th US plane transporting military equipment landed in Israel. Since October last year, 500 transport planes and 107 ships have delivered over 50,000 tonnes in weapons...
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We Are Palestinian: A Celebration of Culture and Tradition
“When I started to write this book, I imagined my daughters, two strong Palestinian girls, growing up away from their homeland. I wanted them to know how beautiful their culture is and that they can take part in and be proud of it no matter where they are in...
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The relentless brutality of settler-colonialism must not be overlooked
In a series of posts on X, the Senior Communications Officer of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Louse Wateridge, gave a brief but succinct description of Gaza after ten months of Israel’s ongoing genocide. Palestinians in Gaza, she said, are “never more than a...
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Herzog’s faux ‘humanitarian objective’ is soaked in Palestinian blood
Israel and the US have made the clearest admission yet that any ceasefire resolution is solely about the return of the Israeli hostages. In remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released by the US Department of State, the objective is clear: “The focus of my visit [to...
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Israel’s creation and exploitation of Palestinian human shields
How many times have Israeli officials justified massacring Palestinian civilians because Hamas uses them as human shields? Israeli media has now reported the opposite – the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) using Palestinian civilians as human shields in areas slated for incursion. “It is better that they explode and not...
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From Gaza to Jenin, international complicity with Israel must not be ignored
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz proved Israel can commit genocide and get away with it when he advocated for the same tactics to be applied against Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. “The Jenin refugee camp must be evacuated of its citizens, and it...
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The EU is consistent in getting its priorities wrong
As international organisations warned about outbreaks of serious diseases in Gaza, caused by Israel’s genocidal bombing, the EU got on board and pronounced itself “gravely concerned” over Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s infrastructure. Of course, the EU is far from gravely concerned, but diplomacy dictates that something is said, if...
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By disputing Israel’s ‘eliminate Hamas’ narrative, CNN confirms its genocide
Unless the international community truly takes a stance against genocide instead of linking the term solely to the Zionist narrative of the Holocaust, Israel will be able to carve out a niche of its own. A genocide in the name of eliminating Hamas is the Israeli storyline which almost...
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The US penchant for aiding Israel’s violence
Extending the twisted narrative employed by Zionists, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened regional violence in the Middle East after two targeted assassinations within a few hours of each other. The two strikes killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. “We...
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The extent of Israel’s internalised violence
Atrocities committed during Israel’s genocide in Gaza have spurred a small number of military reservists to refuse to return to serve in the enclave. “We were inside a house and our commander ordered us to burn it down,” said one, Yuval Green, who added that the reasons given for...
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Does Abbas really respect law and order, or is he just currying favour?
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas may like to think that he can curry favour with Donald Trump with his letter deploring the assassination attempt on the former US president. Instead, however, Abbas continued to expose himself as a puppet dancing on international strings. He received a scribbled, disjointed message...
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The Olympic Games and Israel’s security narrative
The Israeli Olympics team will be provided with 24-hour security during their stay in Paris, after left-wing MP Thomas Portes said that protests should be staged against the Israeli team’s participation. A call for protests triggers security concerns, but Israel’s genocide in Gaza triggers no concern for the safety...