Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Draft resolution to recognise Palestine fails to challenge Zionist colonisation
“We don’t intend to confront the US, so if we can agree on a formula that accepts the 1967 lines as the basis for any agreement, I think the Palestinian team will be able to compromise on the time table.” This statement, quoted in Haaretz and attributed to an...
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Ambiguity in Hamas' refuting of UN interference
As the United Nations, in accordance with the Palestinian Authority and Israel, embark upon their infiltration plan for Gaza, Hamas has expressed opposition to the organisation’s involvement, claiming that the resistance movement was not informed of UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry’s plan for the enclave’s reconstruction. Hamas has repeatedly stated...
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UNRWA and displacing 'inspiration'
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai has declared her intention to donate her winnings from the World Children’s Prize to UNRWA. The $50,000, according to statements on the UNRWA website, will be utilised to rebuild a school ruined during “Operation Protective Edge”. Through rhetoric replete with symbolism detracting from...
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EU prioritises two-state conspiracy within alleged criticism of settlement construction
The EU is about to embark upon a continuation of contradictions that criticise settlement expansion while reiterating its support for the two-state conspiracy. The recent appropriation of land and further settlement construction prompted a series of alleged concerns which, according to Haaretz, EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen is...
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UN insistence on Palestinian acquiescence
“The international community cannot be expected to continually pick up the pieces of another war and then pick up the bill.” Uttered by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the Security Council Briefing on the Middle East, the comment is a reflection of the constant impunity generated by imperialism....
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'International legitimacy' and alienation from Palestinian history
Talk of “full rights” and “international legitimacy” by Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was once again prominent within its usual inconsistency. Speaking at a meeting with various diplomatic representatives, including EU representative John Gatt-Rutter, Erekat insisted upon Palestine’s right to participate fully in international institutions, including recourse to the...
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UN silencing Palestinian narratives
Lauded by Zionist media, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s visit to Israel is once again proof of the imperialist organisation’s involvement in the destruction of Palestine. Exhibiting disregard for Palestinian armed resistance against colonial violence, Ban reserved sympathy for Israel’s sheltered and complicit settler-population. His comments were utilised by Israeli...
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France's invitation to the Palestinian unity government
Financial pledges from the international community to aid Gaza’s reconstruction were not the only outcome of the donor conference held recently in Cairo. Following PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ overture last September, in which imperialist aligned countries were asked to support recognition of a Palestinian state based upon the 1967...
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Reconciliation and the consequences of diplomacy
The first meeting of the Palestinian unity government held in Gaza City was embellished with positive rhetoric of reconciliation and rebuilding. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah addressed a press conference in which priority was given to outlining alleged obsolete rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, as well as the importance of...
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US criticism of settlements is empty rhetoric
In keeping with typical imperialist swagger, the US has criticised Israeli settlement expansion while continuing to give the Zionist state political and military support at all levels. This apparent contradiction demonstrates that even when it attempts to differentiate between forms of colonial violence, America employs empty rhetoric which amounts...
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Alleged UN bias against Israel and the extension of imperialism
Speaking with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated alleged claims of bias harboured by the imperialist organisation against the settler-colonial state. Claiming application of different standards by the UN with regard to Israel, Netanyahu utilised the meeting to extend incitement against Palestine on an...
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Condemnation and collaboration on genocide
Recent statements by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat evoked the continuous contradictions reflected both in changes to Palestinian territory and demography. Despite invoking statistics of Palestinian civilians murdered in Gaza during Israel’s latest colonial massacre, the tone of complacency was evident in the remarks uttered,...
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The UN General Assembly and imperialist dictates
Remarks uttered by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly are of paramount significance to the constant oppression faced by Palestinians. Once again, discourse has been dominated by humanitarian concerns divested of political ramifications, while upholding the duplicitous role of the...
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UN and US promotion of surveillance and abuse under the guise of humanitarian aid
Palestinians in Gaza are to encounter further imperialist interference during the already compromised reconstruction process of the enclave. Following his discourse at the UN Security Council in which Israelis were erroneously declared “civilians” on an equal level with Palestinians, UN envoy Robert Serry has now announced the plan to...
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Serry's address to the UNSC and the promotion of Israel's narrative
In his briefing to the UN Security Council, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) Robert Serry was careful to uphold Israel’s dominating narrative while attempting to convey a compromised appeal on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza. Departing from a statistical observation of the death toll...
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Abbas' manipulation of resistance in favour of compromised European recognition
According to reports by the Ma’an News Agency, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking official European recognition of a Palestinian State prior to the UN General Assembly’s debate commencing on September 24. Departing from a very vague reference to “Protective Edge” and its aftermath with regards to settlement expansion,...
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The EU's commitment to oppressive complicity
Returning to pre-war conditions in Gaza might prove counterproductive, according to the EU’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen. Citing the possibility of recurring violence without venturing into or mentioning the obvious dynamics of Israel’s colonial aggression, Faaborg-Andersen embarked upon disseminating Israel’s demilitarisation rhetoric while remaining within parameters that have...
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Lieberman's renewed demilitarisation demands
The aftermath of Israel’s colonial massacre has resulted in a stronger Palestinian resistance. Only a few weeks after Iran’s declaration to accelerate the process of armed resistance among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has reverted back to demilitarisation rhetoric, albeit within a...
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PA plans further incarceration for Palestinians
As predicted, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic framework, intended to serve as the initiation to further negotiations with Israel, is a regurgitation of previous compromises. The renewed insistence upon the two-state solution is particularly repulsive, reinstated adamantly and with absolute contempt, as if Palestinian resistance were an imaginary...
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Abbas plans to resume negotiations and marginalise the Palestinian resistance
As the Palestinian armed resistance persevered against Israel’s latest colonial massacre, the two state solution has become part of the diplomatic discourse. The atrocities committed have created a diverse political framework that has united the people behind the resistance, however Mahmoud Abbas has reverted to the collapsed negotiations which...
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Iran’s struggle against Israel’s colonial expansion
In keeping with previous assertions, Iranian discourse is inclusive of historical liberation and is committed to non-recognition of Israel. Gaza’s resistance against the latest massacre generated renewed conviction for resistance against settler-colonialism, as well as a commitment to aid Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. On July 17, the Popular...
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Rebuilding Gaza and the politics of subjugation
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the continuation of “Operation Protective Edge”, discussions about the rebuilding of Gaza resurface once more within a brief period since the collapse of the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, this time from UNICEF official Pernille Ironside. With Israel surpassing all estimates in...
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Urbicide in Palestine – spaces of oppression and resilience
Author: Nurhan Abujid Paperback: 274 pages Publisher: Routledge ISBN-10: 0745334261 Review by Ramona Wadi “The contemporary military urbanisation is about spatial engineering and reorganisation via complex surveillance and control and in many cases via the lethal devastation of cities.” Nurhan Abujidi’s defining introduction to “Urbicide in Palestine: spaces of oppression and resilience” (Routledge, 2014)...
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Palestinian memory, Protective Edge and the Nakba
Since the commencement of Operation Protective Edge, various Israeli leaders have regurgitated the rhetoric of blame, imposition and the appropriation of memory. Justifying settler-colonial violence is linked directly to the promulgation of a false narrative based upon partial historical facts embedded within the framework upholding the UN-sanctioned state. Victimisation,...