Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel expands the technology of occupation around the world
Antony Loewenstein’s book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world (Verso Books, 2023), is a timely read at any given moment, but the unfolding ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the complicit response of the international community make this book a necessity, particularly as...
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‘Post-war Gaza’ will not see the end of Palestinian anti-colonial struggle
A recent report by Axios revealed that Israel is open to discussing “post-war Gaza” with US officials, noting that US Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security adviser Phil Gordon and Middle East Adviser Ilan Goldenberg met with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials this week. The question of whether the...
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Macron’s rhetorical questions are as deadly as Israel’s bombing of Gaza
Decisions made by political leaders are clear for all to see except by the politicians themselves, French President Emanuel Macron would have us believe. At the beginning of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza in October, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany issued a statement expressing...
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The will of the international community has always matched the will of Israel
Yesterday, the UN marked the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, as has been its hypocritical tradition since 1978. What the UN should do instead is dissect its own culpability for the General Assembly adopting the Palestine Partition Plan on 29 November 1947, and declare explicitly that...
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There is no sharing in settler-colonialism, Josep Borrell, only land theft
When the so-called humanitarian pause is over, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “We are returning full power to carry out our aims: destroy Hamas, ensure that Gaza won’t return to what it was, and of course to free all of our hostages.” No one ever doubted that, but...
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A humanitarian pause and the surge in human rights violations
After much useless public debate over Israel’s alleged right to defend itself, the international community regained its footing as the humanitarian paradigm, once more, comes within reach. A four day pause after an agreement reached by Israel and Hamas which would also see the release of 50 Israeli female...
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International diplomacy facilitates Israel’s colonial expansion
The death toll in Gaza as a result of Israel’s latest bombardment now tallies over 13,300, out of which 5,600 are children. Israel cannot even construct a hypothesis that its aggression is the elimination of Hamas and, yet, the fabricated security narrative is all the international community is clinging...
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The humanitarian paradigm and the normalisation of forced transfer
The despicable diplomacy which is allowing Israel to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Gaza is spoken of mainly in terms of the humanitarian pause, the new catchphrase that allows the international community to pretend it is invested in Palestinians’ humanitarian well-being. The US keeps voting against resolutions of temporary...
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Nothing about Israel’s existence and actions point towards legitimacy
Israel’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is advising ministers to pay heed to the terminology they use when commenting on the colonial massacre in Gaza, to protect Israel’s so-called international legitimacy. “Every word has meaning when it comes to diplomacy. If you don’t know, don’t speak,” Netanyahu...
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The G7 give Israel the green light for genocide
Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and the international response to the unfolding colonial violence demonstrates clearly how Palestinians have always been regarded simply as collateral damage, both in humanitarian and political terms. The UN is calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, while consensus for a humanitarian pause was reached at...
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Bernie Sanders and the Zionist narrative
Whenever politicians appear to distance themselves temporarily from the mainstream narrative on Israel, one would do well to be prudent before deciding where their loyalties truly lie, and let the alignment with Zionism reveal itself in due course. “I don’t know how you can have a permanent ceasefire with an...
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Humanitarian relief for Palestinians is a diplomatic game at the UN
While Israel has certainly damaged its security narrative with its grotesque display of colonial violence in Gaza, the international community prefers to walk its own duplicitous road. Recently, 120 countries voted in favour of a UN General Assembly Resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. Unsurprisingly, the US...
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What lies behind Israel’s latest advocacy for targeted assassinations?
Three days after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel announced the targeted assassination of two senior Hamas officials, Jawad Abu Shmala and Zakaria Abu Muammar, who were responsible for finance and internal relations respectively. Yesterday, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid announced his support for eliminating the Hamas leadership through targeted assassinations,...
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They fell like stars from the sky and other stories
Palestinian Bedouin women’s solitary voices are brought to life in this collection of translated short stories by Sheikha Helawy. Silencing Palestinian narratives is one major impediment which Helawy tackles skilfully, navigating the spaces where silence is forced upon the indigenous population and upon Bedouin women’s expression, in particular. In the...
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Israelis should look in the mirror when accusing people of being ‘terror apologists’
Israel expects absolute control over the UN narrative. The international organisation’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is facing calls to resign and accusations of supporting terror from Israeli diplomats and politicians. His crime? He merely pointed out that Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood “did not happen in a vacuum.” Keeping in mind...
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UNRWA’s neutrality leaves a gap for Israel’s impunity to thrive in its narrative
While humanity may have been the purpose of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ (UNRWA) pinned status on X.com yesterday, it, instead, illustrated its principles of purported neutrality and how it translates into impunity for Israel. “We are lost for words. We pay tribute to our...
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The terror narratives protecting Israel’s colonial violence
“As long as the United States stands and we will stand forever, we’ll not ever let you be alone,” US President Joe Biden told Israelis in an address from Tel Aviv, before proceeding to repeat the same propaganda which NATO and mainstream media utilised to justify foreign intervention in...
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Humanitarian aid and the politics of annihilation
The United Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) briefing on the ramifications of Israel’s atrocious bombing of Gaza reveals one prominent detail. “The number of killed is increasing. There are not enough body-bags for the dead in Gaza.” Coupled with the news that Palestinians have been forced...
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Palestinians have faced ‘unprecedented levels’ of Zionist terrorism for decades
The White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby told the Times of Israel this week that, “Our focus right now is making sure that they have the tools they need to defend themselves against this truly historic, unprecedented level of violence against their people.” The statement conveniently...
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The UN has long legitimised Israel’s dehumanisation of Palestinians
Collective punishment is a war crime under international humanitarian law, as per Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. When Palestinians are punished in this way, the international community is cautious enough to avoid the subject and focus instead on Israel’s “security” narrative and purported “right to defend itself”....
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I Sing From the Window of Exile
Defiance, nostalgia and politics emanate from Dareen Tatour’s bilingual poetry collection, I Sing From the Window of Exile (Drunk Muse Press, 2022). Tatour is well known for the commotion her poem “Resist, My People, Resist Them” caused in 2015, when she was arrested and later imprisoned for incitement and...
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Sweeping statements about concessions expose how much the PA is held in contempt
The only outcomes that the Palestinians can expect from any political negotiations are yet more settler-colonial expansion and talk about concessions. As the Abraham Accords continue to take centre stage, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing them as a historic breakthrough despite the various stages leading to the...
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Advisory opinions and wasting time for Palestinians
In December last year, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s military occupation, only for the court to respond with statements that the UN itself has been regurgitating for decades,...
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The UN’s acquiescence to erasing Palestine
Erasing Palestine is what the Zionist colonial project is about. At the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu illustrated the aim by showing a map of Greater Israel – completely eliminating the existence of Gaza and the occupied West Bank – the only remaining fragments...