Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Yvonne Ridley
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Chilcot should be Exhibit A in Tony Blair’s trial
I can barely contain the anger I feel towards Tony Blair over the war in Iraq. It’s a rage which has simmered for more than a decade and a rage from which there is no apparent closure. So if I, as a mere observer, am feeling like this today,...
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Can Turkey deliver for the Gaza Strip?
As we move into the final days of Ramadan, millions of Muslims around the world are giving money to charity. As usual, Gaza is up there amongst the neediest of causes. This has been the situation for the past decade because of the crippling siege imposed by Israel and Egypt,...
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Has Myanmar’s iconic leader taken genocide lessons from Israel?
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most famous women in the world. She is a holder of the Nobel Peace Prize and hailed as “the Mandela of Asia” because of her human rights record. However, when we look at her continual lack of concern about the...
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New York’s governor is not against boycotts in principle, just those against Israel
The move by the controversial governor of New York to blacklist organisations that support the global anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has been met with anger from pro-Palestine activists in the state who are calling for global action. Around 200 campaigners from across New York, spearheaded by Jewish...
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Palestinians mourn boxing legend and their greatest supporter
Boxing legend Mohammed Ali is dead. Known universally as “The Greatest”, his loss will be marked by millions of people of faith and no faith around the world, but Palestinians will be among the chief mourners because in their eyes he was the greatest fighter against Zionism. To show his...
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US Jewry forces Israel's hand over two-state solution
Palestinians are constantly accused of being the real obstacle to peace in the Middle East but a new initiative by a group of America’s most influential Jews may just prove otherwise this week. For decades, various Western politicians have talked about a two-state solution. It has been on just about...
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The price of principles and Palestine
Ramadan is approaching and the annual argument over the selling and buying of dates grown on lands stolen from Palestinians is well under way. Boycotting Israeli dates is probably more of a symbolic than a commercially successful tactic but it does highlight and underline the injustices meted out to...
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Israel embraces more hate
One of the biggest Zionist propaganda claims is that the Palestinian people hate life and use their children as human shields. Having experienced Palestine first hand from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip I can tell you that this is a wicked lie. The precious love of a...
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Why Israel views peaceful activism as a threat
World leaders like Barak Obama, Angela Merkel and David Cameron have all invoked the memory of the greatest peace activist of all – Mohandas K Gandhi – in recent times, as they lecture us about the power of peaceful activism. Gandhi fought courageously for India’s independence from the mighty...
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Israel is bad but the Arab leadership is worse
Palestinian suffering and humiliation at the hands of the Israeli occupation occurs on a daily basis and has done ever since the Nakba (“Catastrophe”) of 1948, when the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine began in the run-up to the creation of the state of Israel. The human rights abuses...
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Regev tweet ignites campus fury
The troubled director of one of the most prestigious university colleges in the world has become mired in controversy since it emerged that she invited the new Israeli ambassador in London for tea. Controversial Mark Regev had been in the job less than two days when he sent out...
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Revisionist Gove airbrushes Israel’s apartheid crimes
Nelson Mandela is probably the world’s best known resistance fighter. The late South African president knew the value of the global boycott movement which helped in his people’s struggle to dismantle the country’s brutal and racist apartheid regime. His legacy is so powerful today that few world leaders heap...
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Palestinian Christians are not alone in their suffering this Easter
Millions of Christians around the world have come together to celebrate the religious festival of Easter. As a former Christian myself, I remember it very well as being a period of quiet reflection combined with family celebrations. Sadly, Easter 2016 will probably be remembered for the bloody attack of a...
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Don't allow the far-right to hijack the Paris terror trial
It would be fair to say that there was a collective sigh of relief across Europe when terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels on Friday after a four-month international search. The end of Europe’s biggest manhunt came...
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The tragedy of Ahmed and Palestine's feral children
Ahmed is an angry young man; a very angry young man. Unlike most 12 year-olds who are on the cusp of their teens with wild ambitions and high aspirations, he abandoned such grand expectations a long time ago. Life has dealt him a series of cruel blows leaving him with...
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Are we on the verge of a Palestinian exodus to Europe?
A Palestinian exodus from the Middle East to Europe is being predicted as tensions between refugees in Lebanon reach breaking point. Nearly two million Syrians have fled their war torn country for neighbouring Lebanon with many moving in to the already overcrowded UN camps built for Palestinian refugees. The Palestinians,...
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France puts a spoke in Israel’s wheel
The world is growing weary of Israel’s ongoing settlement activity which continues unabated. It is a bitter irony that while the settler-colonial construction in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem is illegal and unnecessary, thousands of Palestinian families in the war-torn Gaza Strip are still living under canvas almost...
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With democracy a distant memory, Western support for Sisi is backing for a loser
Five years ago next month ordinary Egyptians looked on in amazement as British Prime Minister David Cameron swept through Tahrir Square with a huge security detail in tow to congratulate the people on their revolution. Just 10 days earlier they had overthrown one-time friend of the West — and...
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Déjà vu in Fallujah’s ‘Frankenstein’ maternity wards
Once famous for its heroic resistance to the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, Fallujah is now better known primarily as the epicentre of children born with horrendous deformities. The defects are blamed on the liberal use of depleted uranium (DU), white phosphorous and other deadly munitions by the US...
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Downing Street dumbs down as flimsy Muslim Brotherhood report is published
Was it a bizarre tribute to the dictators in the Middle East who appear to be able to influence decision-making at the heart of the British Government or was it just a desperate measure of throwing out some Whitehall rubbish in the hope that no one would notice on...
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War-mongering politicians are running out of ammunition and time
It is incredible that an internationally-renowned movement like Stop the War, which brings together the broadest coalition of peace activists drawn from all sections of multi-cultural Britain, is now coming under fire from a gaggle of disgruntled career politicians. The latter seem to have forgotten that at the height...
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The brutal reality of being a Palestinian
Signing a petition demanding justice for the Palestinian people as a 13-year-old schoolgirl marked the start of what has become my lifetime commitment to their cause. From reading about the atrocities of Sabra and Shatila through to witnessing the aftermath of the Jenin Massacre and climbing on board a...
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Will Nicola Sturgeon silence windbag Trump?
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been asked to use her influence to ban US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from visiting Scotland. While other US candidates seeking nomination in the Republican and Democrat parties have been left reeling and helpless by the outpourings of racism, bigotry and xenophobia unleashed...