Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Motasem A Dalloul
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Are the US and the West really concerned about freedoms of Sudanese protesters?
On 19 December, the Sudanese government decided to triple the price of bread, prompting a wave of anti-government protests which swiftly escalated into demonstrations calling an end to the three-decade rule of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. The demonstrations were chaotic, as the demonstrators torched several buildings of Al-Bashir’s ruling...
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Something really bad is being prepared for the Palestinians in Gaza
A senior member of the Hamas Political Bureau said on Monday that “the worst is still to come” as far as the Gaza Strip is concerned. Mousa Abu Marzook’s remarks followed the announcement by the Palestinian Authority that it will withdraw its security officers from the Rafah Border Crossing,...
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What would a Palestinian state look like?
Israel and its Western and Arab allies have for decades been claiming that, one day, the Palestinians will have a state of their own. The premise is based on Israel withdrawing from the land it has occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, which would be the capital of the...
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Why pursue the two-state solution when it is clearly a waste of time?
Jordan’s King Abdullah II met the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Tuesday and reiterated the importance of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution. At the same time, the Jordanian monarch slammed Israel’s ongoing settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as “an obstacle...
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Forget Danny Danon’s spin at the UN, Israel has neither the legal nor the moral high ground
In the wake of the UN General Assembly rejection of the US-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement and some of the other Palestinian factions, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN resorted to the usual lies and propaganda about Hamas and resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. “There...
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The significance of the US-Israel failure at the UN General Assembly
A US-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and other Palestinian factions has failed to get the required majority for adoption by the UN General Assembly. This was despite the US “warning” countries which planned to vote against the proposal. The US and Israel exerted a lot of...
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Is the Israeli military operation along the border with Lebanon for real?
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced suddenly on Tuesday morning the start of a massive military operation along the border with Lebanon. The reason, said the IDF, is to search for “offensive” tunnels dug by Hezbollah which, according to a report on Israeli Army Radio, are “penetrating Israeli soil...
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Palestinian resistance imposes new rules of engagement with Israel
A ceasefire brokered by four international mediators took effect in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon, ending two days of violence which started when Israel assassinated a senior Hamas commander during an incursion by Special Forces, an act to which the Palestinians retaliated. The Israelis killed seven Palestinians and...
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Will Qatar’s money ease Gaza’s crises?
Israeli, Fatah and Palestinian Authority officials have exchanged verbal blows over Qatar’s efforts to ease the crises in the Gaza Strip by paying $15m for the salaries of civil servants. Some Israeli officials claim that this is a boost for the “terrorist” organisation, Hamas, which is the de facto...
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Has the Great Return March achieved its goals?
It has been 32 weeks since Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launched mass protests calling for the lifting of the Israeli siege and for their right to return to homes from which they were forced out in 1948 to make way for the creation of the state of Israel....
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Is Palestine-Israel security coordination coming to an end?
The Central Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is chaired by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas, announced on 30 October its decision to end all of its commitments towards Israel, including all kinds of security coordination and economic ties. Commenting on this decision,...
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Israel evades demands to end the Gaza protests and reach a truce
Despite Palestinian attempts to calm the Great March of Return, Israeli occupation snipers stationed along the eastern fence of the besieged Gaza Strip escalated their crackdown on the protesters this weekend. During the 31st Friday of the Great March, Israel killed six Palestinians and wounded more than 230 others,...
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Resistance rockets are a lifeline for Israeli officials
The Palestinian resistance groups launched two rockets against Israel on Tuesday night to let the occupation authorities know that their firepower is more accurate and effective. The intention was to provide Israeli officials with an excuse to accept a peaceful solution for the Gaza protests, because the military way...
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Israel’s judicial system whitewashes the crimes of its soldiers
An Israeli military court in Jaffa extended the detention of two Israeli army corporals on Friday over allegations that they stole money from Palestinian travellers and sexually abused women during body searches at the notorious military checkpoint which is the only route for Palestinians to get from Ramallah to...
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After 25 years of Oslo, is there any hope for peace?
The 1993 Oslo Accords were only ever a “Declaration of Principles”; a timetable for the peace process which was supposed to be the starting point for reaching a “comprehensive peace agreement” by 1999. The aim was a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority running an interim government in the...
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We condemn US measures against the Palestinians, but must condemn those by Abbas too
The US State Department announced on Monday that it is closing the office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Washington, claiming that it did not help to promote a peaceful solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict. “We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective...
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The countdown begins for the death of UNRWA
After months of speculation about the contradictory remarks delivered by American officials and spokespersons about the White House’s intention to end the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA)’s mandate, America has announced that it is withholding all future payments to the organisation. “The administration has carefully...
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Israeli army committed war crimes on Black Friday
Chief Israeli Military Advocate General Major General Sharon Afek has decided to close the case on the Israeli aggressive attacks carried out against a number of Palestinian neighbourhoods in the east of Rafah, the southernmost city of the blockaded Gaza Strip on Friday 1 August 2014. Afek decided to...
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Israel awaits outcome of talks before hitting Hamas leadership
To deter the ongoing Great March of Return protests that started on 30 March, Israel’s occupation army and Shin Bet intelligence agency prepared to assassinate senior Hamas leaders, Haaretz reported on Sunday. This was, apparently, preferable to a wide-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip, revealed an Israeli defence source....
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Israel’s siege of Gaza is anything but legal
On Sunday 29 July, Israeli commandos boarded a boat taking part in a Freedom Flotilla which was taking humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. The boat — Al-Awda (The Return) — was captured by Israel while sailing in international waters. If anyone else had conducted the raid, it...
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Turkish-Israeli relations remain fragile
An Israeli military court charged Turkish citizen Ebru Ozkan, 27, on Sunday, claiming that she had smuggled hundreds of US dollars and expensive perfumes to Hamas in the occupied Palestinian territories, local media reported. The lawyer, friends and relatives of the woman, who was arrested at Tel Aviv’s Ben...
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When peaceful protests and reporting are a crime
As a Palestinian whose father was displaced from Al-Ramla I consider taking part in the Great March of Return a duty. As a journalist, regardless of the dangers, reporting on Israeli crimes is my job....
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A refugee's journey from 1948 to the 2018 Great March of Return
Mustafa Abul-Qumsan was 10 years old when he woke up one morning to the sound of bombs destroying several facilities around his occupied village of Deir Isneed in the north of the Gaza Strip. After the explosions, he heard someone knocking at his door asking him and his family...
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Are Israeli snipers who shoot Palestinian protesters in Gaza really protecting their border?
Israeli snipers have been shooting Palestinian protesters within the Gaza Strip, claiming that, in doing so, they are protecting Israel’s borders and sovereignty. Is their claim genuine? Since 30 March, hundreds of Israeli soldiers, including a reported 100 snipers stationed along the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, have...