Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Israeli business promotes colonialism as ‘coexistence’
Palestinian resistance is, at times, diluted by a certain resignation wrought by fear of excessive Israeli retaliation. This hindrance, which speaks volumes about the psychological trauma endured by Palestinians as a result of Israeli colonisation, has been acknowledged by Palestinians who, despite their best efforts at maintaining an organised...
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The paradigms of Palestinian survival
Deterring Palestinians from resistance has proven to be futile. However, it has not prevented Israel from attempting to control every expression of defiance, even if it means suffocating the space for legitimate demands to be voiced. In the early days of the Jerusalem Intifada, the return of the bodies...
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Spoken truths endorse colonial complicity
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is determined to surpass his previous endeavours in protecting Israel’s colonial presence in Palestine. Speaking during a visit to Israel and Ramallah, during which meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and PA President Mahmoud Abbas were scheduled, Ban managed to impart a precise...
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NATO endorses Israel’s security narrative
Israel’s permanent representation at NATO has not only delighted the colonial entity, which continues to garner prominence at an international level due to the corruption of international organisations. NATO has also deemed cooperation with Israel as essential, revealing the extent to which Israel’s security narrative has been endorsed. Last...
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The French farce reveals the lack of genuinely neutral interlocutors for the Palestinians
The fact that the same entities and people continue to support interminable compromised “negotiations” should be enough proof — if ever proof was needed — that the French initiative is a prescription for the further deterioration of the Palestinian cause. According to Ma’an news agency, the EU Foreign Affairs...
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Chile’s memories and Palestinian narratives can challenge UN complicity
It seems that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set upon a course that will even challenge the brutality of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. The infamous impunity constructed by Pinochet which he summarised explicitly when he said, “Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood” – a reference to...
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Israel’s false narratives allow it to perpetuate water theft, and the EU plays along
Israel’s theft of water from Palestinians has been the subject of much ire with regards to humanitarian concerns and collective punishment. It was reported recently that Israel deprived Palestinians in the occupied West Bank of water. As the reporting coincided with the start of the fasting month of Ramadan,...
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The UN’s new report is fragmenting and distorting narratives
Following last week’s announcement that WEOG had nominated Israel to chair the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) has released a report titled “Fragmented Lives” which discusses the main causes of vulnerability for Palestinians in...
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The UN promotes international law as well as those who treat it with contempt
The Western European and Others Group (WEOG) has nominated Israel to assume chairmanship of the United Nations General Assembly’s Sixth Committee. According to the UN, this is considered to be “the primary forum for the consideration of legal questions in the General Assembly.” If one had to refute evidence...
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Why is Europe so reluctant to challenge Israel’s destruction of EU-funded projects?
A new report issued this month by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) is called, “Squandered Aid: Israel’s repetitive destruction of EU-funded projects in Palestine”. The report imparts the obvious dissonance which characterises such violent cycles towards the end of its analysis. It is unfortunate that the tone...
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Abbas’s explicit calls for oblivion
The Palestinian Authority has surpassed itself with ludicrous statements revealing the extent to which it will subjugate itself to the occupation authorities. Speaking during a meeting with Israeli mayors after the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as defence minister was made public, President Mahmoud Abbas asserted that the PA judged...
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Defeating colonial permanence should be a priority
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is clearly showing that there are alternatives to the manipulative colonial framework that is being promoted by France, the international community and the Palestinian Authority. In a statement published on its website, the PFLP juxtaposed the prevailing strategy of promoting...
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‘Legitimate questions’ about Israel’s new coalition
Typically, the US has expressed reservations about the Israeli coalition government but has reserved judgment. Rather than flaunt knowledge and direct approval of Israel’s increasingly violent policies, the US has resorted to a brief interlude in which it assumes the role of a concerned spectator rather than an eager...
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Added dependency under the guise of economic dialogue
Last Sunday, meetings to renew economic dialogue between the US and the Palestinian Authority were held in Ramallah – a move that will be hailed as a progressive initiative by the PA in order to disguise the dependency that characterises such necessity. During the meeting, the possibility of enhancing...
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Collusion between international law and Israel’s colonial existence
According to a press release by independent human rights organisation Adalah, the United Nations Committee Against Torture issued an extremely detailed report regarding Israel’s human rights violations, leading to over 50 recommendations for Israel regarding its use of torture. Not only restricted to the conventional forms of torture, the...
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Dissecting the forthcoming French spectacle
France has remained at the helm of twisting rhetoric regarding the forthcoming conference, which is now also serving Israeli interests by furthering the terror narrative espoused by Daesh and appending it unscrupulously to Palestine. Playing his role in the diplomatic endeavour that is sure to harm Palestinian interests further,...
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Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy
Veering away from the disparaging rhetoric that characterises the West’s intentional misrepresentation of Hamas, Tristan Dunning’s informative treatise Hamas, jihad and popular legitimacy (Routledge 2016) employs a rigorous dissection of how resistance has shaped recognition of the movement in Palestine. He looks at this both as an alternative to...
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Israel can commit crimes with impunity; condemn them at your peril
Israel’s latest display of misplaced ire at the UN Security Council has provided a succinct illustration of how criticism of settler colonialism, even by Israeli NGOs, remains a cloistered subject. Following a presentation by Yesh Din, in which the NGO’s legal adviser Michael Sfard presented statistical information regarding Israeli...
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It will be business as usual for Israel despite the rhetoric of the Quartet’s upcoming report
A report to be issued by the moribund Middle East Quartet on 25 May is being touted as employing a harsher tone with regard to Israel’s colonial expansion. It has, as a result, ushered-in a period of renewed lobbying by Israel. The report’s publication was announced in February during...
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Horizon2020 endorses Israeli colonial violence and EU complicity
For all its glorification of human rights and dignity, the European Union has not bothered to even conceal its involvement in funding Israeli research for atrocities under the Horizon2020 framework. The trend is to persist in the manipulation of legal loopholes which provide the continuation of funding state-sanctioned terror...
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Despite contradictions, Germany proves its accountability to Israel
Seemingly contradictory reports have appeared in the media regarding diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany. Conveniently for Israel, the timing for such reports a couple of weeks prior to the Palestinian commemoration of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) provides space for the usual equation of selective historical remembrance as dictated...
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Israel’s penchant for bloodshed finds a willing partner
The US has continued to offer proof that no correlation is necessary between a massive outlay on military technology and security when it comes to Israel. All it requires as prerequisites are human rights violations and a commitment to colonial expansion in order to propagate a security narrative that...
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The illusion of freedom
The first moments following the release of Dima Al-Wawi, considered to have been the youngest Palestinian incarcerated by Israel, were disseminated for the whole world to observe, along with perfunctory reports that should have had the entire world seething with outrage. Al-Wawi had been accused of a stabbing attempt...
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Popular Protest in Palestine: the uncertain future of unarmed resistance
A comprehensive and detailed work, “Popular Protest in Palestine: the uncertain future of unarmed resistance” (Pluto Press 2015) provides a historical overview of Palestinian activism and popular resistance. It weaves the narrative up to the present and portrays the cycle which has contributed to the spasmodic visibility which, unfortunately,...