70 years of Nakba: Why can’t Palestinians walk home?

First published by the Middle East Eye on 18/5/2018 All who are interested in peace in historic Palestine must remember that we did not choose our occupiers; they chose Palestine, knowing it was not an empty land, and we paid with our lives and rights I would not be writing these words today if Israel …

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The PNC meeting was ‘much ado about nothing’

First published by the Middle East Monitor on 7/5/2018   Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (2nd L) makes a speech during the 23rd session of the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah, West Bank on 30 April 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency] After a 22-year lull, the highest Palestinian legislative authority of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the …

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UNRWA, the US Embassy move and the Israeli occupation

First published by the Middle East Monitor on 24/4/2018 Gazan's gather outside the UN offices in Gaza to protest US cuts to UNRWA's funding, on January 28, 2018 [Mohammad Asad / Middle East Monitor] This will be remembered as the year when the United States of America broke with the international consensus by moving its …

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Palestine- Israel two-state solution is off the rails

First published by the Arab Weekly on 15/4/2018 Whatever the real motives, the outcome would be an entrenchment of Israel’s presence in the West Bank. Another brick in the wall. A 2016 file picture shows Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara during an inauguration ceremony of Hahemek rail line. (AP) Early in …

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Reconciliation or permanent division for Palestinians?

First published by the Arab Weekly on 1/4/2018 The takeaway message on reconciliation is that it has been kicked into the long grass. At an impasse. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) attends a meeting with the Revolutionary Council of the ruling Fatah party in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on March 1. (AFP) The …

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The Great March of Return: An opportunity for Palestinians to return to Najd or is it Sedrot?

First published by the Middle East Monitor on 30/3/2018 There is nothing like a trip to Beirut and a visit to Palestinian refugee camps to remind visitors of the nub of the Palestinian catastrophe, the Nakba which refugees continue to endure to this day. They were thrown out of their homeland simply because another people wanted to …

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Israel, Occidente y la hipocresía

Publicado por primera vez por Monitor de Oriente el 21/3/2018 La actual crisis entre Reino Unido y Rusia nos presenta un ejemplo más de la flagrante hipocresía de Occidente a la hora de lidiar con Israel y, prácticamente, la de todos los demás países. ¿Por qué mencionar a Israel en el caso del intento de …

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Israel, the West and shameless hypocrisy

First published by the Middle East Monitor on 20/3/2018 The current crisis between Britain and Russia offers yet another example of the shameless hypocrisy of the West when dealing with Israel and almost any other country. Why bring Israel into the attempted murder of two people on the streets of Britain in which Russia, not …

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Israel’s ‘humiliation queue’ for East Jerusalem Palestinians

First published by the Middle East Eye on 20/3/2018 In recent months, the task of obtaining an appointment with the Population and Immigration Authority has become an ordeal, in Israel’s latest attempt at the 'soft expulsion' of Palestinians The mere mention of the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi …

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Israel’s encroachment on Hebron is devastating to Palestinians

First published by the Arab Weekly on 11/3/2018 Apart from the economic effects of the occupation of Hebron, the settlers make the lives of Palestinians miserable and often violently attack them. Worsening toll. Palestinian men walk past closed shops in the West Bank city of Hebron, last December. (AFP) It has been 24 years since …

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