By Daoud Kuttab

Palestinian journalist Salim Sweidan, owner of Nablus TV, was released Jan. 12 after having spent four days in jail. Sweidan, a member of the board of the Maan News Network, the leading independent satellite station and news website, was released on a bail of 1,000 Jordanian dinars ($1,400) after publishing an online apology.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Sweidan said that the reason for the arrest was that his TV station’s website republished a news story that had been written about the circumstances surrounding the arrest of a Hamas cell accused by Israel of killing two Israeli settlers in October 2015.

Members of the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces in Nablus had summoned Sweidan to their offices, where he was subsequently held. The name of one of the officers was listed in a controversial posting on the website that explained why the security force took the unusual step of arresting a well-known veteran journalist.

According to a testimony by his brother, Anees Sweidan, to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) on Jan. 11, Salim was accused of six charges, namely “the publication of articles harmful to Palestinian national unity, assault of Palestinian national unity, incitement as well as inciting sectarian conflicts, verbal abuse and contempt.” Continue Reading »

       

By Daoud Kuttab

Behavioural experts have been studying what makes people change the way they think and work. Change management has become a popular field people are trying to figure out how to operate and refine.

Some argue that societal change needs to begin at the bottom and rise to the top, while others insist that only a few elite persons can effect change and, therefore, it needs to take place at the top and work its way down.

In all cases experts agree that for change to occur it requires an enabling environment that supports and rewards, rather than discourages and fights change.
A crucial element for change is the human element.

Change, however, is not always easy to accept. Resistance to change is often listed as one of the biggest obstacles that cause delays and sometimes the abortion of ambitious and strategic plans that require change.
People at the bottom as well as leaders often voluntarily or involuntarily become change obstructionists.

Obstructionists are usually ready to stop change with boilerplate formulas. It is coming from abroad, it does not fit our cultural way, it is against our values: these are some of the ready statements that delay and sometimes stop change. Continue Reading »