By Daoud Kuttab

The invitation by the Palestinian president to Arabs and Moslems to visit Jerusalem is long overdue. But it is better late than never. Jerusalem’s 300,000 Palestinians badly needed this invitation which comes at a time that their natural hinterland (the rest of the West Bank) has been cut of from them.

For years Arabs and Moslems have shied away from visiting Jerusalem and other Palestinian lands for a variety of reasons. Most have no opportunity to go even if they wanted to. With the exception of Egypt and Jordan (the latter only since 1994) no other Arab country has diplomatic relations with Israel. Non Arab states with substantial Moslem populations can come and some have in the past decades mostly through one off tourism junkets. I have seen Moslems, from Indonesia, Sirlanka, India, South Africa and Bangladesh among others crossing into Palestine through the King Hussein Bridge. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Palestinians took advantage of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated cities and the transitional period to capture their airwaves and provide local communities with radio and television programs.

At times, some of the young entrepreneurs involved in this were forced to buy used transmitters from the Israeli black market. Most were used by Israeli army units that had been replaced by newer models. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

In the summer of 1996, I was excited to hear the good news. The Palestinian Ministry of Information had agreed to a request to grant us a license for an educational television station to broadcast in Ramallah. With little funding and tremendous passion we began building up the station with trained staff, equipment and production capacity.

Having grown up in the U.S., I tried to run the new Palestinian station as a hybrid between PBS and C-Span. In April 1997 we launched the first season ever of Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street. It was a humble production with 20 15-minute episodes, but for us it was huge. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The invitation by the Palestinian president to Arabs and Muslims to visit Jerusalem is long overdue. But it is better late than never.

Jerusalem’s 300,000 Palestinians badly needed this visit, which comes at a time that their natural hinterland (the rest of the West Bank) has been cut off from them.

For years Arabs and Muslims have shied away from visiting Jerusalem and other Palestinian lands for a variety of reasons. Most have no opportunity to go even if they want to. With the exception of Egypt andJordan (the latter only since 1994) no other Arab country has diplomatic relations with Israel. Continue Reading »

by Daoud Kuttab PNN FEBR 23 2012

It might have been a small gesture, but it spoke volumes. After Khader Adnan, the Palestinian administrative detainee in his 66th day of hunger strike, agreed to end his strike he refused to eat until all fellow hunger striking Palestinians are informed about such decision.

Speaking on Voice of Palestine, Adnan Mussa, Khader’s father, said his son would not eat until he was assured that his decision to end the hunger strike was transmitted to the hundreds of fellow Palestinian prisoners who were on a solidarity hunger strike with him. Continue Reading »

Palestinian reconciliation took a major step forward recently following an agreement that included President Mahmoud Abbas taking on the additional position of prime minister. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

After months of hibernation, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict seems to be getting more attention of late. Despite the volatility of the situation in Syria and Egypt the most recent agreement reached in the Qatari capital received a lot of media attention. It also seems to have touched a number of political nerves, especially within the Hamas movement in Gaza.

While the agreement in Doha was not the first public display of reconciliation between leaders of the largest Palestinian factions, many felt that this time, the agreement was for real. Why? Continue Reading »

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National Public Radio
SHOW: All Things Considered 09:00 PM EST
February 8, 2012 Wednesday
737 words
Hamas, Palestinians Sign Unity Agreement
Daoud Kuttab
ROBERT SIEGEL: Events in Syria have also influenced the Palestinians. The external leadership of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has been based in the Syrian capital, Damascus. But with Syrian Islamists rebelling against the Assad regime, Hamas and its leader there, Khaled Meshal, are now looking for a new home. Meshal has traveled recently to Jordan and to Qatar, and he’s reached a political truce with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah. They’ve agreed to Abbas leading an interim government until elections this year.
Well, to sort out what all that may mean for the Palestinians and for the larger region, we turn now to Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, who’s in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Welcome to the program once again.
DAOUD KUTTAB: Thank you, Robert.
ROBERT SIEGEL: First, there have been truces between the big Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas before, and they’ve fallen apart. Is this one any different?
DAOUD KUTTAB: Yes, this one is different. They have been deadlocked for months about who will be the interim prime minister until there’s elections in May. And the Fatah movement wanted Salam Fayyad, and the Islamists didn’t want Salam Fayyad. So the idea that Mahmoud Abbas, who has announced that he will not run for any elections anymore, as the interim prime minister as well as the president seems to be a good and kind of compromise.
ROBERT SIEGEL: Now, Fatah’s truce with Hamas has led Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu to warn Mahmoud Abbas you can’t have peace both with Israel and with Hamas which refuses to accept Israel’s existence. Hamas leaders still oppose talks with Israel. Their charter remains very anti-Israel, even parts of it anti-Semitic. Do this smoke signal any change within Hamas?
DAOUD KUTTAB: Hamas has been softening its position for some time. They’ve indirectly accepted Israel on the ’67 Borders, and they’ve announced that that they are no longer going to try to liberate the West Bank and Gaza through violent means but through nonviolent means. So they have been easing off on the radical rhetoric. But in the interim period, there is no Hamas members who are going to be in the new government.
ROBERT SIEGEL: One reading of Mahmoud Abbas’ move here is that this might cost him the prospect of any progress toward a deal with Israel. But there’s no progress anyway, so why not proceed? Is that an accurate reading?
DAOUD KUTTAB: That’s absolutely true, and that’s an accurate reading. There is nothing going on in the prospect of the negotiations. Israel still refuses to suspend their settlement building. They have refused to declare clearly where they think the borders should be for the Palestinians State. And until the election cycle continues in Israel and the U.S. in this year, nobody expects major changes.
ROBERT SIEGEL: If, in fact, Hamas is not as close today to Syria as it was fairly recently, and not as close to Iran as it was until recently, does that mean that the campaign against Iran – the sanctions against Iran, the alliance of Sunni Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia along with the United States against Iran – that that’s having some effect on the Palestinian movement?
DAOUD KUTTAB: I think, certainly, the reconciliation with Fatah has improved. And the fact that Hamas is the one who nominated Mahmoud Abbas to be the head of the interim government are signs that Hamas is softening its position and aligning itself more with the Gulf countries rather than Iran.
ROBERT SIEGEL: Which gives some sense of what their reading of the near-term future might be in the region.
DAOUD KUTTAB: Yeah. I think Syria is no longer a reasonably safe headquarters for them. I mean, it’s a kind of a win and loss, because they are losing Syria as a capital, but they’re also winning friends in the Islamist movements in different countries, including possibly Syria but also Egypt and other countries. So it’s a bag of mixed blessings in the sense that they have probably more friends and leadership in the Arab world, but in return, they would have to kind of cut off their relationship with Iran to keep those friends happy.
ROBERT SIEGEL: Daoud Kuttab, thank you very much for talking with us once again.
DAOUD KUTTAB: You’re welcome.
ROBERT SIEGEL: Daoud Kuttab is director general of Pen Media, that’s a Palestinian media NGO. He’s based in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
February 9, 2012