By Daoud Kuttab

Apologists for Israel’s continued occupation and control over Palestinian lives have long contended Israel is more interested in peace than the Palestinians. One exaggerated argument, repeatedly put forward to justify military rule, is that Palestinians teach their children to hate Jews.

Politicians in the U.S., especially during election campaigns, find that bashing Palestinians has no downside and yields a vote (and donation) jackpot. Continue Reading »

following appeared in the Jordan Times today

The Many titles of a man

by Daoud Kuttab

Unlike his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, the current Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is not known for hoarding power or being authoritarian. Abbas will most likely end his revolutionary/professional career in retirement and not in a direct struggle with his enemies.

But in spite of his power-sharing style of management, Abbas finds himself this week with more titles than most countries have in ministries. He is the chairman of the PLO’s executive committee, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the commander of the Palestinian armed forces and security services, the prime minister of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the head of the Fateh movement. Continue Reading »

following appeared this morning in the Jordan Times

by Daoud Kuttab | Feb 02,2012

Apologists for Israel’s continued occupation and control over Palestinian lives have long contended that Israel is more interested in peace than the Palestinians. One exaggerated argument, repeatedly put forward to justify military rule, is that Palestinians teach their children to hate Jews.

Politicians in the US, especially during election campaigns, find that bashing Palestinians has no downside and, moreover, yields a vote (and donation) jackpot.

Palestinian textbooks are scrutinised for any hostile reference to Israel — or praise of Palestinian nationalism — and every frame broadcast on Palestinian television stations is analysed by experts to see if it contains any incitement to violence. Continue Reading »

The following appeared in Jordan Times

More illegal acts

by Daoud Kuttab | Jan 26,2012 | 22:34

Twenty-seven Palestinian parliamentarians who won in democratically organised elections are held behind Israeli bars without charge or trial. Their sin is that they dared believe in an electoral process that was hailed by democratic countries as the proper channel of political expression.

Palestinian cartoonists are describing Israeli jails as the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A few months ago, a group of six Palestinian residents of Ramallah decided to take a bus ride to Jerusalem. This was no ordinary ride. The Israeli government-funded bus they boarded links West Bank Jewish settlements to Jerusalem and Israel. The trip on this settler-only bus that travels on Palestinian roads did not last long. At the entrance of Jerusalem near the Palestinian village of Hizma, the Palestinian riders were forcibly taken off the bus and detained. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Palestinian Israeli meetings that took place in Amman Tuesday and are to be repeated next week took many by surprise. After all, the Palestinian leadership has been resisting for months responding to tremendous pressures to go back to negotiations without conditions. Furthermore it has become conventional wisdom that as the U.S. and possibly Israel move into an election year there is nothing of substance that can be accomplished in talks that have not before. Continue Reading »

by Daoud Kuttab

Three years ago the Israeli army initiated a major military offensive against the people of the Gaza strip with the aim of stopping the shelling from Gaza and the release of one of their soldiers that was held in the strip. Over 1,400 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed, thousands were injured, and public, private and internationally owned properties were damaged as a result of the attack that came from land, sea and air. Continue Reading »

Daoud Kuttab

This may be a journalistic hunch, but I have a feeling that we are about to witness an explosion in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this time again over Jerusalem.

In 2000, a Palestinian-Israeli human rights film festival took place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nazareth. The concluding event, during which the name of the winning film was to be announced, was scheduled for Ramallah. It never happened, as protesters against Israeli-Palestinian normalization marched towards the location of the event and forced its cancellation. Continue Reading »

 

 By Daoud Kuttab

JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children’s favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person’s full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab.

Our family name came from the profession two brothers had a long time ago. The first Kuttabs were scribes who sat outside the court and wrote up petitions for people who had a claim with the authorities. Kuttab is Arabic for writers or scribes. Continue Reading »