By Daoud Kuttab

In its attempt to force itself on the Palestinians of Jerusalem, the Israeli government and various Israeli radical groups have an arsenal of actions, activities and slogans all with the same purpose.

Unable to remove Palestinians from Jerusalem or wrestle total control over the holy city, various attempts are made to make the city more Jewish and to try to negate the Palestinian presence in the city. The Israeli prime minister’s office and a US tax exempt charity have been exposed as being financial supporters of the controversial right wing march in the Palestinian communities of East Jerusalem.
Christian and Muslim worshipers and leaders are regularly made to feel inferior in their city.

While some of the more flagrant, provocative, actions are usually blamed on the more radical right-wing Jewish elements, a quick review of the actions and words of Israeli government and municipal officials shows little difference from the radicals.
The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem walks around the Old City brandishing a weapon and wants to unilaterally remove some 200,000 Palestinians from 27 villages that are part of the city’s municipal boundaries. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The bio of Waed Qannam reads like the perfect resume for a potential president of Palestine.

Qannam’s resume may have helped him reach the pinnacle of a presidential contest, but it was not the political one. A made-for-television contest that began in 2013, called “al-Raies” (Arabic for “president”), on Maan TV allows Palestinians to compete in front of a crowd and a jury made up of veteran politicians. President Qannam was “chosen” from a crowded field that included 1,180 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip after 40 grueling episodes. The decision as to who would become the “president” was taken by a jury made up of senior Palestinian political figures and local businessmen, along with votes from the public. He was voted president on the season finale that aired June 1. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The cycle of violence in Palestine and Israel has become so predictable that almost anyone following the news can easily forecast what will happen next. For Palestinians, Israelis and the international community, the predictability of the cycle of violence points to lifting the Israeli occupation as the most effective way to end the violence. The June 8 attack on a market in Tel Aviv that left four Israelis dead is no exception to this dynamic.

This opinion is not restricted to Palestinians. In an interview with journalist Ilana Dayan on Israel Army Radio (Galei Tzaha) on June 10, Ron Huldai, the popular mayor of Tel Aviv, pointed the blame. Huldai, a former air force pilot and ambitious Labor Party leader, said that there are more than 200 territorial disputes worldwide, adding, “We might be the only country in the world where another nation is under occupation without civil rights. You can’t hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they’ll reach the conclusion everything is alright.” Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

In its attempt to force itself on the Palestinians of Jerusalem, the Israeli government and various Israeli radical groups have an arsenal of actions, activities and slogans all with the same purpose.

Unable to remove Palestinians from Jerusalem or wrestle total control over the holy city, various attempts are made to make the city more Jewish and to try to negate the Palestinian presence in the city.

Christian and Muslim worshipers and leaders are regularly made to feel inferior in their city.

While some of the more flagrant, provocative, actions are usually blamed on the more radical right-wing Jewish elements, a quick review of the actions and words of Israeli government and municipal officials shows little difference from the radicals.

The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem walks around the Old City brandishing a weapon and wants to unilaterally remove some 200,000 Palestinians from 27 villages that are part of the city’s municipal boundaries.

The Israeli prime minister, ignoring all other civilisations that have and continue to be part of the city, attempts to rewrite history based on the Zionist narrative that negates all others.

This is also evident in the strange map of the Old City of Jerusalem put out by the Israeli tourism ministry that shows 57 Jewish sites seven Christian locations and a single Muslim site Al Haram Al Sharif/Al Aqsa, Israel renamed Temple Mount. Continue Reading »

         

By Daoud Kuttab

More than two years have elapsed since the last direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

When the Israelis refused to release Palestinian prisoners from a previously agreed to list, the talks, in the words of US Secretary of State John Kerry, went up in the air.

The continuation of the stalemate, coupled with the latest right-wing addition to an Israeli government already controlled by settlers, is pushing some Palestinians and Jordanians to rethink the confederation concept.

In many ways, a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation would make sense. It would be a mechanism that could end the occupation and its continued colonial settlement policy.

Confederation with Jordan would present the Israeli public with a security solution that can be guaranteed by a neighbouring country with which Israel has a peace deal and whose leader is a person Israelis trust.

Some statements, activities and decisions further fuelled this discussion. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

If the French diplomatic machine had a hard time scheduling a conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry, it will soon find out that its effort to arrange an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be that much harder. In a three-day spat, a behind-the-scenes effort by Kerry and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to move theIsraeli government toward peace backfired.

The plan included Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog joining the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give it more muscle against right-wing settler ideologues. To make it more acceptable, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, one of the more popular Arab figures in Israel today, gave a pro-peace speech and said he was willing to help. Netanyahu and Herzog were supposed to head to Cairo to meet with Sisi.

However, instead of adding 25 members to his one-seat parliamentary majority, the prime minister offered the Defense Ministry to settler Avigdor Lieberman, whose right-wing Jewish Home party only won six seats in last year’s elections. This turn of events produced many reactions in Israel, including in the army, but the biggest potential loser in this cabinet reshuffle will be the French plan to hold an international conference. Continue Reading »

        

By Daoud Kuttab

A Palestinian supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement debated online a European official in Israel who insisted that the EU is opposed to boycotts of Israel and rejects BDS.

At the end of the twitter debate, the Palestinian posed the following simple question: “Could you tell us what forms of resistance to Israeli occupation Palestinians can use that are approved by European values?”

The EU, which is active in the boycott of Russia over the latter’s military actions in the Ukraine, and also boycotted Iran, cannot easily explain its opposition to the non-violent BDS, which is becoming the most potent anti-occupation threat.

The British, the EU like the Americans and other Western countries whose policies have led us to where we are today cannot simply shrug off their responsibilities and, worse, preach to Palestinians and their supporters what they need to do to end this scourge that has transcended the 20th and 21st centuries.

Western ideas for a solution through multilateral engagement are fine except that without any cost for failure of these engagements there is no guarantee that the debacle of the last 20 years of useless and counterproductive talks will not continue for a further 20 years.

The talks since the 1993 Oslo agreements have failed because Israel succeeded in relieving itself of the worst part of the occupation, namely patrolling populated Palestinian areas.

This last part was subcontracted to US-trained Palestinian security. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

One of the leading sources of anger among Palestinians under occupation is restriction on their movement. Palestinians living in the West Bank cannot travel to Gaza, and Palestinians in Gaza are normally not allowed to leave Gaza. Travel from the occupied territories to neighboring Jordan and Egypt also involves various kinds of restrictions. After the intervention of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt opened the Rafah crossing on May 9 for two days, but only a very small percentage of the 30,000 Palestinians wanting to exit Gaza were allowed to do so. A reported 1,221 Palestinians who had been stuck outside Gaza were allowed to return.

Continue Reading »

         

By Daoud Kuttab

The celebration of Press Freedom Day by Jordan’s UNESCO office by means of a debate on this year’s theme of access to information revealed the gap that exists between Jordan’s public position and the reality.

For press freedom to exist and flourish, a holistic approach is needed. Such approach must also be part of a larger human rights approach.

Producing a human rights strategy and declaring that the sky is the limit for press freedom will not do if there is no serious political will in this direction.

Examples of the gap are plenty.

According to the annual report of the Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists, Jordan imprisoned 10 journalists in 2015 for what they wrote and for expressing their views.

These arrests did not go unnoticed by the US State Department, which made freedom of the press and detaining journalists its number one issue in its most recently produced human rights report about Jordan.

The gap between words and reality was evident in the statements made at the debate on access to information organised by UNESCO on Sunday. Continue Reading »

   

By Daoud Kuttab

RAMALLAH – Since the beginning of the year, the French government has been building support for an international conference to restart the Israel-Palestine peace process. France deserves applause for its brave effort to revive a process that has been going nowhere for the better part of a decade. But success will require more than courage. Any international bid to resolve the problem of Palestine depends on six factors.

The first is seriousness. When France first made its plans known in January, many dismissed the idea as little more than a diplomatic stunt. Palestinian officials were at first suspicious of the initiative. They feared that it would merely give the Israelis another photo opportunity: After the handshakes, ordinary Palestinians would continue to suffer under the occupation.

The second key ingredient is multilateralism. Israel, the stronger party in the conflict, prefers bilateral talks, which put it in a better position to dictate terms. The weaker side in such talks does, of course, have a sort of power: the power to say no. But the exercise of that power usually comes at a high price. Continue Reading »