Jan
02
2012
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 »
Dec
21
2011
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 »
Dec
15
2011
 
 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 »
Dec
01
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
Leaders have a habit of creating expectations for their people; these are higher in the case of groups that suffer from injustice.
Not wanting to set precise time limits, leaders sometimes say elections will take place in the winter of the coming year, in the first half of the following year, and similar such vague dates. Continue Reading »
Dec
01
2011
 
 By Daoud Kuttab
 RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
Few in Washington may realize that the issue of U.S. funding for Palestine is the talk of the town in Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. And the talk is not pleasant.
 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been telling aides that he plans to reject some $150 million in federal money earmarked for Palestinian security.
Abbas’s opposition is principled. The funds are part of an $800 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development that Congress appropriated in June 2009. Shortly before the funds were disbursed this summer, however, the larger grant was held up by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. A Republican from Florida, Ros-Lehtinen, now chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, placed an informational hold on this budgetary line item in August. It is her prerogative to do so as a member of Congress. But rather than delay the funds to investigate a concern, the hold was meant as punishment — a warning to the Palestinian Authority not to seek recognition as an independent state at the United Nations General Assembly meeting the following month. Continue Reading »
Nov
24
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
 “Ziara azima†(fabulous visit). This was the description Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave to the unexpected visit King Abdullah made to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
The King’s visit on Monday was the first to Palestine in a decade. He didn’t visit or meet any Israeli official.
It is not that the King and Abbas do not see each other. Almost every time that the PLO leader leaves Ramallah to travel abroad he makes a stop to visit his “brotherâ€, King Abdullah. However, what makes this particular visit important is its public nature. Continue Reading »
Nov
17
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said this week that he was quite happy to step down from his position in order to remove any obstacle in the way of Palestinian reconciliation.
It is not the first time he made such a statement, but this time it is politically important, and timely.
Fayyad’s statement comes as PLO’s efforts at the UN Security Council failed to produce any positive results and talks of reconciliation have once again heated up. Continue Reading »
Nov
10
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
If the UN bid for Palestinian statehood has shown anything, it has shown the Palestinians, again, who their friends are.
It was clear, despite US President Barack Obama’s earlier rhetoric, that US would not move in any direction that would upset the Israelis. But it was not only Washington and the British (Tony Blair and David Cameron); it was also the French who are nowhere close to being the true friends of Palestine. Continue Reading »
Nov
08
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
If the UN bid for Palestinian statehood has shown anything, it has reminded Palestinians of who their real friends are. It was clear, despite Obama’s earlier rhetoric that US would not move any direction that would upset the Israelis. But it was not only Washington and their British poodles (Tony Blair in the quartet and Cameron in Downing Street), even the French are not as close to being the true friends of Palestine as they would like to be seen. Sure Sarkozy wants to keep French business ties with the Arab world, so he looks for photo opportunities with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. But when it comes to the true test of French-Palestinian friendship, the French aren’t fulfilling their part. Early information from the Security Council debates have indicated that the French will abstain despite voting in favor at the UNESCO vote, at which the US has no veto.
While the UN bid exposed the hypocrisy of the west, it marked the end of two important phases. Going to the UN marked the total failure of the negotiating process that began two decades earlier in Madrid and was followed by the Oslo Accords. The failure at the Security Council exposes the impotence of the international community.
Mahmoud Abbas has asked his top advisors to come up with a post-UN strategy. To the disappointment of some, the new strategy will not contain the option of dissolving the Palestinian National Authority. The idea has been debated a lot but has never gotten much traction. Repeated as late as a few weeks ago by senior PLO official Saeb Erekat, the idea calls for dissolving the PA and throwing the keys to the Israelis. Proponents of the idea feel it will change the paradigm by forcing the Israelis to pay (literally and figuratively) for continuing the occupation. While the theory sounds good, such an idea will have disastrous effects on Palestinians. It will reverse accomplishment institutional state building gains made in the past two decades. Ramallah officials are agreed on at least this part. Continue Reading »
Oct
24
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
For most observers, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is one of raw politics. Most people familiar with the conflict take one side or another, maybe even becoming fanatic in their defense of their side.
Usually those who support the Palestinian cause do so because of a personal connection, because of a visit to Palestinian territories or because they understand the Palestinian cause and the injustice the Palestinians have suffered for decades. Continue Reading »