Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
In a response to a totally nonviolent protest by Palestinian Christians and Muslims demanding their freedom of movement the Israeli army has effectively banned entry of Christian pilgrims and tourists from visiting the birth place of Christ.
During discussions in Washington between US officials and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an important revelation surfaced. Under US and international pressure to stop Jewish settlement activities in Arab East Jerusalem Netanyahu argued that peace talks might be delayed another year. “The Palestinians are now raising a new demand,” the Israeli leader claimed. “If this…
dear Mr. Bauer, I noticed in your reply to Mr. Wright in the NY times that you make two false pieces of information. For the record I wish to set the record straight. 1. You state in reference to Ramat Shlomo that ” Palestinians have never had any intention of taking control of until the…
This is not how the peace process was supposed to work. Architects of negotiations have forever talked about leaving difficult issues until last, and in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, nothing fits the bill of “difficult” as much as Jerusalem. Israeli behavior towards the US has its own truism. You don’t pick a fight in the beginning…
RAMALLAH – Palestinians and Israelis have different and possibly contradictory expectations from the indirect negotiations that the United States has pushed both sides into beginning. Israel was among the first parties to welcome the Arab League’s reluctant decision to back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s call for Arabs to give their blessing to the talks. It…
The embarrassment the US vice president faced this week when, during his visit to Israel, the creation of a new settlement was announced should not have surprised him. The list of Israeli slaps in the face of US officials is endless. The situation has become such that many believe calls for a freeze of settlement…
The people of Gaza appear to have been the recent victims of the arrogance (or what some believe to be the bias) of the NY Times. The stubbornness of Bill Keller, the executive editor of the NY Times, in refusing to relocate his Jerusalem reporter has caused a considerable drop in the paper’s coverage of…
The most worrisome aspect of the decision by the Israeli government to recognize various West Bank-based sites as part of Israel’s heritage is the conflation of the state of Israel and the Jewish religion. Many Arab and international media outlets mistakenly referred to the Israeli Cabinet’s decision as a declaration to consider the Ibrahimi Mosque…
By Daoud Kuttab Palestinians and many others around the world are trying to figure out whether the current US-backed push to restart Mideast talks will lead to serious negotiations or will it be just another act that leads nowhere. The US peace envoy George Mitchell has been making the rounds trying to restart Palestinian-Israeli talks….
By Daoud Kuttab Corruption has always been the Achilles heel of the Palestinian leadership. At the height of PLO’s popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between revolution and money was the movement’s major weakness. Well-respected Palestinian artist Kamal Boulatta best reflected this dichotomy in his painting mixing the words thawra (revolution) and tharwa…