By Daoud Kuttab

After years of travel restrictions, Israel last month opened up its borders to many (not all, of course) Palestinians from the West Bank. In Nablus alone, 17,000 permits were issued out of 25,000 applications. Certain age groups were allowed in without a permit.

The occasion was the holy month of Ramadan, but there is no denial that a decision was taken somewhere in the Israeli military establishment to loosen up the big prison that millions of Palestinians find themselves in.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, Mitt Romney, gave himself the authority to declare a cultural war in West Jerusalem this week.

As part of his efforts to woo wealthy Jewish donors to contribute to his campaign, he declared that nations are better off because of culture and indirectly suggested that Israel be added to America’s exceptionalism theory. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The past two and a half decades witnessed the slow death of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO, established in June 1964 by the Arab League and then taken over internally by the various resistance movements, led by Fateh, is credited with the unification of the Palestinians in the diaspora. It is also seen as the main factor that reignited the Palestinian identity in pursuit of national liberation. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The belief in Palestine is that the office of the president is responsible for major national and international policies and initiatives, while the office of the prime minister is responsible for executing these policies.

For the most part, this has been the norm in Palestine’s temporary capital, Ramallah. The West Bank-Gaza split and attempts to reunite the two Palestinian enclaves have been solely the responsibility of President Mahmoud Abbas. Until now. Continue Reading »