My home is Beit Daras: Our lingering Nakba
May 18th, 20180 When Google Earth was initially released in 2001, I immediately rushed to locate a village that no longer exists on a map, which now delineates a whole different reality. Although I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp and then moved to and lived in the United States, finding a village that was erased from the map decades...
Eclipsing factionalism: The missing story from the Gaza protests
May 11th, 20180 The Gaza border protests must be understood in the context of the Israeli occupation, the siege and the long-delayed “Right of Return” for Palestinian refugees. However, they should also be appreciated in a parallel context: Palestine’s own factionalism and infighting. Factionalism in Palestinian society is a deep-rooted ailment...
While Israel and Iran claim no desire for armed conflict, Trump might stumble into war against Tehran
May 11th, 20180 Israel has launched its biggest attack ever on Iranian forces in Syria. This is a serious development, but reports of the entire Middle East being on the verge of all out war fail to fully appreciate the motives and intentions of the various players. Looked at from the Israeli point of view, it is an excellent moment to act against...
The dangers of debt
May 11th, 20180 Politicians and commentators these days like to point to an array of threats to our constitutional system. There’s one, though, that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should: Our national debt. We may not yet be in imminent danger of fiscal collapse, but we’re moving into uncharted waters. We are among the most indebted...
As Trump and Netanyahu join forces to torpedo Iran Deal, here’s a ‘typically ignored’ fact: Israel has nuclear weapons
May 4th, 20181 By Jake Johnson "How can this hypocrisy continue, with Israel having hundreds of nuclear weapons, no inspections and no adherence to any nuclear treaty calling out Iran on nuclear weapons?" - Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit the U.S. media circuit on Tuesday to...
How bullying Iran could backfire for Trump
May 4th, 20180 By Seyed Hossein Mousavian Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of lying "big time" about its nuclear program. In a theatrical announcement Monday, the Israeli prime minister presented files and CDs that he claimed show Tehran hid secret nuclear plans after signing the multinational 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action...
Gazan Gandhis: Gaza bleeds alone as ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ go mute
May 4th, 20180 Three more Palestinians were killed and 611 wounded last Friday, when tens of thousands of Gazans continued their largely non-violent protests at the Gaza-Israel border. Yet as the casualty count keeps climbing — nearly 45 dead and more than 5,500 wounded — the deafening silence also continues. Tellingly, many of those who long...
We’re all in this together
May 1st, 20180 Our republic is under stress. So much so, in fact, that if you’re not worried about its future, you probably haven’t been paying attention. What makes me say this? Our public discourse has become uncivil and shrill. Corruption and unethical actions by prominent politicians headline the daily news. Too many politicians make their...
Comparative geopolitical analysis: Yemen and the U.S.
April 30th, 20180 By Dr. Rais Attamimi and Dr. Ali Alghail Recently, some comparative analysis has been in the mainstream media about the way in which, to take one example, American citizens led by the teenagers protested the dangerous availability of assault weapons on the one hand, and citizens of the Middle East, Yemen in particular, when,...
Seeing is humanizing: 22 years after the first Qana carnage
April 30th, 20180 The wars America fights and funds often happen in far-away places. To make killing less easy, we need to learn to dwell on the visual evidence that follows war, to humanize and individualize “collateral damage.” Until Wednesday, I had never seen pictures of the kids in Qana. Those from the first massacre. Qana was attacked twice,...
English language learning in the Arab context: Practice makes perfect
April 13th, 20180 By Dr. Rais Attamimi There is a common perception that exists among most parents and students, as well as some teachers, that there is an automatic preference for a given learner who is studying a second language to be accorded the chance to visit, and live within, human communities that speak that language and live that culture. ...
Want to help the world? Resolve conflicts
April 13th, 20180 By Lee H. Hamilton In a world riven by tension, there's one skill that stands above all others: The ability to resolve conflict. It is the paramount challenge of our time. There are so many divisions that fracture our communities, states and nations, that the ability to create common ground — to bring people together, rather than...
The bizarre coverage of U.S. mainstream media on Gaza — How biased is the news?
April 13th, 20181 By Farah Harb The Arab American News While the U.S. media is focused on the coverage of President Trump’s “blurry” tweets bashing Syria and other fellow politicians along with the news about Khloe Kardashian’s cheating boyfriend, major events in Gaza, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon have gone almost...
Rim Banna and the cultural war that Palestinians must win
April 6th, 20180 Music unites Palestinians when politicians fail. In fact, while for years the collective calls for "Palestinian unity" has gone unheeded, Palestinian music has continued to bring Palestinians closer. Rim Banna passed away at the age of 51. Her death on March 24, after a decade-long battle with cancer, brought grief to...
After the Gaza killings, it’s time to crack down on Israel
April 6th, 20180 By Diana Buttu Israel's killing of 18 Palestinian protesters in Gaza last Friday was entirely predictable. It was also entirely avoidable. The victims were taking part in the annual Land Day march commemorating the 1976 killing of six Palestinians who were protesting Israel's confiscation of thousands of acres of their......
America is no melting pot; it is a mosaic
March 30th, 20180 By Sundus Mahdi Al-Ameen America was established as a land of hope and promise. In the turn of the 20th century, immigrants flocked from countries all over Europe, ready to join the great melting pot. They faced hardships, but quickly managed to immerse themselves into an ideology they called the American Dream. Decades...
Expanding the ‘our’ in the march for our lives
March 30th, 20180 By Mary Turfah On March 24, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets of Washington D.C., New York, Detroit and elsewhere to protest gun violence—or at least part of it. The Parkland school shooting victims — around whose misfortune these protests arose— have demonstrated their readiness to use their......
The last ‘peace process’ warrior: Abbas hanging by a thread
March 30th, 20180 The "deal of the century" is a farce. We suspected that, of course, but, upon his return from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in more detail why the long-anticipated plan of the administration of President Trump has no basis in reality. Netanyahu told his cabinet that there are "no concrete details" to...
The indispensable craft of the politician
March 30th, 20180 For the most part, we Americans value expertise. We want our physicians to possess knowledge and experience. We want our lawyers to know the law inside out. We want our clergymen, our engineers, our farmers to bring the kind of proficiency and skill to their work that comes only with familiarity and practice. So here's a...
Who wants to kill Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah?
March 23rd, 20180 On March 13, while on the way to the besieged Gaza Strip, the convoy of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was targeted by two 33-pounds bombs. Hamdallah was visiting Gaza, through the Israeli border checkpoint, Erez, to open a large sewage treatment plant that— if allowed to operate regularly— will make life...
Bush’s war destabilized the Middle East, any Trump war would destabilize the entire world
March 16th, 20180 By Melvin A. Goodman As we approach the fifteenth anniversary of the unwarranted invasion of Iraq, which we are still paying for in so many ways, it is important to remember the misuse of intelligence that provided a false justification for war. It is particularly important to do so at this time because President Donald Trump has......
Will Israeli policies change if Netanyahu leaves office?
March 16th, 20180 If scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exits his country’s political scene today, who is likely to replace him? And what does this mean as far as Israel's occupation of Palestine is concerned? Netanyahu, who is currently being charged with multiple cases of corruption, misuse of government funds and public...
Local public health effort aims to de-stigmatize sexual health
March 16th, 20180 By Maliha Ahmed DEARBORN — There is a need for culturally-competent and accurate information on sexual health and healthy relationships in the Arab and Muslim communities. The preventative nature of this education can have long-lasting impact on individuals, their health-seeking practices and overall population health. However, if......
We must be prudent about Dearborn’s police CVE program
March 16th, 20180 On Monday evening, I sat next to two women who are social workers in Dearborn schools and mothers to college students. We were at a community workshop held by the Dearborn Police Department, titled “Defending Against Hate Crimes and Domestic Terror Acts, and Law Enforcement and Mental Health Intervention.” Part of a Department of...
Ahed’s generation: Why the youth in Palestine must break free from dual oppression
March 9th, 20180 As global voices continue to demand the freedom of a 17-year-old teenage Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, Israeli authorities have arrested nine additional members of her family. Those who were detained on February 26 include Ahed's 15-year-old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi. Israeli troops had shot Mohammed in the head last December,......
