Preventing Palestine: A must read history of failed peace-making
October 1st, 20180 Seth Anziska’s Preventing Palestine: A Political History From Camp David to Oslo is a deeply insightful and profoundly disturbing book that traces the tortuous path of Middle East peace-making during the past four decades. It was quite painful to read. Having been a close observer and sometimes participant in many of the...
What it means to live in polarized times, divided country
September 29th, 20180 We live in a divided country. And I don’t just mean politically. Our economy is creating winners and losers, with no clear way up the ladder for millions of Americans. The last few decades have produced great inequality of wealth and with it, unequal access to the levers of power. We’re split along regional lines. We’re divided...
YallaPunk: A response to racism
September 24th, 20180 By Marrim Akashi PHILADELPHIA — Rana Fayez’s inaugural YallaPunk festival hit Philadelphia this past month and it has been revolutionary, to say the least. Self-described as “A direct response to negative depictions of populations of Middle Eastern and North African descent in mainstream media”, this is not another effort...
Why Israel demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as representation of greater genocide
September 24th, 20180 Like vultures, Israeli soldiers descended on Khan Al-Ahmar, on Sept. 14, recreating a menacing scene with which the residents of this small Palestinian village, located East of Jerusalem, are all-too familiar. The strategic location of Khan Al-Ahmar makes the story behind the imminent Israeli demolition of the peaceful village unique...
The right to boycott is as American as it gets
September 22nd, 20180 Palestine, Israel and the right to boycott (BDS) have made their way to the front and center of Michigan’s gubernatorial race. In the past few weeks, Democratic candidate Gretchen Whitmer has publicly expressed support for the right to boycott Israel, after which her Republican opponent, Bill Schuette, vehemently attacked her for it,...
Stop abusing government power to quash Palestinian activism on campus
September 22nd, 20180 The re-opening of a seven-year-old Department of Education (DOE) complaint against Rutgers University, alleging anti-Semitism, perpetuates a false stereotype that Israel represents all Jews in America. The 2011 event hosted by Palestinian rights groups, which include Jewish students, featured speeches by Nakba and Holocaust...
The veiled danger of the ‘dead’ Oslo Accords
September 17th, 20180 Yossi Beilin is back. This unrepentant Israeli “peacemaker” is like the mythical phoenix, constantly resurrecting from its own ashes. In a recent article in Al-Monitor, Beilin wrote in support of the idea of a confederation between Israel and Palestine. A confederation "could prevent the need to evacuate settlers and allow those...
Here’s why I believe in America
September 16th, 20180 It’s so easy these days to despair about the future of our country. It feels like half the people I run into just want to pull the covers over their heads and ignore the news. There’s dysfunction at the highest levels of government. Recent reports — the new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed — reveal that top...
At 34, we continue our mission and reaffirm our commitments
September 15th, 20181 On September 7, 1984, 34 years ago, The Arab American News was established with a mission to tell Arab Americans' and the Arab world's untold stories, but as it progressed and immersed in the field of journalism, it developed into something much more than that. In the last three decades The Arab American News has become a place to go...
What lies beneath: The U.S.-Israeli plot to ‘save’ Gaza
September 10th, 20180 The Israeli government wants to change the rules of the game entirely. With unconditional support from the Trump administration, Tel Aviv sees a golden opportunity to redefine what has, for decades, constituted the legal and political foundation for the so-called "Palestinian-Israeli conflict." While President Trump’s foreign policy...
Anatomy of a fake check scam
September 9th, 20180 Fake checks drive many types of scams — like those involving phony prize wins, fake jobs, mystery shoppers, online classified ad sales and others. In a fake check scam, a person you don’t know asks you to deposit a check — sometimes for several thousand dollars and usually for more than what you are owed — and wire some of the...
Defunding UNRWA highlights Trump’s anti-Palestine agenda
September 7th, 20180 The Trump administration has cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Created after the 1948 war which displaced 700,000 Palestinians, UNRWA works in collaboration with local governments to provide direct relief and resources aiding economic reintegration. The agency provides food...
When illness is a ‘death sentence’: The victimization of Gaza women
September 1st, 20180 Hanan al-Khoudari, a Gaza resident, resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her 3-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. The boy is suffering from an “aggressive soft tissue sarcoma.” Israeli authorities then justified their decision based on...
What are political parties good for? Plenty, actually
September 1st, 20180 If you take a dim view of our political parties, you’re in sterling company. So did George Washington. In his famous farewell address, he warned us against “the baneful effects of the spirit of party.” A political party, he wrote, “agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of...
Hold the plaudits, John McCain’s 2008 campaign paved the way for Donald Trump
August 31st, 20180 What if John McCain hadn’t run for president in 2008? Donald Trump might not be sitting in the White House today. At first glance, that might sound odd. The six-term Republican senator, who passed away Saturday, has been hailed as an outspoken opponent of the president, while Trump himself despised McCain and famously claimed the......
Israel’s total control over Palestinian lives
August 26th, 20180 It is almost comical that recently Israel finally decided to release more than 10 tons of mail that it has prevented from reaching Palestinians in the West Bank, much of which was sent eight years ago. Not eight weeks or months, but years. In the U.S., many people become irritated when their Amazon packages arrive late on the third day,...
Gaza without cancer medicine as Haley blames Arabs for Washington’s sins
August 26th, 20180 On Sunday August 12, news from Gaza was distressing: The Ministry of Health announced that it would no longer be able to treat cancer patients in the Israel-besieged Strip. "Colon and lung cancer, as well as lymphoma patients, cannot be provided with the necessary therapy now," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Silmiya, director of Abdulaziz......
Mission accomplished: Why solidarity boats to Gaza succeed despite failing to break the siege
August 18th, 20180 When Mike Treen, the national director of the "Unite Union" in New Zealand arrived at the airport in the capital, Auckland, on August 1, a group of people were anxiously waiting for him at the terminal with Palestinian flags and flowers. They hugged him, chanted for Palestinian freedom and performed the customary native Haka...
Another historic win and counting!
August 17th, 20180 This week, Arab and Muslim Americans scored another historic victory in Minnesota where Ilhan Omar won comfortably a Congressional primary election. Omar, America’s first Somali American legislator, won the Minnesota Democratic primary for Congress on Tuesday. The seat she competed for in the Fifth District is currently held by U.S....
Mahmoud Abbas: Stop exploiting Ahed Tamimi for personal gain
August 13th, 20180 The father of 11-year-old Abdul Rahman Nofal contacted me, asking for help. His son was shot in the leg during Gaza's "Great March of Return" protests. The Strip's dilapidated health care system could not save the little boy's leg, as it was later amputated. His father, Yamen, himself a young man from the Buraij Refugee Camp in...
Watch out for card skimming at the gas pump
August 13th, 20180 With the summer travel season in high gear, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning drivers about skimming scams at the pump. Skimmers are illegal card readers attached to payment terminals. These card readers grab data off a credit or debit card’s magnetic stripe without your knowledge. Criminals sell the stolen data or use......
A historic election for Arab and Muslim Americans
August 10th, 20180 Michigan voters set a new record of involvement this historic primary election thanks in large part to the candidacy of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Progressive Movement led by Senator Bernie Sanders, and in a twisted way thanks to President Trump and his racist rants. Energy could be felt everywhere in this election. Rashida Tlaib’s...
A more perfect union
August 5th, 20181 You know these words, but how often do you stop to think about them? “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” They......
Common enemy: Why Israel is embracing fascism in Europe
August 5th, 20181 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on July 19, where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban’s visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with...
Israel’s false, Apartheid “democracy”
August 3rd, 20181 By Mohamed Mohamed Since its inception, Israel has been a discriminatory state, posing as a (false) democracy. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a fact and there is plenty of evidence to back it up. On Thursday, July 19, the Israeli Knesset passed the “Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People” bill into......
