Gaddafi, Haftar announce election bids amid political uncertainty in Libya
November 16th, 20210 TRIPOLI — The entry of two men accused of war crimes into Libya's presidential race has ramped up the perils of an election meant to help end years of chaos but which could instead set the fuse for a new conflict. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court for his role in crushing the 2011 revolution that...
Bill Gates should know better: How the Israeli occupation ravages the environment in Palestine
November 15th, 20210 Those who are not familiar with how Israel, particularly the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, is actively and irreversibly damaging the environment might reach the erroneous conclusion that Tel Aviv is at the forefront of the global fight against climate change. The reality is the exact opposite. In his speech at the U.N....
Palestinian ends 113-day hunger strike
November 12th, 20210 A Palestinian prisoner ended a 113-day hunger strike on Thursday after Israel agreed not to extend his detention without trial beyond February, Palestinian officials said. Miqdad al-Qawasmi's mother voiced concern for his life earlier this week after his condition deteriorated. The officials said he refused food during the protest, but...
Lebanon’s PM attempts a way out of Gulf embargo placed on crisis-ridden country
November 5th, 20210 Lebanon is facing its worst rift yet with oil-rich Gulf Arab states, spurred by comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi before his official appointment about the Saudi-led campaign that has created a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday he had agreed with...
U.S. blacklists Israeli hacking tool vendor NSO Group
November 3rd, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Commerce Department added Israel's NSO Group and Candiru to its trade blacklist on Wednesday, saying they sold spyware to foreign governments that used the equipment to target government officials, journalists and others. Positive Technologies of Russia and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE...
Israel, France to handle NSO spyware case “discreetly”, Israeli official says
November 1st, 20210 Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron that the alleged misuse of spyware developed by an Israeli company, including against Macron, would be handled "discreetly", an Israeli official said on Monday. Israel says it has been investigating whether cyber firm NSO Group's Pegasus software,...
Just how does Biden differ from Trump on Palestine?
October 31st, 20210 When Joe Biden was declared the winner in the U.S. elections last November, expectations in Ramallah were high. A Biden administration, compared to the brazenly pro-Israel Trump administration, would surely be much fairer to Palestinians, was the conventional wisdom at the time. Hence, unsurprisingly, Palestinian Authority President...
Despite opposition from U.S. and rights groups, Israel moves ahead with some 3,000 apartheid homes
October 29th, 20211 PALESTINE — Despite objections from the otherwise-aligned U.S. government, and condemnation from Palestine-rights groups, Israel moved forward on Wednesday with plans to build some 3,000 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The move does stand in defiance of the Biden administration's strongest criticism to date of...
Jerusalem’s mayor says he won’t shun U.S. consulate if it reopens
October 26th, 20210 JERUSALEM — Jerusalem's mayor dismissed media speculation on Tuesday that a U.S. consulate for Palestinians in the city would be denied municipal services if the Biden administration reopens it despite Israeli opposition. The rightist mayor, Moshe Lion, also said Washington's plan to reverse the Trump administration's subsuming of...
Colin Powell, not a hero
October 22nd, 20210 — Iqbal Jassat is an acclaimed writer, analyst and commentator and one of the founding members of Media Review Network. This article, edited for style, also appears in the Palestine Chronicle Will Colin Powell be remembered as America’s hero or as a war criminal? Since his death a few days ago, there appears to be a rush to...
The cultural genocide in Palestine: On Sally Rooney’s decision to Boycott Israel
October 20th, 20210 The pro-Israel crowd on social media was quick to pounce on award-winning Irish novelist Sally Rooney as soon as she declared that she had “chosen not to sell… translation rights of her best-selling novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You to an Israeli-based publishing house.” Expectedly, the accusations centered on the standard...
Deadly shooting rocks Beirut as tensions over blast probe erupt
October 14th, 20210 BEIRUT — At least six Shi'as were shot dead in Beirut on Thursday, in an attack on protesters who were heading for a demonstration called by Hezbollah to demand the removal of the judge investigating the explosion that ripped through the city's port last year. The Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally, the Shi'a Amal Movement, accused...
Despite official Israeli objection, U.S. pushes ahead with Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem
October 13th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. will push ahead with the reopening of its Palestinian diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, despite repeated objections from top Israeli officials over the development. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the reopening, which is opposed by Israel’s new cross-party power-sharing...
Cleric Sadr wins Iraq vote, former PM Maliki close behind
October 11th, 20210 Shi'a Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party was the biggest winner in an Iraqi election on Monday, increasing the number of seats he holds in parliament, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson for the Sadrist Movement. Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki looked set to have the next largest win among Shi'a...
Climate choices: Scenes from 2050
October 9th, 20210 A yellow-gray haze stains Midwestern skies. Fueled by years of drought and record-setting heat, smoke from the annual devastation of Western wildfires mixes with that from fires spreading across Wisconsin and Minnesota’s Northwoods. Tired of running on an indoor treadmill since May, a young man from Detroit joins his friends for a......
U.N. ends Yemen war crimes probe opposed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Russia
October 8th, 20210 GENEVA — Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states that sought to keep the mission going. Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the...
As Jordanians protested poverty, King Abdullah II bought luxury homes using shell companies
October 8th, 20210 Jordan’s monarchy was back in the headlines this week, with the news that King Abdullah II purchased luxury homes through an offshore scheme that worked to hide a large flow of wealth into tax havens. Last year, with the country hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan's government had promised to track every dinar that the......
Racial justice vs. the Israel lobby: When being pro-Palestine becomes the new normal
October 7th, 20210 There is an unmistakable shift in American politics regarding Palestine and Israel, a change that is inspired by the way in which many Americans, especially the youth, view the Palestinian struggle and the Israeli occupation. While this shift is yet to translate into tangibly diminishing Israel’s stronghold over the U.S. Congress, it...
Judge survives bid to remove him from Beirut blast investigation
October 4th, 20210 BEIRUT — The judge investigating Beirut's catastrophic port explosion survived attempts to have him removed from the inquiry when a court dismissed two complaints against him on Monday. The investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion, one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history, has made little headway amid a smear campaign...
The untold story of why Palestinians are divided
October 3rd, 20210 The political division in Palestinian society is deep-rooted and must not be reduced to convenient claims about the “Hamas-Fatah split”, elections, the Oslo accords and subsequent disagreements. The division is linked to events that preceded all of these, and not even the death or incapacitation of the octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas will...
Angry relatives of Beirut blast victims protest probe delays
September 29th, 20210 BEIRUT — Hundreds of relatives of victims of last year's Beirut port explosion, some chanting and some silent, took to the streets on Wednesday, angry that an investigation into the disaster had been delayed for the second time this year. Some carried miniature figures of people on death row with signs below reading "the end for......
Lebanon at risk of complete blackout by end of the month
September 23rd, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon's state electricity company said on Thursday it risked a total blackout across the country by the end of September as its fuel oil reserves dwindle. Lebanon, in the throes of one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern history, has been plagued by worsening fuel shortages for the past few months with most...
House passes Democrat-introduced bill for $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome
September 23rd, 20211 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome "missile defense system" on Thursday. The vote came days after some Democrats successfully managed to get it removed from a stopgap spending bill, but then was introduced as stand-alone bill by another Democrat. The......
Netanyahu suggests on Facebook that Biden fell asleep meeting new Israeli PM
September 20th, 20210 ISRAEL — Israel's former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested in a Facebook video posted on Sunday that President Biden had fallen asleep when meeting the new Israeli leader, Naftali Bennett, last month. A Reuters fact check previously debunked the idea that Biden dozed off, after social media users shared a video clip of...
Outrage, frustration from community after student Abdulmalek Alsanabani tortured and killed in Yemen
September 16th, 20210 DEARBORN — The tragic kidnapping, torture and murder in Yemen of Abdulmalek Alsanabani, a Yemeni student who resided in California, sparked outrage and protests in the U.S. and Yemen this week. Alsanabani was a 25-year-old living in Fresno, California and had decided to take an often dangerous journey across the south of Yemen to......
