December 2nd, 20180DEARBORN – The Palestinian struggle carries countless stories of suffering and injustice. Such is the case with Mohammed Abu Hussein, a young Palestinian boy who lost his right leg in June during the Great March of Return along the Gaza border against the Israeli occupation.
Mohammed is currently in Dearborn, where he will receive a...
November 16th, 20180GAZA — Ahmed Abu Saif struggles to maintain a straight face as he looks at the amorphous pile of rubble of what used to be a five-story building he owned.
The structure is one of the several civilian sites that have been flattened over the past 24 hours in Gaza as Israeli jets pounded the besieged and densely-populated coastal...
October 22nd, 20180The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, has made her post a “more glamorous” position than her predecessors — as President Trump described Haley’s 2-year term at the U.N., following her resignation announcement.
We may never know the nature of Haley’s purported “glamour” at the U.N., but we certainly know that,...
September 28th, 20180UNITED NATIONS — On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United States to reverse its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and cuts in aid to the Palestinians, saying these had undermined the two-state solution to the conflict.
“With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all...
September 24th, 20180Like 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...
September 10th, 20180The 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...
September 1st, 20180Hanan 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...
August 26th, 20180It 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,...
August 26th, 20180On 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...
August 13th, 20180The 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...
July 13th, 20180GAZA — How can an artist capture the anger of a people when the most powerful politician in the world tries to discard their rights?
Mahmoud al-Moqayad may have succeeded in doing just that. After Donald Trump delivered a grave insult to Palestinians by announcing that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,...
July 1st, 20180AMMAN/WASHINGTON — Four Arab states have backed the U.S. plan for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, regardless of the position of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli newspaper reports.
The Israel Hayom daily interviewed officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan who...
June 23rd, 20180UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly condemned Israel last Wednesday for excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians and asked U.N. chief Antonio Guterres to recommend an “international protection mechanism” for occupied Palestinian territory.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution with 120 votes in favor,...
June 19th, 20180As the Arab and Muslim worlds were ending a month of blessed fasting, observing the most holy month in Islam and getting ready to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, there isn’t much to celebrate there— a region engulfed in bloodshed and complicated conflicts among brothers and neighbors.
In Gaza, a real massacre engulfing the besieged Strip...
June 15th, 20181What is taking place in Palestine is not a "conflict." We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word "conflict" is misleading. It equates between oppressed Palestinians and Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions.
It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United...
June 14th, 20180GAZA ― Israel’s killing of at least 125 Palestinians during protests at the Gaza border is casting a shadow in the enclave on its celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Economic hardship arising from years of blockades, conflict and internal political rivalries has also...
June 12th, 20180
GAZA - A Palestinian hit in the face by a tear-gas canister fired by an Israeli soldier, was on life support in a Gaza hospital on Friday.
Israel says it uses tear gas as a non-lethal measure against Gaza border protests.
But the projectile, launched by a soldier on the Israeli side of the frontier, hit Haitham Abu Sabla in...
June 6th, 20181On February 20, I embarked on a global book tour that has, thus far, taken me to eight nations. The main theme of all my talks in various cultural, academic and media platforms was the pressing need to refocus the discussion on Palestine on the struggle, aspirations and history of the Palestinian people.
But, interacting with hundreds...
May 25th, 20180Sixty Palestinians were killed in Gaza on May 15, simply for protesting and demanding their Right of Return as guaranteed by international law.
Fifty more were killed since March 30, the start of the “Great March of Return”, which marks Land Day.
Nearly 10,000 have been wounded and maimed in between these two...
May 18th, 20180By Mohamed Mohamed
“It was like a dream.”
That is how my maternal grandfather, Abu Ahmad, described his memories of our village near Safad in the Galilee in the northern part of Palestine, after I had curiously asked him about it as a kid. He told me it was cradled within a lush, beautiful landscape, where cherry and...
May 18th, 20180The actions of the Trump administration concerning the Palestinian people have become more shameful by the day.
In December, President Trump announced his intention to fulfill his ill-guided campaign promise to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, gifting Israel a de facto recognition of the Holy City as its capital. Not only did...
May 18th, 20180When 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...
May 15th, 20180ANKARA - Turkey and Israel expelled each other’s senior diplomats on Tuesday in a dispute over the killing by Israeli occupation forces of 60 unarmed Palestinians on Monday during protests on the Gaza border.
“The Israeli ambassador was told that our envoy to Israel was called back for consultations, and was informed that it would...
May 15th, 20180PARIS - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday described the situation in the Middle East as “explosive” and criticized the United States for unilateral acts in the region and Israel for what he said was an unjustified level of violence.
Thousands of Gaza residents turned out on Tuesday for the funerals of...
May 15th, 20180CANNES, France - Hollywood actor Benicio del Toro joined Palestinians at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday in a demonstration against the Israeli army’s killing of Palestinians on the Gaza border.
Sixty people were killed on Monday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, by Israeli gunfire or tear gas, in what Palestinian...
May 14th, 20180GAZA — Israeli troops shot dead dozens of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on Monday as the United States opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, a move that has fueled Palestinian anger and drawn foreign criticism for undermining peace efforts.
It was the bloodiest single day for Palestinians since the Gaza conflict in...
May 4th, 20180Three 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...
April 13th, 20180GAZA – An Israeli air strike on Thursday killed a Hamas gunman and wounded another and troops later shot dead a man close to the border, Palestinian medical officials said, as tensions across the Gaza Strip border simmered.
Israel said the air strike was launched in response to a bomb attack on a military vehicle on the Gaza border...
