The Belgian government’s decision on Nov. 25 to label products made in illegal Israeli Jewish settlements is welcome, although it will ultimately prove ineffectual.
Belgium has historically shown solidarity with Palestine if compared to other European countries, for example, Britain, Germany and France. From the cancellation of...
November 24th, 20210At a recent New York event, the president of the Foreign Press Association, Ian Williams, declared, before an approving audience, that it is time “to reclaim the narrative on Palestine.”
This phrase — “reclaiming the narrative” — is relatively new to the Palestinian discourse. Years ago, the concept, let alone its...
November 15th, 20210Those 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....
November 12th, 20210A 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...
October 31st, 20210When 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...
October 29th, 20211PALESTINE — 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...
October 26th, 20210JERUSALEM — 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...
October 20th, 20210The 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...
October 13th, 20210WASHINGTON, 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...
October 7th, 20210There 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...
October 3rd, 20210The 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...
September 23rd, 20211WASHINGTON, 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...
September 19th, 20210Twenty-five years before Israel was established on the ruins of historic Palestine, a Russian Jewish Zionist leader, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, argued that a Jewish state in Palestine could only survive if it exists “behind an iron wall” of defense.
Jabotinsky was speaking figuratively. However, future Zionist leaders, who embraced...
September 12th, 20210A large Israeli army campaign is taking social media by storm. The unstated aim of what is known as the “#Untie_Our_Hands” initiative is the desire to kill, with no accountability, more Palestinian protesters at the Gaza fence. The campaign was motivated by the killing of an Israeli sniper, Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was reportedly...
August 27th, 20210The killing of four young Palestinians by Israeli occupation soldiers in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, on Aug. 16, is a consequential event, the repercussions of which are sure to be felt in the coming weeks and months.
The four Palestinians — Saleh Mohammed Ammar, 19, Raed Ziad Abu Seif, 21, Nour Jarrar, 19 and...
August 25th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Overshadowed by events in Afghanistan, the first White House meeting between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was postponed until Friday. The Israeli leader is expected to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran, with few prospects their talks will lead to renewed movement on peace talks...
August 20th, 20210A unique but critical conversation on Israel and Palestine is taking place outside the traditional discourse of Israeli colonialism and the Palestinian quest for liberation. It is an awkward and difficult — but overdue — discussion concerning American Jews’ relation to Israel and their commitment to its Zionist ideology.
For...
August 12th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Zionist lobby AIPAC recently took out a paid advertisement on Facebook displaying a darkened image of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with text reading “For Ilhan Omar, there is no difference between America and the Taliban, between Israel and Hamas, between democracies and terrorism.”
The...
July 21st, 20210The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released a mid-year report documenting the state of anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2021.
The national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group says that since the start of the year, it has received hundreds of complaints from chapters across the country, and more than 500 at its...
July 20th, 20210After years of efforts by anti-occupation activists, the popular American ice cream company Ben & Jerry's has halted sales of its products in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Activists in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and other pro-Palestine and anti-Israeli apartheid activists praised the decision,...
July 15th, 20210When the Israeli Knesset (parliament) failed to renew what is commonly referred to as the Family Reunification Law, news reports and analyses misrepresented the story altogether. The even split of 59 MKs voting in favor of the law and 59 against it gave the erroneous impression that Israeli lawmakers are equally divided over the right of...
July 8th, 20210“The Palestinian Authority’s days are numbered.” This assertion has been oft repeated recently, especially after the torture to death on June 24 of a popular Palestinian activist, Nizar Banat, 42, at the hands of PA security goons in Hebron (Al-Khalil).
The killing — or “assassination” as some Palestinian rights groups...
July 2nd, 20210CONNECTICUT — The Yale College Council (YCC) voted to endorse a statement condemning “the injustice, genocide and ethnic cleansing occurring in Palestine” on Sunday, June 27.
The statement was introduced in May by Yalies 4 Palestine, a student-led campaign to raise Palestinian voices and end the culture of silence around...
June 30th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Institute for Palestine Studies has launched a new online database documenting political and military events surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine since 1982.
The Palestine Chronology will allow researchers, readers, journalists, students, scholars and activists to easily access day-by-day summaries...
June 20th, 20211On May 25, famous American actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted an apology for suggesting that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“I have reflected and wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide,’” Ruffalo wrote, adding, “It’s not accurate, it’s...
June 19th, 20213TAYLOR — Following the “Free Palestine” protests in Dearborn last month, one Taylor City Council candidate took to social media to share his views.
The protests were in response to the Israeli attacks on Palestine that killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children, and injured 1,900.
Sam Ditzhazy, a resident of Taylor since...
June 18th, 20210Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as much American as he is Israeli. While other Israeli leaders have made their strong relationship with Washington a cornerstone in their politics, Netanyahu’s political style was essentially American from the start.
Netanyahu spent many of his formative years in the U.S. He lived in...
June 18th, 20210YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A 75-year-old Palestinian American from Ohio has been imprisoned by Israeli authorities for activism.
Jamal Nisser, a retired Palestinian American businessman from Youngstown, Ohio, has been sentenced to four months in prison by an Israeli court on charges of political activism, The Palestine Chronicle...
