The term Zionism can mean many different things. Like the term socialism, for example. Francois Hollande is a socialist. So was Joe Stalin. Any resemblance?... [read more]
Nobody will start peace negotiations if they believe that peace is impossible. The belief in peace will not make peace certain. But at least it will make peace possible.... [read more]
For those of us who study Israel and Zionism from the vantage point of Britain, there are some things we are able to predict with unerring accuracy... [read more]
A number of recent initiatives have sought to place the narratives of Armenian, Rwandan and other genocide victims alongside the memory of the Jewish Holocaust. A vocal hardcore of Zionist bigots has reacted in predictable fashion, as Amanda Sebestyen explains.... [read more]
This is the transcript of a brief talk given by Dr Faysal Mikdadi at the screening by the Dorset Palestinian Israeli Peace Group (DPIPG) of Eran Riklis’ film ‘Lemon Tree’ on Wednesday 20 June 2018... [read more]
What the hell am I? An Israeli? A Jew? A peace activist? A Journalist? An author? An ex-combat soldier in the Israeli army? An ex-terrorist?... [read more]
Today is the last day of the 93rd year of my life. Ridiculous. If by a miracle I could be returned to, say, 14, and travel all this long way again, would I like that? No, I would not.... [read more]
There is a need for both Israelis and Palestinians to change their discourse which is based on a mixture of rewriting history, expansionist aims, victimhood and endless conspiracy theories where none exist... [read more]
Uri Avnery explains a principle that has long guided Zionists: 'accept every compromise that gives us what we can get at any stage, but never let the final aim out of our sight'... [read more]
Political ideas and structures don't die easily. The human mind is lazy and apprehensive, and clings to familiar ideas, long after they have become obsolete... [read more]
Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst political system, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time... [read more]
The death of Ron Pundak, one of the original Israeli architects of the 1993 Oslo agreement, brought that historic event back into the public eye.... [read more]
Dr Faysal Mikdadi publishes an excellent account of Palestine's history, focusing on how the economic, racist, religious, nationalistic, commercial and orientalist attitudes of Britain shaped the land and its people (Part 1 of 2)... [read more]
It was in May, 1939. The British rulers of Palestine had just published a White Paper, putting the dampers on our Zionist vision. The world war was drawing close, and the British Empire needed the support of the Arab world.... [read more]
Caesarea was built by King Herod some 2000 years ago and named after his Roman master, Augustus Caesar. It once again became an important town under the Crusaders, who fortified it.... [read more]
The present Israeli government coalition consists of 67 (out of 120) members of the Knesset. Each member wants to be elected again (and again and again). In order to be reelected, he or she must attract the attention of the public. The simplest way is to propose a new law. A bill so outrageous, that the media cannot possibly ignore it.... [read more]
Even Churchill had, amidst the overgrown hedgerow of complex racism, a deep-rooted sense of decency and humanity when he acknowledged the injustice to Palestinians... [read more]
President Donald Trump – we must get used to these three words. The only one thing that can be said with some certainty is that nothing is certain. That this man is totally unpredictable... [read more]
For eight months there was hardly a drop of rain. A strong, hot, east wind blew in from the desert. The land dried up. Any little spark could have started a major fire.... [read more]
Neoconservatives including Clintonites are pushing hard for a direct US attack on Syria to prevent the collapse of their regime change project... [read more]
"Anti-Semitism in France" is now all the rage in Israel. A huge propaganda effort is invested in this campaign. The aim is to induce French Jews to come to Israel... [read more]
When I was 15 years old and a member of the Irgun underground (by today's criteria, an honest-to-goodness terrorist organization), we sang "(In the past) we had the heroes / Bar Kochba and the Maccabees / Now we have the new ones / The national youth…"... [read more]
Planting a tree should be a joyous occasion, new life, growth and the fruits of labour but not in the West Bank where this simple act cost Palestinian minister, Ziad Abu Ein (55) his life... [read more]
The fourth part of an 'Introduction' to an illustrated book of poetry by Faysal Mikdadi. The collection, Painted into a Corner, appeared in the summer of 2014... [read more]
About a month ago, on the eve of the Jewish New Year, the government statistical office published a set of interesting items about the population of the state... [read more]
The horrific carnage we have seen unleashed in Gaza in recent weeks - a humanitarian catastrophe - would not have been politically or economically affordable without the tacit acquiescence of the global jewellery industry... [read more]
There is nothing better than a scandal every week. A juicy scandal excites people, engages the media, takes our minds off matters like war and peace, occupation and apartheid... [read more]
Binyamin Netanyahu is very good at making speeches, especially to Jews, neocons and such, who jump up and applaud wildly at everything he says, including that tomorrow the sun will rise in the west... [read more]
Dr Faysal Mikdadi publishes an excellent account of Palestine's history, focusing on how the economic, racist, religious, nationalistic, commercial and orientalist attitudes of Britain shaped the land and its people (Part 2 of 2)... [read more]
Uri Avnery discusses the implications of a parliamentary bill that would seek to push the Palestinian population out of the West Bank and into Jordan... [read more]
Sarah Carlson looks at the growing social protest movement in Israel and discusses the need for the Israeli working class to combat not only the economic policies of their government but also its colonialist policies.... [read more]
Uri Avnery on how the battle over the identity of the historic port of Acre reflects wider struggles over cultural identity in Israel-Palestine.... [read more]
Two days ago, the State of Israel celebrated its 70th birthday. For days we heard about nothing else. Innumerable speeches full of platitudes. A huge festival of kitsch.... [read more]
The situation in the Gaza Strip is as close to hell as one can get. Food at subsistence level, electricity for two to four hours a day, the water is polluted. Work is extremely scarce. Only the most severely ill are let out.... [read more]
On the 26th May 1967, using money borrowed from my stepmother after swearing her to secrecy because I lived in unjustified terror of a very kind Dad, I boarded a flight to Jerusalem... [read more]
Despair is easy. It is also comfortable, whether in Berlin or Tel Aviv. Looking around at this moment, despair is also logical. But despair corrupts. Despairing people create nothing, and never did... [read more]
The Israeli Ministry of Education has struck a book from students' reading list. The cardinal sin was the plot: a love story between a Jewish girl and an Arab boy... [read more]
When the State of Israel was founded, the new foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, did something that seemed quite natural. He sold his private apartment.... [read more]
It is not very pleasant when serious people around the world – historians, psychiatrists, diplomats – ask themselves if my prime minister is completely sane... [read more]
My father once taught me how to withstand blackmail: imagine that the awful threat of the blackmailer has already come about. Then you can tell him: Go to hell... [read more]
Everybody knows what the Israeli elections are about. The choice is stark: on the one side, the dream of a Greater Israel "from the sea to the river"; on the other side, an end to the occupation and peace... [read more]
If I could choose between the two rhetorical gladiators, I would rather have Mahmoud Abbas representing Israel and Netanyahu representing the other side... [read more]
For six decades my friends and I have warned our people: if we don't make peace with the nationalist Arab forces, we shall be faced with Islamic Arab forces
... [read more]
Faisal Mikdadi discusses the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and presents a road map for achieving peace between all peoples and factions that reside in these lands (Part 2)... [read more]
At the root of Israeli state violence is a total refusal to recognise the Palestinians as a people, let alone a nation, writes Ahmed Amr.... [read more]
Of the many international solidarity movements in the world today, the Palestinian struggle has a special status. Greg Sharzer explains why.... [read more]
In the first of a two-part essay examining the background to the recent terrorist attack in Iran, Daniel Pye looks at the US government's employment of proxy armies or 'surrogates' in its bid for strategic control of the Middle East. ... [read more]
After commenting on most of the episodes on the first Israeli Prime Ministers in Raviv Drucker's TV series "The Captains", I must come back to the one whose episode I have not yet covered: Yitzhak Rabin.... [read more]
I was about to write an article about Pesach eve' when I remembered that I wrote exactly the same article six years ago. So I am sending the old article again – I just have nothing to add.... [read more]
In today's Israel, the antagonism between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim is growing stronger from year to year, with vast political and social repercussions... [read more]
This Tuesday morning he arrived at the gate as usual. But something aroused suspicion among the guards. He was wearing a jacket, though the weather was quite hot on this early autumn day. The guards asked him to remove his jacket.... [read more]
There were two Donald Trumps this week. One of them was touring the Middle East, being feted everywhere. The second was in Washington, where he was battered from all sides... [read more]
When Adlai Stevenson ran for the presidency, he was told "Don't worry, every thinking person will vote for you." "But I need a majority," Stevenson famously replied.... [read more]
I am a Palestinian. Do not relegate me to some imperial design suiting Israel's ends and tell me to pack off to Jordan or anywhere other than where I was born and where my forefathers have lived for well over a thousand year... [read more]
Divide et impera – "divide and rule" – since Roman times this has been a guiding principle of every regime that suppresses another people. In this the Israeli authorities have been incredibly successful.... [read more]
If someone had told me 50 years ago that the rulers of Israel, Jordan and Egypt had met in secret to make peace, I would have thought that I was dreaming.... [read more]
The real sad fact is that in every single speech since the inauguration, the main theme – indeed, almost the only theme - of President Donald Trump is I – I – I.... [read more]
People wonder why Netanyahu denounces Abbas as an "inciter", while not mentioning Hamas. To solve this mystery, one must understand the Israeli Right does not fear war, but is afraid of international pressure – and therefore the "moderate" Abbas is more dangerous than the "terrorist" Hamas.... [read more]
Some days ago, Yitzhak Herzog said something especially obnoxious. He declared that his party is failing at elections because people believe that its members are "Arab lovers".... [read more]
But what does peace mean? Peace is made between two enemies. It presupposes the existence of both. When one side destroys the other, as Rome destroyed Carthage, it puts an end to the war. But it is not peace... [read more]
Optimistic? Today? When the Israeli peace camp is in deep despair? When home-grown fascism is raising its head and the government is leading us towards national suicide?... [read more]
The Israeli occupation in the Palestinian occupied territories is being filmed all the time. Everybody now has cellular phones that take pictures... [read more]
Last year July 2014, Mansoor Jaffar, a senior journalist for Al Arabiya, wrote a scathing article critcizing Pakistan for its “zombie-like response" to the Gaza killings... [read more]
In a stomach-churning display of sanctimoniousness, imperialist world leaders marched shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and in defense of freedom of expression... [read more]
The Shas party has split into two. Opinion polls show that both parts are hovering around the 3.12% threshold which is now necessary for entering the Knesset, after the minimum was raised by the last Knesset... [read more]
The third part of an 'Introduction' to an illustrated book of poetry by Faysal Mikdadi. The collection, Painted into a Corner, appeared in the summer of 2014... [read more]
The first part of an 'Introduction' to an illustrated book of poetry by Dr Faysal Mikdadi. The collection, Painted into a Corner, appeared in the summer of 2014... [read more]
When a high-ranking official of one country calls the leader of another country "chickenshit", it may be assumed that the relations between the two countries are not at their best... [read more]
Sweden, like Britain, was always considered a "pro-Israeli" country, loyally voting against "anti-Israel" resolutions in the UN. If such important Western nations are reconsidering their attitudes towards the policy of Israel, what does it mean?... [read more]
Recently, Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit has written an article in which he equally condemns “extreme rightists” and “extreme leftists”, those who advocate war and those who advocate peace... [read more]
The last war has come to an end, the next war has not yet started, so let's use the time to speak of many things. Of Hannibal, for example... [read more]
The similarities between the building of Israel and the US are astonishing. The native people are portrayed as savage, inherently violent, unable to understand peace... [read more]
The Fourth Geneva Convention is specific in prohibiting attacks on civilian hospitals, medical transport and of course designates collective punishment a war crime... [read more]
The Yinon plan is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states... [read more]
Yet another massive assault on Palestine is underway. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions is unequivocal: collective punishment is a war crime.... [read more]
The Arab world is in turmoil. Syria and Iraq are breaking apart, the thousand-year old conflict between Muslim Sunnis and Muslim Shiites is reaching a new climax... [read more]
If there is a God, he surely has a sense of humor. The career of Shimon Peres, who is about to finish his term as President of Israel, is clear evidence... [read more]
The claim by Binyamin Netanyahu that he has a right to pick and choose the Palestinian government is rather astonishing, writes Uri Avnery
... [read more]
What is modern propaganda? For many, it is the lies of a totalitarian state. In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl and asked her about her epic films that glorified the Nazis, writes John Pilger.... [read more]
Susan Walpole argues that the problems facing Christians, Muslims, Jews and other religions today appear to be firmly rooted in their ideologies of identity... [read more]
Many key phrases have been presented to explain Israel’s latest military onslaught against Gaza, which left scores dead and wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is flexing his muscles in preparation for the Israeli general elections in January, suggested some, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Faisal Mikdadi discusses the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and presents a road map for achieving peace between all peoples and factions that reside in these lands (Part 1)... [read more]
Apparently, ‘popular resistance’ has suddenly elevated to become a clash of visions or strategies between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and its rivals in Gaza, underscoring an existing and deepening rift between various factions and leaderships, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Elizabeth Elis reminds us that when added together, minorities form a majority and it is only through unity that power can be wrested away from a tiny elite and placed firmly in the hands of the masses... [read more]
Doreen Carvajal writes in the New York Times about the possibility that our genes carry some memories of our ancestors' experiences and 'unfinished business'. Dr Faysal Mikdadi wonders whether this is beneficial, now and for a future generation. ... [read more]
Two new books by Slavoj Zizek have recently been reviewed by John Gray in the The New York Review of Books, here Thomas Riggins reviews Gray's article.
... [read more]
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon exist on the margins of a larger political question concerning the country’s irreconcilable sectarian, factional and familial divides, Ramzy Baroud reports... [read more]
Writing about the events of Al-Nakba, Ramzy Baroud reports that every region in Palestine that was meant to be taken was captured, its people were expelled or massacred in their homes and villages. Ben Guiron ‘cleansed’ the land, but he failed to cleanse Israel’s past. Memory persists.
... [read more]
The decisions of political prisoners, Hana Shalabi and Khader Adnan, to go on hunger strike to protest their detention without charge has ignited a new wave of protest amongst Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails.... [read more]
Marwan Barghouti, the prominent Palestinian political prisoner and Fatah leader, is a unifying figure among Palestinians, last week he called on Palestinians to launch a “large-scale popular resistance” which would “serve the cause of our people,” writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
After six decades of occupation, Israeli government strategists are yet to realize that the Palestinian people are not a singular body of blind followers who can be easily manipulated and controlled, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
Britain’s history of war and imperialism, and its current role as junior partner in service to US hegemony, has had a deleterious impact on British society at home, writes John Wight.... [read more]
A video was taken earlier this week when 10 Palestinian children were killed and 20 were injured while travelling on a bus that caught fire in a horrific collision between the bus and an Israeli truck east of Ramallah, writes Iqbal Tamimi.
... [read more]
The recent University of Pennsylvania BDS conference, organized by student group, PennBDS, was the latest example to illustrate both the effectiveness of the global movement and also of the real worry felt by supporters of Israel in the US, writes Ramzy Baroud.... [read more]
In a recent article, columnist Yaniv Halili described British author Ben White as 'anti-Semitic'. He also denounced Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi for writing a forward to White's latest book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy, writes Ramzy Baroud.
... [read more]
The assassination of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a well-planned, violent and sadistic act of international terrorism, writes Ramzy Baroud. ... [read more]
Barack Obama has weakly capitulated to Binyamin Netanyahu over Israeli settlement-building in the heart of the Arab community in East Jerusalem, says Uri Avnery.... [read more]
Uri Avnery on how a spate of brutal murders by recent Jewish immigrants to Israel has focused attention on the country's controversial Law of Return.... [read more]
Addressing a Lenasia rally in solidarity with the people of Gaza on 14th January, Zwelinzima Vavi characterised the Israeli government as a racist regime comparable to Apartheid South Africa. ... [read more]
Reviewing the life of Kulthum Odeh, the first woman in the Arab world to hold a professorship, Iqbal Tamimi considers the all-pervading ignorance about Palestine.... [read more]