Jan
27
2012
The following appeared in Jordan Times
More illegal acts
by Daoud Kuttab | Jan 26,2012 | 22:34
Twenty-seven Palestinian parliamentarians who won in democratically organised elections are held behind Israeli bars without charge or trial. Their sin is that they dared believe in an electoral process that was hailed by democratic countries as the proper channel of political expression.
Palestinian cartoonists are describing Israeli jails as the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Continue Reading »
Jan
02
2012
by Daoud Kuttab
Three years ago the Israeli army initiated a major military offensive against the people of the Gaza strip with the aim of stopping the shelling from Gaza and the release of one of their soldiers that was held in the strip. Over 1,400 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed, thousands were injured, and public, private and internationally owned properties were damaged as a result of the attack that came from land, sea and air. Continue Reading »
Dec
15
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children’s favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person’s full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab.
Our family name came from the profession two brothers had a long time ago. The first Kuttabs were scribes who sat outside the court and wrote up petitions for people who had a claim with the authorities. Kuttab is Arabic for writers or scribes. Continue Reading »
Dec
01
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
Few in Washington may realize that the issue of U.S. funding for Palestine is the talk of the town in Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. And the talk is not pleasant.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been telling aides that he plans to reject some $150 million in federal money earmarked for Palestinian security.
Abbas’s opposition is principled. The funds are part of an $800 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development that Congress appropriated in June 2009. Shortly before the funds were disbursed this summer, however, the larger grant was held up by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. A Republican from Florida, Ros-Lehtinen, now chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, placed an informational hold on this budgetary line item in August. It is her prerogative to do so as a member of Congress. But rather than delay the funds to investigate a concern, the hold was meant as punishment — a warning to the Palestinian Authority not to seek recognition as an independent state at the United Nations General Assembly meeting the following month. Continue Reading »
Nov
24
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
Suleiman al Kabaili sits in an office that has clearly been rearranged to convert it into a makeshift studio. The wall behind the desk has a naked nail that used to hold a framed photo of the Libyan dictator. Suleiman, a radio studio director, dates the genesis of the current crop of media to an event exactly one year before the launch of the 17th of February revolution.
“We were producing a radio programme called “good evening Benghazi” on the local Benghazi state-owned radio station. The programme was dealing with local issues with a critical approach and had discussed the call for investigation of the Abu Slim massacre in which 1,200 are reported to have been killed. The following day we were called by the security and detained.” Continue Reading »
Nov
24
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
The first thing you notice upon entering Mitiga Airport in Tripoli is a series of signs with the word “No” in capital letters next to illustrations of automatic weapons. The second thing is just how liberally most Libyans interpret these rules.
In the days following the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the rules were not quite in effect. Revolutionaries nonchalantly toted their Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers as they whiled away their preboarding hours at the gate. An airport official roamed the terminal with a gun marked with a bar-code tag, beseeching the owner to claim his checked luggage. Continue Reading »
Oct
24
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
For most observers, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is one of raw politics. Most people familiar with the conflict take one side or another, maybe even becoming fanatic in their defense of their side.
Usually those who support the Palestinian cause do so because of a personal connection, because of a visit to Palestinian territories or because they understand the Palestinian cause and the injustice the Palestinians have suffered for decades. Continue Reading »
Oct
12
2011
By Daoud Kuttab
For years, Palestinians have been searching for a strategy that can produce freedom from decades of foreign military occupation. The two apparent options that were available to the Palestinian leadership were violent resistance or political negotiations. Yasser Arafat tried both without success. Mahmoud Abbas has been adamantly opposed to violence. Since taking over as President of the Palestinian National Authority, he has worked hard to change the inflammatory rhetoric of Palestinian politics and has backed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s efforts to build up a Palestinian state instead of simply cursing the occupation. Continue Reading »
Oct
06
2011
Sumud Ahmad Saadat is the daughter of the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), kidnapped from the Palestinian Authority’s prison in Jericho by military force. Saadat is locked up in a jail inside Israel proper, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions, which forbid occupiers to transfer prisoners into the country of occupation. He has been held in solitary confinement for most of the past five years. Continue Reading »
Sep
22
2011
When Palestinians decided to go to the United Nations to seek Palestinian recognition, they knew that would anger Tel Aviv and possibly Washington. But they didn’t expect the reaction that ensued. Continue Reading »