Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
By Daoud Kuttab The airlifting of a dozen-and-a-half Yemeni Jews to Israel last Monday received wide coverage. The action to evacuate 19 Yemenis to Israel is said to have included four stops and was done in cooperation with the US State Department. What happens to these Yemeni Jews, as well as what happened to the…
By Daoud Kuttab Karam Qubrosi can’t believe that Israel is allowing so many Gazans to travel on the occasion of Easter. “This is a dream come true, especially for many of us in the age group of 18-35,†he told Al-Monitor. Speaking to Al-Monitor after reaching the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, Qubrosi, 28,…
By Daoud Kuttab Hundreds of Palestinian dairy and meat farmers find themselves caught in a political struggle between Israel and the Palestinian authorities. Â The problem of Palestinian farmers began on March 10 when Israeli troops barred trucks belonging to the five leading Palestinian dairy and meat companies from entering into Jerusalem. Trucks from Hamoda dairy…
By Daoud Kuttab One of the nastiest acts that has emerged since the beginning of the current wave of Palestinian resistance to Israel is the cruel punishment of withholding bodies of dead Palestinians. Israel is holding the corpses of some 13 Palestinians, some summarily killed by Israeli soldiers, for as long as five months. Taher…
By Daoud Kuttab Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was born on March 13, 1941, in the Galilee village of al-Birweh. Darwish’s birthplace has now been replaced by Jewish settlements. Moshav Ahihud and Kibbutz Yasur now sit where the Palestinian village once stood in northern Israel, east of the port city of Acre. Today, 75 years after…
By Daoud Kuttab A substantial survey carried out in Israel, East Jerusalem and among Jewish settlers in the West Bank has shown that Arabs — Muslim, Christian and Druze — are much more religious than Israeli Jews.  Two-thirds of Israeli Arabs surveyed by the Pew Research Center said religion is very important in their lives,…
By Daoud Kuttab Attempts by the Palestinian Authority to arrest Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Najat Abu Bakr for statements she made alleging corruption by a government minister have ignited a discussion about defamation being a crime and calls for its decriminalization.  Majed Arruri, a media rights expert from Ramallah, told Al-Monitor, “Defamation in both its written [libel] or…
    By Daoud Kuttab The Independent Federation of Unions in Jordan wanted to hold an event to celebrate International Women’s Day. A hotel hall was booked and invitations were sent out. A few hours before the event organisers were told by the hotel management that they could not hold the event. It…
By Daoud Kuttab AMMAN – With the violent radicalism and civil wars of the Middle East and North Africa capturing the world’s attention, the region’s grossly distorted legal systems are being given short shrift. Yet problematic laws, like those criminalizing defamation, \ facilitate political and economic repression, undermine development, and destroy lives. Egypt’s government is…
By Daoud Kuttab The ambitious French idea first suggested by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at the end of January of holding an international conference to kick-start the two-state solution process in Paris in July is alive and kicking. A senior Western diplomat in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor that the initiative to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks has been adopted by…