New guard replaces old in Fateh
It has taken 20 years, but the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh) has finally held its sixth general conference allowing for a much-needed influx of new blood into the movement. The conference, which opened in Bethlehem on August 4, registers many historic firsts. It is the first conference of a liberation movement to be held within […]
A bittersweet victory
The announcement has been long awaited. The Israeli Airport Authority announced that starting August 4, the King Hussein Bridge (sometimes referred to as Allenby Bridge) will be open daily till midnight on a 60-day experimental basis. Ever since the outbreak of Al Aqsa Intifada, the Palestinian police that were stationed at the bridge as part […]
Unpublished letter to NYTimes editor
to the editor of the NY times It is nice to read Ethan Bronner’s positive piece “Signs of Hope emerges in West Bank” (NYT July 17). However, Bronner makes a mistake in the order of things. He states ” For the first time since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in late 2000, leading to […]
Status of Jerusalem
Following appeared in the Jordan Times today Status of Jerusalem By Daoud Kuttab The standoff between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government remind many of a similar standoff between the US and Israel in the 90s when Bill Clinton was president. At the time Netanyahu insisted on Israel’s right to build Har Homa settlement […]
Back on the air
following appeared in Jordan Times today July 9 By Daoud Kuttab The gavel-to-gavel broadcast of the Jordanian Parliament was back on the air on June 7. Radio Al Balad (formerly AmmanNet), an independent community radio, succeeded in providing the public with an unfiltered version of the House of Representatives meeting. The return of live broadcasting […]
Three governments, two companies and one fleet of vans ensure continue suffering and dubious money making
By Daoud Kuttab This is a story about one fleet of vans, two companies and three governments. The van is a 9 seat hundai which travels a three kilometer route joining the passport terminal on both sides of the King Hussein Bridge. The companies are a Jordanian one and an Israeli. The Jordanian company: the […]
Weakness Hawkish elements
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Opinion NY Times Room for Debate June 23, 2009, 3:22 PM Weakening Hawkish Elements Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist and a former professor of journalism at Princeton University. No matter how the standoff in Iran ends up, two things have become clear. The power of digital technology can override analog […]
Crossing the King Hussein Bridge
Jun. 21, 2009 Daoud Kuttab , THE JERUSALEM POST The suffering of Palestinians crossing the King Hussein Bridge, the only exit and entry point between the West Bank and Jordan, continues without any serious attempt at relief. While there is no doubt that the real remedy is the end of the occupation, genuine efforts should […]
Why Palestinians were quick to reject Netanyahu’s speech
By Daoud Kuttab In private talks held in Oslo and other places, Palestinians were promised an independent state, but were told by the Israelis that they couldn’t actually use these words in the agreement. They were told that the five-year transitional period, which began in 1994, was meant to convince the Israeli public to accept […]
Netanyahu fails ty Emulate Obama
Ever since his announcement that he was going to make a major address, the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was billed as a copy of the Obama speech in Cairo. In fact Netanyahu has been touting himself for some time as the Israeli Obama. His election campaigners tried to copy all of the […]