Can France Make Middle East Peace?
  By Daoud Kuttab RAMALLAH – Since the beginning of the year, the French government has been building support for an international conference to restart the Israel-Palestine peace process. France deserves applause for its brave effort to revive a process that has been going nowhere for the better part of a decade. But success […]
Palestine to raise concerns about settlement-based teams at FIFA conference
By Daoud Kuttab The president of the Palestinian Football Federation (PFF), Jibril Rajoub, plans to raise at the FIFA congress in Mexico the status of five soccer clubs based in Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. The five teams located in the West Bank are Beitar Givat Ze’ev, Beitar Ironi Ariel, Ironi Yehuda, Beitar Ironi […]
Challenges facing Palestinian journalists
        By Daoud Kuttab For most journalists, the challenge of doing their job usually comes from one source. However, restrictions and challenges facing Palestinian journalists are multi-levelled and much more complicated. While most human and media rights organisations usually list governments as restricting journalists, Palestinians living in the occupied territories […]
Why is Jordan restricting Palestinians’ travel?
By Daoud Kuttab Like so many accomplished students, Benaz Someir, a Palestinian from Gaza, chose to attend Birzeit University. Â While pursuing her degree in journalism, Benaz met and later married Walid Batrawi, a fellow BA journalism student from Ramallah. For family and professional reasons, Benaz, a resident of Khan Yunis in Gaza, requested and was […]
‘bridging’ dilemma
By Daoud Kuttab One issue subject to intense discussions is the “bridge†policy. That is, King Hussein Bridge, which connects Palestine to Jordan and, by extension, to the rest of the world. The bridge policy is unknown and undeclared. The main reason is that the bridge is not an international crossing point. While Jordan signed […]
Palestinians from Gaza who hold properly issued passports are being discriminated against if they were born in Gaza
By Daoud Kuttab Of all the Jordanian policies that have often been the subject of intense discussion, the one subject that has been a taboo for anyone to talk about has been the ‘bridge’ policy. The reference here is to how decisions are made in regards to travel on the King Hussein Bridge which is […]
Newton’s theory in Palestine
   By Daoud Kuttab The cycle of violence in Palestine is so predictable that almost anyone following the news can easily forecast what happens next. This ability to anticipate what happens if the cycle of violence is not broken is perhaps the most concrete proof that the Israeli occupation is the source of […]
Israel’s ‘absurd’ Jerusalem map
          By Daoud Kuttab It has been proven true over the years that victors write the history. Nowhere is this fact more obvious than in Jerusalem, where Israelis are trying unsuccessfully to rewrite centuries-old history. By changing facts on the ground the Israelis are desperately trying to claim […]
Palestinian PM says he is ‘bitterly disappointed’ in US
By Daoud Kuttab Since being appointed Palestinian prime minister in June 2013, Rami Hamdallah has run a tight economic ship, earning him praise from Christoph Duenwald, the local representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Hamdallah proudly showed Al-Monitor a Feb. 11 IMF statement acknowledging the reduction of the Palestinian deficit to nearly 1% of gross domestic product (GDP).  Praise from the IMF aside, Hamdallah said, “As prime […]
Tax havens and journalistic work
By Daoud Kuttab Some five years ago, a lawyer working for the Panama-based Mossak Fonseca leaked a trove of documents exposing the identity of the owners of a large number of offshore companies registered in Jersey, the British Islands and Luxemburg. This massive leak led to the German government’s closing three banks it deemed had […]