Award-winning Palestinian journalist

Is there an effective Palestinian Strategy?

The title of this article seems to be the talk of town in Palestinian circles this week. After the abandonment of the Americans and the Israelis (and even Clinton) of the Clinton proposals and the elections of right wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, many in Palestine are starting to ask out loud what is the […]

Light at the end of the Big Prison

Samir Awad is an American Palestinian architectural engineer. He has been working with the Kansas City bases Engineering company for the past five years where he lives with his 85-year old grandmother Huda. Earlier this month and because of a change of jobs he decided to pay his parents in Bethlehem a visit. Last Sunday, […]

The third way

A group of residents of Ramallah and Al Bireh whose homes are adjacent to the Jewish settlement Psagaot seem to have found the third way. Forced to choose between opposition to the Israelis who are daily bombarding their homes with an assortment of guns and shells, or turn against their own people they chose a […]

Sharon and Palestinians

While the rest of the world is trying to figure out what its response to the overwhelming victory of Ariel Sharon, I conducted my own unscientific survey of Palestinian reaction to the results of the Israeli elections. I chose to get the reaction of television broadcasters knowing full well that they more than anyone else […]

Anticorruption campaign

The buzz word this week in Palestine has been the need to fight corruption. You see reference to this issue in the press, on the Internet, in leaflets as well as by word of mouth. I was surprised when I saw a fax signed by the anticorruption unit of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs calling on Palestinian […]

On the way to Jericho

When I heard the newly sworn-in president of the United States mention Jericho in his inauguration speech, I wondered whether he had ever been to the real Jericho, a place I drive by each week. President George W. Bush wanted to illustrate his new administration’s vision of compassion when he referred to the biblical story […]

Executing scapegoats

I found myself in a very difficult position this week. Without giving much thought to it, I had begun defending the decision of the Palestinian Authority to execute a number of Palestinians accused of facilitating sensitive information that led to the Israeli army’s assassination of intifada leaders. My arguments were simple. The situation in the […]

Clinton’s sanitized proposal

‘You will go home again in safety and in freedom. When you have gone through something as awful as this, it is very easy to have your spirit broken, to spend the rest of your life obsessed with anger and resentment. But if you do that, you have already given those who have opposed you […]

Playing God

The latest round of peace talks in Washington has done little to dissuade the average Palestinian from continuing his anger and frustration towards the Israeli government and its army for their continued collective punishment. This week the Israeli government went the farthest it has ever gone in tightening the noose around the Palestinian population. Side […]

Christmas in Bethlehem

There is no date in any calendar year that is more important for family get together than the holidays. This year both Christmas and Id al-Fitr fell on almost identical dates. This year is perhaps the worst facing Palestinian families in decades: The multi-layered Israeli siege on Palestinian territories has forced various members of the […]