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No direction in Palestine
By Daoud Kuttab The escalating violence in Palestine is producing a multitude of commentary and reactions, but few are able to answer simple questions like what is the direction of the tension, what is the end game and what do people expect. There is no doubt that the absence of a national agreed-to Palestinian strategy…
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Is the Oslo Accord at death’s door?
By Daoud Kuttab Two weeks before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, he had warned on Sept. 16 of a “political bomb“ he planned to drop in his speech. Commentators have argued that while Abbas did threaten to end Palestinian adherence to the 1993 Oslo Accord, he didn’t actually detail…
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Israel finally agrees to increase support for Christian schools, but is it enough?
By Daoud Kuttab For the first 27 days of the 2015-16 school year in Israel, some 33,000 Palestinian students stayed at home during a strike demanding equality with Jewish schools, the first such action of its kind. On Sept. 27, the country’s 47 private Christian schools — on strike since Sept. 1, the first day…
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Palestine’s UN envoy: Multilateralism is the way forward
By Daoud Kuttab The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, welcomed what he described as “efforts to create an effective multilateral approach†to resolving the Palestinian conflict. Speaking by phone to Al-Monitor, Mansour said that France is working hard to create an effective mechanism similar to that which succeeded in reaching the Iran nuclear…
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To fight extremism
By Daoud Kuttab In his plan to counter what he called khawarej (the outlaws) of Islam, His Majesty King Abdullah gave prominence to the role of communication in the battle for the heart soul and mind. Item four of the seven-point plan the King laid out at the UN General Assembly Monday talked about amplifying…
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What Does Jordan need to do with its Syrian refugees
By Daoud Kuttab As the international community struggles with the Syrian refugee crisis, many are looking at Jordan’s courageous position in absorbing as many as a million and a half Syrians as guests of the Kingdom. While this hospitality has been duly recognized and rewarded, the longevity of the Syrian conflict is forcing all players…
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How Palestinian security forces are cracking down on their own people
By Daoud Kuttab It began as a demonstration against Israel on Sept. 18 following the recent incidents at Al-Aqsa Mosque, but it soon became an internal Palestinian problem that gripped the political and security leadership in Bethlehem. Â The Palestinian police order to quell the protests against Israel suddenly became the focus of public attention because…
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Israel attempts to redefine terrorism, but is its definition too broad?
By Daoud Kuttab A troubling anti-terrorism law to replace the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations passed its first reading in the Israeli Knesset by an overwhelming 45-14 vote on Sept. 2. The 100-page piece of legislation had been opposed by the left-wing Meretz Party and the predominantly Arab Joint List, but appears to have the support of the two…
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Tightened security backfires at Al-Aqsa
By Daoud Kuttab The recent violence that erupted at Al-Aqsa Mosque came as no surprise. On Sept. 9, Israel banned two groups of Palestinian Muslims who call themselves the masculine and feminine variants of “Mourabitoun†as illegal organizations. The problem is that in Islamic terminology, every Muslim in Jerusalem who attends prayers at Islam’s third-holiest mosque is a “mourabit,” a term…
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Response to Israeli provocations should be Palestinian unity
His Majesty King Abdullah was correct in calling what was happening in Jerusalem this week a provocation. After all, the Israelis had made clear promises to His Majesty to ensure the continuation of the status quo at Al Aqsa Mosque, which led to the return of Jordan’s ambassador to Tel Aviv. Two of the understandings…