Daoud Kuttab

Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism

  • Greece election result brings hope to Palestinians

    By Daoud Kuttab The victory of the Greek Syriza Party, which won 149 out of 300 parliamentary seats, has brought major concerns for Israel but was welcomed by the Palestinians. The radical left-wing party scored a decisive victory in the snap elections held Jan. 25 in Greece. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as the left-wing…

  • New Greek PM Supports Palestinian Rights

    By Daoud Kuttab The results of the snap elections in Greece, which propelled the leftist Syriza Party to power this week, sent shockwaves to many world capitals. Alexis Tsipras, the new prime minister, has vowed to fulfill his electoral promises, including reversing the harsh austerity plans that Europe has imposed on his country. French President…

  • Palestinian political unity welcomed for Israeli elections

    By Daoud Kuttab Good cartoonists can summarize major issues with a simple image. The Palestinian cartoonist Khalil Abu Arafe summed up the Palestinians’ warm welcome for the joint list of Palestinian citizens of Israel to compete in the Israeli parliamentary elections scheduled for March 17. In a Jan. 24 cartoon, Abu Arafe depicts Ayman Odeh,…

  • Did US backtrack on Palestinian statehood to please Israel?

    By Daoud Kuttab The United States, which has progressively moved toward recognizing the State of Palestine, has suddenly backed away from even using the word Palestine. Were the previous positions merely lip service and are we now witnessing the true US position, or did the United States backtrack to please Israel? A look at the…

  • Is Quartet making comeback?

    By Daoud Kuttab The statement was made Jan. 15 by US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power in New York. The setting was the UN Security Council’s monthly debate on the Middle East, the scene of a failed attempt to set an end date to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The justification, as expressed by Power,…

  • Joint Responsibility for Freedom of Expression Worldwide

    By Daoud Kuttab Social media activists have filled cyberspace with comments and arguments,criticising or justifying the presence of this or that leader at the gathering held in Paris in support of the people of France after the brutal killing, in two separate attacks on journalists, cartoonists, policemen and everyday shoppers in a Jewish supermarket. Palestinian…

  • Palestinians to give UNSC bid another shot

    By Daoud Kuttab The Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo Jan. 15 approved a Palestinian request to return to the UN Security Council to seek an end to the Israeli occupation. The ministers did not set a date for the next UN campaign, leaving the decision to a committee made up of Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania,…

  • Abbas’ presence at Paris rally boosts Palestinian legitimacy

    By Daoud Kuttab The participation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in France’s mega unity demonstration in Paris on Jan. 11 was apparently not of his own making. A day earlier, the Secretariat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had announced plans to hold a rally in support of France in Manara Square in Ramallah at…

  • The real war is the ideological one

    By Daoud Kuttab Very few people know that in Islam there are two kinds of jihad. The smaller Jihad is the more known one namely the one which reflects the military a struggle. But the greater Jihad which is less known is the internal Jihad- or Struggle. Few people also know that the Arabic word…

  • Netanyahu’s threats won’t sway Abbas

    By Daoud Kuttab Both the content and the body language reflected a profound Israeli irritation. “We will not allow IDF soldiers and commanders to be hauled before the International Criminal Court [ICC] in The Hague,” said an angry Benjamin Netanyahu at the opening of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Jan. 4. The response of the…