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Palestinians and Peres: A love-hate relationship
By Daoud Kuttab The atmosphere at the Palestinian ministry was as cold as ice. News had come of the condolence statement issued by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the death of former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The press was asking for comments, but no one at the ministry wanted to talk to the press. A…
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FIFA under pressure to sanction Israel for settlement games
By Daoud Kuttab The world’s leading soccer association is under pressure by the world’s leading human rights organization to live up to its own rules and ethical guidelines. A well-researched study, which included aerial photos, by Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Sept. 25 for six clubs of the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to stop…
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Democracy is impossible with occupation and rebellion rule
By Daoud Kuttab The overtly exaggerated power of electoral democracy has once again been put into question in the Middle East. Municipal elections slated for the West Bank and Gaza on October 8th will not take place due officially to a decision of the Palestinian High Court. But the high court decision -whether you believe…
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RACISM AT THE EAST JERUSALEM INTERIOR MINISTRY OFFICE
This is a personal story of the discrimination we faced trying to get a residency ID issued for our daughter By Daoud Kuttab My wife and I were born in east Jerusalem before Israel’s 1967 occupation of the city. Our youngest daughter, Dina, was also born in Jerusalem. We have kept a home in Jerusalem,…
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Abbas disappoints, again, with UN speech
By Daoud Kuttab In the week before President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, a number of Palestinians were shot and killed or injured by Israeli soldiers. On Sept. 20, Hazem Kawasmi, a Palestinian activist, made a profoundly insightful statement on his Facebook page: “We are neither in an intifada nor are we involved in civil…
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How independent are Palestinian courts?
By Daoud Kuttab When the Palestinian High Court of Justice decided Sept. 7 to suspend the Oct. 8 municipal elections, it caught many people off guard. The Palestinian legislature has been paralyzed since 2007 because of the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and few expected any independent action of the Palestinian judiciary. Many asked the simple…
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On election day
By Daoud Kuttab When Khaled Kalaldeh, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), spoke at the close of the day’s voting, those in attendance were stunned: “Eight voting boxes in the Central Badiya were tampered with and we plan to have a revote in those areas.†Journalists attending the closing press conference of a…
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Why Palestine’s ‘Merry Christmas people’ are not so merry
By Daoud Kuttab In a long interview with Egyptian ONTV Sept. 1, Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association, appeared to ridicule Palestinian Christians. Almost a week later, on Sept. 6, Rajoub insisted in an interview on Al-Quds TV that when he referred to the “Merry Christmas people,†he was merely being jovial….
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Mishaal’s call for smart politics
       By Daoud Kuttab While addressing mourners for the loss of his mother in Jordan, Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal highly praised Jordan and Jordanian officials, and then spoke of a four-step approach to change the balance of power that is currently crushing Palestinians. Mishaal, who along with Jordanian leaders of…
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Controversial cable car project in Jerusalem pushed by Israeli mayor
By Daoud Kuttab Like many Israeli officials, whenever Nir Barkat, the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, wants to make a political splash among Israeli voters, he turns to the Palestinian arena, which is the gift that keeps giving. In April 2013, when Barkat was running for a second mayoral term, he turned to the Palestinian sector…