Abbas returns to warm welcome after resisting US pressure
By Daoud Kuttab Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received a hero’s welcome in Ramallah after returning from what was billed as a tough summit in Washington with US President Barack Obama. Abbas was hailed as having stood his ground in the Oval Office meeting, resisting strong pressure from the United States to budge on at least two publicly […]
Nazareth election beginning of end for Israel’s Communist Party
By Daoud Kuttab The loss of the Nazareth mayoralty in the March 11 recall elections marked the beginning of the end of the Israeli Communist Party in Israel. Ramez Jaraisi, the mayor for nearly four decades, lost to Ali Salam, who won more than 61% of the city’s votes. Israeli Communist leaders in Nazareth accepted defeat and issued a statement six […]
Christian Zionism criticized at evangelical conference
By Daoud Kuttab Christian Zionism, which cites the Bible to support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, received heavy criticism at a conference organized by Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem the week of March 10 and attended by Al-Monitor. Theologians from Europe and North America as well as Palestinian speakers presented lectures full of biblical references at the third Christ at the Checkpoint conference questioning the […]
Israeli killing of judge at border provokes backlash in Jordan
By Daoud Kuttab The killing of Raed Zeiter, a Palestinian-Jordanian judge, at the entry to the Israeli-controlled side of the King Hussein Bridge on March 10 has resulted in an explosion of anger in the Hashemite kingdom. Protests and marches took place late that night near the Israeli Embassy in Amman. The following day, a vigil at Amman’s Justice Palace saw thousands of lawyers and judges […]
Israel irked by pro-Palestinian evangelical Christian conference
By Daoud Kuttab A Palestinian college in Bethlehem will host a weeklong conference aimed at weakening the traditional evangelical support to Israel, despite strong Israeli pressures. The third Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at the Bethlehem Bible College is expected to host the “widest and most diverse†group of evangelical Christians, according to conference organizers. The […]
Israeli Occupier-occupied Paradigm Must End
By Daoud Kuttab For 46 years the bridge connecting the West Bank with Jordan has been a source of hardships, humiliations and extremely long and unnecessary delays, not to mention cumbersome and exaggerated body and baggage searches. This nightmare has to end. What happened on Monday morning March 10th is a symptom of the occupation versus occupied paradigm […]
‘Omar’ Oscar nomination a win for Palestinian film industry
By Daoud Kuttab When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met for the 86th Oscars, Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir hosted an all-night party in Amman, hoping Hany Abu-Assad’s “Omar” would win the trophy for best foreign film. “We are burning the midnight candle and crossing our fingers,†she told Al-Monitor before the results were known in the very early […]
Palestinian government may soon pass transparency law
By Daoud Kuttab The possibility that Palestine will soon have an access-to-information law is looking promising. Concrete steps by the Palestinian government and a public advocacy campaign are being taken to prepare for such a decision. Despite the Palestinian Legislative Council being dormant for seven years due to the internal Palestinian split, Ramallah is poised to pass a […]
Abbas should condition peace talks on lifting Gaza siege
By Daoud Kuttab The stage appears set, if the Palestinian leadership chooses, to reconcile the Gaza Strip with the West Bank and end the unjust siege that has fallen on Gaza for the past seven years. Palestinian-Israeli peace talks scheduled over a period of nine months are due to end in April. Palestinians had agreed in late […]
Community radio gets a boost in Jordan
Following appeared in the Jordan Times By Daoud Kuttab Community media received a major boost in Jordan this week with the launch of the third Aswatona conference at the Dead Sea. More than 100 community radio activists gathered at the lowest spot on Earth to talk about the challenges of producing, broadcasting and sustaining community […]