Yet another interim deal?
By Daoud Kuttab Following appeared in today’s Jordan Times The fast-approaching deadline to the 9-month face-to-face Palestinian-Israeli talks highlights the sense of urgency and fear that the April deadline might arrive without any breakthrough. Palestinians, who were burned in 1993 with a five-year interim agreement that translated into two decades of no progress in the […]
Fight within Fatah reveals power struggle
By Daoud Kuttab At face value, the slap in the face senior Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub received from a member of the Palestinian parliament does not constitute material for a news analysis. The strike by parliament member Fateh Abu Rub that occurred Dec. 18 in the Grand Park Hotel’s lobby in Ramallah was resolved relatively quickly, as the two Fatah leaders […]
A Prisoner in Ramallah
A Prisoner in Ramallah.pdf
Musicians and Others Bullied Due to Intolerance
Daoud Kuttab The comment was off the cuff, but the result was angry and violent. The commentator was Jordanian oud player Tareq Jundi; the remark was about the coldness at the Al Hussein Cultural Centre. “It seems that the diesel hasn’t arrived at the theatre from the government,” he said complaining about the fact that the theatre hall […]
Was Jesus a Palestinian, a Jew or both?
By Daoud Kuttab The Israeli Foreign Ministry was quick to reply to the Christmas message of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. They were angry that Abbas, who attended Christmas Mass in the Church of Nativity with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Catherine Ashton, laid claim to the birth of Jesus. Abbas […]
Storm recovery could bring Abbas to Gaza
By Daoud Kuttab The Dec. 16 Facebook message was simple yet powerful: “Imagine if President [Mahmoud] Abbas visited Gaza and took a look at his people there following the winter storm. Imagine how he would be received by Ismail Haniyeh. … People who have been drowning will certainly come out and welcome him,†she concluded. The entry was by Rawya Shawa, a prominent […]
Prominent Palestinian psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj dies
By Daoud Kuttab In the middle of the Alexa blizzard, which turned the Gaza Strip into a giant lake, Gaza lost one of its most respected men. Eyad Sarraj, a Palestinian refugee and psychiatrist, died on Dec. 17 with the same dignity that he lived. While most Gazans have little choice of where to live, Sarraj did. During […]
Abbas to visit Gaza?
By Daoud Kuttab The Dec. 16 entry on her Facebook was simple yet powerful: “Imagine if President [Mahmoud al-] Abbas would visit Gaza and take a look at his people there following the Alexa storm. Imagine how he will be received by Ismail Haniyeh. … People who have been drowning will certainly come out and welcome him.†The […]
Attack on Hanan Ashrawi unfair
By Daoud Kuttab A man was once labeled a terrorist and held in a South African prison. He and his people appealed to the world for an end to the apartheid regime ruling his country, but the world’s governments failed to respond. They appealed to the world’s citizenry and to private companies, asking them to divest from […]
Israel-Jordan water agreement not worth the hype
By Daoud Kuttab A $400 million agreement to create a desalination plant in Aqaba and to pump brine water to the Dead Sea is a far cry from what is being hyped by Israel as an “historic agreement. The memorandum of understanding signed at the World Bank on Dec. 9 by Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian officials […]