Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
By Daoud Kuttab George Kanawati has become a well-known name in the Bethlehem area. The popularity of the director of the city’s longest-running radio station and anchor of its popular morning show is not simply from his journalistic work. Radio Bethlehem 2000’s top journalist has been embroiled in quite a few battles with various governmental…
By Daoud Kuttab The bustling town of al-Ram, with a population of over 25,000, is strategically located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. For a long time, the town’s geography was its blessing. Today, it has become its curse. Al-Ram’s main entrance was once the Jerusalem-Ramallah road just past the suburbs of Shufat, Beit Hanina and Dahiyat…
By Daoud Kuttab France has always been a country that cares first and foremost about itself, which is normal, but sometimes it is so calculating that it comes across as not caring and spineless. France is a huge economic exporter to the Arab world. Its wheat and military exports to Saudi Arabia and the Arab world are…
By Daoud Kuttab For years, France has been a source of fascination for Palestinians and Arabs for its courage to take positions that run contrary to those of many in Europe and the United States. Palestinians still vividly remember the 1996 visit by former French President Jacques Chirac, when Israeli soldiers insisted on accompanying him to one…
By Daoud Kuttab Once again, the fate of Gaza is gaining importance as the failure of Palestinian reconciliation, coupled with the deep rift between Hamas and the new Egyptian rulers, is being felt by every Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. The high-profile military parade by Islamists in Gaza on Nov. 14 shows that Hamas continues…
B y Daoud Kuttab Ever since the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks began this summer, Palestinian negotiators have found themselves without one of their strongest negotiating weapons: the ability to walk out of the talks. The current peace talks began without the Israelis agreeing on two basic conditions: the suspension of settlement building in Palestinian areas…
Following appeared in today’s Jordan Times By Daoud Kuttab The never-ending search for an appropriate democratic model in Jordan continues without any result. Popular protests sped up the debate while the current retraction of protests appears to have delayed this process. Nothing appears to have stunted participatory democracy more than the current status of Jordanian…
By Daoud Kuttab Allies don’t usually criticize each other in public. But this is exactly what happened between Israel and the United States. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly attacked each other regarding the two issues that the United States has said are its top foreign policy priorities in the…
By Daoud Kuttab Few Palestinians were surprised when a Swiss lab showed that the remains of late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat contained a high quantity of polonium. No protests are expected and nothing seems different outside the Palestinian headquarters in Ramallah. Arafat spent his last days at those headquarters in Palestine before being taken, dressed…
By Daoud Kuttab The Palestinian town of Bethlehem found itself this week in the heart of high-powered Palestinian political discussions and debates. Residents of the city where Christianity began felt the change that included a five-day stay in town by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a visit of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (Nov. 5) and meetings with…