By Daoud Kuttab

Thirteen years ago I attended an international event in Amman where then minister of information Saleh Qallab spoke enthusiastically about Jordan’s new media policy. He specifically stressed the fact that the Internet will be an open and free space for everyone. I was so impressed that I decided there and then to set up an Internet radio station in a country that didn’t allow anyone other than government to operate a radio station. Later at that conference in 2000 we were invited to an audience with His Majesty King Abdullah. I asked the King about the radio scene in Jordan noting that Jordanians are receivers of radio content from outside but are not able to be masters of their own radio voices. The King answered that he expects radio licences to be privatised within a few years. I went ahead and set up AmmanNet.Net and it became the Arab world’s first independent Internet based radio station.

A few years I was able to also get a 10-year licence for a FM radio station (Radio Al Balad) in the capital. I was always worried about the FM radio and not the Internet site. Hundreds of sites that focus on news, audio and video commentary have mushroomed since then.

This week, however, in a decision that was clearly not well thought out the government ordered local Internet service providers to block some 300 news websites. The official reason is that these sites had failed to obtain licences from the Press and Publications Department in accordance with a law that Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour himself had voted against when he was a member of the Lower House. The controversial law, which was railroaded in Parliament, became effective last September. Jordanian website owners and relevant international bodies protested against this undemocratic law. The appointment of Ensour as prime minister was welcomed by local journalists and when the new premier visited the tent set up by protesting website owner and promised to deal with the new law with an open mind and goodwill, the protest was quietly halted. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

It is not clear what we can conclude from the appointment of Rami Hamdallah to head the Palestinian government following the resignation of Salam Fayyad.

On the one hand, Hamdallah is known during his long term as the president of Palestine’s largest university as an efficient, centralized bureaucrat who gets the job done. On the other hand, many suspect that he is an interim prime minister being brought in to fill the vacuum that exists between the departure of Fayyad and the expected elections that will occur once all the details of the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas are resolved.

One hint as to which of these two options is the valid one might be found through keeping an eye on what is happening at Hamdallah’s current employer. The talk at An Najah University in Nablus is that Hamdallah is expected to appoint a deputy — possibly Vice President for Academic Affairs Maher Natashe — who will be given the title of acting president. If that takes place and Hamdallah doesn’t officially resign from his position, then we are witnessing an interim prime minister and not one who will be around for some time.

Faculty and students alike at An Najah say that Dr. Rami Hamdallah is very much a hands-on bureaucrat who tries to be involved in all details of almost every aspect of university life. He is given, every morning, a list of attending faculty, what time they arrived and who was late. He is not a delegator, but rather a control person. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Alaa from Beit Jala was surprised like many other Palestinian Christians this week when their local church leaders acquired three-month travel permits that will allow them to visit Jerusalem and Israel, and even stay overnight if they choose to. The permits, however, were not given to all Palestinian Christians.

“As part of the easings given to the Palestinian Christian population for Easter, approximately 21,000 permits were issued,” the Israeli army’s coordinator office told Al-Monitor.

There has been little information as to what led the Israelis to give hundreds of unsolicited permits to Palestinian Christians. Reverend William Shomali, the auxiliary bishop and patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, told Al-Monitor that he was as surprised as everyone else.

“We didn’t ask for these permits, and I don’t like that they are given to a specific group of Palestinians and not to all.” Shomali believes that the entire permit system is a problem and that the right to movement should be made available to all Palestinians.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The US efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations continue to face obstacles, but this has not stopped a continuous trickle of information and leaks about some of the major details of the proposed talks.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saed Erekat told the Voice of Palestine Thursday, May 30 that US Secretary of State John Kerry’s plans have three parallel tracks. According to Erekat, the Kerry plan has a political track, a security track and an economic one. While the appointment of Gen. John Allenappears to shine some light on the security track and Kerry’s speech at the WEF conference hints the economic track, little information has come out in regard to the political track. Both Israelis and Palestinians seem stuck on the reference point of the peace talks. Palestinians want the talks to be based on the concept of a two-state solution, while Israel considers such a commitment before the talks to be a precondition it is not willing to accept.

So instead of banging his head against a brick wall, the top US diplomat is apparently looking for ways to go around the problem. One way to do that may be to encourage (codeword for pressure) the Israelis into loosening their grip on the occupied Palestinian territories. The practical translation of such talk often means that Israel must turn over to the Palestinian government lands that its security and administrative arms currently control, areas that are generally referred to — using the Oslo Accords terminology — as Area C. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Israeli website that broke the story is not well known, but the content was so appealing that Palestinians jumped all over it. The site, Debkafile, claims that US Secretary of State John Kerry offered to help the Palestinians build their long-awaited airport and to get Israel to turn over a large section of land that includes part of the Dead Sea. The US offer, reportedly the first in a series, aims to encourage the Palestinian leader to go back to face-to-face talks with the Israelis without the latter stopping settlements or defining the eastern borders of Israel.

The reason that the report from a totally unknown site has received so much attention, including from Palestine’s Maan News Agency, is because it touches a nerve among the movement-restricted Palestinians, especially those living in the West Bank. The only exit and entry from this landlocked area is the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge, which is under the total control of the Israeli army. Even the partial control by Palestinian police that existed for a short period prior to 2000 has long been cancelled. All attempts to return the Palestinian police to the bridge, including the commitments in theRoad Map, have been rejected despite Palestinian security receiving high marks from the Israeli army for its ability to control the region. Continue Reading »

Daoud Kuttab the founder of AmmanNet condemned the decision of the Jordanian government to block 213 Jordanian news web sites among them one of the pioneer websites in the Arab world AmmanNet established in November 2000 with the blessing and support of UNESCO and the Amman Municipality.

Kuttab newly elected executive committee member of the International Press Institute in its 62th congress held in Amman said that the decision violates Jordan’s local, regional and international commitments. “This is a violation of Jordan’s constitution which guarantees freedom of expression, Jordan’s commitment to international conventions and a reneging on the promises made by the Jordanian Prime Minister to Jordanian media and in his address to the IPI congress.”

Jordan’s decision is a blow to the country’s standings and will further deteriorate its current ranking which Freedom House has considered it as “not free”.

By Daoud Kuttab

During the Israeli reoccupation of major Palestinian cities in 2002, the Israeli army took over the building that was housing Al Quds University’s Educational Television station, of which I was the director at the time. After 19 days, Israeli soldiers withdrew from Ramallah, leaving behind destroyed equipment. Some of the equipment destroyed had been donated by the US government.

A similar problem occurred in 2011 when Israeli special troops raided Wattan TV and Al Quds Educational TV, confiscating the transmitters and destroying computers and other equipment, again some of which had been purchased with a grant from the “American people”.

In both cases, when US officials in Jerusalem and Washington were informed of the destruction of the equipment, they chose to quietly purchase replacement equipment rather than chastise Israel for its unprovoked act of destruction. No statement was made and there was no public attempt to hold Israeli accountable.

I recall these rather minor cases this week because of the initiative by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan to invest about $4 billion in the Palestinian economy.

To be fair, Kerry said that this would not be a US-only investment but that other major world powers would chip in to cover this fund. The US secretary of state also stated that this economic investment will not replace the political process, but will be parallel to it. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

On the same day as the World Economic Forum was holding its dramatic closing session with back-to-back speeches from President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli President Shimon Peres and US Secretary of State John Kerry, I was mourning the passing of a dear friend’s mom.

Abbas reiterated the Palestinian government’s total commitment to peace and security, practically begging the Israelis to allow his local police to receive the small shipment of arms that has been rotting in Jordan for years. Peres, the president without much power, contradicted his own prime minister by embracing the Arab Peace Initiative and begging the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table, where they are bound to be surprised.

Finally, Kerry sounded even more desperate to see through some change in the Middle East’s most intractable conflict. One of his solutions is to throw money at the Palestinian-Israeli impasse. Kerry waved $4 billion to the Palestinians, money he said he has received in investment commitments from Japanese, European and others (not clear how much from the United States). Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

After Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy and Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy, the Middle East seems to be getting to know John Kerry’s “shawarma diplomacy.” The US secretary of state stepped out of the usually scripted diplomatic itinerary and walked the streets of the Palestinian town of al-Bireh to enjoy a quick shawarma sandwich and some kenafeh sweets. The American diplomat took time to chat with Palestinian shopowners and has been quoted as stressing how badly the United States wants to have peace in the Middle East and how committed the Obama administration is to that cause.

Shawarma is a local street food. Large patties of meat are pressed together on a skewer and continually roasted as the person working the rotisserie cuts the freshly cooked meat, which is then wrapped in a pita stuffed with a variety of greens. Kerry, who seemed familiar with the oriental sandwich, ordered all the options except for hot sauce.

It is not difficult to understand Kerry’s gesture. He clearly wanted to encourage the reluctant Palestinians to take a leap of faith and agree to engage the Israelis.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

If physical access is an important requirement for good journalism, the ability of Palestinians and Israelis to cover their ongoing conflict is largely compromised. This is one of the issues raised by a delegation of the International Press Institute (IPI) that visited Palestine and Israel in February.

The mission sponsored by the Vienna-based nongovernmental organization produced “Patriotism, Pressure and Press Freedom: How Israeli and Palestinian Media Cover the Conflict from Inside,” a 37-page report based on interviews with more than 50 media practitioners in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. The report focuses initially on how local media covered the November 2012 Israeli war on Gaza, but a closer look at the report’s recommendations zooms in on restrictions on journalists’ freedom of movement as the biggest problem facing members of the Palestinian and Israeli press. Continue Reading »