Will Jerusalem Cause a Third Intifada?
Daoud Kuttab This may be a journalistic hunch, but I have a feeling that we are about to witness an explosion in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this time again over Jerusalem. In 2000, a Palestinian-Israeli human rights film festival took place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nazareth. The concluding event, during which the name […]
We Are Palestinians
  By Daoud Kuttab JERUSALEM — When they were young, one of my children’s favorite games was reciting the family lineage. In our culture a person’s full name is a combination of his paternal parentage. My son, born in Jerusalem in 1988, would say his name is Bishara Daoud George Musa Qustandi Musa Kuttab. Our […]
Worse than the ‘invented’ comment
By Daoud Kuttab Prime minister of Israel at the time Yitzhak Rabin, wrote to Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Yasser Arafat: “In response to your letter of September 9, 1993, I wish to confirm to you that, in light of the PLO commitments included in your letter, the government of Israel has decided to recognise the […]
The Arab Spring Has Yet to Focus on Media Freedoms
By Daoud Kuttab Did the independent media help produce the Arab Spring or did the revolutions succeed in liberating local media in the Arab world? This and many other questions were debated and discussed by Arab and international freedom of expression advocates and media practitioners and experts in Amman this week. The Arab Spring […]
Palestinians Will Have to Wait Another Year
By Daoud Kuttab Leaders have a habit of creating expectations for their people; these are higher in the case of groups that suffer from injustice. Not wanting to set precise time limits, leaders sometimes say elections will take place in the winter of the coming year, in the first half of the following year, […]
Why the Palestinians might reject U.S. aid
  By Daoud Kuttab  RAMALLAH, WEST BANK Few in Washington may realize that the issue of U.S. funding for Palestine is the talk of the town in Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. And the talk is not pleasant.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been telling aides that he plans to reject some $150 million in […]
Packing Heat at the Gate
 By Daoud Kuttab The first thing you notice upon entering Mitiga Airport in Tripoli is a series of signs with the word “No†in capital letters next to illustrations of automatic weapons. The second thing is just how liberally most Libyans interpret these rules. In the days following the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the […]
The King and Palestine
By Daoud Kuttab  “Ziara azima†(fabulous visit). This was the description Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave to the unexpected visit King Abdullah made to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The King’s visit on Monday was the first to Palestine in a decade. He didn’t visit or meet any Israeli official. It is […]
Talk of Palestinian reconciliation
By Daoud Kuttab Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said this week that he was quite happy to step down from his position in order to remove any obstacle in the way of Palestinian reconciliation. It is not the first time he made such a statement, but this time it is politically important, and timely. Fayyad’s […]
Palestinian strategies post-UN vote
By Daoud Kuttab If the UN bid for Palestinian statehood has shown anything, it has shown the Palestinians, again, who their friends are. It was clear, despite US President Barack Obama’s earlier rhetoric, that US would not move in any direction that would upset the Israelis. But it was not only Washington and the British […]