Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
By Daoud Kuttab Predicting the next Intifada, or popular outbreak, is next to impossible. The past years have seen many predictions of an imminent third Intifada, only to have these expectations proven wrong. While prophesying a wave of mass protests is difficult, one can look back at the last two Intifadas and the many smaller…
By Daoud Kuttab For the first time in decades, a major confrontation is about to take place in the Middle East in which Palestinians are totally uninvolved. The expected attack against Syria and the potential for the widening of the theater of war to neighboring countries has so far totally excluded Palestine. One informal chart shows lines…
By Daoud Kuttab One of the most repeated questions that was asked by many following the Israeli attack on Palestinians in the Qalandia refugee camp on Aug. 26 — which left three killed — was why? Why does the powerful Israeli army need to carry out a raid inside a Palestinian refugee camp at a time of relative…
By Daoud Kuttab An already strong alliance between the Jordanian and Palestinian leadership was made even stronger over the weekend. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat made an unusual public pledge on Aug. 24 by declaring that every document the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) plans to submit to the Israelis in negotiations will be first shown…
By Daoud Kuttab One of the longest-standing arguments between Israelis and Palestinians concerns the most efficient mechanism for solving their decades-old argument. Palestinians believe that the conflict is the result of biased and conspiratorial international involvement with one of the parties to the conflict, and therefore, can only be resolved if the international community is actively…
By Daoud Kuttab The near secret negotiations taking place in Jerusalem and an undeclared West Bank city are expected to cover the five final status issues that are the source of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Washington, both sides agreed that borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem will be fully discussed during the talks mandated to last…
By Daoud Kuttab I believe it is a good idea for the US and other world countries to immediately stop aid to any country that shoots civilian demonstrators. This principle should be applied without exception. Double standards should not be tolerated when dealing with soldiers causing fatalities when confronting civilian demonstrators. While this principle is…
By Daoud Kuttab After Kerry’s well-publicized July 19 statement in Amman and the highly visible opening session of the talks in Washington on July 29, both sides appear to have deliberately avoided the spotlight. The local media was full of stories about journalists trying to determine where the Jerusalem meeting was to take place, but to no avail. In the end, the…
By Daoud Kuttab Simultaneously with the resumption of peace talks, the Israeli high court has been hearing a petition by families of 15 Palestinians killed years ago, and whose bodies have been kept by the Israelis since. As the second round of face-to-face peace talks got underway, another emotional issue has arisen. The return of…
Following appeared in the Jordan Times By Daoud Kuttab When Palestinian negotiators enter the Jerusalem hotel designated for the face-to-face negotiations with their Israeli counterparts on Wednesday, they would complete falling into a well-planned negotiations trap. Palestinians have committed themselves to participate in the talks for the next nine months, irrespective of what Israel does…