Category: Palestinian politics

  By Daoud Kuttab It is not clear whether Salam Fayyad uttered these exact terms, but what the New York Times’ Roger Cohen quoted the outgoing Palestinian prime minister as having said resonated with many Palestinians. Frustrated as to the lack of progress after 46 years of occupation, Palestinians are ready to find any scapegoat to pour all their frustrations on. The statement…

  By Daoud Kuttab Sometimes the best way to gauge reactions to a particular action is to look away from it. The reactions of the Jordanian parliament and government on Wednesday, May 8, to Israel’s decisions regarding Al-Aqsa mosque is a prime example. Jordan, one of two Arab countries that has signed a peace agreement…

  By Daoud Kuttab Europe, Israel’s No. 1 trading partner, is once again trying to rethink its Israel policies in light of the latter’s failure to facilitate the two-state solution. The European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) has issued a powerful document aimed at guiding member states in dealing with Israel, Palestinians and Arabs. Entitled…

  By Daoud Kuttab The statement made by the Qatari prime and foreign minister in Washington in favor of adding a clause to the Arab Peace Initiative allowing for “land swaps”  caught many off guard and drew a largely negative reaction in Palestinian and Arab circles. On the surface, the statement by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr…

  By Daoud Kuttab After a seven-year legal battle, the Silesian nuns convent located in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala lost an appeal on April 24 against the building of the Israeli wall on its land. The latest route of the wall will place the convent on the Palestinian side of the wall, and its companion Cremisan Catholic…

  By Daoud Kuttab When Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad broke his silence following the acceptance by President Mahmoud Abbas of his resignation, the topic he chose to discuss was not overtly political. Using his Facebook page, Salam Fayyad wrote the following words: “I call on all Palestinians to support the Palestinian artistMohammed Assaf, who is…

  By Daoud Kuttab The state of Israel prides itself on being a democratic state in which all its citizens are treated equally under the law. Yet a closer examination shows the strange and convoluted ways in which laws are used to defend some clearly racist practices. A case in point is the practice of…

  By Daoud Kuttab The image will remain engraved in many people’s memory about the first intifada. A Palestinian woman dressed in a skirt and blouse holds here high heel shoes in one hand and throws a stone on members of the occupying Israeli forces with the other. Clearly the image is not so much…