Palestine, media, Jordan, community radio, online journalism
by Daoud Kuttab Three years ago the Israeli army initiated a major military offensive against the people of the Gaza strip with the aim of stopping the shelling from Gaza and the release of one of their soldiers that was held in the strip. Over 1,400 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were…
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…
  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…
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,…
  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…
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…
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…
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…
By Daoud Kuttab If the UN bid for Palestinian statehood has shown anything, it has reminded Palestinians of who their real friends are. It was clear, despite Obama’s earlier rhetoric that US would not move any direction that would upset the Israelis. But it was not only Washington and their British poodles (Tony Blair…
By Daoud Kuttab For most observers, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is one of raw politics. Most people familiar with the conflict take one side or another, maybe even becoming fanatic in their defense of their side. Usually those who support the Palestinian cause do so because of a personal connection, because of a visit to Palestinian…