Columns/Opinions

By : Jonathan Cook  Among Palestinians and Israelis, the recent upsurge in violence has been variously described as the children’s, lone-wolf, Jerusalem and smartphone intifadas. Each describes a distinguishing feature of this round of clashes. The steady erosion of Fatah and Hamas’ authority during the post-Oslo years, as the Palestinian factions proved incapable of protecting their people from the structural …

By Ramzy Baroud When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists’. The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative from a …

By Shane Simpson Labour Day is a day to celebrate the achievements of working people, and to renew our efforts to make things better. B.C.’s New Democrats are dedicated to making changes that support workers, ensuring they have good working conditions and get paid a fair wage. Labour Day has its origins in the union movement’s fight for the eight-hour …

By Juan Cole  If there were a Palestinian Donald Trump, he’d be fulminating against illegal immigrants swamping the Palestinian West Bank. And he’d be complaining that fully 1 in 6 of these undocumented squatters are Americans . Since Americans have trouble understanding the basic facts of the situation, it is worthwhile underscoring that the United Nations General Assembly’s partition plan for …

By: Jonathan Cook I have written recently about Israel’s efforts to wipe off the map the 1,000-strong Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev (Naqab) so that Jews can live in their place. Dozens of other Bedouin communities in Israel – known as “unrecognised villages” and representing tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens – are facing similar fates. The …

By Ramzy Baroud So far this year, “nearly one quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe”, reported Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, citing the International Organisation for Migration. The situation is indeed bleak, not only because the number of refugees is constantly on the rise, but also because Europe appears rather disinterested in addressing the root causes …

By : Amer Zahr There’s no reason to think there’s anything wrong. Almost no reason. Except for one thing. There’s a military occupation going on. Forty-eight years later, unfortunately, this still has to be explained. And I don’t want to try to explain it to you by exploring international law or geopolitics. Wikipedia has that pretty well covered. Instead, let’s …

By: Dr.Dawg Criticism of Israel is something that “today’s NDP” takes very seriously indeed: so seriously that a purge of candidates now appears to be underway. Their crime? To speak up for the human rights of Palestinians. After the recent roasting of a Palestinian toddler by Israeli settlers (no arrests to date, just a round-up of the Usual Suspects and a …

By : Ramzy Baroud As much of the Middle East sinks deeper into division between competing political camps, the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (‘IS’) continues its unhindered march towards a twisted version of a Muslim caliphate. Many thousands have lost their lives, some in the most torturous ways, so that ‘IS’ may realize its nightmarish dream. Of course, violence meted out …

By: Ramzy Baroud Another row is brewing between Israel and the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, over the release of Avraham Mengitsu, an Israeli citizen who, according to Israeli military sources, ‘slipped into Gaza’ on September 7, 2014. The circumstances of Mengitsu’s entry into Gaza remain unclear, especially since Hamas’ political leader,Khaled Mashaal, denied that the military wing of Hamas is …