Tag Archives: violence

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:  Amna Guellali human rights watch There was a time Tunisia looked set to follow the path of many of the popular uprisings during the Arab Spring – first hope, then a decent into bloodshed and chaos. What helped save Tunisia’s prospects was an extraordinary coming together of civil society groups that guided a national dialogue and charted a path …

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 …

Joint Statement from Parties, Institutions, Rights Organizations, and Public Figures on the Proposed Counterterrorism Law The undersigned institutions, political parties, rights organizations, and public figures urge the government to delay the issuance of the proposed counterterrorism law, as published in the press, until a broad and genuine social dialogue takes place about its feasibility, its articles, and the ways to …

CJ Werleman- MEE In an interview on CNN, Suzanne Barakat, the sister of one of the Chapel Hill shooting victims, said the film American Sniper has helped to not only “dehumanise Muslims” but also has created an atmosphere that is akin to an “open season” on Muslim Americans. Barakat says it was this climate of anti-Muslim bigotry that led to …

By Monia Mazigh In the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of the word “fear” reads as follows: “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm.”Stephen Harper must have learned this definition by heart. The way he uses fear on the Canadian population to pass his proposed new anti-terror legislation is working to perfection, as least so …

By Ramzy Baroud The murder of three American Muslims at a University of North Carolina condominium on Tuesday, 10 February, was no ordinary murder, nor is the criminal who killed them an ordinary thug. The context of the killings, the murder itself and the media and official responses to the horrific event is a testimony to everything that went wrong …

By Ramzy Baroud It is still not about Islam, even if the media and militants attacking western targets say so. Actually, it never was. But it was important for many to conflate politics with religion; partly because it is convenient and self-validating. First, let’s be clear on some points. Islam has set in motion a system to abolish slavery over …

By Scott Long – A Paper Bird There is no “but” about what happened at Charlie Hebdo yesterday. Some people published some cartoons, and some other people killed them for it.  Words and pictures can be beautiful or vile, pleasing or enraging, inspiring or offensive; but they exist on a different plane from physical violence, whether you want to call that plane spirit or …