Diana Buttu

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Israelis Have Put Benjamin Netanyahu Back in Power. Palestinians Will Likely Pay the Price

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As the prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu finalizes the formation of Israel’s most extreme right-wing government to date, I, along with other Palestinians in Israel and in the occupied territories, am filled with dread about what the next few years will bring.

Every day since the elections, Palestinians wake up with a what-now apprehension, and more often than not, there’s yet another bit of news that adds to our anxiety. The atmosphere of racism is so acute that I hesitate to speak or read Arabic on public transportation. Palestinian rights have been pushed to the back burner.

We Palestinians live knowing that a vast majority of Israeli politicians don’t support an end to Israel’s military rule over the West Bank and Gaza Strip nor equality for all of its citizens.…  Seguir leyendo »

Bullet holes on a tree and a makeshift memorial mark where the Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed in the West Bank city of Jenin in May. Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press

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I first met the pioneering Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh more than two decades ago. She was in the early days of her career at Al Jazeera, and I was at the start of my stint as a legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

As a newcomer to the occupied West Bank, I was in awe of Shireen’s steeliness while reporting on Israel’s invasion of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002. On May 11, 2022, she was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the city. Her producer was also wounded. Both were clearly identified as journalists, wearing body armor boldly marked “press” for all to see.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last week, an Israeli flight made its way from Israel to the United Arab Emirates in what was regarded as a historical journey. Credit Christopher Pike/Reuters

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Last week, an Israeli airliner made its way from Israel to the United Arab Emirates in what was regarded a historical journey. The first ever such flight, the direct flight was the outcome of a deal made last month between the two countries.

While Israel and the Trump administration celebrated the moment, Palestinians sounded an opposite note. The Palestinian prime minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, declared the flight “a clear and a blatant violation of the Arab position toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

“We had hoped to see an Emirati plane landing in a liberated Jerusalem, but we live in a difficult Arab era,” he said.…  Seguir leyendo »

Jewish settlers at a viewpoint in the Judean desert overlooking the West Bank city of Jericho. Photograph: Oded Balilty/AP

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Last week, an impeached US president revealed his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, with an indicted Israeli prime minister at his side. Yet far from being a “historic” peace plan, Donald Trump’s initiative is merely the repackaging of ideas from previous failed negotiations, including from the days in which I served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team.

Then, as now, Israeli plans had the same aim: to confine as many Palestinians as possible on as little land as possible, while legalising Israel’s illegal settlements and depriving Palestinians their guaranteed right to return to their homeland. This is not a plan for peace but a demand that Palestinians agree to their perpetual subjugation.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Israel’s killing of 18 Palestinian protesters in Gaza last Friday was entirely predictable. It was also entirely avoidable. The victims were taking part in the annual Land Day march commemorating the 1976 killing of six Palestinians who were protesting Israel’s confiscation of thousands of acres of their land. This year’s event also marks 70 years since the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the displacement from their land during the establishment of the State of Israel. Participants marched to the heavily fortified eastern boundary between Gaza and Israel, in a symbolic show of return to their land and the homes from which they and their families originate.…  Seguir leyendo »

Palestinian protesters burn a picture of US President Donald Trump and the Israeli flag in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on December 6, 2017. The slogan in Arabic reads: “Palestinian youth protest movement Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine”. President Donald Trump is set to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, upending decades of careful US policy and ignoring dire warnings from Arab and Western allies alike of a historic misstep that could trigger a surge of violence in the Middle East. / AFP PHOTO / SAID KHATIBSAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images.

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This week, President Trump declared that his administration is recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a move, he claims, that will “advance the peace process and work towards a lasting agreement,” reversing nearly 70 years of U.S. foreign policy. On this, not only is Trump wrong, but also his actions threaten to set the precedent for a new international system based on aggression rather than the rule of law.

Under the United Nations’ 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine, Jerusalem was never intended to be the capital of any country, but rather a shared city under an international regime with sovereignty resting with neither Israel nor Palestinians.…  Seguir leyendo »

Why the Palestinian Authority Should Be Shuttered

MundoOriente Próximo

President Trump’s meeting this week with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was pitched as an effort by the author of “The Art of the Deal” to restart the United States-sponsored peace process, long stalled. But as next month’s 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation approaches, this much is certain: The process is worse than stalled. In the face of an intransigent right-wing government in Israel, which doesn’t believe Palestinians should have full rights, negotiations are futile.

Where does this leave Mr. Trump and the American policy of propping up the Palestinian Authority and Mr. Abbas? Given the abject failure of talks built on a bankrupt framework that heavily favors Israel, more and more Palestinians are debating the need for new leadership and a new strategy.…  Seguir leyendo »