Cuba’s anti-terror efforts to protect its nation are best known through the story of the Cuban Five, who infiltrated terror organisations sponsored by the US government in Miami. The repetitive cycles of foreign interference and intervention in Latin America and elsewhere testify to the importance of a consistent anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle that has the…
Tag: Palestine
Preserving the memory of the Nakba in Palestinian literature
In recent years, there has been an increased effort to bring Palestinian narratives of the 1948 Nakba to the forefront. The ethnic cleansing displaced 750,000 Palestinians from their land between 1947 and 1949. In the decades that followed, Palestinian narratives were muted to accommodate the political diplomacy promoted by the international community. This included a…
The UN is failing Palestine’s school children
The targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including school premises, is a violation of international law in which Israel indulges routinely. Only this time, the international community is not even attempting to feign the usual concern. What happens to upholding education as a basic human right, when Israel’s bombing of Gaza becomes a normalised routine, you…
Book Review: The Woman From Tantoura
An unfulfilled desire has no sanctuary other than remembrance. Radwa Ashour’s novel, The Woman from Tantoura (Hoopoe Fiction, 2019), explores the ramifications of memory and how its story is told. Chronology, while important, plays a lesser role than emotions, while memory takes on its own trajectory. “The story moves on, but sometimes not completely, because as…
Spirit of Return featured in online Palestine art expo
My watercolour painting, “Spirit of Return”, was chosen by rights group Staat Van Beleg for inclusion in an online art expo about the Palestinian Nakba. More about the art feature in this link.
No compromise in Israel Eurovision Boycott
Celebrities arguing against a cultural boycott of Israel in the lead-up to this year’s Eurovision song contest are missing the point. A joint letter from figures including Stephen Fry, Sharon Osbourne and Marina Abramovic states, ‘We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise,…
Book Review: My Name is Adam
One cannot speak of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 without touching upon identity and its ramifications. Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury’s novel, My Name is Adam is replete with questions and answers regarding identity, juxtaposed against inscribed recollections of the ethnic cleansing of Lydda. No matter the veneer one strives to don as part of the journey moving…
Book Review: Palestine and Rule of Power. Local Dissent vs International Governance
This collection of well-researched essays provides an insight into the dynamics of how neoliberalism is woven within the Zionist colonial process and how it has created two opposing camps, succinctly described in the foreword by Richard Falk as the failure of UN diplomacy and the existing possibilities of Palestinian anti-colonial struggle. The neoliberal framework depoliticises…
Delaying publication of the settlement blacklist exposes the UN’s false narratives on human rights
The UN is openly flaunting its priorities and, sadly, human rights are far from a major concern for the international organisation. Since its creation post-World War Two, and having established itself as the platform which determines what constitutes a human rights violation and which countries can be considered as perpetrators, several trends have emerged within…
The UN persists with obsolete frameworks for Israel’s political benefit
Years after the two-state paradigm was declared obsolete, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process has informed the Security Council that, “The possibility of establishing a viable, contiguous Palestinian state has been systematically eroded by facts on the ground.” The statement is an attempt to transform what has been patently obvious for years into…