Motasem A Dalloul, Middle East Monitor

The recently Israeli military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza prompted a response that shocked the occupation state and many people around the world. Not only were the resistance groups in the besieged territory able to hit targets deep inside Israel, and saw Ben Gurion Airport closed as a result, but they were also reacting to attacks on the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque. Moreover, to everyone's astonishment, the Palestinian citizens of Israel rose up in support of the resistance, joining their compatriots in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. It was a united response […]

Earlier this month, the Palestinians factions agreed that Palestinian Authority, PLO and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas must issue a decree to order the easing of public freedoms in the occupied territories and stop political detentions and prosecutions. The decree was issued on Saturday. According to Wafa, the PA's official news agency, Abbas's decree ensures the freedom to take political and national action, while banning the detention and prosecution of individuals for reasons relating to freedom of opinion and political affiliation. It also ordered "the immediate release of any detainees or prisoners held in custody against the backdrop of practicing freedom of […]

In 1993, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) signed a peace agreement with Israel, ending a six-year uprising against the Zionist state's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. The peace endeavour, backed by the international community, aimed to crack down on the Palestinian resistance, mainly that of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, which was formed in 1987 at the start of the First Intifada. When the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established according to the terms of the peace agreement known as the Oslo Accords, it took responsibility for some of the occupied territories. This was celebrated by the Palestinians, […]

At the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva on Friday, 75 members, including former statesmen and tribal leaders, elected a small Presidential Council and a prime minister to prepare the ground for fair and transparent presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 24 December. Those so chosen signed pledges that they will not stand in the elections for which they have been asked to prepare. The team for this new Libyan authority consists of Mohammed Al-Menfi, head of the Presidential Council, with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, Musa Al-Koni, and Abdullah Al-Lafi as its members. Dbeibeh was selected to serve as the prime minister […]

On 6 December 2017, the then US President Donald Trump formally recognised the Palestinian city of Jerusalem as the capital of the occupation state of Israel: "Today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel's capital:" He then relocated the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City. Following Trump's decision, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suspended contacts with Washington. The relationship soured, and Trump closed the PLO office in the US capital and stopped donations for several essential aid programmes in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the annual donation to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine […]

On 16 January Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Michichi announced his plan to reshuffle his government despite strong rejection from President Kais Saied. He then proposed 11 new ministers and obtained a vote of confidence in them in parliament. The Speaker of the Parliament Rachid Ghannouchi, head of Ennahda Movement, sent letters to Saied asking him to invite the new ministers to be sworn in, but the latter has so far refused, charging that one of the ministers was involved in a corruption case and three others were suspected of conflicts of interest. However, he gave no evidence. Saied's rejection led the […]

On 22 December, the Knesset — Israel's parliament — dissolved itself after failing pass a state budget, triggering yet another General Election. The country has been in political chaos for years, and now faces its fourth election in less than two years on 23 March. The current government was formed after months of political uncertainty and bitter toing and froing to put together a viable coalition. In April last year, Israel's longest serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud, took the reins of power again, with the head of the Blue and White bloc, former General Benny Gantz, at the […]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a presidential decree on Friday to hold parliamentary, presidential and Palestinian National Council elections on 22 May, 31 July and 31 August respectively. This was the first such decree in fifteen years for the Palestinians in the occupied territories including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. The announcement followed a few major amendments to the election law. "Amending the election law is an important step before issuing the presidential decrees related to setting a date for holding the legislative, presidential and National Council elections," explained Hisham Kuhail, executive director of the Central Elections […]

It is ten years since the people of Tunisia took to the streets and started what became known as the Jasmine Revolution which led to the ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. The revolution triggered a range of similar uprisings across the Arab world, with some regimes changing as a result, as well as further oppression, mass displacement and external interference. The Tunisians may have ended the dictatorship under which they had lived for decades, but they are still struggling to reap the benefits of their achievement. A stable, secure and prosperous Tunisia is still tantalisingly […]

In violation of all religious norms as well as international laws and conventions, Israel is weaponising the Covid-19 vaccine against the Palestinians, whose land, homes and rights are under constant threat from the occupation state. The Israeli Health Ministry began its vaccination programme on 20 December. Officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that millions of doses had been bought, enough for everyone in Israel. This was deceitful, because the occupation government is not vaccinating some of the most vulnerable people under its control: the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, for whom Israel is legally and morally responsible; and Palestinian prisoners […]

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the military wings of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip carried out the first-ever joint military drill simulating threats of various scenarios of possible Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave, which has been under a strict Israeli siege since mid-2007. A masked spokesman of the Joint Command Room, which constitutes the armed wings of Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announced the launch of the large-scale drill. "United, we start this military drill which aims to test our preparedness to deal with possible Israeli attacks and violations against our people," cited the spokesman who […]

Last Friday, Israeli occupation forces shot dead 13-year-old Palestinian boy Ali Abu Alia during a protest against the construction of an Israeli settlement in the village of Al-Mughayyir, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that Ali was "shot with live rounds in the stomach." The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Ali was admitted to hospital in critical condition and later tragically succumbed to his wounds. The harrowing killing of the Palestinian child was widely condemned with the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov tweeting: "Appalled by the […]

Last week, Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a bill to dissolve itself. While the ruling Likud was allegedly not in favour and so did not support it, the bill was passed anyway, by a vote of 61 to 54. Now it must go through the Knesset Committee and three more readings before another General Election is called. It will be the fourth in two years. According to the Chairman of the Knesset Committee, Eitan Ginzburg, if parliament is dissolved early due to the lack of an approved state budget, the election will be on 2, 9 or 16 March next year. […]

Last week, Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Scholars issued a defamatory statement against the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that the movement is one of the worst organisations and a threat to Islamic orthodoxy. The Brotherhood, claimed the Saudi scholars, "…is a terrorist group that does not represent the approach of Islam… It is a perverted organisation that disobeys legitimate rulers, stirs up discord, conceals foul doings under the cover of religion and practices violence and terrorism. The brotherhood did not show keenness to follow the teachings of Islam or the Sunnah and hadith, but aimed rather to reach power." At the same […]

While the world was busy with the American elections, it is not paying attention to what is going on in the besieged Gaza Strip and its surroundings. Early this week, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to urgently help by sending testing kits for COVID-19 as the number of new cases has been increasing steadily since the first four cases were discovered outside the quarantine centres in August. Yesterday, 303 new cases were recorded and one death. At the same time, the Health Ministry announced that the intensive care unit in Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main hospital […]

The growing rift between Muslim nations and France over President Emmanuel Macron’s offensive attack on Islam last month, which was followed by an attack on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), has led to him appearing on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world that he was misunderstood. From where I sit, it seems that Macron himself misunderstood Islam and Muslims and what the Prophet means to them. Of course it is neither obligatory nor even possible for everyone to understand everything about the world. However, a world leader such as the President of France, a country with six million Muslim […]

Giving up its decades-old position against Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Sudan has agreed to normalise relations with the Zionist state. Tellingly, this was announced by US President Donald Trump on Friday at the White House. He is, of course, seeking a second term in office in next week’s presidential election. “HUGE win today for the United States and for peace in the world,” Trump tweeted. “Sudan has agreed to a peace and normalisation agreement with Israel!” He celebrated the deal as a personal achievement to add to the previous agreements. “With the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, that’s THREE Arab countries […]

As the war gets fiercer between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous region of just 150,000 people in the South Caucasus, Armenia has lost control of territories it regarded as the buffer zone between the land in question and Azerbaijan. The decades-long conflict re-erupted on 27 September and has so far killed more than 700 people, including 13 civilians in an Armenian attack on the city of Ganja. This came only one week after another attack on the city which killed 10 civilians. “Armenia still commits war crimes and massacres civilians,” commented Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Twitter. Criticising […]

When it was launched on 1 January 1965, the Palestine National Liberation Movement, Fatah, declared that it intended to fight the Israeli occupation until the liberation of the last piece of Palestine’s soil. According to a study by Dr Mohsen Saleh, most of the movement’s founders were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but they decided to identify Fatah as a secular movement in order to avoid the complications of the Brotherhood’s relations with Arab governments. Fatah’s leadership succeeded in mobilising support for the Palestinian revolution against the Israeli occupation. Training camps were established by revolutionaries around the world, mainly in the […]

Prior to the meeting of the Arab League on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki called on his Arab counterparts to reject the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Israel normalisation deal. The deal was declared by the US, the UAE and Israel on 13 August, surprising the Palestinians and the Arab population, while creating joy among the Israeli officials and population. Addressing his counterparts, Al-Maliki stated: “In the face of the UAE-Israeli normalisation agreement, it has become necessary for us to issue a position to reject this move; otherwise, our meeting will be considered as a blessing or being complicit […]

After extensive exploration, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cheerfully announced on Friday that his country had made the biggest natural gas discovery in its history. The gas discovered in the Black Sea was estimated by 320 billion cubic metres. Erdogan said that production for commercial use could begin in 2023. “Turkey has realised the greatest natural gas discovery in its history,” Erdogan was reported by Turkish and global mass media saying, stressing that this would help the country become a game-changer in relation to the energy market. “We are determined to solve our energy issue,” he stressed. Erdogan told his nation […]

With less than ten days for designate Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi to acquire parliament’s approval for his government, Tunisians are wary that his government could be the prescription for instability in the country, or at least bait used by President Kaïs Saïed to dissolve parliament. On 25 July, Saïed shocked parliament and the Tunisian people when he neglected candidates proposed by the major political parties in parliament, and nominated Mechichi to form the new government instead. Mechichi served as interior minister in the previous government, which was brought down over corruption charges. Al Jazeera Arabic news website reported that he […]

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his administration had achieved a “historic breakthrough” deal that would witness the United Arab Emirates (UAE) exchange official and overt diplomatic relations with the Israeli occupation state, in return for Israel delaying its plans to annex large swathes of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Trump posted a copy of the joint statement of the US, Israel and the UAE regarding the deal on his Twitter account. “HUGE breakthrough today! Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends, Israel and the United Arab Emirates!” he tweeted. “This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in […]

Massive demonstrations across Israel are calling for the unseating of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over corruption cases and his alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. Worryingly for Netanyahu, the protests are growing, and look set to get even bigger, fuelled by hate speech and violence from his supporters and police. According to Israeli media, thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities. The police have been removing them forcibly, while those who manage to stay behind face being pepper sprayed by pro-Netanyahu gangs and, some reports claim, beaten up by them. At the same time, his political opponents […]

External interference in Tunisian affairs and acute ideological disagreements among the political components have been the main factors that have seemingly undermined the Tunisian Revolution, triggering the Arab Spring in 2011. The external interference represented is the persistence of certain international and regional powers to keep the Tunisian Islamists, the Ennahda party, away from authority. The ideological disagreement leads certain parties and politicians to seek the same goals – preventing Ennahda from obtaining power. Identifying the intrusion of the international and Western powers, who do not want to see the Islamists in power, is a complex mission, because they do not […]

The skulls of 24 Algerian freedom fighters, who resisted French colonialism in the middle of the 19th century, arrived in Algiers on Sunday. An emotional official and popular reception was organised for their arrival, which coincided with the 58th anniversary of Algeria’s independence. They were laid to rest at El Alia cemetery. These skulls belong to fighters who were martyred during battles fought against the French occupation. Some were killed after they were arrested and their heads were decapitated and sent to Paris as war trophies. Algerians know about the stories of these brave fighters, but know very little about what happened to […]

Despite the opposition of many Israeli officials and world leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be determined to push ahead with his annexation of large parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank on 1 July. However, the date set for the annexation process to begin came and went, and nothing happened. Commenting on Netanyahu’s failure to start the annexation, former Knesset member Aryeh Eldad said, “I want to say something to all admirers of Netanyahu, who were confident he was to impose Israel’s sovereignty on 1 July; this bling admiration is a personality cult. It is the way that […]

Concluding an official visit to Paris on Monday, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held a press conference and spoke about their discussions. Among other issues, they tended to concentrate on political and economic matters of mutual interest. Saied looked like someone begging for French support as he did his best not to make a mistake while speaking alongside Macron. He even had to explain why he spoke in Arabic — because his message was to the people of Tunisia who would be listening — rather than in French, the language in which his studies were conducted; […]

Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir was elected 75th President of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, reported the UN News. Bozkir was the sole candidate in the secret ballot. Needing a simple majority to be appointed, he received 178 votes; 11 countries abstained. Born in 1950, Bozkir studied law and has been a diplomat and politician for over 45 years. Among his diplomatic roles, he has been First Secretary of the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad, Consul General in New York, Ambassador in Bucharest and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the EU. Moreover, he has held senior advisory positions in Turkey and in […]

On Saturday, it was revealed that Israeli media are reporting fake news in order to market Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s annexation plan to the Palestinians. Such reports have been published by leading media outlets, including Yedioth Ahronoth, one of Israel’s bestselling newspapers. According to Israeli affairs specialist Abdul Aziz Salha, the Israeli media have been trying to shape public opinion in the occupied Palestinian territories about annexation. Several days ago, for example, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that “poor” Palestinian people living in isolated villages in the Jordan Valley — part of the occupied West Bank targeted by the annexation plan — were […]

With less than a month to go until the date set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the annexation of large parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank to begin, politicians and diplomats are stirring. While Netanyahu insists on going ahead with his plan, his partner in government, Defence Minister Benny Gantz, leftist Israelis and even settlers’ leaders and right-wing officials insist that it will damage Israel. To this must be added changes in US policies and the EU’s position. Gantz was against annexation as proposed by Netanyahu but eventually agreed to the plan as part of the deal for […]

After a long and complicated process that lasted 18 months, the largest Israeli political factions, the Likud and Blue and White, agreed to form a coalition government that was scheduled to be sworn in yesterday in an effort to end the period of acrimonious political instability in the country. While the Israelis, who are suffering one of the worst economic crises in modern history due to the coronavirus, were keen to celebrate the new government, the Likud head, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked Blue and White’s Benny Gantz to delay the event. Israeli politicians, analysts and journalists almost have consensus that the reason […]

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) has been threatening to cancel all the agreements with Israel over the latter’s intention to annex large parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including most of the illegal Israeli Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley. The PLO threatened to sever previous agreements on numerous occasions, however it has never followed through with it, even when Israel has carried out violations against Palestinian rights. Member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Azzam Al-Ahmad, said this weekend that the organisation “is serious in its threats this time.” Hebrew newspaper Maariv today also reported several Israeli officials saying that the PLO’s threats “are more […]

As US President, Donald Trump has been doing his best to empower the Israeli occupation of Palestine. His recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s “united” and “eternal” capital fulfilled even the most ardent Zionists’ dreams. In doing so, he also fulfilled a 25-year-old pledge of previous US administrations to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city of Jerusalem, despite this being against international law. While a few countries condemned the move, a few others followed suit. Moreover, Trump stopped America’s donations to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provides essential humanitarian services in […]