Ramzy Baroud

On May 15, thousands of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and throughout the "shatat", or diaspora, participated in the commemoration of Nakba Day, the one event that unites all Palestinians, regardless of their political differences or backgrounds. For years, social media has added a whole new stratum to this process of commemoration. #Nakba72, along with #NakbaDay … Continue reading “Why Israel Fears the Nakba: How Memory Became Palestine’s Greatest Weapon”

Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has, once and for all, settled the doubts on the Court’s jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed in occupied Palestine. On April 30, Bensouda released a 60-page document diligently laying down the legal bases for that decision, concluding that "the Prosecution has carefully considered the … Continue reading “What You Need to Know About the ICC Investigation of War Crimes in Occupied Palestine”

"Heinous racism," is how the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor described a recent decision by Lebanese authorities to bar Palestinian refugee expats from returning to Lebanon. Lebanon’s restrictions on its ever-diminishing population of Palestinian refugees is nothing new. However, this event is particularly alarming as it may be linked to a long-term official policy regarding … Continue reading “Arabs, UN Must Move To Swiftly Protect the Status of Palestinian Refugees”

One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was … Continue reading “100 Years of Shame: Annexation of Palestine Began in San Remo”

Shortly after an agreement to form a "national emergency government" in Israel, leader of the Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) party, Benny Gantz, tweeted triumphantly that "democracy" in Israel has been "safeguarded". But how is a deal that would grant Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a veto power over the very judicial system which … Continue reading “Hating Arabs as a Common Ground: Why Israel’s Coalition Government Is Likely To Survive”

Spitting at someone is a universal insult. In Israel, however, spitting at Palestinians is an entirely different story. Now that we know that the deadly coronavirus can be transmitted through saliva droplets, Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers are working extra hard to spit at as many Palestinians, their cars, doorknobs, and so on, as … Continue reading “Spreading the Virus of Occupation: Spitting as a Weapon in the Hand of Colonial Israel”

Call it a "quarantine", a "shelter-in-place", a "lockdown" or a "curfew", we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily. Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual "lockdown". My father’s "quarantine" was experienced much earlier, as did his father’s "shelter-in-place" before him. They both died and were buried … Continue reading “A Palestinian Guide to Surviving a Quarantine: On Faith, Humor, and ‘Dutch Candy’”

Tunisia is the Middle East’s greatest success story, according to the findings of the V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2019. One of the world’s most regarded annual reports on democracy and good governance, the V-Dem Report is produced by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. While Tunisians can be … Continue reading “Tunisia Leads the Way: New Report Exposes Israel’s False Democracy”

The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need for peace, security and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for military hardware, an ominous sign for … Continue reading “Technology of Death: The Not-So-Shocking Report on Israeli Weapons Exports”

“I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 elections.  Biden is, of course, correct, because Zionism is a political movement that is rooted in … Continue reading “‘Zionist’ Biden in His Own Words: ‘My Name is Joe Biden, and Everybody Knows I Love Israel’”