Before the operation started, the Israeli army ordered the residents of Khuza'a to evacuate their homes. Almost 70% of the residents left their homes to go to UN shelters or relatives' houses in relatively safe areas, while around 3,000 people decided not to leave.
While it is true that the US has, for once, signed up to a UN Security Council statement which calls for an "immediate and unconditional humanitarian cease-fire”, this might still be considered a tactical step to prevent more strongly worded resolutions against Israel being proposed in the Securit
Debate around the Palestintian-Israeli conflict needs to be framed around whether Palestinians have a legitimate right to resistance.
It is dangerous to argue that the peace process is dead, but it cannot be revived while the Israeli right is in power.
Labelling the conflict 'Palestinian-Israeli' is misleading. It is not simply a conflict over the future of Palestine. It is also a conflict over the future of the Arab world; a conflict that will be determined by the success or failures of the Arab revolt.
The Arab Spring was caused by a multitude of factors (economic, political, social, cultural and religious), but its origins also lay in belief. Not a singular belief, but a collective, multifaceted belief that liberation is not only needed, but also possible.
Though my writing is an intellectual exercise, the war itself has been a very real thing. Tomorrow, as the representative of my village, I will be attending the funeral of a twenty-two year old officer severely wounded two days ago.
A number of parties seem to have been complicit in the failure of the politics to prevent this latest round of deadly fighting in Gaza. In such a climate, one can be motivated to damage one’s enemy rather than to protect one’s own best interest.
Led by the self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (b.1971), ISIS promotes itself in Iraq and globally as a purified expression of original Islam.
As scenes of jubilation in Sunni cities coupled with fear and calls for jihad in Shia cities show how deep and explosive sectarian divisions are in Iraq, should Kurds be forced to stay on?
The squeeze between Iraqi, Syrian and international forces and the conflict between armed groups in the region is the gamble that the Islamic State has made. In return for this gamble, global jihadist recruitment from an ever growing list of nationalities and pledges of allegiance are the prizes.
An excerpt from an interview with a Palestinian Christian in Bethlehem, who isn't a politician or a militant, just a normal man trying to live his life under occupation, introduced by the interviewer.
