Category: 6. Opinion

The U.S. (like the Israeli regime with which it collaborates so closely) is fond of the “magic word defense.”  When operating outside the bounds of international law and human morality, they simply spout terms like “terrorist” or “self-defense,” as if these incantations provide an impermeable shield against legal accountability for their actions.

Needless to say, they do not. And yet you would not know this from the ways that Western media corporations dutifully parrot…

One day, my 13-year-old brother woke up struggling to breathe, and he told us that he saw our grandfather in a dream. Our grandfather passed away in 2017 and is buried in Al-Sharqiya Cemetery, located east of Gaza City near the occupied border. In the dream, my grandfather told him that he had lost his leg when a bomb hit his grave. 

No one knows what has happened to Al-Sharqiya Cemetery during the genocide. It is the biggest cemetery in Gaza, where most Gazan civilians are…

In the ongoing cycle of violence under occupation, the small village of Jinba in my community of Masafer Yatta has borne the brunt of Israeli settler and military aggression. While global attention often sways to high-profile incidents, such as attacks against well-known individuals, the tragedy in Jinba has largely gone unnoticed by much of the international community. 

Jinba is a remote village located in the southern West Bank. Like many Palestinian communities surviving…

On April 13, 1975, a busload of Palestinian civilians was ambushed in Ain al-Rummaneh, a predominantly Maronite Christian neighborhood in East Beirut, by Phalangist militiamen who committed a massacre. That moment, often cited as the spark of the Lebanese Civil War, did not emerge from a vacuum — it followed years of tension between the Lebanese state, sectarian militias, and the growing Palestinian armed presence in Lebanon, which started in 1971 when the PLO arrived after being…

Iran and the United States are set to meet indirectly on today in Oman, in the hopes of finding a way to resolve their confrontations over Iran’s nuclear program without a resort to an “Israeli-led” attack on Iran. 

There are a lot of details to parse if these discussions are to bear fruit. It will be important to see whether each side—though most of the concern here really lays with the American side—is willing, at least in the context of these talks, to deal with…

My grandmother navigated life with sumud — steadfastness — as her compass. The translucent blue veins of her hands were lines on a map leading me home. Her scars were the indelible ink that told stories of grief so deep the stones wept. 

Her village was renowned for its quarried stones. Today, its foundation stones are mortared with the anguished generations of blood, bones, and flesh. Surrounding the village is a forest of non-native pine trees planted in soil irrigated with…

In a moment that stunned many in Washington, Donald Trump announced this week that high-level talks with Iran would begin on Saturday in Oman. Sitting beside him was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—perhaps the most fervent opponent of diplomacy with Tehran—who had just called for a so-called “Libya model” approach to Iran: a euphemism for demands so extreme they would sabotage diplomacy and push both nations toward war.

But what unfolded wasn’t the show of unity…

Last week, I read the news that all residents of Rafah must evacuate. The words hit me like a thunderbolt, reopening wounds I thought had healed. Rafah was not just a place of displacement; it became a part of my soul, a space where I lived through unforgettable moments, balancing between pain and hope, fear and the sheer will to survive. I spent nearly five months there, each day etching itself deep into my memory.

I am from Gaza, from the south, specifically from al-Zawaida…

A week ago, Muslims across the world observed the Eid al-Fitr holiday on Sunday, March, 30. Millions celebrated with nice clothes, decorated homes and sweet desserts, as is the Islamic tradition on the Eid holidays. But in Gaza, Eid was observed under the weight of immense grief. 

In a searing piece for The New Arab, Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, from Gaza, writes: 

“For 538 days, I mistakenly believed that the Muslim world would come to our aid… I ask you now: How…

While Israel continues to ratchet up tension and anger throughout the Arab world with its escalating genocide in Gaza, its thoroughly unprovoked attacks on Lebanon and Syria, and its growing aggression on the West Bank, the United States is playing a very dangerous game with Iran.

The U.S. has been bolstering its presence in the Middle East, with deployments hitting record highs in recent weeks. A great deal of equipment seems to have been transferred to American bases in Qatar,…