Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“Many terrorist organisations, pilloried as such in the course of recent history, have ceased to be pariahs and become legitimate interlocutors. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Algerian National Liberation Front, the African National Congress (ANC) and many others have been by turns described as ‘terrorists’, a word which serves to depoliticise their struggle, to present it as a confrontation between Good and Evil. Each time the Palestinians rebel, the West, – so prompt to glorify the resistance of the Ukrainians – speaks of terrorism. In 1967, following the Israeli aggression, General de Gaulle spoke these premonitory words: ‘Now Israel is organising, on the territories it has conquered, an occupation which will necessarily involve oppression, repression, and expulsions. If they encounter any resistance, they will call it terrorism…‘ Contrary to what many Israelis claim (…) this is not a ‘unilateral’ and ‘unprovoked’ attack. The fright which Israelis are experiencing just now, me

“ In the midst of all this politicking, thousands of civilians have lost their lives as the West refuses to address the root cause of this decades-long conflict: the continued oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.” Oppression and dispossessions are the key aspects. It is not a ‘conflict’ though. “It is difficult for Western audiences to understand the terror and oppression to which ordinary Palestinians are subjected on a daily basis, because it is simply not reported throughout much of the media.”  As for solidarity and what can be done, I do think that the solution lays in the region, not outside it. Another revolutionary, but radical, upheaval that topples the rotten, complicit regimes in the region could bring justice to the Palestinians by changing the balance of forces. There is no solution that will come from ‘the West’. Palestinian trade unions

Against Amnesia The experience of violence by a stronger party has historically turned victims into terrorists. That's what happens to peoples and nations. When they are battered, they hit back. State terror very often breeds collective terror. –Eqbal Ahmed, 1998 [Ahmed though does not explicitly include the state terrorism of Western states. He merely talks about the how US ‘promotes terrorism’, for instance.] From a transcript of a talk by Eqbal Ahmed University of Colorado, Boulder, on 12 October 1998 “By 1942, the Holocaust was occurring, and a certain liberal sympathy with the Jewish people had built up in the Western world. At that point, the terrorists of Palestine, who were Zionists, suddenly started to be described, by 1944-45, as 'freedom fighters.' Then from 1969 to 1990 the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, occupied the center stage as the terrorist organization. Yasir Arafat has been described repeatedly by the great sage of American journalism, Willi

“Both Hindutva and Zionism draw on ancient mythology to exert their statehood and entitlement to land and power. They both instrumentalise religion to justify their perspectives. Because it is in Palestine and Kashmir that the outcomes of Zionism and Hindutva are most visible. The Indian occupation and the Israeli occupation are not the same, but once again, they share many similarities.” The past and present of the Indian-Israeli relations

Note that Avi Shlaim uses the mainstream description ‘the Palestinian-Israeli conflict’ although he asserts that Israel’s origin is settler colonialism. How was there ethnic cleansing, as Shlaim asserts, and one can still call it a conflict? Shlaim mentions how “ The last five Conservative prime ministers, starting with David Cameron, have all been staunch supporters of Israel.” Why, I wonder, did he exclude Blair’s New Labour, not to mention previous Labour governments? He also states something I find disturbing: “ The British mandate for Iraq, the French mandate for Syria, and the French mandate for Lebanon were all about preparing the local population for self-government.” ‘ An unbroken thread of duplicity, mendacity, chicanery and skulduggery’ Related It is not a conflict

What more does it need for the French government to react and correct its indulgence, or rather its complicity, with Israel? The president’s policy follows the same line as that of François Hollande who lamented, in the presence of Netanyahu, that he could not sing aloud “all his love for Israel and for its leaders”, asks Alain Gresh. Friends in state terror  – a very liberal article that does not put Macron’s action as part of French imperialist actions and interests. There is no geopolitics and no political economy. French imperialism in the Sahel. French imperialism and the Egyptian regime. French imperialism in support of General Haftar. France’s war in Yemen. French capital in Africa and elsewhere.

I did not know that it was so good until I started watching. Plot summary . With English subtitles , but you may need a VPN.

Names and faces

Note that it should be Fatah, not El Fatah. I wonder why ‘Arab Springs’ in the plural form? “ Turkey will answer present.” I don’t think that is a correct English. When Turkey comes to terms again with Israel Also available in French, Arabic and Farsi

A supporter of Israeli oppression

A good summary. “There is no contradiction between standing with the people of Ukraine and against Russia’s heinous invasion and being honest about the hypocrisy, war crimes, and militarism of the U.S. and NATO. We have an undeniable moral responsibility to prioritize holding our own government accountable for its crimes because they are being done in our names and with our tax dollars. That does not mean we should be silent in the face of the crimes of Russia or other nations, but we do bear a specific responsibility for the acts of war committed by our own nations.” On hypocrisy: “ How many of the people with Ukrainian flag avatars on their Twitter profiles have spent days or weeks pleading for the world to stand up for ordinary Yemenis living under the hell of American bombs and Saudi warplanes? The same question applies in the case of the Palestinians who live under an  apartheid state  imposed by Israel and backed up by a sustained campaign of annihilation  supported  and  encoura

Hypocrisy then, more hypocrisy now

How the Jewish state’s founding ideology shapes it to this day Related Even the liberal Ban Ki-moon is better than the ‘liberals’ in power: “The starting point of a new approach must be to recognise the fundamental asymmetry between the parties. This is not a conflict between equals that can be resolved through bilateral negotiations, confidence-building measures or mutual sequencing of steps — the traditional conflict-resolution tools.  The reality is very different: a powerful state is controlling another people through an open-ended occupation, settling its own people on the land in violation of international law and enforcing a legal regime of institutionalised discrimination. Calls for a return to unconditional bilateral talks every time there is a fresh flare-up in fighting will only serve to perpetuate the status quo if these root causes are not addressed.  What has become increasingly clear in recent years is Israel’s intent to maintain its structural domination and oppression

A search of the media aggregator Factiva finds that the five US newspapers with the highest circulation — the  Wall Street Journal ,   USA Today , the  New York Times , the  Washington Post , and the   Los Angeles Times  — have run 343 articles this century containing the phrases “Israel’s right to self-defense,” “Israel has a right to defend itself,” or “Israel’s right to defend itself.” Querying the same outlets in the same period for “Palestinian right to self-defense,” “Palestinians have a right to defend themselves,” or variations of “Palestinians’ right to defend themselves,” produces just two results, nearly identical pieces about an ex-guard at a US Air Force base reputed to have said that Palestinians have such a right. Palestinians Have the Right to Defend Themselves

State and vigilante-style violence Related My interview with Jonathan Cook back in 2006

Interesting as always to see how leftists are up in arms screaming at another crime of the Israeli-settler state, posting one article after another, one image after another, resuming their ritual of marching and chanting ... These are the same leftists who hardly lifted a finger against the Asad’s regime crimes in Syria, or even supported it. 

U.S. Jim Crow Israeli Apartheid

Why the pandering to the Israeli lobby?

 At least three of his arguments are still relevant today: The portrayal of the Arabs and the Middle Easterners. We have seen that since 2001.  The Palestinian leadership capitulation in the Oslo Accords. We know today that the plight of the Palestinians is worse and the cancer of occupation has spread even further. The almost disappearance of the dissident intellectual. What we have are intellectuals of the status quo.

“Liberal or centre-left governments in Israel and the US, who pushed for a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish majority one, have arguably done settlers a greater service than right-wing hawks... Trump’s team did not change the reality on the ground, but it did dispel the myth that endless rounds of negotiations would result in a Palestinian state.  With Joe Biden’s return to power as president, this myth will lovingly and carefully be restored, like some biblical archaeological find. Israeli settlers will continue the business of cutting down Palestinian olive trees. Israeli courts will continue to dispossess Palestinians of their legal rights to their land. Heads will shake with disapproval in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin, but nothing will be done. Many words will be uttered about the justice of the Palestinian cause, safe in the knowledge that it will never see the light of day.” Why Palestinians are not joining the party