Besieged
This morning’s assault on Gaza and the massacre of 205 Palestinians (so far) was easy to foresee. First came the official lapse of the six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Then an Israeli...
View ArticleAction
I haven't used this blog for activism before, and I may not again. But for now, there is information below on how to demonstrate, donate, and write letters. The Zionist propaganda machine has won as...
View ArticleDear Prime Minister
Dear Prime MinisterI am very pleased that you have been calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel-Palestine. This marks a clear difference from the statements not only of President Bush but also of...
View ArticleMisha'al (and Clegg)
The media love to 'balance' the occupied with the occupier. But if there was really balance, Khalid Misha'al, the leader of Hamas, would have as much airtime as Livni, Barak and Olmert. I congratulate...
View ArticleAgainst 'Peace' and 'Moderation'
(I'll be talking about Palestine at the Taking Soundings meeting, Room H302, Leeds Metropolitan University Civic Quarter. Wednesday January 21st, 6 - 8 pm. Please come.)The numbers of the dead don’t...
View ArticleIsrael Must Lose
I was one of 300 writers and academics who signed this excellent letter, which was published in the Guardian. The letter was an informal effort over only 48 hours. More writers and academics are...
View ArticleLetters
(Please visit, and link to your favourites, P U L S E, a new website which I help to run. It's a great source of information and opinion.)I've recently written to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Khaled...
View ArticleAfter the Massacre 1 – Palestine and Israel
(A version of this was published at The Electronic Intifada)Hamas isn’t Hizbullah, and Gaza isn’t Lebanon. The resistance in Gaza – which includes leftist and nationalist as well as Islamist forces –...
View ArticleSectarian Rabble-Rousing
Al-Ahram Weekly, the English language twin of the Arabic daily, is an Egyptian state organ. The Weekly has a broader range of opinion than the tame daily, and does often contain interesting articles....
View ArticleNon-Violence? Finkelstein and Gandhi
(This was published at The Palestine Chronicle)When Western liberals call on the Palestinians to renounce violence and to adopt Gandhian passive resistance instead, I usually become enraged. My first...
View ArticleFour Solutions
This was published at The Palestine Chronicle.“I do not hate (Israelis) for being Jewish or Israeli but because of what they have done to us. Because of the acts of occupation. It is difficult to...
View ArticleDeconstructing the War on Terror
Here's a link to my talk on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Forgive the screwed-up face. It's the fault of those Palestinians that took me dancing...
View ArticleStranger to History
A book review of Aatish Taseer's “Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands” for the Guardian.Aatish Taseer grew up in secular, pluralist India. His early influences included his...
View ArticleThe Gulf Between Us
Another book review, fairly horribly edited by the Guardian. Here's the unedited version:The Arab world’s bestselling novel of recent years has been Alaa Al Aswany’s “Yacoubian Building”, which...
View ArticleWriter Talk
Notes for a talk to the Dumfries Writers Group tonight. It’s pretty narcissistic, but narcissism is what I do. I’ll also talk about the practicalities of finding an agent and a publisher, and about...
View ArticleRant against Hypocrisy
I don’t quite know why, but hypocrisy is the element in political discourse which catalyses my most murderous responses. Perhaps it’s because I like language, or respect it, and believe it shouldn’t be...
View ArticleSyria's Tolstoy
A book review for the Guardian:Syria, more than most, is a land of stories and storytellers. The farmers and shopkeepers describe early Islamic battles or episodes from the Crusades as if they’d...
View ArticleMuslim Writer
Something for the Muslim Writers Awards:Am I a Muslim writer? American Jews and Russian Christians are what I read when I write. I like Syrian poets and Egyptian novelists too, but it would be...
View ArticleVisit Palestine
I have just returned from a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting week in Palestine. I was a participant in Palfest 09, the second Palestine Festival of Literature. It was a great honour to...
View ArticleAli Abunimah on Obama's Lecture
Personally, I found it unpleasant to see Obama lecturing the Arabs, and the handpicked audience clapping as ecstatically as trained apes whenever the President (rather like Napoleon in Cairo) made an...
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Suheir Hammad
Suheir Hammad is one of the Palfest participants who deserves a post to herself. A Palestinian-American, Suheir was born to refugee parents in Amman. She spent her first years in civil war Beirut...
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From Vanunu to the New Jew
“I cannot keep silent … Disaster follows disaster; the land lies in ruins … My people are fools; they do not know me.” Jeremiah 4:19Mordechai Vanunu is a Moroccan Jew, born in Marrakesh. Today he...
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Entering Palestine
I love it when Arab Christians have names like Omar. It shows, on their fathers’ part, a rejection of the sectarianism which cripples us. I know of a Christian family in Beirut which named its eldest...
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The Green Still Resists
In one of the most contentious sections of his thoroughly contentious Cairo speech, Obama declared: “Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not...
View ArticleShifting to www.qunfuz.com
I am posting new articles and most of the old stuff on this blog over at www.qunfuz.com Please join me there.
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