Israeli “peace” shenanigans continue. The joke of the day here in Palestine goes as follows: An openly racist Israeli Prime Minister, who has gone on record to reject the two-state solution, has appointed a former foreign minister, who himself has gone on record to reject a Palestinian state, as the “peace” envoy in the new Israeli government. Silvan Shalom, who has expressed his full support for West Bank settlement expansion, has been tasked with pursuing peace talks with the Palestinians.

Now just to be completely clear here, and in order for us to avoid any confusion, peace talks in the Israeli lexicon are defined as follows: a process led by the incumbent government with the purpose of misleading the world to believing that Israel is interested in a just and fair solution to the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The process is meant to show Israeli seriousness (wink wink) in...

The Nakba commemoration this year comes at a critical juncture. The makeup of the current Israeli government and the publication of its guidelines foretell of another dark and difficult episode in the long and difficult Palestinian struggle to achieve freedom and equality. As it stands, Israel’s newest government consists of a prime minister who resorted to blatant racism and outright rejection of the two-state solution to win an election, a Justice Minister who has philosophized the legitimacy of genocide against the Palestinian people, and an Education Minister whose sole objective is to eliminate, once and for all, the viability of a Palestinian state by pursuing a mega-expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

For us Palestinians, there is nothing surprising about the makeup of the current Israeli government, or the statements of its prime minister and justice minister, or...

The Palestinian people were shocked by the untimely death of Palestinian Minister for Settlements and the Wall, Ziad Abu Ein, a few days back. Minister Abu Ein was taking part in a peaceful demonstration held against the illegal settlement outpost of Adei Ad, which had expanded towards the Palestinian village of Turmus Aya taking over valuable agricultural land. Abu Ein was planning to plant olive trees as a means of protest when he was violently shoved, pushed, and choked by Israeli border police before he fainted and passed away. There were also reports of tear gas and stun grenades being fired by Israeli soldiers in his direction which exacerbated his collapse. The images and videos are all over the internet and are hard to digest.

If this tragic incident proves anything, it proves that the Palestinian people are a defenseless people that have no protection, no security, and are...

Back in Jerusalem after an absence of one year and three months. The tension is present in the air, particularly in the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, with Israeli police cars present at almost every corner. Israeli PM Netanyahu has declared this morning that Palestinian President Abbas is “teaching terror” and inciting violence. This coming from the head of a right-wing, settler-backed Israeli government that has launched one of the deadliest and most ruthless military assaults on the Palestinian people in recent times this past summer, with over 2,200 Palestinians killed, more than 10,000 injured, and almost 500,000 displaced.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli government is actively working to alter the status quo of holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa mosque, despite assurances to the contrary. Senior ministers and officials of the Israeli government have forced their way into Al-Aqsa...