Criminal gangs, insurgents and terrorist groups seek to protect the people in the areas they govern, when a central government’s power is weak or nonexistent.
Like the colonization of Indigenous lands in North America and the squeezing of Indigenous peoples into “reserves,” the colonization and appropriation of Palestinian land is unrelenting.
Protesters pray in front of their tents during a demonstration along the Gaza Strip border with Israel, March 30, 2018.
AP/Adel Hana
The violence that led to the deaths of 18 Palestinians last week in Gaza dominated the headlines. But that’s not the real story from that day: The nonviolence of thousands of other demonstrators is.
Aerial bombing explosion in Gaza Strip during the Cast Lead operation. January, 2009.
Shutterstock
After many failed attempts, Hamas and Fatah might just have struck a crucial accord. But can they follow through?
A rocket is launched from Israel’s Iron Dome, an anti-missile system, in order to intercept a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip in 2011.
(AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File)
The Middle East could be witnessing a foreign policy misfire of epic proportions.
Residents of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip watch a parade by the military wing of Hamas to mark the anniversary of the war with Israel.
AAP/Newzulu/Mhmed Ali
The New Year always provides an opportunity for both introspection and speculation. So it seems a good time to consider what the big stories are likely to be this year. Some of the five major stories I…
The Israeli government continues to undermine a two-state solution by expanding settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
EPA/Jim Hollander
Escalating confrontations in Jerusalem centred on the al-Aqsa Mosque, 1500 more homes to be built in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and a sharp deterioration in Israel’s relations with Jordan have…
A Hamas flag flies over a destroyed neighbourhood in Gaza, where Israel’s military assault revived support for the struggling Islamic movement.
EPA/Mohammed Saber
As the dust settles in a bloodied Gaza, after what one US official described as not so much another military exercise in “mowing the lawn” as “removing the topsoil”, Palestinians greeted the ceasefire…
Investigations of the death and destruction wrought upon Gaza’s civilian neighbourhoods must be independent of the warring Israeli and Palestinian forces.
EPA/Mohammed Saber
With the August 26 ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian forces holding, both sides have resumed their relentless pursuit of political advantage. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Palestine…
With the Palestinian peace camp among the casualties of the bombardment of Gaza, what does Israel expect to emerge from the ruins?
AAP/Newzulu/Eloise Bollack
If we apply Karl Marx’s dictum that “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”, then the Gaza Strip is one of the longest-running tragicomic productions in the world today. It is not hard…
Injured child in Gaza before last week’s ceasefire: Israel is a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
EPA/Stringer
Amidst the cycle of fighting and ceasefire between the Israeli military and Hamas the safety of children remains severely threatened. Young Israelis are vulnerable to the trauma of frequent air raids that…
Not looking good: exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
EPA/Mohammed Saber
Writing about conflict is always difficult because of the romantic Western need for good guys and bad guys. That makes it difficult to make sense of things when everyone’s hands are dirty. Writing for…
Rockets launched from the Gaza strip.
EPA/Jim Hollander
Fawaz Gerges, London School of Economics and Political Science
After days of oscillation over an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has escalated into a full-on Israeli ground offensive in Gaza. According to authorities in Gaza, 258…
Senior Associate Fellow on the Middle East at RUSI; Associate Professor in Politics & International Relations; Deputy Director of the Centre on US Politics, UCL