Category Archives: Israel/Palestine

Here’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Islamism’s favourite democratic politician, talking big on the issue of Palestinian self-determination:

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that recognition of a Palestinian state was “not an option but an obligation”.

“It’s time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations,” Mr Erdogan told his audience. “Let’s raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East.”

The prime minister’s appeal significantly raised the diplomatic temperature days before Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is due formally to submit his statehood initiative to the Security Council.

And here’s where his actions speak louder than words on the issue of Kurdish self-determination:

Turkish troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships have pursued Kurdish rebels into Iraq.

The manifesto by a group of young secular men and women in Gaza has attracted some press attention and gone viral around facebook. The overriding sentiment of the manifesto is an overall “dissatisfaction and frustration” -(to say the least!) with all the players and stakeholders. This is how it opens:

Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!

It continues:

We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!