Ali Abunimah

The unique, pervasive, and one-sided nature of CNN's convoluted linguistic formulations about the Israeli military occupation compel any reasonable observer to conclude political bias

Nigel Parry, Laurie King and Ali Abunimah 20 July 2001

We first must note that CNN’s reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not all bad. On several critical points, however, the network has adopted a unique, bizarre, and indefensible position on what is otherwise universally understood to be Israel’s status in the Occupied Territories as well as the legal status of Jewish settlements in these areas. 

CNN refers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel

Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry 2 May 2001

Following our April 12th Action Item #11, CNN yet again portrayed the Israeli occupation as a Palestinian point of view, in a April 26th report titled, “Israel celebrates independence, Palestinians mourn deaths”: “But the Palestinians blame Israel for the violence, saying they employ heavy-handed methods to control Palestinian protesters — and that the presence of Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza amounts to an occupation of Palestinian territory.” 

CNN's Jerrold Kessel decides that the existence of the Israeli military occupation is merely 'a point of view'

Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry 12 April 2001

Any suggestion that the 34-year-old Israeli military occupation is a Palestinian “opinion”, rather than an internationally established fact, represents the extreme end of irresponsible and inexact international media reporting. CNN’s Jerrol Kessel goes there. 

After Rafah, Europe, Arabs have no excuse for inaction

Ali Abunimah 22 May 2004


Things must be bad in Palestine when the United States allows a resolution to pass in the UN Security Council, as it did late on 19 May condemning Israeli actions. The resolution is a moral victory for Palestinians, but there is no reason to take comfort from it as Israel intensified its attack on the Gaza refugee camp. Unless the other members of the Security Council and the wider international community act immediately to halt Israel’s assault, we can conclude that the UN Resolution was designed only to absolve them from any further action. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah names some specific actions the international community must take. 

Urgent: Protest Israeli war crimes against civilians in Rafah; Gaza

Ali Abunimah, Nigel Parry and Michael F. Brown 18 May 2004


The Electronic Intifada urges all concerned people to contact international and government officials to demand immediate action to halt Israel’s assault on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Israel is in the process of committing major war crimes with total impunity. The United States continues to give a green light to Israeli war crimes. In recent days, Secretary of State Colin Powell half-heartedly criticized the destruction in Gaza. Today, however, as the atrocities continue in Rafah, President Bush declared in a major address to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that Israel “has every right to defend itself from terror.” Bush made no criticism whatsoever of the Israeli attack on Rafah. 

Israeli link possible in US torture techniques

Ali Abunimah 11 May 2004


The head of the American defense contracting firm implicated in the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to Israel and visited an Israeli “anti-terror” training camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this year, EI’s Ali Abunimah reveals. How are US defence contractors, lobbyists and Israel connected in a web of influence, back-scratching and cash? 

Kofi Annan's pro-Israel policy discredits the UN

Ali Abunimah 5 May 2004


UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s recent statements on the situation in Palestine confirm that under his weak leadership the United Nations will have no role in resolving the conflict or protecting its victims. Rather, he has aligned himself with the logic that Palestinians, uniquely, must earn from their oppressors the basic human rights that for all other people are inherent. EI’s Ali Abunimah examines how Annan’s pro-Israel record has discredited the UN, and helped create an atmosphere in which Israeli war crimes are tolerated. 

EI's Ali Abunimah banned by Chicago Zionist organization

Ali Abunimah 4 May 2004


“A few weeks ago, I registered online for the 2004 Israel Solidarity Day featuring the Walk With Israel, sponsored by the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF)…because I wanted to get on the JUF mailing list, then forgot all about it,” writes EI co-founder Ali Abunimah. So imagine how surprised Abunimah was when a few days before the event received a personal letter from Mr. Jay Tcath, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago informing him he was banned! Here is the story, and the exchange of letters between Tcath and Abunimah. 

Spat upon, threatened, we stood for Palestine

Ali Abunimah 6 May 2001

“Arafat is filthy swine, there is no Palestine,” and “Thank you for killing my cousins in Israel,” were some of the more polite slogans shouted at EI’s Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty and me as we protested silently at the annual “Walk With Israel” on Chicago’s lakefront today on May 6, 2001. Abunimah tells a story of how Chicago’s leading Zionist organization met peaceful free speech with threats of violence, abuse and an effort to limit the constitutional right to free speech on public property.