Dossier: Mahmoud Abbas

Members of the Israeli army carrying out a raid in Hebron on 21 June 2014 (photo: Reuters/Mussa Qawasma)

The Israeli army in the West Bank

1

The punishment of Palestinian citizens

Israel's heavy-handed acts of retaliation against both Hamas and Palestinian civilians are threatening to provoke a new escalation of violence. The Israeli military deployment in the West Bank is the biggest since the end of the second Intifada in 2005. A commentary by René WildangelMore

Interview with the Israeli Peace Activist Uri Avnery: ''Israel Needs Peace, Not Settlements''The Palestinian Minority in Israel: Systematic DiscriminationEssay by Tony Klug: Two States – by Design or DisasterPalestinian UN Initiative: A Positive Step
Hamas chief Ismail Hanija (right) and Fatah representative Azzam al-Ahmed in Gaza City on 23 April 2014 (photo: Reuters)

Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah

No peace without Palestinian unity

The Palestinian organisations Hamas and Fatah plan to seal an alliance with each other – primarily out of necessity. Reconciliation is difficult; the danger of failure is great. It is for precisely this reason that the US and Europe should support the process. A commentary by René WildangelMore

Interview with Sari Nusseibeh: Plea for Radical PragmatismProtests against the Palestinian Authority: ''The People Want to Bring down Oslo''Interview with Matt Beynon Rees: "Hamas and Fatah Have an Interest in the Conflict Continuing"
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (photo: dpa)

Essay by Tony Klug

Two States – by Design or Disaster

In his essay, Tony Klug warns that there might soon come a time when it will be too late to negotiate a peaceful two-state settlement through mutual agreement. But, he says, Israel and its people will ultimately have to pay a high price - unless Israel soon starts to support the inevitable two-state solutionMore

Interview with Uri Avnery: ''Israel Needs Peace, Not Settlements''Interview with Mustafa Barghouti: ''This Society Does Not Want Extremism''Commentary by Daniel Barenboim: Perhaps the Last Chance
Uri Avnery (photo: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Interview with the Israeli Peace Activist Uri Avnery

''Israel Needs Peace, Not Settlements''

Despite growing international criticism, Israel is pressing ahead with the construction of new settlements in and around Jerusalem. In this interview with Diana Hodali, peace activist Uri Avnery says that the current Israeli government does not actually want a two-state solution, regardless of what it saysMore

Interview with Uri Avnery: ''Israel Was Also Proclaimed Unilaterally''Commentary by Daniel Barenboim: Perhaps the Last ChanceInterview with Sari Nusseibeh: A Virtual State Called Palestine
Daniel Barenboim (photo: dpa)

Commentary by Daniel Barenboim

Perhaps the Last Chance

In this commentary, pianist and star conductor Daniel Barenboim writes that the fact that Palestine was recently awarded non-member observer state status by the United Nations could be the last chance to breathe life into the two-state project in the Middle EastMore

Interview with Daniel Barenboim: ''Mutual Appreciation Is Essential''The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: Consoling Concertos
Sari Nusseibeh (photo: Club Bertelsmann)

Interview with Sari Nusseibeh

A Virtual State Called Palestine

Sari Nusseibeh, Palestinian philosophy professor and President of the Al Quds University in East Jerusalem, talks to Inge Günther about the state of the peace process with IsraelMore

Palestinian UN Initiative: A Positive StepInterview with Moshe Zimmermann: ''One Has to Be in Favour of the UN Resolution''Interview with Sari Nusseibeh: Plea for Radical PragmatismDossier: Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue
Demonstration against the Palestinian National Authority in Ramallah (photo: © René Wildangel)

Protests against the Palestinian Authority

''The People Want to Bring down Oslo''

Following a number of demonstrations in Ramallah, some of them brutally crushed by Palestinian police, the political future of occupied Palestinian territories is again thrown into question. By René WildangelMore

Middle East Peace Process: Palestinian Unity Required to Move ForwardMustafa Barghouti: Palestinians and the Path of Peaceful ResistanceIslamism and Politics in the Middle East: Is Hamas Reinventing Itself?
Mustafa Barghouti (photo: dpa)

Interview with Mustafa Barghouti

''This Society Does Not Want Extremism''

The Arab Spring is having an affect on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to Mustafa Barghouti, a politician and civil liberties campaigner from Ramallah, it is also having an affect on internal Palestinian relations. He talked to Kersten KnippMore

Interview with Mustafa Barghouti: Palestinians and the Path of Peaceful ResistanceIslamism and Politics in the Middle East: Is Hamas Reinventing Itself?Interview with the Jewish Palestinian Politician Ilan Halevi: With One Foot in the UN
In Ramallah, Palestinians celebrate the unity deal between Hamas and Fatah on 6 February 2012 (photo: dpa)

Islamism and Politics in the Middle East

Is Hamas Reinventing Itself?

The signing of a new unity deal between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah party earlier this month has heightened an unprecedented struggle within Hamas over its future course as an Islamist movement. By Michael BröningMore

Interview with Mustafa Barghouti: Palestinians and the Path of Peaceful ResistanceInterview with Matt Beynon Rees: ''Hamas and Fatah Have an Interest in the Conflict Continuing''Interview with the Jewish Palestinian Politician Ilan Halevi: With One Foot in the UN
Mustafa Barghouti, presidential candidate, holds up his ballot paper as he votes in the Palestinian presidential election in 2005 (photo: picture alliance/dpa)

Interview with Mustafa Barghouti

Palestinians and the Path of Peaceful Resistance

Mustafa Barghouti is Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative "Al Mubadara". He believes that the Middle East peace process has failed and that Palestinians must now choose the path of peaceful resistance. But what exactly does that entail? Muhannad Hamed spoke with Mustafa Barghouti in RamallahMore

Interview with Ilan Halevi: With One Foot in the UNFull UNESCO Membership for Palestine: A Small, Albeit Costly, Victory
Ilan Halevi (photo: Igal Avidan)

Interview with the Jewish Palestinian Politician Ilan Halevi

With One Foot in the UN

In this interview, Palestinian politician Ilan Halevi describes the hurdles that have to be overcome on the road to statehood and speaks of the rapprochement and the animosity between Fatah and Hamas. Igal Avidan spoke to him at a conference organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in BerlinMore

The Viability of a Palestinian State: Obstacles on the Rocky Road to StatehoodFull UNESCO Membership for Palestine: A Small, Albeit Costly, VictoryInterview with Moshe Zimmermann: ''One Has to Be in Favour of the UN Resolution''
Moshe Zimmermann (photo: dpa)

Interview with the Israeli Historian Moshe Zimmermann

''One Has to Be in Favour of the UN Resolution''

According to Moshe Zimmermann, the Israeli government is opposed to anything that could lead to the foundation of a Palestinian state. Susanne Knaul spoke to the historianMore

Uri Avnery (photo: AP)

Interview with Uri Avnery

''Israel Was Also Proclaimed Unilaterally''

The Palestinian leadership wants the United Nations to recognise it as an independent state. In an interview with Diana Hodali, the well-known Israeli human rights activist Uri Avnery says this could finally lead to some progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflictMore

Partner Organizations

www.dw.dewww.goethe.dewww.ifa.dewww.bpb.de

Facebook

Most Recent Photo Essay

In 532, the Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of an awe-inspiring church in his residence, Constantinople, "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again." Around 10,000 workers were involved in its construction. For a millennium, the basilica on the Bosphorus remained Christendom’s biggest church.

The belle of the Bosphorus

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has become a bone of contention. Since it was secularised in 1935, it has been a museum. Now Turkish nationalists want to turn it back into a mosque - while the Patriarch of Constantinople wants to use it as a church again. A photo essay by Klaus Dahmann.