By Dyab Abou Jahjah

From the Mediterranean to Rio Grande, between a picture of drowned immigrants and their children and the next, our common humanity goes back to sleep. Waiting for the next opportunity to emit some sound bites, to comment and show indignation and verbal revolt. Then we regain our comfort zone. We do not need more tears and emotional tirades against injustice and inhumanity. And no it is not Trump causing this, the problem is much deeper. The problem lays in the structure of our world. A structure that is no more adapted to our reality or to the challenges we are facing.

Dyab Abou Jahjah​

It is a bit odd to me that Leonard Cohen passed away few months ago without me writing about it. The man has composed a big part of the soundtrack of my life.  But above all, and more than his music that is at times over-harmonic to be enjoyable, Cohen the poet is what interests me the most. Together with that of Mahmood Darwich and Nizar Kabbani, his poetry influenced me both politically and spiritually.  Cohen was very political, and I am not speaking about that moment in his life when he went to sing for the Israeli troops during the 1973 war in Sinai. That Cohen who thought to rediscover his Jewish identity by posing on a picture with a mass murderer like Ariel Sharon was just a short lived phase in the existence of a more sophisticated soul. 

​J’avais 4 ans lorsque j’eut ma première conversation politique. Ma mère et moi étions assis sur la terrasse de notre maison à Hanine, un village situé au Sud-Liban. C’était une journée ensoleillée et nous nous reposions à l’ombre de notre figuier. Par moments, les sons paisibles de la nature étaient interrompus par le bruit des hélicoptères qui vrombissaient derrière les collines. Ma mère voulut que l’on rentre à l’intérieur. Je protestais. « Dyab, insista-t-elle, les hélicoptères israéliens se rapprochent, c’est plus sûr à l’intérieur. » Je me souviens d’avoir demandé pourquoi. « Parce ce sont de mauvaises personnes, qui pourraient nous tirer dessus. », me répondit-elle. Quelques mois plus tard, ces mauvaises personnes nous prenaient effectivement pour cibles.

​Dyab Abou Jahjah


“It is all about me”, Donald Trump must be thinking rightfully. No one can deny this, he is the most spoken about person on earth right now. While this is certainly very gratifying to the man himself, many of his critics are happy with it as well. Mostly his name is mentioned within a negative frame, and this is giving many people hope. They think that this awareness that is being created is paving the way for a victory against him. Some are already claiming that Trump is going down, that he will not finish his term in office, that he will be impeached or even assassinated. Predicting the future would be a very handy faculty to possess, and yet, people tend to mistake their hopes and wishes for facts, and this leads to devastating defeats.

​The first political conversation that I ever had was at the age of four. I remember myself sitting in in the porch of our village house in Hanine, south Lebanon, together with my mother. It was a sunny day, and we were resting in the shade of our fig tree.  The peaceful flow of natural sounds and sun rays was only disturbed by the thrumming noise of helicopters coming from behind the surrounding hills. My mom wanted us to go back inside, to which I objected. She then said, “ Dyab, the Israeli helicopters are coming nearby, it is safer to be inside”.  I remember asking her why? Why is it safer? And my mom answered “because these are wicked men, and they might shoot at us”. Few months later, the wicked men did shoot at us.

By Dyab Abou Jahjah​

​A truck ran over Israeli occupation soldiers in occupied Jerusalem yesterday. Four soldiers died and some others were wounded. The driver was a Palestinian father of three. If you would read western newspapers and news outlets, the general tone is that this was a “terrorist” attack that targeted Israelis. Fake news are obviously not something that is limited to social media, it is also often being vented through the bias of the dominant news. That version of the story is not just occulting the reality of the occupation, it is defending it by establishing a link between the resistance of the Palestinians and terrorism. I reacted to this by stating that the Palestinian people has the right to liberate its occupied land by any means that it deems necessary. This was immediately taken by forces who are supportive to Israel in the Flemish nationalist right wing and presented as an endorsement of terrorism. Even Theo Francken, a secretary of state in the federal government, was tweeting about it hysterically. According to him I was glorifying ISIS terrorism and I should be fired from my position as columnist in the newspaper I write for. People who liked my Facebook post were also being threatened and intimidated. Therefor I want to clarify the following 10 points and I hope that this will be helpful to all the people that are confronted with these questions.

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

Whoever saw the man move in a ring, could have written a long text on the definition of swag, elegance and grace. "Float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee" is, in his own words, the best known description of what Muhammad Ali made out of boxing. He was not about brute force, but about style. However, the true style of Ali was often at display outside of the ring, in his powerful speech and inspiring quotes, but above all, in his struggle against racism, imperial wars, and for his people. Ali was "the greatest" in the ring, and he was always keen on reminding everyone of it. Therefore, many say Muhammad Ali was arrogant, and consider this as one of his downsides.