The Pessoptimist

Jew in Arabia, goy in Israel

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Israel kills 10-year and six year old in Gaza

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A ten-year-old Palestinian was killed and his sister seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike launched early Saturday in the northern Ga...
Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Wednesday: three young Palestinians killed in two attacks, Israel wants to complete Wall in Jerusalem

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  The car in which two Palestinians were shot. (Ma'an) Israeli forces shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian boy after he allegedly at...
Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Tuesday: Four Palestinians, one US tourist dead, 12 wounded after four Palestinian attacks

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Ambulances after the shooting in Jerusalem. Four Palestinians were shot dead after they allegedly carried out separate attacks in Israel...

Israeli Arab parliamentarians again under fire after they criticize GCC decision to label Hezbollah ''terrorist organization''

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Israel Katz Israeli members of parliament (the Knesset) renewed their cries that Arab representatives have to be removed after the parti...
Sunday, March 6, 2016

Sudanese leader Hassan al-Turabi 1932-2016

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Turabi in 2012 (Reuters) Prominent Sudanese politician Hassan al-Turabi, a veteran Islamist and leader of the opposition Popular Congr...
Saturday, March 5, 2016

The media keep saying that the West isn't involved in Syria. This is not true

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  By Ian Sinclair, Open democracy “The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary”, George Orw...
Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Mohammed Hassanein Heikal 1923-2016

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President Gamal Abdel Nasser with his close confident Heikal One of the most famous Egyptian journalists, authors and political comment...

HRW: Hamas should investigate torture and execution of member of Ezzedin al-Qassam-Brigades

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Hamas authorities in Gaza should investigate their military wing for the apparent torture and execution of Mahmoud Eshtewi. Eshtewi, a memb...
Sunday, February 14, 2016

Saturday: 18-year old Palestinian girl killed in Hebron

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A young Palestinian woman was shot dead on Saturday after stabbing an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian bystander near the Ibrahimi Mosq...
Friday, February 12, 2016

Israeli parliament rejects bill for proportional funding to Arab culture institutions

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The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has rejected a bill, which would require proportional budgeting from the Ministry of Culture to the Ar...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Israelis shoot dead 16-year old in refugee camp near Hebron

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 Funeral of 16-year old Omar Madi.  Israeli forces shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian during clashes in the southern occupied West Ba...

Netanyahu wants ''a fence to protect Israel from the wild beasts''

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Netanyahu inspects fence at the border with Jordan near Eilat. (Photo EPA). Binyamin Netanyahu has announced his intention to “surround ...
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Abu Pessoptimist
This blogname was derived from a satiric Arabic novel by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby. In the ''The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimist'' he uses absurdism as a weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. I consider it to be an example for how events in Israel/Palestine best can be approached. The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. In a way that is also still my motto. My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. In 2018, I concluded the study 'Arabic language and culture' at the University of Amsterdam. I started 'Abu Pessoptimist' in January 2009 out of anger about the onslaught of that month in Gaza. The other blog, The Pessoptimist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)
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