Hisham Wyne: Columnist, Copywriter

[Image from PalestineToday.org]

This article was originally written for the MideastPosts and can be found here.

Barely had the pundits and populace come to grips with the Tunisian revolution than the existence of the Palestine Papers was declared. Al Jazeera, the Qatari based television channel, has released a number of documents pertaining to the Israeli Palestinian peace process into the public domain, together with UK publication the Guardian.

The papers make for sombre reading, for all that they don’t add much to what followers of the peace process have known for some time: the horse has not just expired under brutal flagellation, but was for all intents and purposes sent to the glue factory a decade back.

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[Image taken from commentator Sultan Al Qassemi's twitter feed]

Tunisia is a wake up call – for pundits, not the Arab world

This article was written for MidEast Posts and the Huffington Post

The clarions are calling, and klaxons blaring. Tunisians, finally tiring of a corrupt government, replete with sycophants and sidekicks who were casting a pall of poverty around them while living it up, decided to take action.

The catalyst was anunemployed student whose vegetable cart was confiscated by policemen for not having the requisite licensing and permissions. He self-immolated, more out of despair than protest, and those flames fanned a wildfire of indignation. Unarmed protestors, in their fury, stood up to riot police firing live rounds, and broke the illusion of invincibility that autocracy usually stands on. For it remains a little appreciated truth that an entire population can never be subjugated except by tacit compliance.

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