Bassem Eid

Bassem Eid ( ; born 5 February 1958) is a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem who comments on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for Israeli TV and radio. He has been invited to speak by many pro-Israeli organizations in North America, including on university campuses. Eid initially worked for B'Tselem, documenting Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians, but changed his views after the Oslo Accords. His research currently focuses on human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian armed forces. Bassem Eid opposes the Palestinian right of return. Eid opposes the one-state solution. In 2023, Bassem also opposed the creation of a Palestinian state and predicted Israel will annex the West Bank without giving Palestinian residents full citizenship.

Bassem Eid ( ; born 5 February 1958) is a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem who comments on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for Israeli TV and radio. He has been invited to speak by many pro-Israeli organizations in North America, including on university campuses. Eid initially worked for B'Tselem, documenting Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians, but changed his views after the Oslo Accords. His research currently focuses on human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian armed forces. Bassem Eid opposes the Palestinian right of return. Eid opposes the one-state solution. In 2023, Bassem also opposed the creation of a Palestinian state and predicted Israel will annex the West Bank without giving Palestinian residents full citizenship. ==Biography== Eid was born in the Jewish Quarter of the Jordanian-ruled Old City of Jerusalem. In 1966, the Jordanian government evacuated over 500 Palestinian families, including Eid's family, and relocated them to Shuafat Refugee Camp, with no clear reason given. He spent the first 33 years of his life in the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camp of Shuafat. He rose to prominence during the First Intifada and was a senior field researcher for B’Tselem, a non-governmental organization reporting on human rights abuses in Israeli administered areas of the West Bank. Eid reports that his views began to change as PLO leader Yasser Arafat came to power during the Oslo Accords. He believes that the violence and corruption committed by Arafat stalled the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and that it has "been stuck for many years". Eid says the reason the European Union and other Europeans donate to B'Tselem is because Europeans are "out for revenge on the State of Israel". In response, Eid set up his own organization to monitor violations of human rights being committed by the Palestinian Authority against Palestinians. In 1996, he founded the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, and was arrested shortly thereafter. He formally ended his work at the group in October 2010. Since 2003, Eid has worked as a paid political commentator for Israeli TV, and since 2009, he has worked as a commentator on Palestinian politics for Israeli Radio (Reshet Bet). In 2016, he assumed the role of chairman of the Center for Near East Policy Research. ==Human rights and advocacy work== In 1997, The Washington Post called Eid "an internationally recognized rights campaigner." He has spent 26 years researching UNRWA policies and has written extensively on the subject of UNRWA reform. He advocates against the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Eid is a critic of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2021, he sued Ben & Jerry's for ending sales in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gush Etzion. Per his website, he has traveled widely to lecture on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In the United Kingdom, he presented his research on UNRWA to the British think tank The Henry Jackson Society in December, 2015. He has also appeared as a speaker for a workshop at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel. ==Views== ==Published works== Eid has contributed editorial articles to publications such as The Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel. He participated in the Doha Debates series by the Qatar Foundation in 2007 advocating for the motion "This House believes the Palestinians should give up their full right of return." ==Awards== The Association for Civil Rights in Israel awarded him its Emil Gruenzweig Memorial Award in 1992. ==Personal life== Eid calls himself "a proud Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp and raised a large family". As of November 2023, he lives in Jericho, in the West Bank, and identifies as Muslim. ==External links== Bassem Eid official website

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