Ghada Karmi (, ) (1939-) is a Palestinian doctor of medicine, author and academic. She writes frequently on Palestinian issues in newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Nation and Journal of Palestine Studies. She is a fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Arab & Islamic studies at Exeter University Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. She has been writing in favour of the one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1990.
Karmi was born in Jerusalem, and in her 2002 autobiography, In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, she describes growing up in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Katamon, with its mixture of Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Among the family friends and neighbors was Khalil al-Sakakini and his family. With her family she was forced to flee in the 1948 Nakba. The family eventually settled in the neighbourhood of Golders Green, in London, England, where her father, Hasan Sa'id Karmi, worked for the BBC Arabic service.
She studied and became a doctor of medicine, graduating from the University of Bristol in 1964. Initially Karmi practised as a physician, specialising in the health and social conditions of ethnic minorities, migrants and asylum seekers. Since 1972 she has been politically active for the Palestinian cause and gained a doctorate in the history of Arabic medicine from London University.
In 1998 she visited her childhood home in Katamon for the first time since 1948.
She is an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, and a visiting professor at London Metropolitan University. She is also vice-chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)
She delivered the Edward Said Memorial lecture at the University of Adelaide, Australia in October, 2007
In an interview with Executive Intelligence Review, reprinted in Middle East Policy Journal, Spring 2010), Karmi stated that:
"There is actually nothing ... repeat, nothing ... positive about the existence of Israel, as far as the Arabs are concerned. You know, sometimes there are events, historical events, that happen against people's will. But, in time, they can find some positive aspect to something they didn't want to happen in the first place. This is not the case with Israel. On the contrary, as time has gone on, the existence of Israel has only increased the problems for the Arab region. It has increased the danger in the Arab world and is a threat not only to the security of the region, but the security of the whole world."
She also stated that:
"...Israel, from its inception in 1948, has been given the most wonderful opportunity to behave itself, and it clearly has not done so. It's flouted every single law, it's behaved outrageously, it's made a travesty of international and humanitarian law. On what basis should this state continue to be a member of the United Nations?"
Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y.; Ghada Karmi & Nizar Namnum (eds.) Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of Arabic Science 5—12 April 1976. Volume II. Papers in European Languages. Aleppo: University of Aleppo, Institute for the History of Arabic Science, 1978.
Karmi, Ghada: Multicultural Health Care: Current Practice and Future Policy in Medical Education ISBN 0-7279-0940-1 British Medical Association, London, 1995,
Karmi, Ghada (Ed.) with a contribution by Edward Said: Jerusalem Today: What Future for the Peace Process? ISBN 0-86372-226-1 Ithaca Press, 1996
Review of Jerusalem Today: What Future for the Peace Process?, by Andrej Kreutz, in Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Fall, 1999.
Karmi, Ghada: The Palestinian Exodus 1948-1998. Ithaca Press 1999
Karmi, Ghada: In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story ISBN 1-85984-694-7 Verso 2002
A country of the mind Guardian, Saturday 19 October 2002 (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)
In Search of Fatima Fateful Days in 1948 from Jerusalem Quarterly (from Dr Ghada Karmi's memoir, In Search of Fatima)
Review of In Search of Fatima, the Guardian
Review of In Search of Fatima by Sara Powell Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2004, page 68
Karmi, Ghada: Married to another man: Israel's dilemma in Palestine, Pluto press, 2007, ISBN 0745320651
Review, by Sonja Karkar, IMEU, 10 October 2007
Times Literary Supplement Review by Trevor Mostyn 15 February 2008 p. 5
Bibliography, Articles By Ghada Karmi (partial List)moreless
"The 1948 Exodus: A Family Story" in Journal of Palestine Studies 23, no. 2 (Win. 1994): 31-40.
U.S. Embassy Move to Jerusalem Is Misguided and Illegal January/February 1997, p. 14 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
A Muslim at the feast The Tablet, 11 April 1998
Leaving the lemon tree in The Tablet, 25 April 1998
"After the Nakba: An Experience of Exile in England" in Journal of Palestine Studies 28, no. 3 (Spr. 1999): 52-63.
Kosovars and Palestinians, The Nation, 20 May 1999 (7 June 1999 issue)
With much malice aforethought in Al-Ahram Weekly, 2—8 September 1999
Denial and the future of peace in Al-Ahram Weekly, 6—12 April 2000
The future of peace: A Palestinian view 31 October 2000, BBC
Fussing over a red herring in Al-Ahram Weekly, 22 February 2001
A Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine: An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Al-Adab (Lebanon), July 2002
The map must show a way home, The Guardian, 6 June 2003
Edward Said and the politics of dispossession 9—15 October 2003 Issue No. 659 Al-Ahram Weekly
A very Arab obsession 20—26 November 2003, Issue No. 665, Al-Ahram Weekly
Time to remember 22—28 January 2004, Issue No. 674, Al-Ahram
Zionism is Still the Issue, Dissident Voice, 2 February 2004
Sharon is not the Problem: It's the Nature of Zionist Ideology 20 February 2004, CounterPunch
By any means necessary, The Guardian, 18 March 2004
Vanishing the Palestinians; The World Looks on Ineffectually 17/ 18 July 2004, CounterPunch
After Arafat: Sharon is Still Not Ready to Make Peace 10 November 2004, CounterPunch
Who killed Yasser Arafat? 11—17 November 2004 Issue No. 716, Al-Ahram Weekly
Gaza hysteria 25 August 2005, issue 757, Al-Ahram Weekly
With no Palestinian state in sight, aid becomes an adjunct to occupation, The Guardian, 5 January 2006
Where is the global outcry at this continuing cruelty?, The Guardian, 15 May 2006
These shameful events have humiliated the Arab world, The Guardian, 2 January 2007
Derek Summerfield, Colin Green, Ghada Karmi, David Halpin, Pauline Cutting, 125 other doctors: Israeli boycotts: gesture politics or a moral imperative?, 21 April 2007, The Guardian
Ghada Karmi (pro-boycott) Andy Charlwood (against the boycott): Perspectives on the boycott debate, 11 June 2007, The Guardian
Weapon of the weak, 13 July 2007, Haaretz
A historic anomaly, 17 July 2007, The Guardian,
Israel’s cost to the Arabs, September 2008, Le Monde diplomatique
Intellectual terrorism, 25 October 2007, Guardian: Comment is Free,
Taking sides in the debate over the Middle East, 29 October 2007, The Guardian
Colin Green, Asad Khan, Ghada Karmi, Chris Burns-Cox, Martin Birnstingl, David Halpin, Derek Summerfield: Medical ethical violations in Gaza, 6 December 2007, The Lancet
A one-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis , 30 May 2008, The Christian Science Monitor
