By Nadim Nashif and Raya Naamneh | Al-Shabaka | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – Israel still portrays itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Yet in practice, as its Palestinian citizens can attest, it functions as a Jewish ethnocracy, leaving small margins of freedom for its Palestinian citizens that have been steadily shrinking in […]
Archives for January 2016
Why Flint’s Tainted Water is a Human Rights Disaster
By Amanda Klasing, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division | (Human Rights Watch) | – – Nearly two years ago, the city of Flint, Michigan switched to a less expensive water source that turned out to be highly corrosive and led to lead poisoning of many children. Public outrage pushed the government to find a safer […]
Not just “Immigrants”: 3 Arab-Americans Central to American History
By Hsain Ilahiane | (Informed Comment) | – – Arabs and Muslims Made and Are Still Making America Great: One came on foot, one with camels, and one brought Apple products to us. Arabs and Muslims have been under clouds of suspicion and scrutiny since recent mass shootings in Paris, France, and San Bernardino, California. […]
Tahrir 5 Years Later: The Hurdles to Democratization & Arab Youth Revolts
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A frequently met-with Western political and often journalistic narrative of the 2011 youth revolts in the Arab world is that idealistic young people came out into the streets and managed to overthrow four dictators, but then the essential Arab nature (violent, fanatical, tribal and sectarian) came […]
Daesh/ ISIL in the Digital Realm v2.0
By Michael Degerald | ( History X ISIS ) Not long ago I wrote a piece that explored various facets of how Daesh, the organization, relates to the internet most broadly. The piece was timely and the debates it addressed have not died down. If anything, they’ve intensified. I also highlighted in that piece the […]
The Kurdish Women fighters taking on Daesh/ ISIL: An Eyewitness Account
By Brian Glyn Williams | (Informed Comment) | – – It was the sort of invitation that causes both excitement and trepidation, an invite to visit the autonomous mountain enclave in northern Iraq known as Kurdistan to carry out field research. It was exciting because we were being given an “inside track” to a moderate […]
Netanyahu voices support for Israeli squatter takeover of Palestinian Buildings in Hebron outside Israel
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government’s support of illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem “at any time” on Sunday when discussing the case of settlers who took over two buildings in Hebron this week. Israeli forces evicted more than 80 […]
‘We had to destroy the Country to save it, Sir!’ The US Imperial Treadmill in Iraq etc.
By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) One of the charms of the future is its powerful element of unpredictability, its ability to ambush us in lovely ways or bite us unexpectedly in the ass. Most of the futures I imagined as a boy have, for instance, come up deeply short, or else I would now […]
Dragon & Phoenix: Khamenei Lauds New Sino-Iranian ‘Strategic Partnership’
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke Saturday on the occasion of the state visit to Iran of Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said, “The government and people of Iran have always looked and are still looking for expanding relations with independent and trustworthy countries like […]