Review of Hil Aked, Friends of Israel: The Backlash against Palestine Solidarity (London: Verso, 2023). Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Amid Israel’s assault on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in early July, the House of the Commons passed a bill with significant implications for the United Kingdom’s relations with Israel/Palestine. […]
Archives for August 2023
Dismissal of “Scapegoat” Libyan Foreign Minister for Meeting with Israel shows Limits of US “Abraham Accords”
The United States pressured Libya to meet with Israel in order to prepare the way for recognizing it and joining the Abraham Accords. After the secret meeting of Libyan Foreign Minister Najla El-Mangoush in Rome with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen last week, Cohen publicly announced the meeting. A firestorm of protest followed, as a […]
Iran’s Street Art shows Defiance, Resistance and Resilience
By Pouya Afshar, UMass Lowell | – (The Conversation) – A recent rise in activism in Iran has added a new chapter to the country’s long-standing history of murals and other public art. But as the sentiments being expressed in those works have changed, the government’s view of them has shifted, too. The ancient Persians, […]
African and Maghrebi “Migrants” versus Ukrainian “Refugees”: Europe’s Racial Tunnel Vision Creates discriminatory, and deadly, Policies
Sousse, Tunisia (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Mediterranean Sea route is still the most dangerous immigration route in the world. Since 2014, the UN has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Immigration to Europe is not a new phenomenon. Still, the numbers of immigrants have increased substantially […]
Activists File legal Challenges in Michigan, Florida, to Disqualifiy Trump as Seditionist under 14th Amendment
By: Steve Neavling – ( Florida Phoenix) – A Highland Park resident filing a legal challenge Monday aimed at disqualifying Donald Trump from the 2024 primary and general election ballots in Michigan, claiming the former president is ineligible to serve another term because he had engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. […]
How individual, ordinary Jews fought Nazi Persecution – A New View of History
By Wolf Grune, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences | – In Nazi Germany, Hertha Reis, a 36-year-old Jewish woman, performed forced labor for a private company in Berlin during World War II. In 1941, she was evicted by a judge from the two sublet rooms where she lived with her son and […]
Living on a War Planet . . . And Managing not to Notice
By David Bromwich ( Tomdispatch.com ) – A new war, a new alibi. When we think about our latest war — the one that began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, just six months after our Afghan War ended so catastrophically — there is a hidden benefit. As long as American minds are on Ukraine, […]
Putin’s Assassination of Prigozhin Decapitates Wagner’s Empire in Libya, Sudan, Syria and E. Europe, and Puts Oligarchs on Notice
Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Russia confirmed Tuesday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, ex-convict oligarch and leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, died in a plane crash last week. Prigozhin had, in fact, been a dead man walking ever since he masterminded an aborted mutiny against Russia’s military leadership on June 23 of this year. His […]
Palestinian West Bank: Spike in Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children
The Israeli military and border police forces are killing Palestinian children with virtually no recourse for accountability. Israeli forces should end the routine unlawful use of lethal force against Palestinians, including children. Israel’s allies should increase pressure to end the practice. The UN Secretary-General should list Israel’s armed forces in his annual report on grave […]