( Counterpunch ) – “In preparation for the Nazi war crimes trials in 1945, representatives of Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States met to discuss the legal basis of the proceedings. They produced on August 8, 1945, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal, a document that subsequently became known as […]
Archives for November 2023
The University of Pennsylvania must Defend its Faculty’s Right to Condemn War Crimes
Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill President, the University of Pennsylvania president@upenn.edu John Jackson Provost, the University of Pennsylvania provost@upenn.edu . . . Dear President Magill and colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its […]
Bad Times in Gaza and Ukraine: Good Times for the Military-Industrial Complex
( Tomdispatch.com ) – The New York Times headline said it all: “Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales.” The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond may be causing immense and unconscionable human suffering, but they are also boosting the bottom lines of the world’s arms manufacturers. There was a time when such weapons […]
A Tale of Two Sets of Dead Babies: The Preemies of Gaza and Imaginary Beheadings
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s repeated shelling in the vicinity of hospitals and clinics in Gaza has led 20 of 38 hospitals to close their doors to patients, since they lacked the electricity, medicine and functioning equipment they needed to treat patients. The Israeli government’s cut-off of electricity has killed premature babies in incubators, […]
Gaza: Where should the Birds fly after the Last Sky?
By Ahmad Rayees | – Where should the birds fly after the last sky? Where should we go after the last sky? ( Middle East Monitor) – In the haunting verses of Mahmoud Darwish‘s poetry, the tragic tale of Gaza unfolds—a narrative of shattered hopes, enduring resistance and the stark reality of life under Israeli […]
Victims of War are more than just a Statistic
By Ibrahim Al-Marashi | ( San Francisco Chronicle ) – If someone had asked the students at my Monterey high school which one of us would be the first to go to Iraq, everyone would have probably said me. After all, my parents were the ones who emigrated from Iraq in the 1970s to escape […]
Israel’s War on Gaza’s Hospitals and Patients: al-Shifa Bombed again, as 20 of 36 Hospitals Go Dark
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update: Reuters reports that Al-Shifa hospital complex has been forced to cease operations after its final remaining generator was hit in a bombardment. As I write, dozens of premature babies in incubators are in danger, and two have reportedly died. The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Friday saw an […]
Why we Need Armistice Day Back: Remembering the Horrors of War
Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – November 11 – at the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” – marks 105 years since the World War 1 Armistice, which ended the nightmare of the deadliest war in history until then. The brutality of that first industrial war robbed 20 million soldiers […]
Why so Many Jews Denounce Israel’s War on Gaza
By Yakov M. Rabkin ( Pressenza ) – A profound division exists between Zionist advocates of Israel on the one hand, and both secular and religious Jews, on the other, who reject Zionism and thus the very idea of a separate state for the Jews. Most Jews must be somewhere in between. For years, they […]