Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration launched 85 air strikes on Friday against small bases of the Party of God Brigades (Kata’ib Hizbullah), an Iraqi Shiite militia active in Iraq and Syria. The organization is likely the culprit in Sunday’s drone strike against the Tower 22 US base in the far north of […]
Archives for February 2024
As Gaza Faces Famine, Aid Agency UNRWA is Being Defunded on Dubious Grounds
by Mariam Shah ( Middle East Monitor ) – Since 7 October 2023, the relentless Israeli aggression on Gaza has displaced more than 85 per cent of the enclave’s population, with over 27,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and children. This displacement has plunged civilians into a dire situation with shortages of food, water and medicines, […]
Girls in Hijab Experience overlapping Forms of Racial and Gendered Violence
By Salsabel Almanssori, University of Windsor and Muna Saleh, Concordia University of Edmonton | – World Hijab Day recognizes the millions of Muslim women and girls who wear the traditional Islamic headscarf. (The Conversation) – Around the world, Muslim girls in hijab are experiencing unique forms and heightened rates of gender and race-based violence and […]
US District Court Judge: “It is every individual’s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by Palestinian-Americans and the Palestinian human rights group al-Haq against President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for their involvement in an Israeli genocide against […]
Gaza: Weaponisation of Food has been used in Conflicts for Centuries – but it hasn’t always resulted in Victory
By Greg Kennedy, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – More than half a million Gazans are currently facing “catastrophic hunger”, according to UN agencies. Reducing access to food is being used as a weapon in Gaza by the Israeli government. Denying food to a civilian population is a tactic that has been used […]
“Helping” People by Shaming Them — and Canceling Their Civil Rights
By Mattea Kramer and Sean Fogler ( Tomdispatch.com) – Amid ongoing emergencies, including a would-be autocrat on his way to possibly regaining the American presidency and Israel’s war on Gaza (not to mention the flare-ups of global climate change), the U.S. has slipped quietly toward an assault on civil liberties as an answer to plummeting […]
Juan Cole on the Mother of all Middle East Crises at “Intercepted”
Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain interview Juan Cole at their superb Intercepted podcast at the Intercept . I come in about 12 minutes in. They write, “The killing of three U.S. soldiers at a remote military outpost in Jordan, claimed by Iraqi militia groups to be retaliation for U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, […]
Gaza: Suspending UNRWA Aid Risks Hastening Famine
Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Governments should continue funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), given its vital role in averting a humanitarian catastrophe and the risk of famine in the Gaza Strip, while the agency investigates allegations that 12 of its staff were […]
Oil Firms Forced to Consider Full Climate Effects of new Drilling after Landmark Norwegian Court Ruling
By Daria Shapovalova, University of Aberdeen | – Norway’s district court in Oslo recently made a decision on fossil fuels that deserves the attention of every person concerned about climate change. This ruling, which compels energy firms to account for the industry’s entire carbon footprint, could change the way oil and gas licenses are awarded […]