Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Antisemitism is making the headlines. The Israeli Prime Minister describes as antisemitic the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and even American students who are calling for a ceasefire. What Israel is doing does in fact provoke antisemitic acts against synagogues, Jewish schools and even individual […]
Archives for May 2024
Why are Algorithms called Algorithms? A brief History of the Persian Polymath you’ve likely never Heard of
By Debbie Passey, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without algorithms. So, we’ve all heard of them, but where does the […]
War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young
By Norman Solomon ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Persisting in his support for an unpopular war, the Democrat in the White House has helped spark a rebellion close to home. Young people — least inclined to deference, most inclined to moral outrage — are leading public opposition to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. The campus upheaval […]
Juan Cole: Israel and Campus Protests (Sea Change Radio)
Juan Cole: Israel, Gaza and Campus Protests, Part I on Sea Change Radio with Alex Wise. Transcript below. Or listen here: Pro-Palestinian student protests are erupting on college campuses all over the country, often resulting in aggressive responses from local law enforcement. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part discussion […]
Israel wants to destroy Gaza and annex the West Bank, but what do the Palestinians want?
( Middle East Monitor) – What is taking place in occupied Palestine is not a conflict between more or less equals, but a straightforward case of illegal military occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and outright genocide by one, heavily-armed side — Israel — against the largely unarmed other, the Palestinians. Those who insist on using “neutral” […]
Washington U.: Protesting Severe Beating by Police of Prof. Steve Tamari, Arrest, Suspension of Faculty and Students
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association Dr. Andrew Martin Chancellor, Washington University in St. Louis admartin@wustl.edu . . . We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our shock and revulsion at the brutalization by the police of […]
This Generation’s Vietnam: Students are Protesting Israeli Genocide, meeting Media and Political Vilification
Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Pitching Pro-Palestine protest encampments on their campuses, students risk their futures and physical safety by putting their bodies on the line, demonstrating against their Universities fueling the Israeli war machine. Administrators have responded with consequences not imposed en masse for decades: suspensions, expulsions and arrests. These brave anti-genocide […]
Protesting Israel’s Arrest and Continued Questioning of Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association Asher Cohen President, Hebrew University of Jerusalem . . . We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) to express our grave concern over the […]
Donald Trump and O.J. Simpson: Testing the Limits of Justice
By Robert Lipsyte ( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was the jokes about Trump’s rumored flatulence in the courtroom that pushed me toward despair. And don’t think it was disgust with the subject matter either. After all, I’ve lived with teenagers and I wasn’t all that surprised by yet another Trump-inspired trivialization of a critical civic […]