Human Rights

By Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) — In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual […]

Apartheid

Israeli Occupation military demolishes dairy factory in Hebron, Palestinian West Bank

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Thursday destroyed a dairy factory in the Hebron village of al-Burj, the owner told Ma’an. Yasser Muhammad Salim Masharqa said that Israeli forces and civil administration officers escorted two bulldozers to the village and demolised the steel structure, which measures 2000 square meters. Cements rooms measuring 400 square meters […]

Apartheid

Victim of Apartheid Wall: Christmas in Isolated Bethlehem

Juan Cole

DW | — “Bethlehem – the traditional birthplace of Jesus is sacred for many believers. But it means big business for Palestinians who sell souvenirs there. Even with heightened tensions in the region, Christmas offers a bit of light in tough economic times.” DW: “Christmas in Bethlehem | Journal” What I wrote a few years […]

African-Americans

The Other Torture Report: What the USA looks like to the World

Rebecca Gordon

(special to Informed Comment) — At long last – despite the attempts at sabotage by, and over the protests of the CIA, and notwithstanding the dilatory efforts of the State Department – the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has finally issued the executive summary of its 6,300-page report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. […]

Displaced and Refugees

Kurds inflict first Major Defeat on Daesh/ ISIL, Rescue Yezidis of Sinjar

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The pan-Arab London daily, Al-Hayat [Life] reports that the Iraqi Kurdistan paramilitary, the Peshmerga, have taken Mt. Sinjar from Daesh (what Arabs call ISIL or ISIS). They have therefore saved several thousand members of the Yezidi (Izadi) Kurdish religious minority, who have been besieged and sometimes enslaved or […]

Apartheid

Palestinians Under Threat In Jerusalem

contributors

AJ+ | — “With tensions rising in Jerusalem, hate crimes against Palestinians have increased in recent months. Mohammed lost his cousin to one such incident a while ago, and now he is one of the newest victims. Like others, he fears for his life. This is the story of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Yezidi Minority, Daesh/ISIL, and Iraq’s Human Rights Catastrophe

contributors

by Patrick Ball Patrick Ball with Yezidi boys at an informal camp in Sharya, Iraq. Farhad (not his real name) got the call from ISIS on his personal cell phone just after lunch: we have your sister, and we will give her back if you pay us $6000, plus $1500 for the driver. Carrying little […]

Apartheid

Europe Must follow Through on votes in Favor of Palestine Recognition

contributors

By John V Whitbeck European parliamentary resolutions urging their governments to recognise the State of Palestine must be followed by actual recognitions of the State of Palestine The European Parliament, after a late compromise in pursuit of consensus, has now passed, by a vote of 498 to 88 with 111 abstentions, a resolution stating that […]

History

‘The Struggle for Pakistan’ (Ayesha Jalal)

contributors

By Joseph Richard Preville and Julie Poucher Harbin (ISLAMiCommentary) Column » ‘By the Book’ with Joseph Preville| — Pakistan is a nation with a strong will to survive. It has endured political upheavals, ethnic discord, military dictatorships, and the challenges of religious extremism. In her new book, The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and […]