Human Rights

Reuters: “About 60,000 Syrian Kurds flee into Turkey in the space of 24 hours, a deputy prime minister says, as Islamic State fighters seize dozens of villages close to the border. Sarah Toms reports.” For anyone who knows the history of the Turkish government’s dirty war against Kurdish separatists in the 1970s and 1980s, it […]

Apartheid

Israeli forces begin home demolitions in Bedouin village near Jerusalem

contributors

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces raided a number of Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem on Thursday days after handing them demolition and evacuation orders, a local activist said. Popular committee spokesman Hani Halabiya told Ma’an that dozens of Israeli soldiers entered the Bedouin communities escorted by a bulldozer while an Israeli military plane circled above. […]

Apartheid

A Way out of the Gaza Trap

contributors

By Jean-Pierre Filiu, author of Gaza: A History One person has been enjoying every minute of this summer’s fifty-day war on Gaza. He was known formerly as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, until he changed his name to Caliph Ibrahim. His self-proclaimed “Islamic State” has been winning recruits by the dozen every time a child was killed […]

censorship

Is Israel’s Far-Right Government Inciting against the Israeli Left?

contributors

Middle East Eye Leftist Israeli activists staged weekly protests during the war in Gaza and they were confronted by rightwing protesters that shouted racial slurs and physical attacks. Middle East Eye: Israel’s Zionist Left: A Chronicle of Ambivalence

Apartheid

15 Palestinians die in Mediterranean Capsizing, fleeing Israeli Siege of Gaza

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Fifteen migrants from Gaza died on Saturday after a boat they were riding in capsized in the Mediterranean sea off the coast of al-Ajami near Alexandria in northern Egypt, Egyptian military sources said. The military sources told Ma’an that 15 bodies were pulled out of the sea and 72 people were rescued […]

Apartheid

The Gaza Siege is Passing from Media Memory but the Social Statistics are Still Terrifying

contributors

AJ+ “It’s been a little over two weeks since the Gaza – Israel ceasefire. The United Nations has just released a report detailing what the 50 day war has cost Gaza so far, including the death toll. For the full report, go here

Books

Arabs without God

contributors

By Brian Whitaker, author of Arabs without God In the midst of sectarian turmoil in the Middle East, one section of Arab society rarely gets much attention: those who reject religion entirely. And yet such people do exist, their numbers appear to be growing and they are beginning to find a voice. Social media have […]

Apartheid

Do Palestinians have Freedom of Assembly? West Bank Protests Repressed

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Hundreds of Palestinians took part in marches across the West Bank on Friday calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and in protest against the continued confiscation of Palestinian land and construction of Jewish settlements. Protests took place in Wadi Fukin village near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank as well […]

Apartheid

Did Anyone win the Gaza Conflict? Was it even a “War”?

contributors

By Ramzy Baroud (Maan) In the rush to analyze the outcome of Israel’s 51-day war in Gaza, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, some may have neglected an important factor: this was not a war by traditional definitions of warfare, thus the conventional analyses of victory and defeat is simply not applicable. That being the case, how […]