Arab World

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Reuters reports, based on sources in Beirut, that Russia is increasing its involvement in Syria, backing the military of beleaguered dictator Bashar al-Assad. Russia appears to be offloading tanks at its Tartous naval base on the Syrian coast, and may also be establishing an interior air […]

Iraq

Kurds unite, from Conservatives to Far Left, in Fight against ISIL

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza | (Inter Press Service) | – – KIRKUK, Iraq (IPS) – Reminders of the last occupants of camp K1 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk are only visible on the murals at the main gate leading into the compound: Iraqi soldiers saluting the flag, pointing their weapons or being cheered on […]

Apartheid

Nearly all of Gaza’s Water ‘Undrinkable’

contributors

By Celine Hagbard – (IMEMC) | – – Reporters from RT (Russia Today) traveled to Gaza to look into last year’s report that 90% of Gaza’s water is undrinkable. As they sampled water from different parts of the coastal Strip, they found that the report is accurate – the water throughout Gaza is dirty, salty […]

Colonialism

The lost fortunes of Palestine’s dynamic Ottoman-era merchants

contributors

By Charlie Hoyle | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – The pink stone mansions hidden among the modern urban geography of Bethlehem —surrounded by an eight-meter high concrete wall and penned in by Israeli settlements — contain a rich untold history of phenomenal global success:The city’s pioneering 19th century merchants. An interior view of the […]

Authoritarianism

The 3000: Why have some Tunisians joined ISIL/Daesh in Syria?

contributors

by Youssef Cherif | (Middle East Center Blog, LSE Political Science) | – – Tunisia, regarded as the Arab ‘beacon of hope’ and the cliché of Arab secularism and liberalism, raises a lot of expectations. Hence the most pressing point when Tunisia is discussed rotates around the 3000 Tunisian fighters who joined the ranks of […]

Apartheid

Israel plans to tear down 13,000 Palestinian Buildings in Palestine

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has produced a report [pdf] in which it finds that “Official data released by the Israeli authorities indicate that over 11,000 demolition orders – affecting an estimated 13,000 Palestinian- owned structures, including homes -are currently ‘outstanding’ […]

Israel

1000s of Palestinians mourn as victim of Israeli Terrorist dies after losing her Toddler

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – Palestinian women cry during the funeral of Riham Dawabsha, on Sept. 7, 2015, at a cemetery in the West Bank village of Duma. (AFP/Thomas Coex) NABLUS (Ma’an) — Thousands of Palestinians took part in the funeral of Riham Dawabsha, 27, who died overnight Sunday after succumbing to wounds she […]

Bashar al-Assad

UN: al-Assad, ISIL, al-Qaeda committing Mass Atrocities, Endangering Int’l Security

contributors

UN News Centre | ( Office of the High Commission for Human Rights) – – Mass atrocities by Government forces and non-State armed groups continue to take place in Syria, causing immeasurable suffering to civilians and contributing to a spillover of violence affecting international peace and stability, a United Nations-appointed panel said today. The Independent […]

Displaced and Refugees

Why some European countries do more than others to help refugees

contributors

By Tim Hatton | (The Conversation) | – – Not since World War II has Europe faced a refugee crisis comparable with the situation unfolding at its borders at the moment. The European response has been, to put it mildly, ambivalent. On one hand there has been a mass outpouring of sympathy in the media […]