Arab World

By JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary Cooking and conflict? It’s a different approach, but it works, and these blended themes still resonate five years after she and co-author Maggie Schmitt first began to research their unique cookbook. Leila Haddad on right When they first came up with the idea for the book in 2009 — […]

Apartheid

Norway Insurance Co. divests from Israeli Firms in Palestinian West Bank

contributors

By IMEMC News | – – The Norwegian insurance giant, KLP Kapitalforvaltning, has divested two international building material companies from its investment portfolio because of their operations in the West Bank settlements. Haaretz Israeli newspaper reported, according to the PNN, KLP divested of its shares in these companies effectively on June 1, citing international law […]

Children

Yemen: Caught between Saudis & Houthis, Children Pay Price of War

contributors

By Belkis Wille | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – The deliberate targeting of schools has become a flashpoint in the war between Yemen’s rebels and a Saudi-led coalition. Hisham Yahya, 13, is an eager student. As we sat in the large, empty yard of his school in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, with weapons debris […]

Druze

Al-Qaeda in Syria rubs out 23 members of Druze Religious Minority, Persecutes Others

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The al-Qaeda-linked Support Front has murdered 23 men from a single Druze clan in Qalb Lawzah, Idlib Province, Syria. Druze villagers fled in large numbers to surrounding Sunni hamlets seeking refuge from al-Qaeda. There are some 18 Druze villages in the north of Idlib Province. The […]

Iraq

Has US started Arming Iraq’s Shiite Militias against ISIL/ Daesh?

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) The hostility between the US and Iraq’s Shiite militias seems to have slowed. One leading militia member even went to the US. Is this the beginning of a new, happier relationship and closer battle field cooperation? Last week Captain Amir al-Saadi, whose unit is based in the Habbaniyah camp […]

Apartheid

Expelled for Life: A Palestinian Family’s Struggle to Stay on Their Land

contributors

By Jen Marlowe | (Tomdispatch.com) Nasser Nawaj’ah held Laith’s hand as, beside me, they walked down the dirt and pebble path of Old Susya. Nasser is 33 years old, his son six. Nasser’s jaw was set and every few moments he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was approaching. Until Laith piped up […]

Apartheid

Since 1967: 95,000 Palestinian Children Incarcerated by Israel

contributors

By IMEMC News | – – A human rights group submitted, on Wednesday, a report to UN about Israeli torture and mistreatment of Palestinian children. Military Court Watch (MCW) lodged the submission with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, annexing over 300 pages of evidence relating […]

Featured

Has ISIL/ Daesh killed 50,000 in one Year? Iraq’s Horrors by the Numbers

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Human Rights Commission of Iraq, a body attached to the Iraqi parliament, issued statistics on Wednesday for the one-year impact of Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) on that country. Some of the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, but others are likely about […]

Human Rights

A Year after the Fall of Mosul, Yazidi Kurdish Survivors of ISIL Massacres Struggle On

contributors

VICE News | (Video Report) | – – “A year after the Islamic State’s lightning conquest of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, the poorly-trained and equipped Kurdish peshmerga forces are the international coalition’s only reliable boots on the ground in northern Iraq. The Pentagon’s hopes of recapturing the city by spring 2015 have been dashed […]