Israel/ Palestine

(By Shirin Rubin) Israeli society will pay the ‘price’ for settler vigilantism, rights group warns (via The Christian Science Monitor) When Ahmad Milhem heard earlier this month that Jewish extremists had scrawled “Mohammad is a pig” on the walls of his local mosque, he feared for both his Arab and Jewish neighbors. “If our young […]

Christianity

Wounded by Apartheid Wall, Occupied Bethlehem Hopes for Pilgrimage Revival

Juan Cole

(Agence France Presse) Bethlehem eyes tourist boom after dark decade (via AFP) After a decade of unrest, Bethlehem has seen a surge in visits to Christ’s traditional birthplace, raising hopes of a tourism bonanza in the West Bank town despite Israel’s separation barrier. The Palestinian territories’ top tourist destination is… —- Related Video AFP: […]

Human Rights

UN: A Million Palestinians will Need Food aid in Israel-blockaded Gaza Next Year

Juan Cole

PressTv reports, “The UN says nearly a million Palestinians are expected to need food aid in the Gaza Strip next year” Their blurb: “About 800-thousand Palestinian refugees are currently receiving food aid from the U-N Relief and Works Agency– UNRWA– but the organization expects a 10 to 20 percent rise in demand in 2014. The […]

Human Rights

American Studies Association to Boycott Israeli Institutions in Historic Vote

contributors

(By Sarah Lazare) An association of 5,000 academics on Monday became the largest U.S. scholarly organization ever to join the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The American Studies Association, which calls itself "the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history," announced Monday that its membership passed a […]

Featured

Gaza: 5000 Palestinians evacuated from Flooded Homes, Israeli Blockade Hampers Rescue

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Several days of unseasonably cold weather and torrential rains have increased the misery in the already miserable Gaza Strip, where 1.7 million Palestinians are besieged and blockaded by the Israeli Occupation authorities. The government estimates that 7,000 families have been harmed (likely meaning 35,000 persons, most of them children). Because of flooding, […]

European Union

Has a European Boycott of Israeli Colonies in the Palestinian West Bank Begun?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole First, the European Union decided last summer to exclude Israeli Occupation institutions from Israel-EU cooperation initiatives. That is, Israeli institutions are routinely invited to European scientific conferences and projects as though they were members of the EU, but those based in the Palestinian West Bank are no longer welcome. Nor will the […]

Africa

Can Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Heal the Middle East?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Every transition from an authoritarian government to democracy is different. Some go relatively smoothly (Poland, South Korea). Others are rocky (Taiwan, Bosnia, Tunisia). In some instances, authoritarianism reasserts itself to a lesser (Russia) or greater (Ukraine, Egypt) extent. In some cases, the country falls into chaos (Iraq, Yugoslavia). What to do with […]

Africa

United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid

Juan Cole

The attempt to make Nelson Mandela respectable is an ongoing effort of Western government spokesmen and the Western media. He wasn’t respectable in the business circles of twentieth-century New York or Atlanta, or inside the Beltway of Washington, D.C. He wasn’t respectable for many of the allies of the United States in the Cold War, […]

Featured

Israeli Blockade of 40,000 Gaza Fishermen Briefly Broken by Youth Protesters

Juan Cole

About 200 Palestinian youth ctivists briefly broke the Israeli blockade on fishing off Gaza past an arbitrary 6-mile limit on Monday. World Bulletin writes: “”We want to show the world that there are people under occupation who are being starved in Gaza while the world is watching,” Ishraq Mahmoud, spokeswoman of the Palestinian Uprising Youth […]