Middle East

London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Efforts by Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to join the race for artificial intelligence could be hindered by US opposition to China’s growing footprint in the region. US President Joe Biden and his administration appear concerned that rising Chinese influence in […]

Anti-intellectualism

‘Era Of Repression’: Iran Purges Ranks Of University Professors Ahead Of Veil Protest Anniversary

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Hannah Kaviani Fereshteh Ghazi ( RFE/RL ) – Encouraging students to hold unauthorized demonstrations. Encouraging students to sing antiestablishment slogans. Encouraging female students to remove their head scarves. Undermining Islamic values and acting against the interests of the system. These are the list of reasons the Iranian authorities are using to increasingly purge the […]

Anti-intellectualism

Why Defining Criticism of Israeli Policies as “antisemitism” Harms Campus Freedom of Speech (BRISMES)

contributors

Statement of the British Society for Middle East Studies and the European Legal Support Center on the IHRA Definition of antisemitism as a challenge to free speech in Universities. IC is reprinting the opening paragraphs of

Evangelicals

The dangerous Alliance of religious Nationalism in Israel and America to Silence Critics of Apartheid

Waging Nonviolence

Morgan Artyukhina ( Waging Nonviolence ) – A new brand of far-right religious nationalism in Israel is seeking to refine the country’s ethnocentric basis, increasing its policing of the boundaries of Israeli Jewish identity in an attempt to shore up support for Israel’s anti-Arab policies. A parallel movement is unfolding in Israel’s chief benefactor, the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Marrakech Artisans – who have helped rebuild the Moroccan City before – are among those hit hard in the Earthquake’s Devastation

The Conversation

By Abbey Stockstill, Southern Methodist University | – A powerful earthquake that hit close to the medieval city of Marrakech in Morocco on Sept. 8, 2023, has killed thousands and injured many more. It has also put at risk buildings and monuments of major historic importance, among them the minaret of the Kutubiyya mosque, a […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel and its Occupation exact a High Price from Palestinians

Michael Jansen

( Jordan Times ) – Last week, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People called for Israel’s “immediate and unconditional” pull out from East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Its annual report cited Israel’s breaches of key tenets of international law as proof that Israel’s forever occupation […]

Death Penalty

Saudi Arabia executes more than 100 People this Year

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor) – The Saudi authorities have executed more than 100 people this year, hitting a new milestone that Amnesty International considers reveals its “chilling disregard for the right to life.” On Thursday, Saudi Arabia executed a displaced religious resident on charges of killing a Saudi in the capital, Riyadh, the official Saudi […]

Climate Crisis

From Egypt’s Nile to Iraq’s Tigris-Euphrates, only Water Diplomacy can Forestall Coming Climate Conflicts

Middle East Monitor

By Prof. Dr. Aysegul Kibaroglu ( Middle East Monitor ) – One of the most pressing issues of the 21st century is the management and allocation of the limited freshwater resources in the world. Since an important number of those water resources are trans-boundary, crossing the political boundaries of more than one nation, the […]

art and photography

How Photography can Reveal, Overlook and Manipulate the Truth: The Fearless Work of Iranian Artist Hoda Afshar

The Conversation

By Tom Williams, University of Wollongong | – (The Conversation) – Through her poetically constructed images, Hoda Afshar illuminates a world overshadowed by history and atrocity. Yet we never see despair: we see defiance, comradeship, reinvention and a search for how photography can activate new ways of thinking. Afshar was born in Iran and migrated […]