Middle East

By Curtis Hutt, University of Nebraska Omaha | – (The Conversation) – A right-wing Israeli politician is trying to recast a key part of American history. That’s not a usual subject for an Israeli Cabinet member. But Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s has always been a ‘Religious War’: On Ben-Gvir and the Slipperiness of Zionism

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – In a self-congratulatory article published in the Atlantic in 2017, Yossi Klein Halevi describes Israeli behaviour at the just-conquered holy Muslim shrines in Occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 as “an astonishing moment of religious restraint”. “The Jewish people had just returned to its holiest site, from which it had […]

Donald Trump

Is Israel’s Netanyahu even worse than Trump?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – The parallel trajectories of far-far right politicians accruing more power in the US and Israel is striking. Elements include similar motivations, policy actors, agenda and attempts to subvert democracy. But the dynamics differ with the roles of the two nations’ judicial systems. Far-far right wingers in Israel feel […]

Authoritarianism

Iranians In Kurdish Sanandaj Renew Call For Regime Change At Gathering To Mark Protester’s Death

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi – ( RFE/RL ) – Iranians in the western city of Sanandaj have marked the end of a 40-day mourning period for Homan Abdullahi, a protester killed by security forces in ongoing nationwide protests that have rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini, with renewed calls for regime change. Videos […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Brute Force Used in Crackdown on Dissent

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities used excessive and lethal force in their clampdown on nationwide protests that broke out in September 2022, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. The government imprisoned hundreds of activists on dubious charges, and issued death sentences in grossly unfair trials. The death on […]

Colonialism

Why do so many Turkish people believe ‘Secret Clauses’ in the 1923 Great Power Lausanne Treaty will be unveiled this Year?

The Conversation

By Ozan Ozavci, Utrecht University | – (The Conversation) – Commonly regarded as the “birth certificate” of modern Turkey, the 1923 treaty of Lausanne was the last of the peace settlements signed at the end of the first world war. This year’s centenary has already provoked far more public anticipation than one might expect, thanks […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: Government Agents infiltrate Wikipedia, sentence Independent Admins to Prison

Global Voices

By SMEX | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – The Saudi Arabian government infiltrated Wikipedia by recruiting the organization’s highest ranked administrators in the country to serve as government agents to control information about the country and prosecuting those who contributed critical information about political detainees, said SMEX and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) […]

Featured

Israeli Opposition Warns of “Civil War,” “End of Democracy” as 80,000 Rally against Netanyahu

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Palestinian newspaper Amad reports that tens of thousands of Israelis took part on Saturday evening in demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa protesting the new Israeli government, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu. The Hebrew press reported a massive police presence at these sites. The Israeli center-right is finding out […]