Middle East

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s nationalist-religious government approved the construction of 5,700 additional illegal housing units for Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank on Monday, despite US pressure to halt settlement expansion that Washington sees as an obstacle to peace with Palestinians, Reuters reports. The plans for approval of the housing units in various areas of […]

Displaced and Refugees

Put People’s Rights first in Syria Sanctions

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document examining […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: Iranian City, hottest in World on Thursday, hits Record for late Spring Heat, at 50.8 °C [123.44 °F]

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) The Iranian city of Zabol in the northern part of the Sistan and Baluchistan province won the global high temperature sweepstakes on June 22, according to the Spanish meteorological site OGIMET , coming in at 50.8 °C [123.44 °F]. It is the first time in 60 years that a city in […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli Squatters Build new Outposts in Palestinian West Bank amid Rising Violence

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s National Security Minister, on Friday, urged tougher military action against Palestinian resistance fighters in the Occupied West Bank and urged Israeli settlers to expand their presence there, despite surging violence and international calls for a halt to new construction, Reuters reports. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right member of Prime […]

Authoritarianism

Iranian Protesters remain defiant in the Face of Violent and Brutal regime Oppression

The Conversation

By Afshin Shahi, Keele University | – The vibrant, brave and unyielding voice of dissent remains strong in Iran despite months of brutal repression by the clerical regime. The “women, life, freedom” movement is an insistent call for change that is meeting the Islamic Republic head-on with resilient defiance. Even as violence curbs the outward […]

Featured

Israeli Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir calls for Killing Thousands of Palestinians and Squatting on their Property

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jordan’s al-Ghad [Tomorrow] newspaper reports from occupied East Jerusalem that on Friday the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Bin-Gvir called on Israeli squatters on the Palestinian West Bank to take over the territory and to settle it with support from the far right-wing government. Ben-Gvir made the remarks […]

Israel/ Palestine

World’s Condemnation of Israeli Squatter Attacks on Palestinians is a Cover for Doing Nothing

Middle East Monitor

by Motasem A Dalloul abujomaaGaza ( Middle East Monitor) – Dangerous mobs of extremist Jewish settlers have been rampaging through towns and villages in the occupied West Bank attacking Palestinians and their homes, shops, farms and vehicles, including ambulances. Cars with Palestinian number plates have had stones thrown at them by settlers on road […]

Featured

Another Day, another Israeli Pogrom Against Occupied Palestinians; or, Echoes of the Sudetenland

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A civil war is raging in Israel-Palestine, and the outcome won’t be pretty for anyone, including Americans. Fascist Israeli squatters are routinely attacking Palestinian hamlets with mayhem and murder on their minds, and the Israeli Army often takes the side of the aggressors. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has turned control […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian Rights Groups Face Existential Threat: Human Rights Watch Oral Statement

Human Rights Watch

53rd Session UN Human Rights Council Item 2 – Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel Less than a year ago, Israeli authorities, with Yair Lapid as prime minister, raided the offices of and issued closure orders against seven prominent Palestinian civil […]