Middle East

Saudi Arabia: Mass Execution of 81 Men: Rampant Abuses in Criminal Justice System, lack of Fair Trials

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Saudi authorities’ execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. Rampant and systemic abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system suggest it is highly unlikely that […]

Israel/ Palestine

Not all Refugees are Equal: Plight of Palestinians Displaced by Israel Worsening

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – Financial support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is dwindling, despite the renewed mandates and financial contribution pledges by world leaders. “The almost unanimous political support expressed by the UN General Assembly to the Agency is not translated into matching financial resources,” UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, […]

Authoritarianism

Syrians Watch Ukraine with Fear and Hope: International Protections Provided to Ukrainians Can Still Be Extended to Syrians

Human Rights Watch

By Maya Ghazi | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – Over the past couple of years Syria has settled into a grim status quo: a crumbling economy, a fragmented nation, and the continued peril refugees face from forced returns home. Yet in the lead-up to the 11th anniversary of the Syrian revolution, there have […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian Refugee Families expelled from Israel can’t Come Home, but 100K Ukrainians Admitted

Ramona Wadi

By Ramona Wadi | – ( Middle East Monitor )- Once again, Israel feels entitled to play the humanitarian card, with only Palestinians pointing out its selectivity when it comes to opening its doors to refugees. In February, The Jerusalem Post reported that 10,000 Jewish Ukrainian refugees would be entering Israel. The move was confirmed […]

Bashar al-Assad

This is Where We came in: Will Russia’s Syrian Mercenaries in Ukraine form a new Al-Qaeda?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Thursday, according to Alarabiya (quoting Tass) Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he would permit foreign fighters from the Middle East to aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine. At the same time, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that some 16,000 fighters in the Middle East had expressed […]

Authoritarianism

Iran Must Release Prominent Anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah (MESA)

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association | – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, Head of the Judiciary Your Excellencies, We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) to express our grave dismay over the […]

Featured

Gigi Hadid’s Palestine Pledge and ‘Anti-Palestinianism’: The Great Vogue Controversy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arab News reports that Vogue did an instagram posting about model Gigi Hadid’s pledge to donate her fall earnings to Ukraine and Palestine, but erased the Palestine part. The erasure attracted widespread condemnation from progressives, and Vogue has now amended its Instagram posting to restore the model’s pledge to […]

Iran

Revolution and Exile: A Poignant New Memoir of Iran

Fariba Amini

Review by Fariba Amini. Neda Toloui-Semnani, They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of my Parents, New York: Little A, 2022. Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment) – Beautiful, inspiring, heartbreaking and truth telling are terms that come to mind describing the new memoir by Iranian- American journalist Neda Toloui-Semnani. Among the many memoirs written […]

Israel/ Palestine

While world focuses on plight of Ukraine’s children, endless trauma of Gaza’s children should not be ignored

Michael Jansen

( Jordan Times ) – More than two million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded that country. The majority have been women and children since men between 18-60 are not allowed to leave and are conscripted into the armed forces. Most refugees have fled to Poland, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary where Ukrainians, but […]