Middle East

( Middle East Monitor ) – Who wrote the following quote? “Whereas the Afrikaner apostles of apartheid in South Africa, for example, brazenly proclaimed their sin, the [Israeli] practitioners of apartheid in Palestine beguilingly protest their innocence.” Amnesty International? Human Rights Watch (HRW)? Perhaps even the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem? Since January of last […]

Featured

Is Peace on the Verge of breaking out between US and Iran? Biden waives some Trump-Era Sanctions

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera English reports that the Biden administration has restored a key waiver for Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program that allows third parties such as Russia and France to consult with Tehran about how to dial back and repurpose the program. Without the waiver, if some officials had gone off […]

Iran

What the Escalating Yemen War means for Iran, Israel and the United Arab Emirates

Middle East Monitor

By Jonathan Fenton-Harvey | – Over the past year, a new phase of violence has emerged in war-torn Yemen between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels. From being deadlocked by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) military operations to the Houthis’ continued escalation and recruitment of child soldiers in the war, Yemenis […]

Iraq

Islamic State leader killed in US raid – where does this leave the terrorist group?

The Conversation

By Haroro J. Ingram, Amira Jadoon, and Andrew Mines | – An overnight raid conducted by U.S. special forces in Syria has resulted in the death of the leader of the terrorist Islamic State group. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed as he exploded a bomb at his compound in the country’s northwestern Idlib province. […]

Israel/ Palestine

Human Rights in Prolonged Occupation: Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch ) – This memorandum provides an overview of several of Human Rights Watch’s central concerns with respect to the Israeli government’s human rights practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in advance of its review of Israel in March 2022. This […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s Claims to be a Democracy ring Hollow as Amnesty Finds it an Apartheid State

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Amnesty International became the latest human rights group to label Israel an apartheid state. In a damning report titled “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians“ the rights group concludes that the occupation state has imposed a “cruel system of domination” and is committing “crimes against humanity.” […]

Featured

Apartheid 2.0: Amnesty International Joins Chorus condemning Israeli rule over stateless Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli state has won the trifecta of condemnation by major human rights organizations, as, on Tuesday, Amnesty International joined with Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem in calling Israeli rule over the 5 million Palestinians of the Occupied Palestinian Territories a form of Apartheid. Amnesty carried out its investigation and […]

Featured

How the Ukraine Crisis is Changing Biden’s Mideast Policy: The Rise and Rise of Qatar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia’s massing of over 100,000 troops around Ukraine has provoked a diplomatic and military crisis, but also a potential energy crisis. That is because Europe gets about one third of its natural gas from the Russian Federation, and Germany gets about half of its from that source. Natural gas prices […]

Israel/ Palestine

Jerusalem Christians: ‘We shrunk from 20% to 2% of population due to Israeli violence’

Global Voices

By by Raseef22 | – ( Globalvoices.org) – As tensions escalate in Jerusalem in the wake of Israel’s latest wave of evicting Palestinians from the city, it is important to note that Israel’s targeting of Arab civilians has not been limited to Muslims alone. It has also reached the Palestinian Christians of Jerusalem, which prompted […]