Middle East

By Georgina McAllister, Coventry University | – “Control oil, and you control nations; control food and you control people.” This aphorism, often attributed to Henry Kissinger, recently came to mind when I saw first hand how both strategies have been effectively deployed in Israel’s occupation and blockade of Gaza. As a researcher of conflict-affected food […]

Featured

Israel’s Racism Controversy over the “Problematic” “Arab Womb.” Should Palestinian-Israelis be fined for Having Children?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Adnan Abu Aamer writing at the pan-Arab newspaper Arabi 21, reviews the controversy roiling the Palestinian-Israeli community, over a physician’s remarks on the alleged “danger” posed by the Palestinian “womb.” The chief of heart surgery at Saroka Medical Center in Beesheba, Gideon Sahar, addressed a question to far right wing […]

Featured

Zelensky Lambastes Israel for not Helping Ukraine, Warns of Russian Aid to Iran’s Nuclear Program

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky lambasted Israel on Monday, saying that the latter’s refusal to provide Ukraine with anti-missile defenses and its neutrality on the war had permitted Iran and Russia to deepen their ties, with benefits for Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The “Zelensky Official” channel at YouTube made available a […]

Israel/ Palestine

How Palestinian Youth resisted Israeli Occupation: with a Haircut

Global Voices

By Mariam Abuadas مريم أبو عدس

Dissent

The Protests in Iran are part of a long History of Women’s Resistance

The Conversation

By Niloofar Hooman, McMaster University | – On Sept. 16, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in Tehran while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Her death set off a massive wave of demonstrations that have spread across the country. While the protests started with anger over the enforcement of the hijab, […]

Arab World

Review of Amnon Kapeliouk, Not by Omission: The Case of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War

Marc Martorell Junyent

Barcelona (Special to Informed Comment) – Review of Amnon Kapeliouk, Not by Omission: The Case of the 1973 Arab–Israeli War (London: Verso, 2022). The 1973 Arab-Israeli War is a war with many names. Also known as the Yom Kippur War, the October War, the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, or the Ramadan War, it pitted Israel against […]

Dissent

Iran’s Universities Turn Into A Major Battleground Amid Anti-Government Protests

Golnaz Esfandiari

By Golnaz Esfandiari and Mohammad Zarghami | – ( RFE/RL ) – Dozens of students protested outside the law faculty at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabei University on October 19, chanting, “dishonorable, dishonorable,” as a government official addressed a conference inside. When government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi later came outside, he was confronted by around 100 students. The […]

Houthi

UN Rights Body Fails Yemeni People, Again: Zero Accountability for War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Joey Shea Acting Researcher, Yemen and Bahrain | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – On October 7, the Human Rights Council adopted, without a vote, a toothless resolution on Yemen that fails to establish a credible independent and impartial monitoring and accountability mechanism. This means that grave human rights violations, including apparent war […]

Climate Crisis

On Turning 70 in a Graying, Climate-threatened World where Christians and Muslims must learn to Understand Each Other

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A daily column is inevitably personal, even if the focus is, as with Informed Comment, on current events. Today I’m going to reflect, not so much on my turning 70 as on the world I confront through these old eyes, and how my experiences help me cope with it and […]