Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett slammed opposition parties, led by former PM Binyamin Netanyahu, for having voted against renewal of the Family Separation Law for Palestinian-Israelis married to Palestinians. He said that the opposition had done direct damage to Israeli security. The […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s colonial violence and international humanitarian aid

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – Whenever Israel bombs Gaza, donor countries are expected to raid their treasuries and manage the resultant humanitarian crisis. The aftermath of the latest colonial aggression against the enclave is no different. On one hand, the reconstruction of Gaza will probably follow previous mechanisms in which the UN plays a […]

Featured

“Chaos” in Israeli Parliament over Apartheid-style Law against Family Unification for Palestinian-Israelis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Quds Al-Arabi [Arab Jerusalem] reports “chaos” in the Israeli parliament as it debated into the wee hours of Tuesday morning the renewal of a 2003 law that places obstacles to family unification inside Israel of Palestinian-Israelis who marry Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank or Gaza. Members of parliament […]

Feminism

Thousands of Women protest Throughout Turkey as gov’t withdraws from Istanbul Convention on Women’s Rights

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva | ( Globalvoices.org) – Thousands of women marched across the largest cities in Turkey on July 1, to protest Turkey’s official withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. Heavy police intervention and violence were reported throughout the country. Turkey announced its decision to withdraw from the Convention on March 20, 2021. The Istanbul Convention […]

Iran

Iranian Voters sent a Message to Iran’s Leaders with Dismal Turnout For Presidential Election

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/RL) – The Iranian leadership has a problem: a record number of voters — more than half of them — turned their back on the presidential election by not taking part in the vote. Official turnout in the June 18 election was 48.8 percent, the lowest ever registered in the Islamic republic, which was […]

Featured

United Nations Accuses Israel of ‘Grave Violations’ against Palestinian Children

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres presented a report to the 75th General Assembly on the “Promotion and protection of the rights of children: promotion and protection of the rights of children: Children and Armed Conflict” It had a damning section on the situation in Israel […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza Disability Rights Defender recounts harrowing Flight from Israeli Airstrikes at U.N.

Human Rights Watch

By Abier Almasri | Research Assistant, Middle East and North Africa Division | @abier_i | – ( ) – Abeer al-Harakli, a 28-year-old disability rights defender from Gaza, addressed the United Nations earlier this month at the 14th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. […]

China

Biden is a Transformative President Domestically, but from China to Iran he embraces the Same old Washington Militarism

John Feffer

America is back–to the same old, same old. ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) -On the domestic front, Joe Biden is flirting with transformational policies around energy, environment, and infrastructure. It’s not a revolution, but it’s considerably less timid than what Barack Obama offered in that pre-Trump, pre-pandemic era. When it comes to foreign policy, […]

Bush

Donald Rumsfeld, Torturer, Serial Liar, Butcher of Baghdad, dies at 88

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s death at 88 is an occasion for me to recall some of my own writing on his sinister role in the Iraq War. Rumsfeld wanted to invade Iraq so badly he just made up shit to justify that action. In a Salon article I […]