Middle East

Ismail Patel | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Masjid Al-Aqsa has been in danger since the Israeli Occupation of East Jerusalem began in 1967. Since the occupation, the Israeli authorities have allowed Israeli extremists to intimidate and violate the sanctity of Masjid Al-Aqsa. However, in the past decade, the attacks on Masjid Al-Aqsa […]

Featured

Israeli Police Raid Sacred al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, Wound 158 Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that at dawn prayers on Friday Israeli security forces mounted an assault on the worshipers at the holy al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in the Muslim religion, in the midst of the Muslim Lent or fasting month, Ramadan. They injured some […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel deprives Palestinians of Gaza of Clean Water, Key Materiel, Living Wage, but they are Unbowed

Middle East Monitor

By Mohammad Makram Balawi | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to have the Ramadan break-fast iftar meal with a university professor from Gaza. He was my neighbour’s old university classmate and was transiting through Istanbul on his way from Makkah. The guest had his young son with […]

Iraq War

From Mosul to Raqqa to Mariupol, Killing Civilians is a Crime no Matter Who Does it

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – Americans have been shocked by the death and destruction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filling our screens with bombed buildings and dead bodies lying in the street. But the United States and its allies have waged war in country after country for decades, carving swathes of destruction through cities, towns […]

Corruption

Why did the Saudis invest $2 bn with Jared Kushner?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Sunday, David D. Kirkpatrick and Kate Kelly of the New York Times got a big scoop — they gained access to internal documents of the board that vets investments for the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, called the Public Investment Fund. These memos demonstrate that the board argued against […]

Displaced and Refugees

US Assistance to Saudi-Led Coalition Risks Complicity in War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Afrah Nasser Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The protracted conflict in Yemen has killed almost a quarter of a million people directly or indirectly due to inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. It has included unlawful attack after unlawful attack, with homes, hospitals, schools, […]

Agriculture

More Heat, Less Water: Climate Emergency Pushes Iraq’s Farmers off Land as Drought cripples Crops

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Until a few years ago, farming in southern Iraq was “as lucrative as oil”, Qasim Abdul Wahad remembers, and his one-hectare farm plot in the Governorate of Basra produced enough to feed his family of eight. Now dust kicks up under his feet as he walks through his land, […]

European Union

Could Europe/ NATO become Israel-Palestine if Putin Occupies parts of Ukraine for the Long Haul?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – We have to begin asking the question of what will happen if Russia succeeds in implementing a long-term occupation of the Donbass region and of other Ukrainian territories down to the port of Odessa, making a land bridge to Crimea. Such a Russian occupation of land claimed by a […]

Saudi Arabia

Yemen: Will Resignation of Saudi-backed Absentee President help End US-Backed War?

Brian Whitaker

( Al-Bab.com ) – After months of apparent deadlock, the last few days have brought tentative signs of a shift in Yemen’s seven-year conflict. On Friday Hans Grundberg, the UN’s special envoy, announced that the protagonists had agreed to a two-month ceasefire. The truce, which came into force on Saturday, was the first since 2016 […]