Middle East

Gulf Arab Women were Finally making Progress, but will the Covid-19 Crash and Austerity set them Back?

By Humaira Hansrod | – Citizens of Saudi Arabia are having to get used to something that has long been an unpleasant fact of life in most parts of the world. On July 1, the kingdom tripled the VAT levied on consumer goods and services from 5% to 15%. There were reports of frantic stockpiling […]

Featured

When will Palestine have its Declaration of Independence?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Americans’ commemoration of the Fourth of July in 2020 was often a bit subdued, depending on where in the country you were, given the pandemic and its economic consequences. The subject of the celebration, however, was the foundation of a democratic republic that aspired to be made up of free […]

Israel/ Palestine

Is More Conflict What the Mideast Needs? Israel’s Dangerous Plan to Annex 1/3 of Palestinian West Bank

Middle East Monitor

By Hazem Ayyad | – ( Middle East Monitor.) – As expected, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed Israel’s annexation plan… on the pretext of finishing his consultations with an American delegation. His decision was not made known for certain to his Foreign Minister, retired General Gabi Ashkenazi, who told Israel’s Army Radio: “It seems unlikely […]

Israel/ Palestine

Netanyahu’s proposed annexation of the Palestinian West Bank could Provoke a ‘diplomatic tsunami’ against Israel

The Conversation

By Tony Walker | – In a deadly game of Middle East cat and mouse, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing to weigh his options in pushing ahead with plans to extend Israeli sovereignty over territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. This is a highly complex issue involving multiple calculations, diplomatic and […]

Libya

Foreign Interference Keeps Libya’s Crisis at a Boil

Reese Erlich

( 48hills) – I arrived at the airport in Tripoli, Libya, on assignment for CBS Radio with my paperwork in order. I even had the phone numbers of local immigration officials in case anything went wrong. It quickly did. An airport official said my papers wouldn’t allow me into the country, even though the visit […]

BDS

Federal Court Allows American Studies Association Boycott of Israel to Stand: Victory for BDS

contributors

( American Studies Association) – In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the lawsuit filed against the American Studies Association (ASA), its executive director, and eight former ASA officers or committee members: Lisa Duggan, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Sunaina […]

Donald Trump

What Blocked Netanyahu from Beginning Planned Theft of Swathes of Palestinian West Bank on July 1?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu failed to begin the theft of substantial swathes of the Palestinian West Bank on July 1, as he had once pledged, according to UPI. The reasons for the hold up are a little murky, but here are some considerations. 1. Peter Beaumont and Rosie Scammell […]

African-Americans

The Black Lives Matter movement’s stand with Palestinians has a history

Asa Winstanley

Middle East Monitor – It is common to think of Black Lives Matter as a single group when it isn’t; it is a movement. Indeed, it is a movement for Black liberation which first erupted in response to police brutality in 2014, following the killing of two African Americans: Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and […]

Israel/ Palestine

On this Day in 1920, Receipt was Given to Colonial Britain for ‘One Palestine, Complete’; Jews were 11%

Middle East Monitor

By Jehan Alfarra | – On this day in 1920, the first High Commissioner for Palestine Herbert Samuel, was handed the administration of the country by the British government and signed a receipt saying “one Palestine, complete” On this day in 1920, the first High Commissioner for Palestine, 1st Viscount Samuel, Herbert Samuel, was handed […]