Middle East

By: Anna Kokko | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — At the end of Star Street in the Old City of Bethlehem, turquoise metal doors that are usually locked have been set wide open. In a cave-like interior, a group of women sits in the dim light on brightly colored pillows and […]

Christianity

Daesh/ ISIL takes 250 Captive, including 60 Christians in Syria

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In more bad news for the Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) fighters have taken the town of Al Qariyatain southeast of Homs and are advancing west on the nearby towns of Mheen and Sadad. These central small towns are Sunni-majority, but […]

Barack Obama

Senior Iranian Official Reveals Details About Secret Talks With U.S.

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | (RFE/ RL) | – – “When Rohani learned about the details of the talks, he couldn’t believe it,” says Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s head of its Atomic Energy Organization. Iranian President Hassan Rohani has been credited with easing tensions between Tehran and Washington and helping secure a nuclear deal with world […]

Immigration

Losing Hope, Iraqi Youth become Illegal Immigrants to ‘Save Themselves’

contributors

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Previously it was the unemployed or those threatened who tried to leave Iraq for good. But a new wave of would-be immigrants is different – they are young, educated and employed. But they’ve lost all hope at home. A displaced family from Hawija in Kirkuk recieve […]

Christianity

Leader of extremist Israeli organization calls for torching churches

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) –The leader of a Jewish extremist group in Israel allegedly called for arson attacks on churches in front of Israeli students, Israeli media reported on Thursday. Benzi Gopstein, leader of anti-Arab group Lehava, allegedly called for the burning of churches at a panel held this week for […]

Israel

Despairing of 2-State Solution, E. Jerusalem Palestinians apply for Israeli Citizenship

contributors

VOA | (Vidoeo Report) | – – “Most Palestinians living in East Jerusalem have long rejected the option of full Israeli citizenship, seeing it as a betrayal to their political cause – the formation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. But as that dream remains elusive, more and more Palestinians are […]

Christianity

A demolished Palestinian village comes back to life

contributors

By Melanie Nakashian | (Waging Nonviolence) | – – Among the hundreds of Palestinian villages that were evacuated between 1947 and 1951, there is one whose descendants are actually getting close to fulfilling their right of return. In an unprecedented case, the demolished Christian village of Iqrit should soon be connected to Israel’s electricity grid. […]

Iran

Iran Moves To Silence criticism of Nuclear Deal by Hard Line Media

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | – – Iran’s state media watchdog has suspended a hard-line publication and warned two other like-minded outlets for criticizing the nuclear deal reached last month between Iran and major world powers. The government’s Press Supervisory Board suspended the weekly 9 Dey, which is run by lawmaker Hamid Rasaei, […]

Environment

Why Israelis have cut down 800,000 Palestinian Olive Trees

contributors

Text by Elle Kurancid, photos by Bryony Dunne | (Jadaliyya) | – – Olive tree felling is a longtime strategy of Israel’s occupation regime in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1967, an estimated 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli authorities and settlers. In February 2015, Irish-born filmmaker and photographer Bryony […]