Middle East

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — 700 British artists have signed a pledge to boycott Israel as long as it “continues to deny basic Palestinian rights,” the latest major success for the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel movement. “In response to the call from Palestinian artists and cultural workers for a cultural boycott of Israel, we […]

Featured

Iraq: ISIL advances to within 9 miles of 300 US troops at al-Ain Base

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The Jordanian newspaper al-Dustur [Constitution] reports that Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) has captured the al-Anbar city of al-Baghdadi in western al-Anbar Province. Twenty-five Daesh commandos, some of them with suicide bomb belts, then threw themselves at the outskirts of the al-Ain military base about 9 miles away, where […]

censorship

Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie

contributors

By Sarah Lazare | (Commondreams.org) The family of Rachel Corrie—the 23-year-old U.S. activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while nonviolently protesting a home demolition in Palestine 12 years ago—was denied justice by Israel’s top court on Thursday. The rejection is the latest stage in the family’s decade-long legal battle to hold Israel […]

Dissent

Israel bans Palestinian-Israeli Legislator Hanin Zoabi From Elections

contributors

By IMEMC News & Agencies | – The Israeli central election committee, on Thursday, passed a vote to exclude Palestinian MK Hanin Zoabi from the Arab list of candidates running for Knesset elections, next March. PNN reports that the petition was submitted by Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu party, and Otzma Yehudit/Yachad, Ha’am Itanu […]

Egypt

‘American Terrorist’: Middle East reacts to Murder of 3 Muslim-American Students in N Carolina

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – If American mass media seemed reluctant to cover the murder of three Muslims students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill as a hate crime, the same was not true in the Middle East, where strong opinions were aroused. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan criticized President Barack Obama […]

Iraq

Iraqi Gov’t AWOL: It’s Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State

contributors

VICE News | – “Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious “caliphate” in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic […]

Apartheid

Israel earmarks vast area of Palestinian Hebron/ al-Khalil land for annexation

contributors

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israel has earmarked around 2,000 dunams (500 acres) of private Palestinian land for annexation in the Hebron district, local activists say. Muhammad al-Halayqa, an activist in the village of al-Shuyukh northeast of Hebron, told Ma’an that Israel’s Civil Administration has posted warning notices on the land slated for confiscation. The land belongs […]

Banking

Putin on the Nile: an Isolated Russia Seeks friends in Egypt w/ offer of Nuclear Plant

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation paid a state visit to Cairo on Tuesday, consulting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on a range of economic and foreign policy issues. The meeting was seen by many observers as underlining the desire of Egypt to become less dependent […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Dear Bashar al-Assad: Barrel Bombs Are No Laughing Matter

contributors

By Philippe Bolopion | (Human Rights Watch) | — It speaks volumes when the leader of a country feels emboldened to respond with humor when asked on television about a deadly weapon that is responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of his citizens. In a BBC interview broadcasted today, a confident Syrian President […]