Middle East

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update: Reuters reports that Al-Shifa hospital complex has been forced to cease operations after its final remaining generator was hit in a bombardment. As I write, dozens of premature babies in incubators are in danger, and two have reportedly died. The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Friday saw an […]

Israel/ Palestine

Why so Many Jews Denounce Israel’s War on Gaza

Yakov M. Rabkin

By Yakov M. Rabkin ( Pressenza ) – A profound division exists between Zionist advocates of Israel on the one hand, and both secular and religious Jews, on the other, who reject Zionism and thus the very idea of a separate state for the Jews. Most Jews must be somewhere in between. For years, they […]

Anti-intellectualism

Statement of Juan Cole, Director of the program in Arab and Muslim American Studies in the American Culture Department at the University of Michigan

Juan Cole

I write in awareness that the ongoing, painful events in the Middle East are putting an enormous emotional burden on the faculty, staff and students of our program. I want them to know that AMAS is here for them as a supporter and that we are available to offer counsel in this difficult moment. Concrete […]

censorship

Letter to Hebrew University, Israel, in defense of Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian over Call for Gaza Ceasefire

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association | – Asher Cohen President, Hebrew University of Jerusalem hupres@savion.huji.ac.il Tamir Sheafer Rector, Hebrew University of Jerusalem rector@savion.huji.ac.il Dear President Cohen and Rector Sheafer, We write to you on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North […]

Congress

Dear Congress: Your Resolution against Rashida Tlaib is Delusional, full of Fake History and Falsehoods. Here’s Why.

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Congressional resolution censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian to serve in the national legislature, is a major scandal. It is rife with propaganda, fake history, and racism. It puts me in mind of Mark Twain’s observation that “America has no native criminal class . . . except Congress.” […]

Israel/ Palestine

How are leaders in the Muslim World reacting to the Gaza Conflict?

Abdullah al-Ahsan

Israel has yet again declared its ultimate goal to annihilate Hamas for the last time. This is the sixth time that Israel has declared the same objective during the last decade and a half and every time it killed Gazans indiscriminately. In 2006, Israel had declared the same objective about annihilating Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yet […]

Featured

With all Eyes on Gaza, Extremist Israeli Squatters seek to Ethnically Cleanse the Palestinian West Bank

Mohammed Samaana

Amman (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I booked annual leave in early November to travel for a family visit in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Although initially I thought it might be possible to enter the West Bank despite the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, it turned out that while the world is […]

Featured

Israeli Minister’s Threat to Nuke Gaza displays Genocidal Mood: “There are no Civilians in Gaza”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the fascist Jewish Power bloc brought into government by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, made waves when he advocated nuking Gaza. Although Netanyahu announced that he had suspended Eliyahu from the cabinet, the prime minister does not actually have that authority. Eliyahu […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza’s ‘graveyard’ for children: Why Palestinians must be included in the International Refugee Protection Regime

The Conversation

By Maissaa Almustafa, University of Waterloo | – Israeli airstrikes have destroyed apartment blocks and killed and injured hundreds of people at refugee camps in northern Gaza in the midst of its unrelenting assault on Gazans in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Refugees represent 81 per cent of Gaza’s population of […]