Human Rights

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Jesters once had considerably more leeway than the average person to make fun of the king. If otherwise loyal subjects made light of their leader, they could lose their head. Jesters, however, could test the limits of the possible with relative impunity—until they crossed the line and lost […]

Academic Freedom

Protesting UC Berkeley handing Names of Faculty and Students to Dept. of Education

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Letter to UC Berkeley regarding the university’s submission to the Department of Education of 160 names of persons associated with allegations of antisemitism President James B. Milliken Office of the President University of California president@ucop.edu Chancellor Rich Lyons Office of […]

Authoritarianism

Stephen Colbert: “We are all Jimmy Kimmel”

contributors

The Late Show: “We Are All Jimmy Kimmel | The Easy Way Or The Hard Way | Trump Urges NBC To Cancel Fallon And Mey…”

censorship

Israeli Forces’ Attack on Sanaa kills Journalists

Human Rights Watch

Israel, Yemen Authorities Targeting Media Workers Niku Jafarnia Bahrain and Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division ( Human Rights Watch ) – A new report by Human Rights Watch documents attacks by all the warring parties in Yemen on journalists. An attack on a media center in Sanaa, the capital, by Israeli forces […]

censorship

Protesting Claremont Colleges Library Censorship of “Policing Palestine”

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Letter to the Claremont Colleges library condemning the censorship of the title and abstract of Professor Bilal Nasir’s scheduled lecture in the Claremont Discourse series Katie Kohn STEM Librarian Chair, Claremont Discourse series committee The Claremont Colleges Library Katie.Kohn@claremont.edu Janet […]

censorship

Yemen: Journalists under Assault

Human Rights Watch

Warring Parties’ Systematic Violations Against Media Freedom Yemen’s warring parties – particularly the Houthis, the Southern Transitional Council, and the Yemeni government – have committed serious human rights violations against journalists in Yemen. Targeting journalists and media institutions has encroached on freedom of expression. Many journalists have fled the country and those who remained have […]

Climate Crisis

Why Conflict Refugees are Particularly Vulnerable to Climate Risks

The Conversation

By Kerrie Holloway, ODI Global (The Conversation) – After heavy rains, a landslide “completely levelled” a remote village in western Sudan in early September. It was the temporary home of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, to what they had […]

Featured

Genocide Scholars: Israel is Committing a Genocide in Gaza, and we Should Know

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the last day of August, 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a scholarly body with more than 500 members, passed a resolution with 86% support of those who voted, concluding that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. These scholars study genocide professionally, researching it, theorizing it, and […]

Genocide

How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – One year ago, the UN General Assembly demanded that Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories within twelve months. The General Assembly voted, by 124 votes to 14, with 43 abstentions, for a strong resolution that not only “demanded” an end to the occupation within a year, but […]