Middle East

Only one is being translated into consequential action: the Israeli narrative of domination and genocide.

“You will not Kill our Imagination:” Palestinian Memoirist Saeed Teebi

Teebi’s efforts to come to terms with the failures and powers of language to narrate a Palestinian story that can stand for itself

Academic Freedom

California’s New Law Outlawing Criticism of Israel Quashes Academic Freedom, Criminalizes Teachers

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A California District Court hearing on was held on Wednesday, December 17, over an injunction sought by plaintiffs represented by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) against a new law, California AB 715, which is supposedly intended to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism. But it no more does […]

Iran

“Another Cup to Drown the Memory:” FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:30

Juan Cole

No. 30 in the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám continues the theme of bewilderment that we find ourselves, unasked, in the world, without a clear idea of the meaning of this life. The English verses portray these acts of being born and dying “without asking” as “impertinence,” i.e. insolence or […]

Featured

Israel: Polling suggests Extreme-Right Netanyahu Coalition in Trouble, as Tens of Thousands Protest

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new opinion poll in Israel, published in Ma’ariv, is summarized in al-Balad. It shows that if Israel has early elections, the currently dominant right wing coalition would fall from holding roughly 61 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament or Knesset to only 50. Likud is projected to lose 3 […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestine solidarity in Ukraine is all about shared experiences

Waging Nonviolence

No strangers to the perils of war, Ukrainian activists and journalists are connecting their struggle to Gaza. Eleftheria Kousta ( Waging Nonviolence ) – As Russian attacks were keeping Kyiv’s residents awake most nights this summer, a group of Ukrainians gathered outside the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide to protest Israel’s siege of Gaza and […]

Biodiversity

“I don’t see Palestine as an isolated story”

Global Voices

An Interview with Vivien Sansour, Founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library By Thin Ink This is an excerpt of a longer interview on Thin Ink, a weekly publication on food, climate, and where they meet. Read the full interview here. ( Global Voices ) – Vivien Sansour is the founder of the Palestine Heirloom […]

Featured

UN’s IPC: Gaza out of Famine for Now, but Severe Malnutrition Continues, as Newborn dies of Hypthermia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC, on which the United Nations depends to determine the level of nutritional crises around the world, delivered the good news on Friday that Gaza is now no longer in famine. While that report is welcome, the situation that Israel is imposing on […]

Displaced and Refugees

1/4 of Syrian Expat Refugees Have Returned, but many to Destroyed Homes, Land Disputes

The Conversation

By Sandra Joireman, University of Richmond (The Conversation) – Close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned to their home country over the past year. That extraordinary figure represents nearly one-quarter of all Syrians who fled fighting during the 13-year civil war to live abroad. It is also a strikingly fast pace for a […]