Middle East

By Adnan Hmidan | – On 15 November, the Palestinian Authority (PA) closed its official departments, closed schools and universities as is usual every year, to celebrate the Independence of the State of Palestine, which sparked criticism. This miserable independence, in which the Head of State—and I mean Mahmoud Abbas, in particular—does not move one […]

Climate Crisis

The Climate Emergency Comes for Iran, as Thousands of Angry Farmers Protest in Dry Riverbed at Isfahan

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Friday, Kayhan London reports that thousands of farmers and other activists gathered in the dry riverbed of the historic Zayandeh Rud river at the major west-central city of Isfahan to protest the lack of water in the province. The crowd alleged that the Iranian administration of President Ibrahim Raisi […]

censorship

Turkish Online Censorship Ramps up, Targeting Sites Critical of the Government or the President

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Written in 1953, the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about a future where books are burned in an oppressive society. A new report titled Fahrenheit 5651: The Scorching Effect of Censorship, uses the well-known book to explain how a series of amendments made to […]

Featured

To Avoid another War Biden must get US Troops, caught in Israel-Iran Crossfire, out of Syria

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Eric Schmitt and Ronen Bergman at the New York Times report that a drone strike on a US base in eastern Syria last month has been assessed by the Pentagon as retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on Iranian bases in Syria. US troops abandoned the base before the strike, based on […]

Arab World

Authoritarian Quadrangle: How the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Egypt and Israel undermine Democracy in the Middle East

Middle East Monitor

By Gilbert Achkar | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – From the middle of the 20th century until the first decade of the 21st, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the main fortress of Arab reactionism. This was due to the size of the Kingdom, its location in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, […]

Entertainment

Justin Bieber and Others Should Speak Out on Human Rights at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Prix

Human Rights Watch

Jason Derulo, A$AP Rocky Also Among Celebrities Slated to Perform

Israel/ Palestine

Visiting Tabaneh, where Palestinians under Israeli Occupation travel 4 hours to get Healthcare

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor) – Before the Separation Wall was built around East Jerusalem it was easy for residents of Tabaneh village in the West Bank to get to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. Now they must go to Jericho and a simple check-up can take the whole day. Because of the effort involved, pregnant […]

Democracy

In the Middle East, the US was Never about Democracy Promotion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – How much of the blame should U.S. policy take for the decline of democracy in the twenty-first century, with the reversions to dictatorship and the rise of illiberalism in older democracies? In a fine article at the New York Times, Max Fisher discusses how an NYT team mined data at […]

Corporate Surveillance

How Israel’s Tech for Cyber Surveillance of Palestinians is now Targeting You

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – The revelation a few years ago that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting mass surveillance on millions of Americans reignited the conversation on governments’ misconduct and their violation of human rights and privacy laws. Until recently, however, Israel has been spared due criticism, not only for its […]