Middle East

By Irit Katz and Haim Yacobi | – On May 21, a ceasefire was agreed to between Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, putting an end to a bloody 11-day conflict. Despite the relative calm that has ensued, the violence of these past weeks across Israel-Palestine has unveiled distinct urban fronts. Expropriations and restrictive planning threaten […]

African-Americans

A Year Later: Are Palestinians like George Floyd?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – May 26 was the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police, and President Biden had the victim’s family to the White House, where they lobbied the president on police reform. George Floyd could not have imagined how he would become an international symbol of the victimization […]

Elections

Iran: The Election Trump did succeed in Spoiling

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford, U.K (Special to Informed Comment) – Although Iran is one of the few countries in the Middle East that has regular presidential, parliamentary and local council elections, those elections are far from free and fair when judged by the standards of advanced democracies. The June, 2021 polls will be even more flawed, in large […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A primer on the long-standing dispute over Gaza (Video: U-Michigan Interviews Juan Cole)

Juan Cole

“Since May 10, more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis have died in fighting in Israel and the occupied territories. Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, studies the ongoing political change in the Middle East and is author of the blog Informed Comment. He discusses the history behind the current […]

BDS

In Victory for American Freedom, Judge Mark Cohen Calls “Unconstitutional” Georgia’s Ban on Boycotting Israel for Brutalizing Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ross Williams at the Georgia Reporter writes that federal judge Mark Cohen on Monday characterized as unconstitutional a Georgia state law that prohibited contractors for the Georgia state government from boycotting Israel. Cohen is United States District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. This […]

Apartheid

Stop comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa; it is worse

Thembisa Fakude

( Middle East Monitor ) – It is common these days to compare the institutional racism in Israel, and its occupation of Palestine, to Apartheid South Africa. Up to a point, it’s a reasonable comparison. Up to a point. For all its horrors and brutality, the apartheid regime in South Africa never used fighter jets […]

International Criminal Court

Gaza Hostilities Underscore Role of Int’l Criminal Court

Human Rights Watch

By Balkees Jarrah | – Associate Director, International Justice Program | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – Israeli forces have launched relentless airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have fired rockets at Israeli population centers. At least 227 people, including 64 children have been killed in Gaza, […]

Featured

Irish Parties and People demand Expulsion of Israeli ambassador, Fines for importing Settler-made Goods

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The recent Israeli assault on the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the bombardment of Gaza, has stirred passions in the Irish Republic, where public opinion has swung around to be strongly in favor of Palestinian rights and critical of the Apartheid, Occupation government of Israel. Rallies have […]

Banking

Let Lebanon be Lebanon: Paris should Stop Threatening Beirut with EU Sanctions

John Hickman

John Hickman “Governing Lebanon is surely more daunting than governing France.”[1] That pearl of wisdom in an essay defending consociational democracy by University of Pennsylvania political scientist Brendan O’Leary has never been more accurate. A delicate balance of domestic interests with institutional vetoes at the best of times, Lebanese politics has been stalemated for months […]