Middle East

By Salena Fay Tramel | – ( Opendemocracy.net ) – It has not been an easy year for Palestinians, if there ever was such a thing. With the turn of a new decade in January, the U.S. administration unveiled the paradoxically branded “deal of the century” plan—calling for Israel to unilaterally annex about a third […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia was hoping to replace Failing Oil with Tourism: Then Covid-19 Hit

The Conversation

By Seán McLoughlin | – Saudi Arabia has finally clarified that due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic only very limited numbers of local pilgrims will be allowed to perform Hajj in 2020. During the past decade, the kingdom has typically welcomed between 1.9 to 3.2 million pilgrims per year from across the Muslim world, generating […]

Israel/ Palestine

As Palestinians Brace for Annexation, Does Nonviolent Protest Work? Juan Cole on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour

Juan Cole

Ralph Nader Radio Hour Does Non-Violent Protest Work? Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent essayist and Professor of History at the University of Michigan. His work seeks to put the relationship between the West and the Muslim world into a historical context. He had written about the upheavals in the Arab World since 2011. […]

Donald Trump

Millions of Yemeni Children on Brink of Starvation amid Saudi War, Covid-19 Aid Cutbacks: UNICEF

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The war on Yemen begun in 2015 by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has been a failure militarily and a vast drain on resources that, in the age of Covid-19, neither country can any longer afford. Not only has the war been Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam, it has inflicted […]

Israel/ Palestine

Colonial Violence: Ahmed Erekat was Killed at Israeli Checkpoint in Palestine on way to Sister’s Wedding

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor) – For Palestinians, Israel’s military checkpoints are made for its colonial violence and perpetual dehumanisation of the occupied population. In the latest grotesque spectacle of extrajudicial killing, Ahmed Erekat, a 27 year old Palestinian man and nephew of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Secretary General Saeb Erekat, was killed by Israeli soldiers […]

China

The Final Defeat of the John Bolton Hawks? How Russia and China could humiliate Trump on Eve of Election by Lifting Iran Arms Embargo

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump is about to go up against China and Russia at the United Nations Security Council over the looming end to the UNSC arms embargo on Iran, and is facing a humiliating defeat that will further harm the US standing in global affairs. The 2015 Joint Plan for Collective Action […]

Israel/ Palestine

Will Biden Remain Tone Deaf to Palestinian Rights?

Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold

( Codepink) – Joe Biden wants you to believe that he is opposed to Israel’s likely annexation of parts of the West Bank that Netanyahu plans to carry out in July. “I do not support annexation,” he said during a call with American Jewish donors on June 16. But only a month ago, Biden senior […]

History

Covid-19 makes Saudis Largely Cancel Pilgrimage (Hajj), But Plagues and Sectarianism have Intervened Before

The Conversation

By Ken Chitwood | – Saudi Arabia has effectively canceled the hajj for most of the world’s Muslims, saying the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca will be “very limited” this year due to the coronavirus. Only pilgrims residing in Saudi Arabia may attend the event, which begins in late July. Earlier this year, Saudi authorities had […]

Epidemics

Saudi Arabia ends Lockdown as Infections Surge: Is it on a Trumpian path to Disaster?

Brian Whitaker

(Al-Bab.com) – Saudi Arabia ended its coronavirus lockdown this morning despite record numbers of new infections during the past week. Lifting the lockdown brings an end to the night curfews first imposed in March. It also means mosques can reopen and all economic activity can resume, subject to precautions. This includes domestic tourism, though international […]