Middle East

UN’s List of Companies contributing to Illegal Israeli Settlements on Palestine aids Accountability (HRW)

List Reaffirms Global Rejection of Illegal Settlement Enterprise

Israel’s Netanyahu boasts of having Destroyed US 1st Amendment and Free Speech

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli caretaker prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for corruption and is facing an election soon, just boasted that his ministry of strategic affairs has managed to undermine first amendment protections for free speech in the United States by lobbying state legislatures to pass laws forbidding the boycott […]

Israel/ Palestine

Naming companies profiting from Israel’s occupation boosts Palestinians in this asymmetric struggle

Middle East Monitor

By Yousef Alhelou | – (Middle East Monitor) – An overdue report has finally been published by the UN Human Rights office which lists 112 companies benefiting from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Almost 100 of the companies are based in Israel, while the rest are from 18 other […]

Israel/ Palestine

Hate Speech Makes American Israel Public Affairs Committee a Hate Group: Rep. Betty McCollum

contributors

Press Release by Betty McCollum, Congressional Representative for Minnesota’s 4th District | – McCollum Statement: Hate Speech Makes AIPAC a Hate Group As a Member of Congress and the vice-chair of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I believe defending human rights and freedom are foundational to our national security and our democracy. But the struggle […]

Featured

AirBnB, Expedia, Tripadvisor Named by UN as Collaborators with Apartheid Israeli Squatter Settlements on Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a long-awaited list of 112 companies that do business with Israeli squatters on the Palestinian West Bank. These squatters have most often been covertly sent in by the Israeli government itself to steal Palestinian land, build on […]

Featured

“Swiss Cheese” or “Frankenstein’s Monster?” Arab Leaders Struggle to Describe the Kushner Apartheid Plan

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration’s plan for Palestine is so nightmarish that Arab leaders (who rejected it out of hand at a recent Arab League meeting) are having to resort to purple prose to describe it. Senior Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal, who served for two decades as minister of intelligence and also […]

GCC

Gulf Arab Women Are entering the Public Sphere, but must Navigate between Modernity and a Changing Society

The Conversation

By Alainna Liloia | – Arab women, long relegated to the private sphere by law and social custom, are gaining new access to public life. All countries of the Arab Gulf now have workforce “nationalization policies” that aim to reduce dependency on migrant labor by getting more women into the workforce. Saudi Arabia set a […]

Congress

Rattled by Trump’s Erratic Violence, Senate to vote on Forbidding War on Iran without its Approval

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Senate will take up a measure to forbid Trump to go to war with Iran without Congressional approval, writes Daniel Flatley at Bloomberg. Republican senators Mike Lee, Susan Collins and Rand Paul are joining with Democratic senator Tim Kaine in sponsoring the bill. With the support of those Republicans, […]

Donald Trump

On 41st Anniversary, has Trump’s Belligerence Strengthened the Iranian Government?

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford, UK (Special to Informed Comment) – On February 11, 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran marks the 41st anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. Thus, it has defied the Trump administration’s prediction of its demise for two years beyond its allotted time. In his speech at a conference of the MEK (Mojahedin-e […]