Middle East

Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When Ruhollah Khomeini was still in Neauphle-le-Château, in various declarations and interviews, he had promised that women would have the freedom to choose their attire. That they would have the same rights as men. “In an interview with a left-leaning Lebanese newspaper, he said that Islam believes in the total […]

Israel/ Palestine

From Gaza to Syria: The unyielding Reality of Israeli Settler-Colonialism

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – The conversation on settler-colonialism must not be limited to academic discussion. It is a political reality, demonstrated clearly in the everyday behaviour of Israel. The occupation state is not merely an expansionist regime historically; it remains actively so today. Moreover, the core of Israeli political discourse, both past and […]

Donald Trump

Egypt on edge: finding a delicate balance between Gaza and Trump

The Conversation

By May Darwich, University of Birmingham (The Conversation) – US president Donald Trump famously called Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi his “favourite dictator” in 2019, but their relationship has been complex. Trump’s return to the White House for a second term has sent ripples of concern through Cairo. In January 2025, Trump proposed a resolution […]

Human Rights

Iranian Singer Mehdi Yarrahi Flogged Over Song Against Mandatory Hijab

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ( RFE/RL ) – Pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi has been given 74 lashes for a song criticizing Iran’s mandatory dress code for women, ending a criminal case against him that also included a prison term. His lawyer, Zahra Minuei, wrote on X on March 5 that Yarrahi’s flogging sentence had been […]

censorship

Protesting to NY Gov. Hochul for Quashing the Palestinian Studies Post at Hunter College

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – The Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor of the State of New York Governor.Hochul@exec.ny.gov . . . Dear Governor Hochul, Chairperson Thompson and Chancellor Rodriguez: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza ceasefire Deal looks Doomed as Israel blockades Strip and bars Entry of Humanitarian Aid

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin (The Conversation) – When Israel signed a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza on January 15, the agreement was structured in three phases. Phase one, a six-week period in which Hamas would release hostages in return for Israel releasing Palestinians detained in its jails, ended on March 1. The […]

Featured

The Oscar-Winning Film “No Other Land” is about Palestinians who have no Place else to Go

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; feature) – The title of the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land, reflects the sad reality that these people have no place else to go. The residents are mostly goat and sheep herders, and endure snow-blanketed winters and oppressive summer heat. An aging woman whose home has just been bulldozed […]

Israel/ Palestine

“No other Land”: When Ordered to Destroy, we Sometimes have a Moral Obligation to Lie

Shamai Leibowitz

( The Times of Israel ) – You are ordered—like in the Oscar-nominated documentary No Other Land—to demolish the homes, schools, and wells of Palestinian families in Masafer Yatta, a community in the West Bank that has existed since the early 1900s. The official reason: to clear the land for a live-fire military training zone. But when […]

Featured

The Netanyahu Cabinet’s War against Human Rights in Israel: B’Tselem in the Crosshairs

Dan Steinbock

In early 2023, the most far-right cabinet in Israel’s history launched its war for “judicial reforms” to replace democracy with autocracy. In fall 2023, it began an obliteration war against Gaza. Now it is readying to decimate the last human rights defenders in Israel. New York (Special to Informed Comment; feature) – In the view […]