Middle East

By Amin Saikal, The University of Western Australia For all its claims of being a democracy that adheres to international law and the rules of war, Israel’s global reputation is in tatters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest plan for a full military takeover of Gaza, along with the expanding starvation crisis in the strip and […]

censorship

On Occidental College’s Disciplining of Students Protesting Gaza

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North Africa | – Letter to the administration of Occidental College about disciplinary proceedings against students accused of participating in protest activity Tom Stritikus President, Occidental College president@oxy.edu . . . Dear President Stritikus, Deans Leonard and Santiago, Ms. Kahn and Trustees: We write on […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for displaced people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population. Hundreds of Israeli attacks since October 2023 have struck over 500 school buildings, many used as shelters, killing hundreds of civilians and causing significant damage to nearly all of Gaza’s schools. […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Verdict of History: How political Calculations betrayed Gaza

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on 27 July describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged […]

censorship

Protesting Harvard’s Cancellation of a Journal issue on Education in Palestine

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America | – Letter to Harvard University concerning the cancellation of a special issue of Harvard Educational Review on education and Palestine Alan Garber President, Harvard University president@harvard.edu . . . Dear President Garber and colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East […]

Israel/ Palestine

New Peace Plan increases Pressure on Israel and US as Momentum grows for Palestinian Statehood

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin (The Conversation) – A new vision for Middle East peace emerged this week which proposes the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and the West Bank, the disarming and disbanding of Hamas and the creation of a unified Palestinian state. The plan emerged from a “high-level conference” in New York […]

Academic Freedom

Protesting CUNY for Letting 4 Adjunct Faculty Go over Palestinian Rights and Suspending a Student

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Letter to the City University of New York protesting the non-reappointment of four adjunct faculty members and the suspension of a student Félix V. Matos Rodríguez Chancellor, City University of New York felo@cuny.edu . . . Dear Chancellor Matos Rodríguez and […]

Climate Crisis

In Syria, Women are Bearing the Brunt of Climate Breakdown

Middle East Monitor

by Zahra Zaman ( Middle East Monitor ) – Syria had been embroiled in a protracted conflict and plagued by authoritarianism for decades. While the brutal regime of Bashar al Asad has collapsed, the ordeal is far from over for Syrians as they are now confronted with the rapidly accelerating threat of climate change looming […]

Israel/ Palestine

Enabling the Nightmare in Gaza: Defining Criticism of Israel as “Antisemitic”

Aviva Chomsky

( Tomdispatch.com ) In July 2025, the Massachusetts legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to make it the 38th state to follow the federal government, 45 other countries (almost all of them in the global North), and more than 50 U.S. local governments in adopting a strange definition of antisemitism. In 2016, the […]