United Nations

By Bill Van Esveld via Human Rights Watch Secretary of State John Kerry called the collapse of the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “reality-check time” for the peace process. That reassessment should include the self-defeating U.S. policy of opposing steps toward justice and accountability in the name of negotiations. U.S. officials claim that […]

Featured

Palestine’s Abbas finally says will Go to UN over Israeli Squatters

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday signed a some 15 international treaties and UN legal instruments, including the Geneva Conventions, in preparation for going to the International Criminal Court over Israel’s illegal flooding of hundreds of thousands of Israeli squatters into the West Bank. These squatters have for the most part never […]

Human Rights

Israel Guilty of Apartheid, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: UN Rapporteur

contributors

(By César Chelala) Richard Falk, United Nations rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories accused Israel last week of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. Speaking at a press conference, he said that Israeli policies bore “unacceptable characteristics of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.” “Every increment of enlarging the settlements or every incident of house demolition […]

Islam

Crimean Tatars fear Russian Rule

Juan Cole

Crimean Tatars fear a future under Russia (via GlobalPost) BAKHCHYSARAI, Ukraine — Crimean Tatars know a few things about oppression. In the past two or so centuries, this tight-knit Muslim group has been colonized by the Russian Empire, deported en masse by the Soviet Union and denied the most basic of rights… ——– Related […]

Peace

Will a Multi-Polar World be more Peaceful? The Failure of the Project for a New American Empire

contributors

(By Tom Engelhardt) There is, it seems, something new under the sun. Geopolitically speaking, when it comes to war and the imperial principle, we may be in uncharted territory. Take a look around and you’ll see a world at the boiling point. From Ukraine to Syria, South Sudan to Thailand, Libya to Bosnia, Turkey to […]

Human Rights

842,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon (pop.: 4.4 mn) as UN Calls for $6 bn Aid

contributors

(By Agence France Presse) One in five Lebanon residents Syria refugees: UN (via AFP) One of five people living in Lebanon are refugees who have fled the conflict in neighbouring Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday. The UNHCR says there are more than 842,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon but the actual […]

Africa

United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid

Juan Cole

The attempt to make Nelson Mandela respectable is an ongoing effort of Western government spokesmen and the Western media. He wasn’t respectable in the business circles of twentieth-century New York or Atlanta, or inside the Beltway of Washington, D.C. He wasn’t respectable for many of the allies of the United States in the Cold War, […]

CIA

Tony Blair let the American NSA Spy on Millions of Britons and Store their Private Data

Juan Cole

The Guardian and Channel 4 News report that Tony Blair allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on millions of Britons, and to record and store their browser history and email. In 2005, the US had gone ahead and initiated the spying without British permission. Subsequent Prime Ministers, including the current one, David Cameron, […]

Israel/ Palestine

US loses UNESCO Voting Rights: How Kow-Towing to Israeli Policy Weakens America

Juan Cole

President Obama called America “the greatest country in the world” on Friday, but the same day the US lost basic voting rights on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The US stopped paying its dues in fall of 2011 because Unesco accepted Palestine (now a non-member observer state of the UN like […]