Jamaa Al-Yad, an artists’ collective located in Beirut, in coordination with representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations, is providing a collection of materials (posters, flyers, handouts, stickers, stencils, etc.) to be used to publicize “The Return to Palestine March” and related activities scheduled for May 15 throughout the world. These materials are […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
Egypt’s Christians Blame Army after Sectarian Violence
Coptic anger turns on the army after bloody sectarian violence gripped Cairo. The clashes between Muslims and Christians in Imbaba left at least 12 dead. Two churches were torched. It’s the latest in a string of sectarian incidents since Egypt’s revolution, which left the army in interim charge of the country. Now the Coptic community […]
Intervention in the Name of Stability
Intervention in the Name of Stability Professor Noam Chomsky recently delivered an important address in Amsterdam entitled “Contours of the World Order.”1 A large part of the speech was devoted to the role of the United States in defending its area of absolute hegemony. According to Chomsky’s excellent analysis, the US relates to all countries […]
Terminate the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement
Excerpt: On January 11, 2006, the United States signed into law the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force between the United States and Bahrain on August 1, 2006. In light of the ongoing brutal repression of peaceful protest carried out by the police and armed forces of Bahrain and the Gulf […]
Ten Reasons Why Protecting Unions Is a Life and Death Issue
In Wisconsin, tens of thousands of public sector workers were going to work every day, helping the people in the DMV, hospitals, health care centers, public transportation, teachers, fire fighters, and clerical workers. Then, on February 11, 2011 Republican Governor Scott Walker introduced a bill, with a Republican majority in the legislature, that would virtually […]
Syria: To Amend Article 8 of the Constitution, But Not to Allow the Establishment of Religious Parties
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Bana’a reports that, according to sources close to the decision-making circles in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad will soon announce the amendment of Article 8 of the Constitution, which limits the country’s leadership to the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, so as to include all parties affiliated with the Progressive National Front in […]
Turkey: Freedom of opPRESSion?
On December 24th, 2010, a publishing house in Turkey was raided by the police. Without any prior warning, its office’s electricity was cut off, and special operations teams surrounded its building. Walls were rammed, doors were torn apart, and people working for Ozan Publishing were arrested and tortured. Not satisfied with that, the police […]
On Syria, Democracy, and Imperialism
The trajectory of the democratic movement in the Arab world was never going to be a straight line with clear goals and objectives. The Arab regimes are not homogeneous; they have medieval Islamist monarchies, as in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, and secular but completely authoritarian regimes, both Western puppets like Mubarak and […]
Feeding the Arab Uprisings
I’ll be talking about the relationship between food and the uprisings. I call them uprisings, I don’t call them revolutions, for a multitude of reasons that I will address. . . . One of the most common assertions is that these uprisings were triggered, at least partly, by high food prices. I would like to […]
Statement of Principles and Call for International Trade Union Support for BDS
Occupied Palestine, 4 May 2011 — In commemoration of the first of May — a day of workers’ struggle and international solidarity — the first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organized by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade […]
“Nobody in the World Has Freedom”: Report from Damascus
It’s pretty hard to talk with Syrians about politics, as they say such things as: “Don’t believe that ‘I am an American and I have freedom.’ You are stupid. Why are you telling me this? You understand me? Nobody has freedom.” This video, originally broadcast by Index on 22 April 2011, was released on YouTube […]
Cuba Opposes Any Foreign Interference in Syria
Statement of Cuban Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes, at the Special Session of the Human Rights Council, on the human rights situation in Syria, Geneva, 29 April 2011 Mr. President: Cuba condemns the hypocrisy and double standards on which the convocation of this special session is based. Human rights are not its genuine motive. The motive is […]
“Justice Has Been Done”?
“Justice has been done,” said President Obama. “Justice has been done.” “Justice has been done.” Justice has been done!? Justice!? Justice?? For the last ten years, we’ve been engaged in an exercise of justice? That’s what you call what we’ve been doing? Are we supposed to take out a large magnifying glass and a delicate […]
Hamas’s Option in Syria
Two political analysts shared their view with Islam Online: the leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” will not leave Syria unless it is asked to do so. They say that it is not in the interest of Hamas to leave Damascus now. An Internal Affair London’s Al-Hayat newspaper claimed that Hamas decided […]
Syria and the United States
Robert Rabil. Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East. Westport: Praeger, 2006. xxvi + 289 pp. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-275-99015-2. Robert Rabil’s book examines the ups and downs in Syrian-U.S. relations. The final portion of its title, the War on Terror in the Middle East is, in reality, […]
No Revolution in Syria: An Interview with Camille Otrakji
Camille Otrakji is a Syrian political blogger based in Montreal. Although he tends to keep a low profile, Otrakji has been, for the past several years, at the forefront of many of the most interesting and influential online initiatives relating to Syrian politics. He is one of the authors and moderators at Joshua Landis’s Syria […]
Egypt’s Workers Keep the Revolution Alive
Kamal al Fayoumi, Mahalla Textiles Worker and Democratic Labor Party Activist: All of us, as workers, said that the revolution began on February 11 when Mubarak left. When the head of the old regime stepped down, it was just the start of the revolution. The revolution began only with the solidarity of all of Egypt’s […]
None to Lead but Reason
You’ve had your way a long, long time, You kings and tyrants, And still you work injustice hour by hour. What ails you that do not tread a path of glory? A man may take the field, although he love the bower. But some hope a divine leader with prophetic voice Will rise amid the […]
The Syrian Opposition’s “National Initiative for Change”: A Missed Opportunity
Given the atrocities currently committed in Syria and the spectacularly bad press this generates for the regime, one would think that issuing an effective petition calling for political change in this country would be an easy task. All such a petition needs to do is to jump on the bandwagon of rapidly mounting protests […]
Demystifying Syria
Two relationships have long been key to the stability of the Syrian regime. The first is an economic relationship: the regime puts back into national production just enough to create jobs and produce cheap national goods to keep the working population in steady or, better yet improving, living conditions. The second is a political […]
