Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which US forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
Transgender Community in New Orleans Fights Police Harassment
New Orleans’ Black and transgender community members and advocates complain of rampant and systemic harassment and discrimination from the city’s police force, including sexual violence and arrest without cause. Activists hope that public outrage at recent revelations of widespread police violence and corruption offer an opportunity to make changes in police behavior and practice. On […]
Iran Unveils Iranian “S-300” on Army Day
During the military parade on Army Day in Iran, what looks very much like an Iranian variant of the Russian S-300 air defense system was on display. In 2007, Tehran announced that it signed a contract to buy S-300 from Russia, but Moscow, lobbied by Washington and Tel Aviv, has not delivered, citing “technical problems.” […]
Actions against “Ben-Gurion Promenade” in Paris
Actions against the inauguration of Ben-Gurion Promenade by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Israeli President Shimon Peres, Paris, 15 April 2010 Activists successfully disrupted the official ceremony, while the Arc de Triomphe was covered by a giant Palestinian flag. Among the young activists who organized the actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people were […]
The Extra-territorial Establishment of Religion
There is an embarrassing giddiness in the religious studies world today. With our new mantra in hand — the new “salience” of religion — we, both scholars of religion and other self-appointed spokespersons for religion, feel licensed to instruct the world on the importance of religion. We are suddenly relevant again. Or so we […]
Message to the Tehran International Nuclear Disarmament Conference “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None”
I would like to welcome the honorable guests who have gathered here. It is a pleasure for the Islamic Republic of Iran to be the host of the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament today. I hope this occasion will be an opportunity to yield enduring and important results from your dialogues and discussions for the […]
UN Must Oppose US Threat to Use Nuclear Weapons
Iran’s UN ambassador Mohammad Khazaee calls on the United Nations Security Council and other UN bodies to oppose the US President’s nuclear policy and his threat against an NPT signatory which does not have nuclear weapons. Below is a letter that Khazaee sent to UN Security Council President Yukio Takasu, UN General Assembly President Ali […]
Will Feminism Be Articulated to the Left or to the Right?
EA: You are one of the leading theorists trying to develop the notion of the public sphere. In what ways has globalisation affected the public sphere? Has the public sphere become more transnational? NF: Today, the flow of public political discourse does not respect borders, but is often transnational. The result is a serious […]
Deporting Gandhi from Palestine
The Israeli government’s recent announcement of Army Order No. 1,650 was just the latest act of provocation in a series of calculated measures to derail any possible resumption of peace negotiations. Under this new draconian measure, anyone who doesn’t have a “permit” to be in the West Bank is to be considered an “infiltrator” and […]
Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None
Iran will be holding a nuclear disarmament conference with the motto “nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none” on 17-18 April. Iranian Diplomacy has interviewed Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to ask him about the objectives of the conference. You have told the press that the UN Secretary General […]
Chicago Hearing: Does U.S. Policy on Israel and Palestine Uphold Our Values?
Sunday, April 18, 2010 from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM University of Chicago, Ida Noyes Hall Limited Seating, Registration Required at chicagohearing.eventbrite.com Live Webcast from a link at www.chicagohearing.org The Chicago Hearing is modeled after a Congressional Committee fact-finding meeting. It will bring together witnesses to tell seldom-heard stories from Israel-Palestine that raise critical […]
Iran: New Challenges in the New Year
About one month after the beginning of the new Iranian calendar year (21 March 2010), and following the international recognition of Norouz by the United Nations General Assembly, Iran is facing new challenges. Some of the challenges are domestic, while others emanate from Iran’s regional and international policies as well as international pressures put […]
UC Berkeley Divestment Vote: It’s Clear What the Future Looks Like
Being a part of the tremendous coalition effort to pass a divestment bill at Berkeley was quite simply an ecstatic experience. As my colleague Sydney Levy said, “The movement grew by an enormous leap today.” First, the vote itself: after the UC Berkeley Student Senate originally voted on March 18, by a margin of 16-4, […]
China Will Do Whatever It Wants to Do . . . about Its Currency and Iran
The United States and China seem to have reached an agreement with regard to the exchange rate between their two currencies. The agreement is that the U.S. government will stop yelling about it, and China will do whatever it wants to do, which will probably include some modest rise in the renminbi some time in […]
Can the Obama Administration Take a Deal with Iran on the TRR?
We have argued that the Obama Administration’s approach to Iran sanctions is, truly, a “dead end” policy and that the only way out of this dead end “is to get serious about nuclear diplomacy with Iran — first of all, by reaching agreement on a plan to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR).” Although the […]
On the Goldstone Phenomenon, Etc.
Norman G. Finkelstein: Israel would not be so up in arms about the Goldstone Report, would not be so upset by it, were it not for the fact that, yes, they are very vulnerable to the public opinion, and they know very well the limits beyond which it may not express itself against them, […]
Green Scare: The Making of the New Muslim Enemy
The events of September 11 laid the basis for the emergence of a vicious form of Islamophobia that facilitated the U.S. goals of empire building in the 21st century. This form of Islamophobia focused on the enemy “out there” against which the U.S. supposedly had to go to war to protect itself, from Afghanistan to […]
Iran: Sanctions Will Fail — Then What?
Listen to the Interview: Flynt Leverett: I think that the Nuclear Posture Review that came out earlier this week needs to be seen as a very imperfect and, in some important respects, very badly flawed product of an effort which originally had, I think, a very positive intention, namely, an intention on the part […]
Lula: “We Cannot Allow Some Countries to Be Armed to the Teeth While Others Are Disarmed”
The president of Brazil brings a firm message to the summit on nuclear security. “I’m going to ask President Obama: what is the significance of your recent accord with Medvedev on the deactivation of nuclear warheads [of the United States and Russia]? Deactivation of what? If we are talking about deactivating the warheads that […]
The Islamic Republic and the World: Two Reviews
Maryam Panah. The Islamic Republic and the World: Global Dimensions of the Iranian Revolution. Pluto Press, 2007. 232 pp. ISBN: 978-0-7453-2622-1, ISBN10: 0-7453-2622-6. Review of The Islamic Republic and the World Maryam Panah offers a refreshingly different and powerful account of the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution. Drawing on recent developments within […]
