Geography Archives: Middle East

“Here’s the Seat of the Embassy of Palestine” On Wednesday around 300 students, largely from Cairo University, held a march and protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. To be honest, it was very weird marching without the Central Security Forces being around or cracking down.  At some point when we were standing […]

  Nicolas Sarkozy: “Boys, these are the pillars that support authentic democracies!” Barack Obama: “Well said, Sarko!” José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero: “This is not Iraq . . . This is not Iraq . . . This is not Iraq . . . This is not Iraq . . .” Ferran Martín, born in Barcelona in […]

  It appears from Iranian Islamist blogs that the honeymoon between Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Republic’s Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is finally over.  Some reject Ahmadinejad in favor of the Supreme Leader while others show unwavering support for Ahmadinejad. It all started when President Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of the Iranian Minister […]

For the minimum necessary for a dignified life.  For the right to organize.  For an end to corruption. انضموا لنا: يوم 1 مايو عيد عمال مصر، بناة مصر Intifadat Intifadat is a collective of filmmakers in Egypt.  The collective won the 2011 Cairo Documentary Festival‘s Streaming the Revolution Award for three videos: “The Downfall of […]

  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 […]

  “Come on, boys!  Let’s teach those Libyans everything we have learned in Iraq!” Ferran Martín, born in Barcelona in 1970, is a cartoonist, illustrator, web designer, and radio and TV screenwriter.  This cartoon was first published in La información on 18 March 2011; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Translation by Yoshie […]

Norman Gottwald belongs to a rare breed — an American Marxist biblical scholar.  More than one jarring juxtaposition in that epithet!  Unfortunately, he is less well known outside the relative small circle of biblical scholars than he should be.  In order to introduce him to a wider audience, let me say a little about his […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  | Print

Statement of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) welcomes the accord signed by representatives of the Fatah and Hamas movements, concerning the establishment of an interim unity government, and preparations for elections for the Presidency, the Parliament, and the Palestinian National Council within eight months. An […]

Various observers have noted this week that China’s economy will be bigger than that of the United States in 2016.  This comes from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) latest projections, which were made in its semi-annual April World Economic Outlook database.  Since 2016 is just a few years away, and it will be the first […]

United Nations, April 27 (Xinhua) — Russia said here on Wednesday that the current situation in Syria, despite an increase in tension and confrontation, does not threaten international peace and security, but “a real threat to regional security . . . could arise from outside interference in Syria’s domestic situation.” Alexander Pankin, Russia’s deputy permanent […]

The statement of the Syrian Communist Party (Unified) on the urgency to stop violence immediately and to start comprehensive national dialogue O, the masses of our people! The bloody events that have taken place in some governorates of Syria for more than a month, especially in the last several days of this month, are heartbreaking, […]

Caracas, 25 April (PL) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said today that the government of Syria is a victim of a plot to justify future actions — including military ones — against it. “They are infiltrating terrorists into Syria and causing violence and deaths, and all of a sudden the president is pronounced guilty, immediately, […]

On April 9, Vittorio Arrigoni — Vik to us — wrote to me in an e-mail that “I will go out immediately after this shame” ends.  The “shame” was Israel’s latest flurry of F-16-delivered explosives that landed on the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. On April 14 at noon I learned of Vik’s abduction at […]

  President Barack Obama said on April 21 that PFC Bradley Manning “broke the law.” Obama: “So people can have philosophical views [about Bradley Manning] but I can’t conduct diplomacy on an open source [basis]. . . .  That’s not how the world works.  And if you’re in the military. . . .  And I […]

  Following a general meeting that brought together representatives from various Palestinian and Lebanese civil society organizations as well as individual activists, the Organizing Committee of Maseerat al ‘Awda, the Return to Palestine March, has announced the launch of its preparatory activities. The “Return to Palestine March” will take participants to the border with Occupied […]

Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  His cartoons frequently appear in Aporrea and Rebelión among other sites.  Cf. “Lebanon: Saad Hariri Calls for Syrian Regime Change; Maybe Iran Too” (24 August 2006, leaked to WikiLeaks, published in Al-Akhbar); “Turkey Comments on Syrian Ihvan’s Meeting in Istanbul” (World Bulletin, 2 April 2011); المراقب العام للأخوان […]

  Excerpt: We demand that Ali Nejati, Fereydoun Nikoofard, Ghorban Alipour, Mohammad Heydari Mehr, Jalil Mohamadi, and Reza Rakhshan (who are all board members of the Haft Tapeh Trade Union), and Behrooz Nikoofard, another laid-off worker, be returned to work immediately. Full Text: See the letter in Persian: نامه سندیکای کارگران نیشکر هفت تپه به […]

As-Safir, a left-wing Lebanese newspaper, first reported on Saturday that Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau chief Ghassan Ben Jeddo resigned.  The news has now been confirmed by Al-Manar, which has interviewed Ben Jeddo. According to As-Safir, Ben Jeddo resigned first and foremost because “Al Jazeera abandoned an ideal of objectivity and professionalism and resorted to gutter […]

In the southern port city of Salalah, Oman, thousands of demonstrators on Friday demanded better wages and jobs, saying the government’s promised reforms are not enough.  They also voiced their fury over Muscat’s failure to sack corrupt ministers.  On the same day, in the eastern city of Qatif, Saudi Arabia, hundreds protested in solidarity with […]