Geography Archives: Middle East

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 […]

Corruption takes many forms, and if the United States seems like it has less of it than many developing countries, this is partly because we have legalized so much of it.  Election campaign contributions are only the most costly and debilitating form, a legalized bribery that, for example, gives the pharmaceutical and insurance companies a […]

Awamiya, 22 April 2011: “The People Want Human Rights” Qatif, 22 April 2011: “Down with the Khalifas, Down with America, Down with Israel, Down with Wahhabism!” Qatif, 22 April 2011: “With Our Soul, with Our Blood, We’ll Free Bahrain!” Cf. <www.facebook.com/Revolution.East>.  See, also, Yoshie Furuhashi, “Longing for Revolution in Saudi Arabia” (MRZine, 6 March 2011); […]

  According to reports from Bahrain, doctors are disappearing as part of a systematic attack on medical staff.  Many physicians are missing following interrogations by unknown security forces at Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama.  Although families have tried to contact administration officials, the administration denies any knowledge of their whereabouts.  According to family members, the physicians […]

  Firing for Media Effect: Setting the “African” Agenda “We left behind our friends from Chad.  We left behind their bodies.  We had 70 or 80 people from Chad working for our company.  They cut them dead with pruning shears and axes, attacking them, saying you’re providing troops for Gadhafi.  The Sudanese, the Chadians were […]

  On 4 April 2011, when David Chandler’s essay below was first published in e-IR, French and UN forces intervened in Ivory Coast on behalf of Alassane Ouattara and his forces, eventually deposing President Laurent Gbagbo on 11 April 2011.  Humanitarian pretexts were offered for that intervention, but rather perfunctorily, almost as an afterthought to […]

  ثـــــورة غضــــــب Never will we accept humiliation We are the lovers of martyrdom Raise your voice and say it loud My cause is my nation, and my blood my weapon! Never will we accept humiliation We are the lovers of martyrdom Raise your voice and say it loud My cause is my nation, and […]

  A regular meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Syria, chaired by its Secretary General Comrade Ammar Bakdash, was held on 25 March 2011. . . . The Central Committee examined at length the manifestations of unrest in some cities in Syria, especially the unfortunate incidents in the town of Dara’a.  […]

  Cf. Egidia Beretta Arrigoni, “Vittorio non è mai stato così vivo come ora” (Il Manifesto, 17 April 2011); “The mother of pro-Palestinian activist Victorio Arrigoni reaffirmed that his body should not return via Israel. . . . Egidia Beretta replied that ‘Israel did not want him when he was alive and won’t have him […]

Adam Hanieh: Well, we’ve seen over the last few days a wave of repression [in Bahrain] that’s ongoing, repression against the protests after the Saudi troops went in on March 15, about a month ago.  As you said, there have been reports that up to 31 people have been killed during the demonstrations.  And now […]

  Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, April 17, 2011, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat salutes all of the over 5,700 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli occupation’s jails, and calls upon all those concerned for justice and freedom to join and build the largest possible international movement to secure the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and of […]

Several thousands of Tunisians protested outside the Saudi Embassy on 15 April 2011, demanding the extradition of fugitive Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Cf. “Former President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, who fled the country after a popular uprising forced him out in January, is now facing 18 legal cases, Tunisia’s official news agency […]

On behalf of the American University Anthropology department, I am deeply honored to welcome you all to AU, and to the Latin American Solidarity Coalition’s “Conference to Build a Stronger Movement to End US Militarism and the Militarization of Latin America.” It’s exciting personally to be involved in such an important event — after all, demilitarization of the Americas is now more important than ever — and I sincerely hope that we can continue this relationship and work to increase AU’s involvement with the event in the years to come, not only because it would save us money on the facility fees, but more importantly, because there is a deep thirst among AU students to become more engaged in this kind of solidarity work and because, I believe, the AU community can contribute to it in important ways. This conference is a perfect fit with all of the best aspects of this university, and those aspects — the dedication to community involvement, to social action and public intellectualism — always need reinforcing.

  Presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei has said that he has not decided yet to run for the 2013 presidential election. “Ask about my candidacy for the presidential election six months before the election,” he told reporters on Saturday when asked about his plans for the next presidential election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s close […]

We return from a recent trip to the region persuaded that the main question engaging people with respect to the “Arab spring” is no longer “who’s next,” but rather “how far will Saudi Arabia go in pushing a counter-revolutionary agenda” across the Middle East?  Whether Saudi Arabia is really capable of coping with the momentous […]

“Demand an end to the intimidation, torture and killing of peaceful protesters, human rights activists, and health and medical personnel in Bahrain at the hands of the Bahraini military and security forces provided by Saudi Arabia and other states.” — American Council for Freedom in Bahrain Washington, DC, 15 April 2011 For more information about […]

  The murder of human rights activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, is a tragedy for his family, for those of us who knew him, and for the Palestinians who loved and admired him.  The Steering Committee of Freedom Flotilla 2 condemns this senseless murder and the people who are behind it.  They took the life of one […]

Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will join today in mourning slain activist Vittorio Arrigoni.  People will gather both in the Al Manara square in Ramallah and at Al Jundi al Majhoul, the unknown soldier park, in Gaza City.  Mourners will be received by the ISM and local popular committees and BDS […]

Candlelight March in Solidarity with the People of Bahrain, 14.04.11 Funeral March for Saudi Torture Victim Mohammad Hassan al-Hayek, 14.04.11: “The People Want Human Rights” Jaroudiya and Awamiya Villagers Participate in the Central Qatif March, 14.04.11 The Message of the People of Qatif to the House of Saud, 15.04.11: “Friday, 22 April 2011 Will Be […]

The reconvening of the UN in late September and the possible recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders may be a crucial political moment in the struggle for Palestinian liberation — or not.  Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has characterized it as a looming “diplomatic tsunami” for Israel; Ali Abunimah, a prominent Palestinian-American […]