Geography Archives: Middle East

  The text in the painting reads the lyrics of a traditional Iraqi folk song: “Those who have forgotten us, when will you remember us?  When will we cross your mind?  When will you help our situation?  Love, you have left us with no explanation; you shut the doors in our face and abandoned us.  […]

Victor Nieto is a cartoonist in Venezuela.  Cf. “Given the impossibility of obtaining UN approval for an attack on Syria or Iran, it’s clear as the Qatar sky what’s going on.  Arm and finance a group of revolutionaries and get them to start an uprising.  When the state cracks down, get the opposition to call […]

The leader of al-Nahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, made his first visit to a foreign country after the first post-revolution Tunisian elections. His choice was the State of Qatar. Analysts see many messages in this gesture but some Tunisians are troubled by the invitation he had extended to the Emir of Qatar. Although many do not want any foreign leader present during the opening session of the constituent assembly, some Tunisians are singling out the ruler of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, as a persona non grata. They see him as a bully who is using Al Jazeera and his huge wealth to push an agenda that is not necessarily in the interest of their country.

The Occupy Wall Street uprising has taken the nation by storm, beginning in the Financial District in Manhattan and then spreading to cities and towns in every part of the country and around the world.  The anger over growing inequality and the political power of the rich that has been bubbling under the surface for […]

All over Syria, 13 November 2011 Cf. “There were massive demonstrations in Syria in support of the lousy regime, but they were totally ignored in the Arabic and Western press.  It does not fit the agenda” (As’ad AbuKhalil, “Demonstrations in Syria,” Angry Arab News Service, 13 November 2011); “Confirmed: Biggest rallies in #Syria‘s history.  A […]

TO give some idea of the potential of the USSR in its efforts to maintain parity with the United States in this sphere, suffice it to note that when its disintegration came about in 1991, there were 81 nuclear warheads in Byelorussia, 1,400 in Kazakhstan, and approximately 5,000 in Ukraine, which were passed on to […]

  Dear comrades and friends, On May Day 2006, I was invited to celebrate with the members of the “Bund” in Israel.  I took my video camera with me.  I thought it will be a one-time occasion, but it became a five-and-half-year political and personal journey. Unlike my previous films (Matzpen and Madrid Before Hanita, […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. “The unnamed member state that informed the agency about Danilenko’s alleged experience as a Soviet nuclear weapons scientist is almost certainly Israel, which has been the source of virtually all the purported intelligence on Iranian work on nuclear weapons over the past decade.  Israel has made no secret […]

Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist.  Cf. “Once one of Syria’s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border […]

  In the immediate aftermath of the illegal capture of the Freedom Waves flotillas, Israel’s public image has been tarnished, as reports of violence at sea surface to counteract its claims of a peaceful takeover, and as human rights cyber-resistance group Anonymous retaliates by shutting down Israeli government web sites. As Israeli naval soldiers boarded […]

Jody McIntyre is a journalist, filmmaker, and political activist.  His first book, Life on Wheels: Palestine, will be published by Verso in 2012.  Video by GlobalFaction. var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print

A letter from Cairo to the Occupy/Decolonize movements & other solidarity movements. After three decades of living under a dictatorship, Egyptians started a revolution demanding bread, freedom and social justice.  After a nearly utopian occupation of Tahrir Square lasting eighteen days, we rid ourselves of Mubarak and began the second, harder, task of removing his […]

The US allegation of an Iranian government plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington is meritless as a matter of law, principally due to the egregious flaws and inexplicable discrepancies in the (amended) complaint in a federal court in Manhattan.

The Irish presidency is a peculiar thing.  For an almost powerless political position, the presidential election is usually quite a hard fought one.  The presidency is nothing more than a ceremonial office for whoever gets it, but the upside to it is that they get to live rent-free for seven years in a big house […]

On March 9th this year, under the title of “NATO, War, Lies and Business”, I published a new Reflection about the role of that warlike organization. I am selecting some fundamental paragraphs from that Reflection: “As some may be aware, in September of 1969, Muammar al-Gaddafi, an Arab Bedouin soldier of a peculiar character and […]

  Obama with a map of the Persian Gulf region in hand: “Excuse me!  Does this bus stop at Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman?” Gervasio Umpiérrez is a cartoonist based in Montevideo, Uruguay.  This cartoon was published on his blog and by Rebelión on 1 November 2011; it is […]

  Demonstrators in downtown Oakland protesting the bank-driven economic crisis were brutally attacked by police from 18 Bay Area agencies on Tuesday Oct. 25.  Mayor Quan, who was supported by ILWU Local 10 in the recent elections, ordered this bloody assault.  Cops used potentially lethal weapons to break up the occupation of Frank Ogawa (now […]

  28 October 2011 After a lovely day of drinking excessive amounts of tea with a few families in South Gaza (Faraheen and Khuza’a, to be exact), an Italian colleague, Silvia, who used to live in Khuza’a, suggested walking down the road towards the local school.  It was late afternoon, about 4:30 p.m. and dozens […]

Once in a while there’s good news from Europe — yes, even from here in Germany.  And because Germany is so central in Europe and so strong, even minor good news from this country can be important. But, till now, there hasn’t been much good news for quite some time! The party called Die Linke, […]

There is no history of a revolution which is not at the same time a history of barbarism.  (Inspired by Walter Benjamin) And the almost live pictures of Colonel Qaddafi’s freshly killed body, covered in human blood, dirt and mud, dragged on the streets of Sirte, followed by the footage of his rotting corpse on […]