It’s hard to write about something like this. Events are moving very quickly, and it’s difficult for us mere mortals to stay on top of
Tag: SWANA
Southwest Asia and North Africa
From Journal Farsi, affiliated with the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, of which Hamid Takvaee is the leader. We are publishing this translation as part of a
From +972 Magazine Israel is conditioning aid delivery to force Gazans south into ‘concentration zones.’ This plan has begun to stall, but that only portends
Following the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, the Islamic Republic has initiated a new wave of widespread repression. Under the guise of “national security”
From The New Arab Building a free and just Syria after five decades of totalitarian rule, in a region rife with instability and foreign meddling,
Yemeni women have taken to the streets in their thousands in recent weeks. They have demanded water, electricity, a better standard of living, the payment
Owen Flood (Solidarity): What is the Black Flag Action Group? How did it come into being? How do you relate to other anti-war groups in
This statement was published with over 1,200 signatures of academics based in Israel. For the online version of the letter in Hebrew, Arabic, and English
From ANF Melis Tantan says that Turkey’s energy strategy is based on colonialism and that energy has become a tool of domination for many states.
The move reflects a broader strategic vision embracing gender liberation, pluralism, and local democracy The formal announcement of the PKK’s dissolution has sparked mixed reactions among Turkey’s Kurds and international
Omdim be’Yachad-Naqef Ma’an, or Standing Together, is a Jewish-Arab social movement in Israel that organises against racism and occupation, and for equality and social justice.
From +972 Magazine Genocidal rhetoric is not new to Israeli politics. But Gaza’s destruction mirrors the apocalyptic language pouring out of the Knesset — where
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, we were taught that the kings gave us everything we needed. That oil was a blessing from God. That obedience
Last November, Kamel Daoud, an Algerian-French author and conservative columnist, received the esteemed Goncourt Prize in Paris for his novel “Houris.” This work, published by
As the world marks the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on 24 April 2025, the enduring power of denialism continues to shape how the
From New Lines Magazine. A recently foiled Muslim Brotherhood plot symbolizes the challenge of growing popular discontent over the war in Gaza, in the Hashemite
From +972 Magazine Despite mounting evidence of the army’s gender-based crimes, Israeli women’s groups have largely ignored or denied the UN’s damning new report. Last
From Sidecar The 15 April marked the two-year anniversary of a civil war in Sudan that has left tens of thousands dead and millions displaced.
Many people have taken note of recent poll data regarding American attitudes towards Israel, which are (to summarize) cratering. Among Democrats, 69% now view Israel
From New Lines Magazine. How settlers took over the country’s press and transformed it into a vehicle for their movement In early August of last
From Vox. The MAGA movement loves Israel — but is increasingly hostile to Jews. Over and over again, the Trump administration has claimed to be
In this period of escalating outrage, and proving right the old adage ‘birds of a feather flock together’, we have learned that Amichai Shikli, Israeli
From New Lines Magazine. Why one Syrian woman says her recent visit to her hometown, after more than a decade away, may be her last
Century International: On Thursday, March 6, Syria’s new rulers began a military crackdown on what they described as a nascent insurgency by supporters of the
Öcalan calls for PKK dissolution, but Turkey may refuse to release him In a historic declaration, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
Abdullah Öcalan has called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party to put down their weapons. What will this mean for Iraq? In the rugged mountains of
Shovrot Kirot aimed to bring together marginalized communities in Israel to build a new political force. But facing funding shortfalls and internal divisions after Oct.
Minutes after the hostage agreement was signed between Hamas and Israel, the streets of the West Bank, several Arab capitals, and even some European cities
From Ill Will Traversing a century of revolution, counter-revolution, and regime change in Iran, Arya Zahedi traces out the social, political, and ideological tensions that
Life in Iran is not lived, it is performed. Every movement, every word, every breath is dictated by an invisible force, an unyielding presence that
Democratic region faces an impossible choice if it loses NATO support On Saturday 15 February, Turkish-backed forces in northeastern Syria killed journalist Egîd Roj. This
Settler colonialism is very much alive in the state of Israel today. Open a newspaper anywhere in the world and you are likely to see
The United Arab Emirates has become a sub-imperial power in Africa, investing in ports, airports and infrastructure projects to extract resources and increase its global
Away from the Red Sea crisis that dominated the headlines of 2024, the space for female political and social actors in Yemen has continued to
00:00:00 Background information00:03:37 Start of Ben’s talk, introduction00:04:20 Theoretical background00:06:14 Thematic overview00:07:00 Real and imagined Jews in the history of European colonialism00:12:45 Activist settler colonialism
In the month since Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by a coalition of rebel forces, thousands of political prisoners have been released while many
From +972 Magazine Israeli leftists have been more divided and marginalized than ever since the October 7 assault, with joint Palestinian-Jewish struggle at a breaking
Soon after the Hamas atrocity of 7 October 2023, while Israel was bombing Gaza in retaliation but before it invaded, Aaron Bastani of Novara Media
I am going to be very harsh: there is something morally nauseating about Western hypocrisy, which has always killed civilians or let them be killed
From New Lines Magazine. In the end, Bashar al-Assad had nothing to say to the country he bludgeoned and bled, but what matters now is
At the end of January this year, I visited South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) together with Zainab Murad Sahrab, the co-chair of the KNK [Kurdistan National
From the Unxeptable YouTube channel. A new documentary by Avi Amit published on Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, outlines the Israeli far right’s plan to resettle
From New Lines Magazine. Aleppo was never meant to fall. A stunning offensive waged by two Turkish-backed forces over the space of the last five
From The New Arab Eight years after Aleppo was subjected to a brutal starvation siege, pounded by the Assad regime, Russian and Iranian bombs and
‘Not nice boys’: how the Black Panthers shook up Israeli society, by Keith Kahn-Harris – Autumn 2024
From Jewish Renaissance, via Keith Kahn-Harris Asaf Elia-Shalev’s recent book reveals the startling impact of the Black Panther movement on Israel after the Six-Day War.
The Sudanese people and the revolutionary forces are at a critical juncture, caught in the violent grip of a war that began on April 15,
This article analyzes the crimes committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7th through a comparison with other historical massacres. This can give us a
On 27 July 2024, a major tragedy struck the people of Majdal Shams after a missile fell on a football field, injuring and killing children
From Liberties, by Arash Azizi. A friend of mine once asked me why I get so worked up about Jewish Currents, a left-wing American magazine known for
By Edo Konrad From +972 Magazine Israel’s long-subservient media has spent the past year imbuing the public with a sense of righteousness over the Gaza
An Attempt to Revive an Entity in a Coma for Decades Subtle efforts are underway in the city of Sweida to revive the role of
Welcome to “The Conflict”, A comprehensive historical analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hosted by Dr. Arnon Degani, a historian and Middle Eastern studies expert, and
Author: Subha WijesiriwardenaLead Editors: Islam Al Khatib, Maie Panaga BabkerEditor: Naureen ShameemPeer Review: Suri Kempe, Tooba Syed, Sabika Abbas, Amna NasirAdditional Research: Anonymous contributorProofreading: Rochelle
What really happened on 7 October 2023? Is this even a question we should be asking after eight months of Israeli bombardment of the claustrophobic
For the vast majority of Ukrainians, Syria before 2011 was probably just another Arab country, but after the war began, it came to symbolize the
From +972 Magazine. In a context of fear, hatred, and violence, an Israeli-Palestinian gathering that seemed detached from reality actually represented something revolutionary. At first
From K. The Magazine “What did y’all think decolonization meant?,” reads the hyper-viral tweet that circulated after October 7. As antisemitic violence erupted in Canada,
Saul Dubow is a South African historian specialising in the history of South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article first appeared in
Asaf Elia-Shalev’s book Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth (University of California Press, 2024) tells the story of the young and impoverished
A statement we co-authored, published in December 2023, “For a consistently democratic and internationalist left“, highlighted the serious problem the global left has with antisemitism.
The seduction of speaking as a Jew – and why I will not do it Of the many indignities Jews have been forced to endure
The chorus of authoritarian propaganda against democratic protests should concern us all. When Greta Thunberg, a student activist against climate change, tweeted a “toolkit” comprising
Interview by Erik Peter for the German daily “Die Tageszeitung” (“taz“). The May 1st demonstration in Berlin was characterized by pro-Palestine slogans. Peter Ullrich talks
As thousands of bodies are blown apart in Gaza and children starve to death in the city’s rubble-strewn streets, numerous groups are exploiting this suffering
‘Lavender’: The AI Machine Directing Israel’s Bombing Spree in Gaza, by Yuval Abraham – 3 April 2024
From +972 Magazine The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human
The current Israel–Hamas war is one horrific outcome of a century-long Zionist settler colonial project, which continues to violently shape the political geography of Israel/Palestine.
This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at
After over a hundred days of bombing in Gaza, tens of thousands of civilians killed and millions fleeing for their lives, residential buildings and mosques
It is Saturday morning in Tel Aviv. 147 days have gone by since the morning of Saturday October 7. Nothing can be said without mentioning
In this episode, School of International Service professor Shadi Mokhtari joins Big World to discuss the history of protests in Iran, the unprecedented international reaction
Introduction Fetishized Weakness: The Denial of Agency Within Palestinian Solidarity Movements by Keith Kahn-Harris Terror Versus Emancipation by Marcel Stoetzler Ambiguous Terms in Palestine Activism by Texas Kossovskii
Sally Abed, Yael Berda, Eli Cook and Joshua Leifer in Dissent Winter 2024 After more than two months of intensive bombardment, Israel’s war in Gaza
Statement from Palestinian Members of the National Leadership of Standing Together – 30 January 2024
As Palestinian citizens of Israel, our daily existence is marked by systemic discrimination, persecution, neglect, and violence. We live in a state of constant tension,
From the London Review of Books Review of: Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War, by Martin Plaut and Sarah Vaughan. Hurst, 2023 What are the major wars
Ethiopia is one of the world’s most populous countries, and yet the 2020-22 Tigray War and ongoing suffering in the region has been largely ignored
From Boston Review The picture above of two teenage Zionists was taken in 1906 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine, in what was then the Russian empire. On
From +972 Magazine Feminist principles compel us to stand with both the Palestinian women being slaughtered in Gaza and the Israeli women testifying about sexual
Having worked for years on the fronts of feminism, anti-racism and the fight against discrimination based on colour, colonisation, gender identity or sexual orientation, we
In her research, Shadi Mokhtari lays out three Middle Eastern experiences of human rights – as mockery of morality, manifesting morality, and moral maze. Human
There’s a new essay being passed around by Megan Wachspress on “The ‘New Antisemitism and the Logic of Whiteness.” As one might imagine,* I have thoughts.
Anti-blackness has until recently been a taboo topic within Arab society. This began to change when Nader Kadhem, a prominent Arab and Muslim thinker from
From Tempest, by Dan La Botz and Stephen R. Shalom In the midst of Israel’s horrific slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, it would seem ill-timed to
Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist
How has the political meaning of resistance come to be devalued? What are the affinities between the artistic critique of capitalism and a fascination with
From +972 Magazine Among the victims of Hamas’ massacres in southern Israel were several Palestinian laborers from the Gaza Strip. Here is one of those
From the London Review of Books On 16 October, Sabrina Tavernise, the host of the New York Times podcast The Daily, spoke to two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
From The London Review of Books Blog On 8 October, the day after Hamas militants from Gaza penetrated Israel in an unprecedented invasion and killed
It is now 1 p.m., Wednesday, October 18, and I am at home, in Tel Aviv. Eleven days have passed since the October 7 attack
Regarding Debates over Recent Events in Our Region: We, Israel-based academics, thought leaders and progressive activists committed to peace, equality, justice, and human rights, are
From +972 Magazine My stomach has been churning for four days. In recent years I’ve harshly criticized Israel’s policies in Gaza, written extensively about the
The killing of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in Iran a year ago ignited massive protests by Iranians against the Islamic regime. But civil unrest has been
Shadi Mokhtari teaches at the School of International Service at American University in Washington D.C.. Her teaching and research focus on human rights, Middle East
How regional and global powers, internal colonialism and Salafi-jihadist subterfuge converged to short-circuit the Syrian struggle against despotism From New Lines Magazine. Syria is a
This article takes the assassination of Qasem Soleimani as a case study that manifests the schism between the realities of those in revolutionary struggle and
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery The phrase iki devlet, tek millet — two states, one people has become the ubiquitous way to characterize
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s pugnacious president, is now the country’s longest-serving leader. On his way to the top, he has fought many wars. This book
From Jadaliyya Muriam Haleh Davis, Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022), 264 pp. Jadaliyya (J): What made you
For dancing in the streetsFor being afraid of kissingFor my sister, your sister, our sistersFor changing old valuesFor the shame of povertyFor yearning for an