Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Samira Shackle
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Abbas moves from appeasement to the ICC
When the Palestinian Authority joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) in April, commentators across the world warned that it was a provocative move that risked ratcheting up tensions with Israel and opened the door for charges against Hamas leaders. Israel’s response to the move was to suspend payments to...
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The violent attacks on religious sites in Israel are appalling
The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish (often shorted to the Church of the Multiplication) stands in Tabgha, Israel, on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The modern church rests on the site of two earlier churches, and marks the site where Jesus is...
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Livni's evasiveness can't disguise apartheid facts on the ground
Does Israel operate an apartheid system? The question is highly fraught and provokes strong emotions on both sides. Pro-Palestinian activists argue that it does; defenders of the Israeli state argue that this is a fallacy. Most neutral arbiters agree that there are certainly elements of apartheid, particularly in the...
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Shift in militants’ targets may push Egypt’s tourists away but is Sisi’s increased repression the answer?
Ever since the 2011 revolution in Egypt ousted President Hosni Mubarak and kick-started several years of political instability, the country’s tourism industry has been struggling. The number of foreign tourists slumped after the 2011 revolution and again after the 2013 military ousting of President Mohamed Morsi. According to government...
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Instability aside, Turkey's election result is a victory for democracy
For the past 13 years, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been gradually amassing power. The Justice and Development Party (generally known by its Turkish acronym, AKP) that he helped to found has won a parliamentary majority in every election since 2002. Erdogan has been prime minister three times...
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If a shared purpose looks less certain, what is left for allies Germany and Israel?
It is rare for top level foreign politicians and diplomats to visit the war-torn Gaza Strip, not least because it is controlled by Hamas, the political organisation viewed by Israel and the European Union as a terrorist group. This week, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier bucked the trend and...
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Fifa’s critical vote on Israel
This week, the eyes of the world are on Fifa, the international governing body of football, after top executives were arrested in Switzerland on American corruption charges. Fifa has insisted that elections for the new president, expected to return Sepp Blatter for his fifth term, will go ahead this...
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Social media prison sentences highlight legal double standards in Israel
This month, two Palestinians from occupied east Jerusalem have been jailed for their social media activity. The charges were related to incitement and “supporting terror” against Israelis. The first to be sentenced was Omar Shalabi, the former secretary-general of Jerusalem’s branch of Fatah, the Palestinian political party that dominates the...
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Netanyahu’s backward step is only a temporary one
Analysts of the Israeli occupation of Palestine have long said that the state is moving towards a system of apartheid. This is particularly evident in the West Bank, where around 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East...
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The West may condemn Egypt's abuses, but it's still business as usual
This month, Egypt’s former President, Mohamed Morsi, was sentenced to death. He was among more than 100 defendants given the death penalty for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak. The trial has drawn international condemnation. Washington said that it had...
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At Camp David US shored up GCC support, for now
Over the years, the Camp David retreat near Washington has been the site of many talks about peace in the Middle East. It was the venue for the 1978 talks that secured peace between Egypt and Israel, and for negotiations between Israel and Palestine in 2000 which ultimately failed...
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Will the GCC tantrum change US policy toward Iran?
This week, talks will take place between Arab and American leaders, at the presidential retreat of Camp David, near Washington. The summit is designed to strengthen the security relationship between the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and reassure America’s Arab allies that they can rely on...
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Ethiopian Jews face entrenched Israeli racism
Thousands of Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, many of them airlifted into the country secretly in two separate operations in 1984 and 1990 that helped them to escape famine and war. These operations followed a rabbinical ruling that they were direct descendants of the Biblical Jewish Dan tribe. However, despite...
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Press freedom on trial in Egypt
In December 2013, Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, Australian reporter Peter Greste, and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were arrested in Cairo. They were convicted of promoting or belonging to a terrorist organization (the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been ousted in a military coup in July that year) and of spreading...
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Saudi hopes reshuffle will stop calls for reforms
Saudi Arabia’s government is hardly known for its dynamism; since most senior roles are filled by members of the royal family there is not a lot of movement and for years the cabinet has been dominated by ageing royals. The succession in this generously sized family has been slow...
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Mediterranean migrants are desperate; Europe can’t just turn them away
On Thursday, the bodies recovered from the Mediterranean’s worst-ever migrant disaster were buried in Malta. There were only 24 coffins, although an estimated 800 people died. None of the bodies were identified; some had numbers scrawled on them referring to a DNA sample from the corpse in case a...
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Saudi airstrikes in Yemen may have stopped, but the conflict rages on
It has been nearly a month since a Saudi-led coalition began a bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Since then, around 950 people have died, with nearly 3,500 wounded. The existing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, has worsened. In a surprise announcement on...
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The rise of ISIS is a symptom, not a cause, of Libya’s woes
In the early hours of Monday morning, a bomb exploded at the gate of the Moroccan embassy in Tripoli, the capital of Libya. A few hours before that, gunmen attacked the South Korean embassy in the city. Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by Islamic State militants. This follows...
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Erdogan's comments make thaw in Ankara and Cairo relations unlikely
On paper, Egypt and Turkey are the ideal allies; they share strong religious, cultural and historical ties. Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire for five centuries, both countries are members of the Union for the Mediterranean, and they share the majority religion of Islam. Yet despite periods of...
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Pakistan and the Saudi-led action in Yemen
For the last fortnight, airstrikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia have pounded Yemen. The stated aim of the strikes is to attack the Houthi rebels, the mainly Shia militia that seized control of the capital last year. Saudi Arabia claims that the group are terrorists backed by...
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Without concrete action, a US 'reassessment' of relations with Israel will mean nothing
In recent weeks, the relationship between Israel and its staunch ally the US has been severely strained. The initial catalyst was Israel’s opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran that the US and other world powers are hoping to secure by 31 March. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision...
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Aden clashes mark new stage in Yemen conflict
Since Yemen’s dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh was ousted in 2012, the country has more or less been defined by unrest. Over the past year, this has accelerated. The Shia Houthi militia seized control of the capital Sana’a in September, prompting Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to move their...
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What will another four years of Netanyahu mean for Israel?
Benjamin Netanyahu has been described as the magician of Israeli politics. That reputation appears to be intact after he swept to an unexpected victory in the country’s national elections. A series of exit polls released at the close of voting on Tuesday night suggested a tightly-run contest with the...
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US Senators’ attempt to block Iran deal has exposed partisan nature of US politics
The 31 March deadline for a deal between Iran and six world powers is fast approaching. This latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme has been ongoing for months – and, if recent rumours are to be believed, there is currently some optimism that the deadline might actually...