Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Samira Shackle
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UNICEF report reveals Israel's "institutionalised" ill-treatment of Palestinian children
Israel imposes two parallel legal systems across the occupied West Bank. Illegal Jewish settlers who commit a crime face the mainstream Israeli courts, with in-built legal rights and safeguards. Palestinians, on the other hand, are channelled through a military court system, with none of the legal protections enjoyed by...
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This year's Land Day serves as a reminder of the on-going ethnic cleansing
On 30 March, Palestinians around the world will commemorate Land Day. It marks a day in 1976, when Israeli security forces shot dead six Palestinians and injured around 100 more, as they protested against Israeli expropriation of Arab-owned land in the country’s north. Israel had announced plans to expropriate thousands...
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Deir Yassin remembered
Today is the 65th anniversary of the massacre at Deir Yassin, a village near West Jerusalem. Early in the morning of 9 April 1948, around 120 members of the underground Jewish militia groups, the Irgun (also known as the IZL), and the Stern Gang, entered the Palestinian Arab village...
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Little change on Iran's nuclear merry-go-round
For months – even years – Iran and the West have been engaged in circular talks about Tehran’s nuclear programme. Last week’s talks, in the capital of Kazakhstan, were no different. Iran met with representatives from the US, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France. According to US officials, the main...
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Is intervention in Syria closer to becoming a reality?
On 16 April, it emerged that the US was sending 200 troops to Jordan, to establish a small headquarters near the border with Syria. While these troops will initially be helping to deliver humanitarian supplies for the huge and growing number of refugees, they will also plan for possible...
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Chuck Hagel's first visit to Israel appeases his opponents
Chuck Hagel, the newly appointed US defense secretary, did not get off to a good start with Israel. Indeed, his appointment earlier this year was nearly derailed altogether by pro-Israel groups who claimed he was insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state. Criticisms centred on his use of the term...
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Morsi's visits abroad demonstrate a shift in foreign policy priorities
This week, Egyptian Prime Minister Mohamed Morsi has visited Brazil for the first time. In doing so, he has completed state visits to all of the so-called BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This is a striking contrast to his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, who prioritised...
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Al Assad is still Israel's strategic choice in Syria
The Syrian conflict has dragged on for two years and claimed more than 80,000 lives. So far, the west has avoided direct intervention, though the US, Britain and France are giving the rebels funding and weaponry. Meanwhile, Russia and Iran are providing support to the regime. The closest we...
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It's better not to shut down the debate on collaboration between Zionists and anti-Semites
In the age of the internet, it’s impossible to delete anything – as Al Jazeera discovered this week. Last Tuesday, Al Jazeera English published a long comment piece on its website. It was written by Joseph Massad, a Middle East scholar at Columbia University, who has written for the...
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Nasrullah's incredibly high risk strategy
Lebanon’s Hezbollah is perhaps best known for its strikes against Israel. It fought off an Israeli invasion in 2006, and has been seen across the Middle East as a revolutionary resistance force. Despite the fact that it is a Shi’ite group, primarily funded by Syria and Iran, it has...
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Ultimately, the outcome in Syria is not just about Syria
After more than two years, the conflict in Syria shows no sign of abating. If anything, the situation appears to be getting more intractable, as different foreign interests support the regime or the opposition and the death toll mounts up. Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon have joined the fight...
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Egypt's military crackdown could quickly backfire
It has now been nearly three weeks since Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president in decades, was ousted by the military on 3 July. The army intervention came after days of mass protests against Morsi’s rule. He was widely perceived as incompetent, having failed to improve the country’s...
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Is democracy possible in the Middle East?
It is a highly charged question that has prompted years of scholarly debate. Some argue that democracy may be incompatible with Middle Eastern values. In his book “What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response”, Bernard Lewis attributes blame to “a lack of freedom”/Others, such as Edward Said,...
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On Egypt's politicised judiciary
As the eyes of the world turn to Syria, the Egyptian crisis is continuing. This week, it was announced that deposed president Mohammed Morsi and 14 of his Muslim Brotherhood colleagues will be face trial for inciting violence and murder. The charges relate to an incident in December, when...
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Israel disgruntled as Iran and the US move closer together
Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has made no secret of his feelings about the apparent détente between Iran and the US. In a speech to the UN earlier this month he warned that Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s new president, was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” whose reformist words were a...
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Israel prepares to renew cooperation with the UNHRC
In March last year Israel became the first country ever to sever ties with the UN Human Rights Council. The decision came after the body decided to investigate Jewish settlements in the West Bank. It began in January 2012. Israel, which has long claimed that the UN treats it unfairly,...
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Iraq is in a mess: that much is clear
Since the US withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the country has slipped off the political and media agenda in the west. But bloodshed in the country is steadily mounting. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost since the US-led invasion in 2003; partly at the hands of the...
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The erosion of Saudi Arabia's image among its neighbours
Saudi Arabia is home to Makkah and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims complete the Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah; one of the pillars of Islam. One of the Saudi King’s titles is “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”. Of course, Saudi...
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How close are the Kingdom and Israel over Iran?
The relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia is hardly characterised by friendly cooperation. The two countries do not have any diplomatic relations, and Saudi Arabia has always supported the Palestinian side in peace negotiations. But is that all changing in the face of a common enemy? The reports of a...
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Israel rejoining the UNHCR is meaningless if it isn't held accountable for human rights abuses
After 18 months, Israel is to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Last March, it became the first country to sever all ties with the international body, after plans for an investigation into West Bank settlements were announced. Israel, which has long alleged that the UN has...
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IDF faces a recruitment crisis despite conscription
Joining the army is not optional for Israeli teenagers. At the age of 18, Israeli men face three years of mandatory service in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF); in an odd example of gender inequality, young women serve for two. Yet despite conscription, it has been reported in the...
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Dismissing Sunni grievances in Iraq is not a solution
As the world focuses on the bloody civil war in Syria and the series of revolutions and counter-revolutions in Egypt, attention has drifted away from Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost in the nation since the US invaded in 2003. Since the war officially ended in...
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Kerry proposes another sticking plaster for Palestine's running sore
During his tenure as Secretary of State, John Kerry has placed an emphasis on the Israel-Palestine peace process – or, more accurately, on restarting the peace process, which has been totally stalled for some years. It was largely due to Kerry’s personal efforts that direct talks resumed in July,...
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Chaos in Iraq and Syria sparks US-Iranian partnership
Since the election of Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani last year, there has been a significant thaw in relations with the country’s old adversary, the US. This diplomatic shift saw the first direct phone call between a US president and an Iranian premier in three decades, and a temporary...