More than 200 Palestinian architects, planners and building professionals have written to Royal Institute of British Architects president Stephen Hodder in support of a motion supporting the suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) from the International Union of Architects (IUA). After RIBA, the professional body for...

The Supreme Prison Strike Committee published a list of 60 police officers and security officials in 12 Egyptian governorates allegedly complicit in the torturing of political detainees since the July 3 military coup. In a statement Monday, the committee said the list is the first part in a series...

The Jordanian authorities expelled the Syrian ambassador to Amman last week, ordering him to leave the country within 24 hours. Jordanian officials insist that the expulsion was based on the ambassador’s actions, not in reaction to tension with the Assad regime. Hours after the announcement, the Syrian National Coalition...

An Israeli embassy-sponsored film festival is set to take place in London later this month, part of efforts to ‘rebrand’ an apartheid state increasingly the target of international boycotts. SERET 2014 was launched earlier this year at an event hosted by Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub. According...

The institutional and popular Zionist racism has become rampant all over Palestine and torturing the Palestinians living in Palestine has become an acceptable and even welcomed matter by the various sections of the Israeli community. The open and hidden racism is likely to grow even more under Benjamin Netanyahu’s...

Israeli cabinet agreed yesterday to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of the formation of a national unity government with Hamas, the Jerusalem Post reported today. The newspaper said: “The ministers agreed to completely halt negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as long as it remains united with...

The Egyptian Presidential Elections Commission said Sunday it rejected an appeal filed by presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi in which he cited irregularities that marred the electoral process. Judicial sources said that Sabbahi received 3 percent of votes, compared to 93 percent for his sole rival Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Official results...

Former Palestinian Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday afternoon that his cabinet “will quit voluntarily” and he would support the new unity government. Speaking at a press conference following the swearing in of the national unity government, Haniyeh said that last-minute disputes over foreign minister Riyadh al-Maliki and...

Whatever the numbers are that are being broadcast about voter turnout percentages in the current presidential elections, one must bear in mind that the number of people going to the polls was very modest and that a carrot and stick was used to motivate people to vote. It took...

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is expected to visit Russia this month, Palestine newspaper quoted the group’s spokesman Husam Badran saying yesterday. Speaking to the newspaper, Badran said: “This visit is scheduled based on an invitation by Moscow and it comes in the framework of Hamas’ external relations policy.” Badran...

Nine countries will observe the Syrian presidential elections, which opposition groups described as a “democratic farce”, a senior Iranian official announced yesterday. The Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi reportedly said that a number of delegations participating in the Tehran conference are...

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented the death of 3,204 people in Syria in the month of May alone, 66 per cent of who were civilians. The forces of the Syrian regime killed 1,795 civilians, including 290 children and 173 women. SNHR noted in its monthly...

The Turkish deputy prime minister Beshir Atalay confirmed Sunday that the peace process with the Kurdish population is ongoing, refuting allegations that it suffers a deadlock. The peace talks with the Kurdish population aims at reaching final solutions to the terrorism dilemma and the Kurdish issue in general. In...

Palestinian workers drill water wells in Gaza City, June 1, 2014. The coastal aquifer, Gaza’s main water source, has been over-pumped for decades, even prior to Israeli occupation in 1967. Some 180 million cubic meters (mcm) are annually pumped from the aquifer, while its rate of replenishment is only...

Iraq slammed Turkey for exporting the oil of northern Kurdistan, dismissing it as a sign of “greed.” It also warned against dire consequences if Euphrates water supply is cut off from Iraq. “We believe that Turkey is motivated by greed in trying to control the inexpensive Iraqi oil,” deputy...

For Israel the most worrying aspect of the Palestinian unity government is the future of security coordination with the Palestinian Authority, which is a matter of conflict for the main parties involved in the new government, Fatah and Hamas. The deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas and...

Amr Moussa, the former foreign minister who currently heads the advisory board of Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s presidential campaign, issued a press statement on Sunday saying that, “the door is open for all to participate in the political process.” The statement continued: “If the Muslim Brotherhood wishes to do so,...

Seventy Palestinian prisoners were transferred by the Israeli Prison Authority to Israeli hospitals on Sunday following the deterioration of their health as a result of their hunger strike that started 39 days ago. The 70 administrative prisoners had started a hunger strike in protest to their detention without charge....

On Monday morning Israeli air forces carried out a series of strikes targeting sites inside the Gaza Strip and Syrian territories, Al-Arabi Al-Jadid news website reported. The spokesperson for the Israeli occupation forces, Ovijaa Adraei, wrote on his Facebook page that: “The Air Force planes hit accurately two terrorist...

Palestinian student movements in Israel have organised two separate rallies, one at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba and the other at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in solidarity with hundreds of Palestinian hunger strikers inside Israeli jails. The demonstrators gathered under the slogan “Prevent the Execution of Prisoners” for their...

Hamas supporters organised a massive rally in the centre of Gaza City on Sunday night calling for Palestinian Authority President (PA) Mahmoud Abbas not to dissolve the Ministry for Prisoner Affairs. The demonstrators who took part in the rally hailed the sacrifices of the Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails...

The technical committee tasked with providing evidence against jailed Al Jazeera correspondents has failed to submit any evidence that proves Al Jazeera coverage on Egypt was fabricated, the Doha-based network said Monday. Moreover, the committee failed to elaborate how Al Jazeera threatens Egyptian national security. One of the committee...

The EU made a “political” decision to re-instate its election monitoring team in Egypt, despite conditions which fell well below international norms for observing elections, the Middle East Eye can reveal. The admission that the decision to reinstate the monitors was political is revealed in internal minutes seen by...

The Obama administration has promised Israel that the US would not immediately recognise the Palestinian unity government, which is expected to be announced on Monday. Spokesperson of the US State Department Jen Psaki told reporters at a press briefing on Friday: “We will not make decisions until we see...

Israel’s Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the legal adviser to the Israeli Government Yehuda Weinstein have barred the country’s nuclear whistle blower, Mordechai Vanunu, from travelling to Britain for three days. According to media reports on Monday, Vanunu received an invitation from Amnesty International to participate in a conference...

I find it rather strange that while Israeli leaders accuse Hamas of refusing to acknowledge the right of the Zionist State to exist they themselves are incapable of using the P word. If you ever listen to the utterances of bile-filled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the man is incapable...

On the eve of the swearing-in of his new government, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seems headed for the biggest test of his political career. Not only has the Israeli government barred ministers from the Gaza Strip from travelling to the West Bank for the occasion, but it has also...

Fresh allegations have emerged about the links between Tony Blair and his former spin doctor Alistair Campbell, and the post-coup Egyptian military regime. According to a report in The Mail on Sunday, Alistair Campbell has visited Egypt for “lengthy talks” with Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s team, giving advice about how...

The frailty of hope and the power of resistance weave an intricate story of contrasts. When the country in question is Palestine, hope and resistance merge and deviate as Israel’s illegal occupation continues to fragment reality. In The Almond Tree, Michelle Cohen Corasanti explores the tribulations of a Palestinian...

“We come together on this book not because we agree on everything – we don’t – but because of a shared belief that Jews and Palestinians are destined to work together, whatever our differences in background, ideals and daily life. We are connected with our desire to see peace...

Flouting international human rights law and international humanitarian law, Israel’s occupation of Palestine veers towards the illegal and illegitimate. Beyond Occupation: Apartheid, Colonialism and International law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Pluto Press, 2012) evaluates Israel’s belligerent occupation and violation of international law, with particular reference to colonialism and...

It’s 2012 and Leila Khaled can still manage to stir-up controversy. In May, the staff members at Manchester’s branch of the Blackwell’s bookshop were inundated with phone calls; the company’s multi line system was essentially under blockade. On the end of each of their telephones were aggressive campaigners, on...

Antony Lerman has spent his whole working life at the heart of the Jewish community. While he is now well known for his radical views on Israel, it was not always thus. This book traces his personal involvement with Zionism over the course of 50 years, exploring his transformation...

I never met Kathleen’s late husband Bill, though after reading ‘It’s All Right, I’m Only Crying’, I feel as though I know him. I know that he liked to talk about books he loved after the light was out at night and I know what he ordered at his...

It has been often said that the conflict in Palestine cannot be resolved without a fundamental change of policy in Washington. There is some truth in this. No other country has given such unlimited and unquestioning support to the State of Israel as the US. Peter Beinart makes an...

It’s the abundance of Raja Shehadeh’s daily accounts, filled with frustration and despair, which makes you realise just how far the Israeli occupation reaches into every corner of Palestinians’ lives. As each day unfolds in Shehadeh’s diary it brings with it another story more unbelievable than the first; the...

Few issues on the world stage are more divisive than the Israel-Palestine conflict, which triggers a powerful emotional response even among people with little direct stake in it. But how exactly are those opinions formed, and what is the majority-held view? Taking as its starting point a Europe-wide survey...

Recent statements made by the British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, indicate a decline in British public and political support for Israel. It also indicates how much European public awareness of the Palestine tragedy has transformed over the past decade. This is the result of changes such as improved...

Let me start with a confession: I am a signed-up member of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, as well as the Friends of Palestine. Why? Because I am a friend of the State of Israel, recalling that the famous Balfour letter written under a Liberal Prime Minister’s watch...

To many observers, Iran’s foreign policy is at best unclear and, at worst, unpredictable. This study by Mahboubeh Sadeghinia offers an in-depth explanation of the complex factors that have shaped Iran’s policy in the Persian Gulf, a stretch of water also referred to as the Arabian Gulf. It examines...

Jordan, described as a new “emerging market” with “high human development”, is a forward thinking, predominantly Muslim state. It has signed an array of treaties and is the beneficiary of millions of dollars of foreign aid, as well as military equipment. It finds itself at the heart of the...

This is Dr Mabrouka al-Werfalli’s timely offering for readers to gain a better understanding of Libya’s complex political, social and economic milieu in the wake of the 2011 revolution. The detailed findings of this empirical work are corroborated by Libya’s mass uprising and the bloody ensuing battle to wrest...

Clayton Swisher’s fascinating publication of the Palestinian Papers (leaked to and broadcast by Al Jazeera and The Guardian) is subtitled pessimistically “The End of the Road”. His basic thesis is that the papers so reveal the craven negotiating stance of the Fatah hierarchy that the attempt to secure a...

Omar Barghouti is a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and so he is in a perfect position to write a book charting the growth and success of the BDS movement 5 years after its inception. Whether you are new to the Palestinian...

Western journalists often shy away from writing on Palestine. They believe that so much has already been written about the century-old conflict that it is hard to find a new twist to excite and grip their readers. David Cronin has managed to do just that in his fascinating book....

In the second part of his interview with the Egyptian newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, the leader of Libya’s failed coup General Khalifa Haftar said he would welcome Egyptian military strikes within his country. Al-Qaeda elements, he claimed, are threatening to launch a military strike on Egypt from eastern...

Author: Zeina B. Ghandour Hardback: 197 pagesPublisher: Routeledge (2010)ISBN 10: 0-415-48993-8Review by Samira QuraishyA Discourse on Domination in Mandate Palestine: Imperialism, Property and Insurgency sends the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions   fascination, bewilderment, anger, confusion and so much more. Described as “unconventional” in its form and structure, the...

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel is threatening to boycott the PA if a national unity government is formed. In a speech before 70 French pro-Palestinian activists on Saturday in Ramallah, Abbas said that Palestinian leadership will take action in case this boycott is implemented. The Palestinian...

General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Dr Mohamed Badie said that the nationwide boycott of the 2014 presidential elections proves that the Egyptian people has “insisted on providing a model worthy of emulation.” Badie made the remarks after his “Istikama mosque trial” session had been adjourned on Saturday. Badie...

Almasry Alyoum daily newspaper published an article written by the well-known playwright Ali Salem in which he calls on the Egyptian police apparatus to form special militias to carry out terrorist attacks against those opposed to Field Marshal Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi. Salem called for disregarding the law and the...