Edward Snowden’s has almost completed the preparation of documents which are said to reveal Arab dictators’ “secrets” and their backdoor deals with the US administration. According to a source working closely with Snowden’s Arabic translation team, Snowden has finished the classification of “hundreds” of documents based on importance and...

Reiterating the right to memory has sustained Palestinian tenacity towards reclaiming their land and the right of return. However, their adamant statements on each Nakba commemoration are threatened by the increasing compromise trajectory echoed by Palestinian leaders who seek to prioritise 1967 over the 1948 imposition of settler-colonialism in...

British human rights activist Toby Kidman held the British Government responsible for the “coup path” taken by Egyptian interim leaders, and called on it to change its positions vis-à-vis the Egyptian military coup. During a hearing session held at the British Parliament Wednesday, titled “the Political path in Egypt:...

The secretary general of the Arab League said on Wednesday that he deeply regretted the resignation of the joint UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria. Nabil Elaraby said that Lakhdar Brahimi’s resignation reflected the international community’s failure to assume its political, moral and humanitarian responsibilities to stop the fighting...

Priest Abdelmassih Bassit of the Virgin Mary Church in Mostord, Egypt, said during an interview with Al-Arabiya channel that 30 percent of those who took part in anti-Morsi protests on June 30 were Coptic Christians. Bassit said that the church is “sitting on the fence” vis-à-vis presidential candidates, but...

Tehran has welcomed the invitation extended by the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal to his Iranian counterpart to visit Riyadh for bilateral talks. State news agency IRNA reported Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying that: “We have not received the written invitation yet, but visits...

More than three years into the Syrian war, during which well over 100,000 people have been killed and torture has become commonplace, a sense of impunity still persists on all sides. More than 100 civil society groups from all over the world have now decided to combat this by...

American Department of Defence said on Wednesday it had temporarily moved about 200 Marines to Sicily from their base in Spain, as a precaution due to concerns about turmoil in North Africa. This move came to bolster the US ability to respond to any crisis in that area, which...

The Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced 79 opponents of the military coup and supporters of Mohamed Morsi to 5-10 years in prison on charges of taking part in violence which took place in the coastal city last summer. The court sentenced 11 defendants to 10 years, 13 defendants to 7...

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said on Tuesday that the Saudi kingdom has extended an invitation to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to visit Riyadh, expressing his country’s willingness to engage in negotiations with Tehran. During a press conference held within the preparation for the Forum on...

The Turkish ruling party, the AK Party, has selected Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan as its candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, though it is yet to publicly announce the decision. According to Mohamed Zahed Gul, an analyst close to the ruling party, the AK Party decided after consultations...

US President Barack Obama has said that President Bashar Al-Assad has lost all legitimacy to rule the country and has no place in Syria’s future. He was speaking during a meeting with the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition. Attending the meeting along with US National Security Adviser Susan...

No one will ever forget that the blockade imposed by the occupying power in Gaza, in cooperation with international and regional powers, is the longest siege in modern times. In addition to this, no one will forget that this blockade was never either moral or legal, nor is it...

Outgoing Israeli president Shimon Peres talked in a recent interview about a peace agreement he reached with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in 2011. According to Peres, the Israeli prime minister rejected the draft understanding telling him “to wait a few days Tony Blair could get a better offer.” The...

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz reshuffled on Wednesday the top army and civilian posts in the Defence Ministry, state news agency SPA reported. Prince Sultan bin Salman was removed from his post as deputy defence minister, a position that he had assumed in August. Prince Khalid Bin Bandar,...

When the Merowe Dam was built on the Nile in Sudan, life for the villagers of Abu Haraz would change forever In the small village of Abu Haraz in northern Sudan, life appears to continue as normal. A fisherman negotiates his way between palm trees on the River Nile,...

When does the life of one child become more precious than another? The answer should be that all children are valued in equal measure unless you use the double standards rule set by Western governments and their allies. As I write this, British Prime Minister David Cameron has deployed...

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry blamed the Syrian regime’s President, Bashar al-Assad for blocking a political solution to Syria’s crisis. The United Nations and Arab League special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi “did not fail” said Kerry during a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart, Federica Mogherini...

The Italian authorities have returned 63 illegal Syrian immigrants to Greece who tried to enter the country, Italian ANSA news agency reported Tuesday. The agency said “the immigrants arrived in the port city of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea, east of Italy on Monday hiding inside two shipped cars...

What is the fate of the political figures who created an alliance on June 30th 2013 in Egypt; those who called for demonstrations to end the rule of elected President Mohamed Morsi and subsequently announced a new roadmap on July 3rd? The truth is that the June 30th alliance...

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday met a Hamas and Fatah delegation in his home in Al-Shati’ Camp, west of Gaza. The Hamas delegation was headed by Abu Marzouk, and attended by Khalil Al Hayya, Imad Al-Alami and Sami Abu Zuhiri, whilst the Fatah delegation was headed...

International Criminal Court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda demanded on Tuesday the Libyan authorities to immediately hand over Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to face crimes against humanity charges. Saif al-Islam, the son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is being tried on several charges in Zintan Court in Western Libya including...

The 1950s saw the rapid spread of socialism, Pan-Arabisim and nationalism across the Arab world. These movements were led mainly by the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who was considered an iconic figure and a symbol of Arab dignity after he overthrew the monarchy of Egypt in 1952. Nasser’s...

When Sara Ishaq returns to Yemen after ten years abroad reconnecting with the Scottish half of her roots she finds the country she grew up is on the brink of a revolution. It’s 2011 and the infectious spirit of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt has reached the peninsula...

Homs, the Capital of the Revolution Abdul Basset Saroot, goalkeeper of the Syrian national youth football team turned armed opposition fighter, is now classed as a terrorist by Bashar Al-Assad. The army raided his neighbourhood to find him, killing his older brother and destroying his family home when they...

In apartheid South Africa marriage between black and white people was prohibited and white-only jobs sanctioned. Areas designated as white were destroyed by bulldozers and the black population living there forced into segregated townships. Thousands of protestors who challenged this system died after being imprisoned and tortured. It was...

“He was a man seeking power. He would do anything to achieve his goals, regardless of anyone. Even if you were a close friend he’d send you to jail. Or even kill you in order to implement his will.” Though former Baath party leader Dafi Al-Jamaani is referring to...

“If the Nakba signifies the expulsion of the Palestinian citizen from his land, and seizing his land by force, then the Nakba began decades before 1948.” It is this concept that Al Nakba, an Al Jazeera network production set to be screened as part of the Bristol Palestine Film...

“The Israeli blockade may have taken a heavy toll on Gazans, but this film reveals life and hope among the devastation.” Kamal Khalaf is a construction worker and father of five from Gaza who lost his job in 2007 when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on...

Today around 300,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, yet only 2% of them have work permits. Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in most professions; those that do work earn less than the minimum wage. They are not allowed to own property and have restricted access to the legal...

Below is the transcription of the video. Well, this is a misrepresentation of the discourse and a distortion of facts. Therefore, God will not be pleased if we proceed in this way, and we cannot proceed in this way. Consequently, we cannot allow matters to go back to the...

The British government has granted temporary diplomatic immunity to Israel’s Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni during her visit to London this week, which serves to protect her from an arrest warrant for any alleged war crimes, reports Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. This was confirmed by Livin’s office, according to Wednesday’s...

The third round of Geneva talks on the Syrian crisis will only be resumed upon the condition that the Syrian regime agrees to postpone the upcoming presidential election scheduled in June, and to form a transitional government, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news...

The Egyptian government has been asked by economic experts to approve gas imports from Israel in order to fulfil the needs of the local market. The experts demanded that issues of politics and economics be separated, specifically as Egypt used to export gas to Israel. At the time, they...

“It’s better to die as a Fidaï than a man of the people,” says Med El Hadi Benadouda on his life as one of the mujahideen soldiers whose goal it was to free Algeria from over a century of French imperialism and repression. His family knew little about his...

“In the film I will document a legal system; a system which organizes the rule of law in the territories we conquered in 1967. This is a unique system. Very few people understand it in depth.” This system, as narrator and director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz tells us in ‘The Law...

On the occasion of their party Spring Conference taking place this weekend, the Liberal Democratic Friends of Palestine (LDFP) have isued a new position paper on Palestine. MEMO has been given permission to publish it, as well as a paper on apartheid practices in the West Bank by George...

“I consider my resignation an expression of protest against the current conditions of the judiciary, and I hope that a serious action is taken to reform it.” It was with these words that Judge Mahmoud Al-Khudairi ended his career in the judiciary after 46 years as the vice president...

We, citizens of the world, celebrating the human pursuit of freedom and independence, adhering fully to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rejecting the ideology and practice of colonization under any name at any time, declaring the colonization document known as Balfour Declaration as null and void in word,...

Essam Mohammed Hussein El Erian (1954) is an Egyptian physician and a political activist. He is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Council; and serves as vice chair of the Freedom and Justice Party. El Erian graduated from the School of Medicine, Cairo University, in 1977 and received...

Mohammed Badie Abdul-Majid Muhammad Sami was born in 1943. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) while in his early 20s. He studied veterinary medicine at Cairo University and graduated in 1965 and appointed as a lecturer at Asyut University. In the same year, he was arrested along with a...

Mohamed Mahdi Othman Akef was born the same year the Muslim Brotherhood was founded – 1928. He was born in one of the villages of Mansoura City to the north of Cairo and was brought up with 10 siblings by a father who was wealthy at the time. Mohammad attended...

By Khalid Meshaal This paper was originally presented by Mr Khalid Meshaal, the Chief of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) at a conference convened by Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies & Consultations, Beirut, on 28-29 November 2012. It explores Hamas’ vision for the Palestinian issue, and...

HE Jacob ZumaPresident of the Republic of South AfricaCape TownSouth Africa Cape Town, 7 November 2011 Dear Mister President, On 5-6 November 2011 we held our third session in Cape Town, hosted by the District Six museum. Yesterday afternoon it came to our attention that at least one witness...

Arab Delegation Members of the delegation confirmed their frank and forthright demand for the immediate release of Sheikh Raed Salah. They informed Mr Gould that Salah’s arrest was tantamount to the arrest of every leader of the Arab community in the country; and that Britain had perpetrated an act...

26 former European leaders, including former Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and European Commissioners, have written a letter to EU President Van Rompuy and High Representative Catherine Ashton, calling on the EU to adopt a more pro-active stance in respect of the Israel – Palestinian conflict, and in which...

The national decision serving as a basis for those measures having been repealed, the Council was no longer able to maintain financial sanctions against Al-Aqsa In order to implement a resolution of the UN Security Council, the Council adopted a Common Position1 and a regulation2, ordering the freezing of...

Introduction Failed bilateral talks over these past 16 years have shown that a Middle East peace accord can never be reached by the parties themselves. Israeli governments believe they can defy international condemnation of their illegal colonial project in the West Bank because they can count on the US...

By John McHugoUJ is the legal power which allows suspected perpetrators of crimes such as war crimes, torture and genocide to be prosecuted in the national courts of countries other than those where the alleged crimes were committed. As a signatory to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the...

John Duggard, Chair of Independent Fact-Finding Committee on Gaza; and Former Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council on Human Rights in Palestine. It is clear that serious crimes were committed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in its Operation Cast Lead. A number of independent reports including the...