Dive into the archives.
- Hamas Thugs
The Hamas government has banned motorcycle riders from carrying women on the back seat – the latest in the militants’ virtue campaign in Gaza. The ban was posted on Hamas Interior Ministry Web site on Tuesday. It says the ban seeks “to preserve citizen safety and the stability of Palestinian society’s customs and traditions.” (full [...]
- Not That There Was Much Opposition Anyway
A new report from Adalah shows how the courts and police attempted to stamp out opposition to Operation Cast Lead. “This is a time of war, and every incident harms the people’s morale.” This was not a sentence in a right-wing journal, but rather a statement by an Israel Police representative during Operation Cast Lead [...]
- Criminalizing Dissent
Criminalising dissent is not unique to Israel. Many oppressive states, such as apartheid South Africa, have used it to de-legitimise parties, ideas and activities disliked by ruling elites and security apparatuses. Furthermore, persecution on grounds of “security” creates an immediate divide between Arab and Jewish citizens. In 2007, the head of Shabak, the Israeli general [...]
- Neither Fatah Nor Hamas
“We don’t have a police state here in Palestine. We have two police states. One in Gaza and one in the West Bank,” says Rabie Latifah from the Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq. “The abuse of Palestinian civilians by both Fatah and Hamas security forces has become systematic and is no longer the exception [...]
- The Hashemite (Clown) Kingdom of Jordan
Jordanian police Sunday arrested 11 people, including trade union leaders, to break up a demonstration against fruit and vegetable imports from Israel, protest organizers said. (more…)
- The Height of Hyposcrisy
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that “the predatory nature of Tehran’s regime has been exposed” (more…)9
- European Assistance
The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale. (more…)
- Angry Arab on the Situation in Iran
As’ad AbuKhalil, Lebanese politics professor at California State University, said Iranian opponents of Ahmadinejad — if they come out on top — would still likely promote a nationalist agenda that Riyadh sees as a threat to its interests. Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi was prime minister under the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “The site [...]
- Victory Against Murderers, Inc.
The son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the social activist and poet who was executed by a former military regime in Nigeria, claimed victory against Royal Dutch Shell last night after the company agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.7m) to settle a lawsuit he and others had filed against it in a New York court. “I think he [...]
- This is “Change”
President Obama should not have decided to come to Egypt. The visit is a clear endorsement of President Hosni Mubarak, the ailing 81-year-old dictator who has ruled with martial law, secret police and torture chambers. No words that Mr. Obama will say can change this perception that Americans are supporting a dictator with their more [...]
- Blight Unto the Nations
The Knesset on Wednesday morning approved in a preliminary reading a bill introducing one year in prison for anyone speaking against Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, should the call contain a reasonable possibility “that it may lead to acts of hatred, scorn or lack of loyalty to the State or its government [...]
- If Obama Is Sincere…
If Obama is sincere in treating Muslims as partners and engaging them with mutual respect, his very pretty words must inspire legitimate policy reform. First, he must use this opportunity to empathize with the people’s concerns by denouncing the heinous crimes and oppressive, intolerant conduct of client autocrats, such as Mubarak and the Saudi royal [...]
- Hamas Thugs
Repressive actions are being carried out by de facto government forces in the Gaza Strip against Fatah Youth members preparing to mark Prisoners Day in Rafah, head of the youth council in the Gaza Strip Mahmoud Qanan said Thursday. (more…)
- Suppressing Dissent
According to Israeli police reports, at least 763 Israeli citizens, the majority of them Palestinian and 244 under 18 years old, have been arrested, imprisoned or detained for participating in such demonstrations. Most have been held and then released, but at least 30 of those arrested over the past three weeks are still being held [...]
- Israeli Democracy is Rotting
Meanwhile, Israeli police admitted they arrested about 600 people involved in protests against the Gaza offensive, some of them for stone-throwing. Adalah lawyers said more than 200 people, most of them Arab, were still in jail. “We’re talking about mass arrests,” said Abeer Baker, adding that Israel was exploiting a 30-day window before an indictment [...]
- Avi Shlaim on Israeli Authoritarianism
Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress [...]
- Control Room
Control Room, directed by Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, provides unique insights into the media dynamics on the eve of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. It primarily portrays the interactions between Al Jazeera journalists on the one hand and US military spokespersons and Western journalists on the other hand. Al Jazeera is a TV station [...]
- Russia’s Phony Election
The headlines say it all: “Russia Vote to Cement Putin Dominance“, “Russian Election Insider Outlines Fraud“, “Putin’s Phony Election“. Russia votes today in a sham of a parliamentary election – orchestrated by Putin himself – rife with enough anti-democratic trappings to make Stalin proud. In many ways, Russia’s political landscape is a fascinating place. Most [...]
- Authoritarian Inanity & Singing Policemen
The inanity of authoritarian movements can never be underestimated. The horrific shooting by Hamas of unarmed demonstrators is only the latest example of the Islamist group’s unwillingness or inability to control its forces in the Gaza Strip. Squandering the general support they enjoyed here by forcibly seizing control of the Strip last June, many Gazans [...]
- Comment: Pakistan’s Authoritarian Falstaff
George W. Bush seems terribly confused these days (and not just because he can’t decide whether the U.S. supports the Kurds in Iraq, opposes the Kurds in Turkey, encourages Kurdish terrorism in Iran or does all three simultaneously). With Pervez Musharraf declaring emergency rule in Pakistan, the Bush Doctrine has come face to face with [...]
