Follow Us
From the Editors
Jadaliyya Launches DARS Page: Daily Acts of Resistance and Subversion
Tadween Publishing Blog is here! Check it out
Jadaliyya's first book is now available! Click here.
Want to find out about new books? Visit our expanding NEWTON page. Click here.
Interested in writing a Review for Jadaliyya? Visit our Call for Reviews here.
الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
Call for Photos: Become a Contributing Photographer at Jadaliyya
Law
The Space Between: March 14, March 8 and a Politics of Dissent
![[Pro-Syria Protestor; Image From Al-Manshour.org]](/content_images/3/sm_syria2.JPG "[Pro-Syria Protestor; Image From Al-Manshour.org]")
This week a pro-Syrian protest was staged at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. A group of about fifty people gathered to express their solidarity with the Syrian people against the atrocities currently being committed by the Asad regime. As reported in Jadaliyya and elsewhere, this pro-Syrian protest was met violently by pro-Asad counter-demonstrators. Many of the pro-Syrian protestors sustained injuries, some of which were serious enough to require trips to the emergency rooms of nearby hospitals. Since the incident on Tuesday night, a sometimes vitriolic online debate has unfolded between pro-Syrian and pro-Asad activists in Lebanon. Many of these activists, ...
Keep Reading »One Night in Hamra
![[Counter-protesters in Hamra holding pictures of Bashar al-Asad.]](/content_images/3/sm_1nightinhamra.JPG "[Counter-protesters in Hamra holding pictures of Bashar al-Asad.]")
[The following is an eye-witness account of the violent dispersion of an anti-regime protest that took place this past Tuesday outside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. The author of the report-back has chosen to remain anonymous.] Last Tuesday evening at around 8 o’clock, a group of people gathered at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut in order to protest the ongoing atrocities committed by the Syrian regime against the Syrian people. Earlier that day I had received an email, part of a “secret email chain,” informing me that the protest would take place and that I should only share the email with people I trust. The secrecy with which the protest was planned was in response to ...
Keep Reading »Occupation Law and the One-State Reality
![[Image from Gilai.com]](/content_images/3/sm_1587_big.jpg "[Image from Gilai.com]")
For decades, the international law of occupation – a branch of the laws of war (or “international humanitarian law”) – has played a major role in structuring debates around Israel/Palestine. As applied to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the law of occupation has provided a useful and globally shared set of criteria for analyzing Israel’s discriminatory and repressive policies, as well as certain Palestinian actions. There is perhaps no legal document cited more frequently in debates on Israel/Palestine than the Fourth Geneva Convention, held up by many as a sacred pact of civilization enshrining basic standards of humanity in wartime. But as the impossibility of ...
Keep Reading »What is a Citizen? (Or, What if Layla Were Prime Minister?)
On the surface, the question “What is a Citizen?” seems easy to answer. A citizen is a person who is endowed with legal rights by, and duties to, the country of which one is a citizen. Thus, a U.S. citizen is someone who is allowed to vote in U.S. state and federal elections, to serve in the U.S. armed forces, to pass that citizenship on to their spouse and/or children, is entitled to state and federal social services, and who must file state and federal taxes. Similarly, in Lebanon, a citizen must also pay taxes, is also allowed to vote, to run for public office, to serve in the armed forces, and is entitled to Lebanese social services. However, even more than being a ...
Keep Reading »Politics in a Time of Politicians
![[Hariri and Nasrallah Smiling; Images From Unknown Archives]](/content_images/3/sm_nasrallahandsa`dhariri.jpg "[Hariri and Nasrallah Smiling; Images From Unknown Archives]")
Last week the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) released the names of four men indicted in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice. For years now, the question of Hariri's assassination, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, has been one of two topics that have saturated the political field in Lebanon. The other topic of interest has been the question of whether or not Hezbollah should be disarmed. Hariri and Hezbollah, that is all we have been hearing about for years. Every political, social, or economic issue in Lebanon since 2005, and especially since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, has been hijacked by political factions that disagree ...
Keep Reading »Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and the Mistreatment of Detainees
![[Left to right: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell. Image from Associated Press.]](/content_images/3/sm_HRWacountabletorture.jpg "[Left to right: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell. Image from Associated Press.]")
[Below is the latest from Human Rights Watch (HRW) on attempts to hold Bush Administration officials accountable for torture.] George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.… “Damn right,” I said. —Former President George W. Bush, 2010[1] There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account. —Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, June 2008[2] Should former US President George W. Bush be investigated for authorizing ...
Keep Reading »Emergency Laws, the Arab Spring, and the Struggle Against “Human Rights”
![[Image from UN Multimedia Gallery]](/content_images/3/sm_750px-Chile_signs_UN_Charter_1945.jpg "[Image from UN Multimedia Gallery]")
The Arab Spring could not be more textured as different governments, political interests, and international relations have uniquely shaped each nation’s uprising. Still, certain patterns have been common to this turning point in the Arab world. These have included burgeoning protests, state-sponsored violence against civilians, and the disconnected speeches of Arab heads of state to their empowered and teeming Arab streets. Emergency laws, or the codification of a legal abyss wherein absolute power is transferred to the executive and justified in the name of restoring or preserving national welfare, have also figured prominently in the epoch transformation of ...
Keep Reading »On the Possible Recognition of A Palestinian State at the United Nations
![[Image from unknown archive]](/content_images/3/sm_un_membership_illustration_sm2.jpg "[Image from unknown archive]")
There is much interest in what will happen regarding Palestine at the United Nations in September. Contrary to much of what has been written on this subject, this is not a matter of “declaring” Palestinian statehood. The PLO already declared the independence of Palestine in 1988. Like many things in life, this is something you can only do once. Moreover, this already proclaimed state of Palestine did not and does not enjoy sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over the territory it claims. Nor do either the PLO, which proclaimed this state, or the Palestinian Authority. The latter is an interim self-governing authority (whose legal existence technically lapsed in 1999 in ...
Keep Reading »Still Seeking Justice for Those Who Died at Guantanamo: Two Letters on Father's Day
![[Talal Al-Zahrani and his son Yasser Al-Zahrani. Yasser was 22 when he died at Guantanamo in 2006. Image from Center for Constitutional Rights.]](/content_images/3/sm_talal-al-zahrani-and-son-yasser.jpg "[Talal Al-Zahrani and his son Yasser Al-Zahrani. Yasser was 22 when he died at Guantanamo in 2006. Image from Center for Constitutional Rights.]")
This month marks five years since three men who were never charged with any crime died in US custody at Guantánamo under circumstances that remain unexplained and that were never independently investigated. The men’s names were Yasser Al-Zahrani, Salah Al-Salami, and Mani Al-Utaybi, and they reportedly died on June 9 or 10, 2006. The military has persistently maintained that their deaths were suicides by hanging. Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of Guantánamo at the time, shamefully called them “acts of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,” while a State Department official characterized them as a “good PR move.” However, as investigative journalist ...
Keep Reading »Following the Torture Trail through the Arab Spring: First Speculations
![[Egyptian protester stenciling image of Khaled Said on Egyptian Ministry of Interior. Image from Hossam El-Hamalawy]](/content_images/3/sm_KhaledSaidstensil.jpg "[Egyptian protester stenciling image of Khaled Said on Egyptian Ministry of Interior. Image from Hossam El-Hamalawy]")
Torture and anti-torture are everywhere. Are the revolutions sweeping through the Arab world, and being confronted with violent counter-revolutions, in part a battle over the use of torture? It is, perhaps, too early to know how significant or central torture is to the protest movements that have disposed of the torture-prone regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and the ongoing battles against authoritarians in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, not to mention the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Libya and beyond. Someday, we may look back on this period as a decisive moment, where either anti-torture broke the dam of authoritarianism by galvanizing mass protests, or torture was the ...
Keep Reading »Entry Denied: Revolution in North Africa and the Continued Centrality of Migration to European Responses
![[Tunisian migrants arriving at Lampedusa. Image by Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images]](/content_images/3/sm_migrants.jpg "[Tunisian migrants arriving at Lampedusa. Image by Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images]")
The recent revolutions in Tunisia and Libya have brought the issue of trans-Mediterranean migration to the forefront of popular discussions about Europe’s relationship with its immediate neighbors in the Middle East and North Africa. It was on the back of hyperbolic and cataclysmic predictions of Europe being “swamped” by migrants that the case for intervention in Libya was partly made and following this, a number of EU member states have agreed on a temporary suspension of the Schengen Agreement. Schengen is an agreement that deals with the free movement of people throughout the European Union and was first signed on 14 June 1985 by five out of the ten members of what ...
Keep Reading »Manal al-Sharif: Saudi Woman Drives the Streets of al-Khobar (Video)
![[Manal al-Sharif. Image from screen shot of YouTube video.]](/content_images/3/sm_manalalsharifdriving.jpg "[Manal al-Sharif. Image from screen shot of YouTube video.]")
The video below shows Manal al-Sharif driving around the streets of al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, while discussing the impact of women's inability to drive in Saudi Arabia. Manal is one of the women who are organizing the call for Saudi women to drive themeselves on June 17 as an act of protest. Click here to read the "I Will Drive Myself" for action. She was recently detained by Saudi authorities for her driving and her related statements. Click here to read the Letter Calling for Release of Manal al-Sharif.
Keep Reading »Press Release by Solidarity Protesters that Were Violently Dispersed in Beirut
[The following press release was issued on Thursday August 4, 2011, by the protesters that gathered outside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut on Tuesday, August 2--to protest the Syrian regimes violent suppression of the uprising in the country--and that were subsequently violently dispersed by pro-regime counter-demonstrators. An English translation is forthcoming. For a detailed account of the protest and it's violent dispersion, see Jadaliyya's One Night in Hamra.] بيان صحافي الشبيحة يعتدون ...
Keep Reading »Job Announcement: Regional Coordinator - Middle East & North Africa; Coalition for the International Criminal Court
Regional Coordinator: Middle East-North Africa Region Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) Application Deadline: 19 August 2011 The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) includes 2,500 civil society organizations in 150 different countries working in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the Court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal; and advance stronger national laws that deliver ...
Keep Reading »Can the Palestinian Leadership Pave the Way from Statehood to Independence?
Middle Eastern analysts concerned with the Palestinian statehood bid have rightly highlighted the benefits conferred by such status. They assume, however, that the current Palestinian leadership is willing to take the necessary steps in order to lead Palestinians from statehood on paper to independence in practice. In the early 1990s, the Palestinian leadership supplanted its struggle for self-determination with a state-building project. In its narrow pursuit of a mandate to govern, it placed undue faith ...
Keep Reading »Legal Brief: Flotillas and the Gaza Blockade
[This legal brief is the latest from Diakonia on the Gaza blockade and the use of flotillas.] Legal Brief: Flotillas and the Gaza Blockade (July 2011) The Gaza Strip is currently under a continued naval and land blockade.[1] New flotillas are trying to reach Gaza to provide assistance to the people of the Strip. In light of the deadly outcome of the previous flotilla of 31 May 2010, Diakonia IHL Programme would like to reiterate the relevance and importance of international humanitarian law ...
Keep Reading »Universal Jurisdiction: A Conversation between Lisa Hajjar and Richard Falk
Richard Falk and Lisa Hajjar engage in a discussion about universal jurisdiction, international law, and criminal accountability for gross crimes (torture, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity). The doctrine of universal jurisdiction was developed in the 19th century to combat piracy and slave trading on the high seas. The aim was to close a jurisdictional gap by allowing governments to prosecute these "enemies of all mankind" in their own national legal systems despite no direct ...
Keep Reading »Leadership of Palestinian BDS Campaign Responds to New Israeli Law
[The following press release was issued by the Palestinian BDS National Committee on July 12, 2011.] The Israeli parliament (Knesset) last night passed a new law criminalizing support for the Palestinian civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, penalizing Israeli persons and organizations active in the campaign, or indeed in any other partial boycott of Israel or any of its institutions. The repressive legislation also bars companies that refuse to to deal ...
Keep Reading »What Is [the] Left?
Lebanon has been without a government for months. Finally, a thirty-member cabinet was formed two weeks ago. With a revolutionary uprising in Syria and the brutal response by the Syrian regime intensifying, there is now a Lebanese government whose sole function, it seems, is to weather the storm at the country's northern border, the increasing instability of its border to the south, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's indictment that approaches the country with the unstoppable velocity of a train ...
Keep Reading »My Coming Out Story
I am a Sunni. Yes, I said it. I am a Sunni from Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. I was born in a hospital that no longer exists, having been torn down to make way for a tower that houses, most probably, more Sunnis. After being born in that hospital that no longer exists, I was bundled up and sent home with my parents to Tariq al-Jadidah, a neighborhood that is known as the “Sunni bastion of Beirut". I grew up there, a blonde little thing with a working mother who spoke, at best, broken Arabic, a ...
Keep Reading »Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical "Sharia Threat" to Our Judicial System
[Below is the latest from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).] Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical "Sharia Threat" to Our Judicial System A Report of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief Introduction Across the country, state legislators are considering proposed laws that would limit the ability of courts to adjudicate lawsuits brought by Muslims. Proponents of these measures argue that they are necessary because so-called “Sharia law” is somehow taking over our ...
Keep Reading »Legal Fallout of Israeli Attack on Lebanese Nakba Day March (Video)
The below video (courtesy of Wissam al-Saliby) was recorded on Friday, May 27th, 2011, when Omar Nashabeh (Arabic) and Salah El Dabagh (Arabic then English) held a press conference to discuss possible legal action against the Israeli authorities responsible for the attack on the Nakba Day commemorators that were marching in the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras. The press conference was held at the Press Syndicate H.Q. in Beirut.
Keep Reading »When An Act of War Is Not An Act Of War
Two weeks ago Israel attacked Lebanon. Troops opened fire on a large group of protestors at the border between these two states. The Israeli army used live ammunition, killing at least eleven civilians and wounding over 100 others, some critically. The Lebanese army also fired their weapons at, and over, the protestors who had arrived at the border in order to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba. Since May 15, 2011, the border has been quiet. Local and international powers such as the Lebanese state, the ...
Keep Reading »المتهم حسني مبارك مجرم ضد الانسانية
كنت قد كتبت هذا المقال منذ أكثر من أسبوعين وأرسلته للنشر في بعض الجرائد المصرية وقيل لي إنه "لظروف ضيق المساحة نعتذر عن النشر." ولم أتناول هنا فكرة ترددت مؤخراً في مصر وهي فكرة العفو عن مبارك إذا تنازل عن أمواله للشعب المصري، وهي الفكرة التي نفاها مؤخراً المجلس العسكري بعد استنفار كبير من أبناء الشعب لمجرد طرح الفكرة. ورأيي باختصار أنه لا عفو بدون محاكمة وأن الوحيد الذي له حق إقرار العفو هو الشعب المصري، كما أن مبارك متهم بتهم ليست مالية فقط ولكن بجرائم ضد الإنسانية أثناء فترة حكمه. ...
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
علاقة علماء الدين بالسلطة في التاريخ الإسلامي علاقة معقدة، وإن كانت تميل في أغلب الأحيان، خاصة بعد القرن الخامس هجري/الحادي عشر ميلادي، إلى التواطؤ والاستزلامclick | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (June 18)
- فرانكشتاين في بغداد
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (17 June)
- هل يمكن تطوير الجدل حول المثلية الجنسية؟
- Resisting Tear Gas Together
- معتقلو موريتانيا في غوانتانامو
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (June 10-16)
- Will the Presidential Elections “Cure the Pain” of the Iranian People?
- الانترنت والعولمة الثقافية
- #resistankara: Notes of a Woman Resisting
- It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey’s Cities
- 'Ottomanalgia' and the Protests in Turkey
- إصلاح بروتوكول باريس في عامه العشرين: أسئلة وأجوبة لإرضاء الإصلاحي العنيد
- Report from Istanbul: Koray Caliskan on Democracy Now
- Syria Media Roundup (June 13)
- Maghreb Media Roundup (June 14)
- Debunking the Myth of the Zionist Left
- Iran’s Presidential Elections: The Live Embers of a Democratic Opposition Glow
- Sultan of Sultans
- On the Margins Roundup (June)
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design