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Politics
The Unfolding Situation in Yemen
![[Image from globalhumanitarianassistance.org]](/content_images/3/sm_yemenyemen.jpg "[Image from globalhumanitarianassistance.org]")
How serious is the situation in Yemen? This weekend, negotiations over the departure of President Ali Abdallah Saleh broke down. After several weeks of mixed signals concerning his willingness to depart the presidency on acceptable terms – including amnesty for himself and his extended family – President Saleh reversed himself and announced that he has no intention of leaving office before the end ofhis term in 2013. Politics in Yemen is always fluid, and President Saleh has made many contradictory statements in recent weeks about his intentions. But local observers do not expect negotiations to resume anytime soon. The leadership of Yemen’s ruling party, the General ...
Keep Reading »Narrating the Past, Confronting the Present
The Kingdom of Women: Ein El Hilweh. Directed by Dahna Abourahme. Lebanon, 2010 Could I do today what I was able to do then, questions Nadia, one of the women in Dahna Abourahme’s latest documentary film The Kingdom of Women: Ein El Hilweh. Based on stories of the women of Ein El Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon, between 1982-4 during the Israeli invasion and the imprisonment of the majority of the male population (those between the ages of 14-60), the film is also a reflection on the act of narration itself. The weaving of the women’s voices with tangible objects — letters from their husbands written from inside Israeli prisons, rich embroidery ...
Keep Reading »Democracy Now! Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor on Syria
![[Image from Democracy Now interview]](/content_images/3/sm_amybasssyria.jpg "[Image from Democracy Now interview]")
Scores of protesters have been killed in Syria during 10 days of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. In an attempt to appease protesters, Assad’s administration has reportedly vowed to lift the emergency law, which for nearly 50 years has allowed the government to detain people without charge. "For more than 40 years, people have been politically suppressed,” says Bassam Haddad, the director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University. “That suppression was coupled more recently in the past 20-some years with neoliberal-like economic policies that have created huge gaps between different segments of Syrian society.” Watch the ...
Keep Reading »Elia Suleiman's Time
The Time that Remains [Al-Zaman Al-Baqi]. Written and directed by Elia Suleiman. UK/Italy/Belgium/France, 2009. An early scene in The Time that Remains [Al-Zaman Al-Baqi], Elia Suleiman’s latest film, reveals a great deal. The scene begins with a shot of the harried-looking mayor of Nazareth banging open a door at the end of a long hallway. We have some sense of why he is so harried: we have just watched the car that was driving him to the meeting being repeatedly menaced by a low-flying propeller plane. The airplane sequence has a recognizably Suleimanian feel, racing along somewhere between physical comedy and horror: at one point, the white flag of surrender being ...
Keep Reading »How to Lose Friends and Alienate Your People
![[Image from the author's upcoming book, Image Politics in the Middle East]]](/content_images/3/sm_aynama.jpg "[Image from the author's upcoming book, Image Politics in the Middle East]]")
The extraordinary events that have been gripping the Arab world since December 2010 have demonstrated the steadfastness of Arab citizens across the region in the face of despotic regimes. But they have also demonstrated that Arab despots indeed engage in authoritarian learning. From Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain to Libya to Morocco to Yemen to Syria (and the list goes on), Arab rulers have followed a peculiarly familiar pattern in the way they have—and are—responding to the protests calling for regime change. 1. Ignore the protests One of the first reactions to budding protests is simply to ignore them and their potential. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...
Keep Reading »What is Political Sectarianism?
*Note: This analysis refers to political sectarianism in Lebanon, it cannot be “applied” to the workings of sectarianism in other contexts, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bahrain or Bosnia Herzigovina. There is an ongoing spasm of activism in Lebanon directed towards changing the sectarian structure and ethos of the state. For the past five weeks, growing numbers of people have taken to the streets stating their refusal of both the March 14 and March 8 coalitions and demanding the end of sectarianism in Lebanon. It has been inspiring to see men and women from all age groups, areas and socio-economic strata march together through parts of Southern Beirut, East ...
Keep Reading »Of the Elites, By the Elites, For the Elites: An Update on Yemen's Revolution
![[Image from European Press Photo Agency]](/content_images/3/sm_president7.jpg "[Image from European Press Photo Agency]")
As the clock ticks closer to Friday, Yemenis and observers of Yemen are bracing themselves for the unknown. Reports of a prospective deal between Ali Saleh and Ali Mohsen for a mutual resignation flooded social networking sites, Yemeni homes and Taghyir Square today, speculating hopefully on its potential to spare the country further bloodshed. Saleh dispelled those rumors in a TV appearance Thursday night, looking haggard and worn and declaring he would not be stepping down. However, it is not clear that negotiations behind the scenes have really terminated, and if they have, what the reasons for the failed deal were. What terms did Saleh find unacceptable? Or was it ...
Keep Reading »Missing: Agency and Alternative in the Anti-Intervention Critique
![[Image from screen shot of english.aljazeera.net]](/content_images/3/sm_celebratingnofly.jpg "[Image from screen shot of english.aljazeera.net]")
The Libyan people’s revolution against Muammar al-Gaddafi has been called the February 17th revolution. It has been named – like Egypt’s January 25th revolution – after the day on which protests were called for demanding freedom and an end to a brutal and long-standing regime. In Libya, however, the protests erupted before schedule. They began two days ahead of time in response to the arrest and imprisonment of Fathi Terbil – the lawyer representing the families of the victims of the Abu Salim prison massacre. For years, Terbil and these families have demanded the release of the location of the corpses of those 1,200 individuals killed. They have filed suits and ...
Keep Reading »The Alternative Opposition in Jordan and the Failure to Understand Lessons of Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions
In Jordan, no one seems to have learned from the lessons of Tunisia and Egypt. Especially not the “opposition,” which can be divided into the “official” opposition and the “alternative” opposition. The "official" opposition—comprised of the legalized opposition parties and professional associations—still seeks weak reformist goals that constitute a continuation of its collapsing course that began in 1989 (the year marking the end of martial law in Jordan and the onset of the so-called “democratic era”). This official opposition is made up of three broad sets of groups: the Islamists, featuring the Muslim Brotherhood and their political wing the Islamic Action ...
Keep Reading »When Petro-Dictators Unite: The Bahraini Opposition's Struggle for Survival
![[Bahraini protesters being confronted with armored vehicles. Image from bbc.com]](/content_images/3/sm_Sumud.jpg "[Bahraini protesters being confronted with armored vehicles. Image from bbc.com]")
For at least several decades, geopolitical, economic, territorial and ideological considerations have led to serious tensions, if not outright feuds, between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. In recent weeks, however, the regimes of GCC states have shown their citizens that when their authoritarian rule is at stake, they will put aside their differences and put up a united front. Exceptional times, it seems, do call for exceptional measures. As such, the GCC endorsed NSC Resolution 1973–authorizing “all measures necessary” in Libya, including a no-fly zone. Indeed, while some GCC states have agreed to send troops to help overthrow one brutal dictator ...
Keep Reading »How it Started in Yemen: From Tahrir to Taghyir
![[Image from the open source, New Yemen Photo collection]](/content_images/3/sm_IMG_8314.jpg "[Image from the open source, New Yemen Photo collection]")
On February 11 after the Friday noon prayers Yemeni students and activists organized a demonstration in the capital city of Sanaa in solidarity with Egyptian demonstrators frustrated with Mubarak’s refusal to resign. At about 1 PM they met in front of the small roundabout by the new campus of Sanaa University and marched through town chanting slogans and carrying pictures of Gamal Abdel Nasser the Egyptian hero of Arab nationalism. Less than 200 people took part and only two were women. Slogans chanted included: “Awaken! Awaken oh youth!” “Long live Egypt!” “Down Hosni Mubarak!” “Egypt mother of the free! Mother of the revolutionaries” And they sang an ...
Keep Reading »Egyptians Brace for Change...But What Kind? [Updated from Egypt]
![[Egyptian activist carrying signs that read “The civil state is an atheist state.” (right) “What is the problem with Islam governing all nationals? In the West constitutions rule over Muslims.” (left) Image from author's archive]](/content_images/3/sm_hero2.jpg "[Egyptian activist carrying signs that read “The civil state is an atheist state.” (right) “What is the problem with Islam governing all nationals? In the West constitutions rule over Muslims.” (left) Image from author's archive]")
[This post will be updated regularly as relevant events unfold.] Tomorrow (Saturday) Egyptian voters will head to the polls to either accept or reject a set of constitutional amendments that could guide the direction and pace of Egypt’s transition. The amendments to the 1971 constitution were prepared by a panel of legal experts at the request of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt’s de facto ruler. If passed, they would (among other things) limit presidential terms and the use of emergency laws, and mandate judicial supervision of elections. While advocates of a swift transition that quickly transfers power from the army to an elected civilian government ...
Keep Reading »Why Secularism is Not the Answer; Gays in the Lebanese Khutba
In the past 48 hours, a debate has erupted on the facebook page of the movement to “overthrow the political sectarian regime in Lebanon.” This debate was not about how to accomplish this lofty goal, or how to better strategize for more effective and powerful street demonstrations, or even what the actual demands of the movement are, should be, and how these demands can be enacted. Rather, the debate is about homosexuals and homosexuality in Lebanon. What does homosexuality have to do with secularism? A ...
Keep Reading »The Meaning of "Syrian Opposition Figures Urge Peaceful Change" Story from Reuters
This (report from Reuters here and below) is not an insignificant call from the traditionally vociferous leadership of the opposition, including those who were imprisoned for years after the botched "Damascus Spring" after 2001. The likes of Michel Kilo and `Arif Dalila were among the most outspoken critics for years. I watched Dalila make public condemnations of the regime's corruption in public panels on Syria's political economy in 1998, 1999, and 2000, when Hafiz al-Asad was president. He ...
Keep Reading »The Egyptian Elite and the Egyptian Revolt: Video Interview with Hossam El-Hamalawy (Part 3)
Jadaliyya is hereby presenting the third installment in a interactive (see below) series called "A Portrait of a Revolutionary," featuring interviews with an Egyptian journalist and activist who was at the forefront of the Egyptian protest movement. Hossam's vantage point is quite unique, and his broad knowledge of the Egyptian political landscape as well as history positions him to provide an unparalleled account of the the context and developments that have led to the resignation of ...
Keep Reading »Conflict Risk Alert: Syria
[Below is latest from the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Syria] Conflict Risk Alert: Syria Syria is at what is rapidly becoming a defining moment for its leadership. There are only two options. One involves an immediate and inevitably risky political initiative that might convince the Syrian people that the regime is willing to undertake dramatic change. The other entails escalating repression, which has every chance of leading to a bloody and ignominious end. Already, the ...
Keep Reading »The Bidun of Kuwait: A Look Behind the Laws
In Kuwait, some young Bidun men and women often wonder what more they could offer the country to get accepted as one of its own. Their fathers had lost their lives liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion in the 1990 Gulf War. Their ancestors had settled in Kuwait for three consecutive generations but Bidun today have yet to be afforded any state recognition. Other Bidun question when they will become “pure enough” in the eyes of the Kuwaiti state and society to get recognized as equal humans, if ...
Keep Reading »Is the 2011 Libyan Revolution an Exception?
After the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the strong man of the Middle East on February 11, 2011, the Arab Spring appeared to be an unrelenting force. In the week following his downfall, three theaters of major rebellion—Libya, Yemen, Bahrain—quickly emerged, with Iran’s suppressed Green revolution resurfacing for a while as well. In the weeks that followed mass demonstrations demanding significant political reforms continued or sprang up in countries such as Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Djibouti, ...
Keep Reading »Saleh Defiant
In the face of popular protests as well as defections by Yemeni diplomats, government ministers, and military leaders, President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday invited the Yemeni youth to participate in a “transparent and open dialogue.” He also announced that he would step down as president by the end of this year, and not—as he had promised earlier—when his term expires in 2013. It is tempting to understand Saleh’s obstinance as detached from reality given the protests and defections. However, a closer ...
Keep Reading »Of Principle and Peril
Reasonable, principled people can disagree about whether, in an ideal world, Western military intervention in Libya’s internal war would be a moral imperative. With Saddam Hussein dead and gone, there is arguably no more capricious and overbearing dictator in the Arab world than Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. The uprising of the Libyan people against him, beginning on February 17, was courageous beyond measure. It seems certain that, absent outside help, the subsequent armed insurrection would have been doomed ...
Keep Reading »Preliminary Historical Observations on the Arab Revolutions of 2011
Towards the end of his long, eventful life, in 1402, the renowned Arab historian Ibn Khaldun was in Damascus. He left us a description of Taymur’s siege of the city and of his meeting with the world conqueror. None of us is Ibn Khaldun, but any Arab historian today watching the Arab revolutions of 2011 has the sense of awe that our forbear must have had as we witness a great turning in world affairs. This juncture may be unprecedented in modern Arab history. Suddenly, despotic regimes that have been ...
Keep Reading »Regional "Contagion" in the Arab World: For "Good" or "Worse?"
Although predicted by few, the current upheavals in several Arab countries reinvigorate commonplace perceptions of the countries and peoples in the Arab world and the Middle East at large as constituting a densely intertwined, interconnected and bounded region. When Tunisian protestors expelled their dictator, parallels were quickly drawn with Mubarak’s rule in Egypt, prompting mass mobilization there and causing a similar exit of this country’s long-standing ruler. In their wake, anti-regime protestors ...
Keep Reading »Saudi Arabia's Week of Shame
Since King Abdullah returned to Riyadh last month, members of his ruling family have resorted to myriad political, economic, and personal measures to prevent public expressions of dissent against the Al Saud. The Ministry of Interior issued a statement warning that any act of public protest is prohibited in Saudi Arabia and punishable by law. The country’s senior ulema were quick to legitimize this criminalization of protest with religious justifications, reminding everyone that “conspiring” against the ...
Keep Reading »NYT Reporter Anthony Shadid Missing in Libya
[UPDATED March 21: The NYT announced that the Libyan government has released all four reporters, who are reportedly on their way home. Reports indicate the Turkish government played a key role in negotiating their freedom.] [UPDATED March 18: In an interview with Christiane Amanpour for ABC, Saif Qadaffi said that the NYT reporters had been detained and were in Tripoli. The NYT announced that they believed the reporters would be released on Friday. We still await official word of their release.] “Weeks ...
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