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
War
Prisoner Exchange Levels Hamas, Fatah Playing Fields
![[Image from 972mag.com]](/content_images/3/sm_Prisoners-families-large1.jpg "[Image from 972mag.com]")
News that Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had reached agreement on a prisoner exchange instantaneously displaced the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) bid for full United Nations membership from the headlines in mid-October. Arguably, Hamas and Israel had a common interest in this regard. More importantly, the Palestinian Islamists, no longer relegated to the margins of the Palestinian UN initiative by the rival leadership in Ramallah, can now resume reconciliation talks from a position of relative equality. Whether reconciliation and the incipient internationalization of the Palestine question will be fused to form the basis of a new national ...
Keep Reading »List of Palestinian Prisoners Released on 18 October 2011 (Includes Names, Dates of Arrest, and Sentences )
![[Released Palestinian prisoners arriving at Rafah crossing check-point in Gaza on 18 October 2011.]](/content_images/3/sm_listofreleased.jpg "[Released Palestinian prisoners arriving at Rafah crossing check-point in Gaza on 18 October 2011.]")
The following is a list of Palestinian prisoners being released by the Israeli govnernment on 18 October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange agreement. It includes the name, origin, date of arrest, sentences received, and destination of release for each of the total 477 (450 male and 27 female) Palestinian prisoners released on this date. The final stage of the prisoner exchange deal will take place in two months, entailing the release of 550 additional Palestinian prisoners. For a comprehensive analysis of Palestinian prisoners being released as part of the exchange, as well as the historical context, political significance, and precedent-making nature of ...
Keep Reading »UNAMA Report: Mistreatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Facilities
![[UNAMA logo. Image from unama.unmissions.org]](/content_images/3/sm_MakeThumbnail.aspx.jpg "[UNAMA logo. Image from unama.unmissions.org]")
[The following is the latest from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on the maltreatment of detainees in Afghanistan.] UNAMA Report: Mistreatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Facilities From October 2010 to August 2011, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) interviewed 379 pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners at 47 detention facilities in 22 provinces across Afghanistan. In total, 324 of the 379 persons interviewed were detained by National Directorate of Security (NDS) or Afghan National Police (ANP) forces for national security crimes - suspected of being Taliban fighters, suicide attack facilitators, ...
Keep Reading »Sudan: Slippery Slope
![[Image from http://www.daylife.com/photo/05eR0no5RY4rH?q=Blue+Nile%2C+Inc.]](/content_images/3/sm_JB.png "[Image from http://www.daylife.com/photo/05eR0no5RY4rH?q=Blue+Nile%2C+Inc.]")
After three months of conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Southern Kordofan, the Sudanese authorities on 23 August declared a temporary ceasefire. This was despite the failure two days earlier of another round of peace talks between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army – North (SPLM/A-N)1 and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). Given the deep mistrust between the parties and the rampant militarization of the area, the fighting could well resume over the coming weeks. The initial phase of urban fighting in Southern Kordofan’s state capital Kadugli came to a rapid halt following a spike of violence in early June. Egregious human-rights violations by the ...
Keep Reading »Iraq's Other War: The 23rd Anniversary of the End of the Iran-Iraq War
![Saddam Hussein (right) by an artillery piece during the Iraq-Iran War. Image from www.Boston.com]](/content_images/3/sm_saddam.jpg "Saddam Hussein (right) by an artillery piece during the Iraq-Iran War. Image from www.Boston.com]")
Today is the 23rd anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Few Iraqis would commemorate or even remember this anniversary. In Iraqi popular memory, this war has been overshadowed by the sanctions imposed on Iraq in the aftermath of its invasion of Kuwait in the summer of 1990, and by two major wars in 1991 and 2003. Indeed, the 1980s is now nostalgically remembered as “the good days.” Then, food and security were abundant, corruption was not heard of, and electricity and water were available twenty-four hours a day. Health, educational and state institutions also functioned at the time, and infant mortality was the lowest in the world. In light of the ...
Keep Reading »"To the Master of the Banquet" by Sargon Boulus
![[Painting by Bader Mahasneh (b. Jordan, 1977). Image from foresightartgallery.com]](/content_images/3/sm_Mahasneg.jpg "[Painting by Bader Mahasneh (b. Jordan, 1977). Image from foresightartgallery.com]")
"Ila Sayyid al-Walima" appeared in Sargon Boulus' posthumous collection `Azma Ukhra li-Kalb al-Qabila (Another Bone for the Tribe's Dog) (Baghdad and Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2008) To the Master of the Banquet If you are a master give us some bread a drop of medicine for the sick! You, who call yourself a master, give to those who walked in all these funeral processions bewildered in the dream of disaster for whom a cloud passing through the sky of slaughter or a child’s skull, light as a paper boat is sufficient reward for their daily prayer For them spread a white sheet a page in a book no one has written The pure gravy of pains sopped ...
Keep Reading »Jadaliyya Review Roundtable on "The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict"
“Reports come and go. This is one of the tragic truths of the literature of human rights violations. Hard-working researchers scour the rubble of war zones for fragments of evidence — of war crimes, crimes against humanity, other violations of life and freedom — only to watch their findings sink into the oblivion of forgotten documents.” So begins the editors’ note to the collection The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict, edited by Adam Horowitz, Lizzy Ratner, and Philip Weiss (New York: Nation Books, 2011). The book comprises an abridged version of the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, ...
Keep Reading »Review Roundtable Part II: Goldstone and Accountability
On December 27, 2008, Israel began aerial strikes on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, three-quarters of whom are refugees, who could not, because of Gaza’s sealed borders, become refugees of war. Within a week, amidst the rubble of hospitals, mosques, government ministries, factories, and schools, Israel initiated a ground offensive that no more distinguished between civilians and combatants than did its “smart” bombs. On the fourteenth day of the offensive, in the run up to a buoyant inauguration for the United States’ first African-American President, the House of Representatives passed Resolution 34 “[r]ecognizing Israel's right to defend itself ...
Keep Reading »The Ongoing War; Lebanese Leaders Against the Lebanese
![[Lebanese National Dialogue Table: Image From Unknown Archive]](/content_images/3/sm_nationaldialogue.jpg "[Lebanese National Dialogue Table: Image From Unknown Archive]")
It has been 21 years since the end of the Lebanese civil war. 21 years since the last spasms of violence reverberated through the country’s cities, towns and villages. More than two decades ago, a country torn apart, in ruins and in rubble, suddenly found itself at “peace.” Almost immediately, the reconstruction began. In these years, landmarks such as Nasser, Modca, Horshoe, and the Carlton were torn down and replaced with uniforms of the new global order; cheap clothing made in china, chain restaurants selling American fast food, and coffee houses selling the internet, caffeine, and a cosmopolitan varnish. Quickly after the war billboards began to cover gunfire ...
Keep Reading »In the Shadow of Words: Le Trio Joubran in Memoriam of Mahmoud Darwish
![[Le Trio Joubran. Image from http://www.letriojoubran.com]](/content_images/3/sm_Joubran2.jpg "[Le Trio Joubran. Image from http://www.letriojoubran.com]")
It is inevitable that a dancer watching a dance performance, a film-maker watching a film, a musician watching a concert will take notice of details and little tricks that are not available to most others. A skilful camera movement, a new interpretation of a well-known choreography, a note that is played with a new insight…But, albeit rarely, there are instances when something happens on the stage or screen so that, in a moment, something flashes from the spectacle with such extreme power that even the most ignorant feels its presence. And when that happens, even though one lacks the words, the terminology, and the knowledge to pinpoint and define exactly what ...
Keep Reading »Kosova, Libya, and the Question of Intervention
![[Public Art in Pristina. Image by Michael Kennedy]](/content_images/3/sm_Pristina.jpg "[Public Art in Pristina. Image by Michael Kennedy]")
Kosova and Libya are juxtaposed nowadays in suggesting what humanitarian intervention can do. Hashim Thaci, Kosova’s prime minister and former resistance fighter, celebrates what NATO did to defend Kosovars in 1999 when they bombed Serbia and its forces for 78 days to prevent genocide. Few if any Kosovars would decry that intervention, leading some in the newly independent state to find sympathy for airstrikes in Libya. Perhaps that is why Kosova is again in the news, for many across NATO’s capitals wish for a replication of that kind of appreciation in Libya and the Arab world. But it’s not just a question of the strike, it’s the follow through that should be of concern ...
Keep Reading »Video Interview (#2) with Ali Ahmida on Libya and Intervention
![[Image from Interview]](/content_images/3/sm_aliahmida2ndinterview.jpg "[Image from Interview]")
[This interview was conducted by Jadaliyya Co-Editor, Noura Erakat, on March 24, 2011] In this second interview, Ali Ahmida (bio here) discusses the balance of power on the ground in Libya. On March 18th, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 and effectively imposed a no-fly zone over Libya's airspace in response to what many anticipated would be a bloodbath in Benghazi. The next day, French and British air forces began aerial bombardment of Libya with broad international support including from the Arab League, and particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. The intervention has sparked heated debate amongst advocates, ...
Keep Reading »Humanitarian and Humane Subjects in Lebanon: The Problem of Social Change
The ubiquitous presence of humanitarian organizations in Lebanon since the 2006 war has created a variety of well-paid jobs and careers and sought to produce new forms of Lebanese subjectivities. Primarily, the humane subject who performs humanity as an ethical sentiment of traumatic shock when faced with dehumanizing violence and the humanitarian subject whose activism regulates violations of human rights.i While the former has been met with resistance in Lebanon, at least within certain social classes ...
Keep Reading »The Deal Behind the "Shalit Deal": Prisoners, Power, Racism
If the prisoner exchange deal announced on 11 October 2011 between Hamas and the Israeli government is fully implemented without major hitches, there is little question who “won” this five-year war of wills. The deal will constitute a major victory for Hamas and the resistance-oriented political forces in Palestinian society, while simultaneously representing a significant retreat for Israel and its historical doctrines of forceful coercion and rejectionism vis-à-vis the Palestinian people and their ...
Keep Reading »The Forgotten Anniversary: 10/7 and America's Longest War
On 7 October 2001, at approximately 12:30pm EST, US and British forces launched Operation Enduring Freedom, an aerial bombing campaign with the declared objectives of overthrowing the Taliban regime, destroying or capturing Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, and bringing an end to terrorist activities in Afghanistan.
Keep Reading »NATO's "Conspiracy" against the Libyan Revolution
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal (19 July 2011), Max Boot— the aptly named neoconservative author and military historian known for his support for “democracy promotion” at the point of a gun, and an ardent supporter of full-scale US military engagement in Libya—referred to a Financial Times article (15 June) that compared the current aerial bombing campaign over Libya and the Kosovo air war in 1999 in order to emphasize “the lack of firepower in the Libya operation.” Boot commented, ...
Keep Reading »Report on Exiles from Libya Fleeing to Egypt
[The following is the latest from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on the situation facing migrant workers and Libyan nationals fleeing Libya as refugees.] Exiles from Libya Flee to Egypt: Double Tragedy for Sub-Saharan Africans INTRODUCTION 1. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and refugees flee Libya The conflict that began in Libya on 17 February 2011 with a popular revolt against the regime of Colonel Gaddafi, following the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions in ...
Keep Reading »A Critique of Reporting on the Middle East
I’ve spent most of the last eight years working in Iraq and also in Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other countries in the Muslim world. So all my work has taken place in the shadow of the war on terror and has in fact been thanks to this war, even if I’ve labored to disprove the underlying premises of this war. In a way my work has still served to support the narrative. I once asked my editor at the New York Times Magazine if I could write about a subject outside the Muslim world. He said even if I was ...
Keep Reading »Review Roundtable Part I: Goldstone and International Law
The Goldstone Report gained its prominence because of its UN auspices and the high credibility of Richard Goldstone as the Chair of the Fact Finding Mission appointed by the Human Rights Council. Other reputable inquiries (John Dugard’s parallel mission set up by the Arab League, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch), aside from a host of journalistic and credible eyewitness accounts, converged on the overall criminality under international law of Operation Cast Lead. The video reports, together ...
Keep Reading »Review Roundtable Part III: Goldstone in Political Context
The political dymamics surrounding the report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (commonly known as the Goldstone Report) provide a number of interesting insights into the recent evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It bears recollection that the report was produced during a period when the Palestinian leadership was engaged in what has been characterized as serious permanent status negotiations with Israel. Yet the vast majority of Palestinians seemed more ...
Keep Reading »Roundup on the Goldstone Controversy
While the impact of Justice Goldstone’s op-ed on accountability and justice remains to be seen, one thing has already been made clear: his contentious and vague editorial has worked to place Israel’s Winter 2008/09 offensive back on center stage. Like Israel’s fatal attack on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010 that inspired heated debate on the legality of Israel’s Gaza blockade, Goldstone’s editorial has produced a watershed of commentary on Gaza’s ongoing submission to a debilitating blockade and the ...
Keep Reading »Key Issues Relating to Report of UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (the "Goldstone Report")
[The below press release was issued by the Palestine Center for Human Rights (PCHR) on April 4, 2011.] In light of the media debate and confusion triggered by Justice Richard Goldstone’s 1 April opinion piece in the Washington Post, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wishes to highlight a few key issues regarding the current status of the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report, and the search for accountability in the aftermath of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the ...
Keep Reading »Gaza: The Next Israeli-Palestinian War?
[Below is the latest from the International Crisis Group (ICG) on the Gaza Strip. For full ICG report, click here.] Gaza: The Next Israeli-Palestinian War? I. Overview Will the next Middle East conflagration involve Israelis and Palestinians? After the serious escalation of the past week in which eight Gazans, including children, were killed in a single day, and the 23 March 2011 bombing in Jerusalem, that took the life of one and wounded dozens, there is real reason to worry. ...
Keep Reading »All Sorts of Interventions
The focal point of the “Arab Spring” has shifted from the successful uprisings of Tunisia and Egypt to the bleak developments in Bahrain and Libya. As the military forces of Britain, France, and the United States are taking “all necessary measures” to topple the Qaddafi regime, troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Peninsula Shield Force continue to “stabilize” the al-Khalifa regime in the face of a peaceful democratic uprising in Bahrain. The discrepancies between intervention for regime ...
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
As happened in the post-Algerian Revolution period, contemporary arguments such as Memmi’s essentially avoid confrontation with racism.click | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- يافا والموسيقى و"فوائد" النكبة
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (24 May)
- Islamists and Transitional Justice
- Maghreb Media Roundup (May 24)
- أوهام ليبرالية
- Tadween Roundup: News and Analysis from the Publishing/Academic World
- Syria Media Roundup (May 23)
- Asfari Institute Inaugural Conference: New Spaces of Civil Society Activism in the Arab World (Beirut, 23-24 May)
- Women's Rights in the Egyptian Constitution: (Neo)Liberalism's Family Values
- مسخ الذاكرة
- New Texts Out Now: Louise Cainkar, Global Arab World Migrations and Diasporas
- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (May 21)
- إعادة الحساب الدائمة: إساءة فهم سوريا بعد سنتين
- From al-Araqib to Susiya: Forced Displacement of Palestinians on Both Sides of the Green Line
- إعجام
- كارل ماركس واليسار في لبنان
- Picturing Algeria
- Egypt Media Roundup (May 20)
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (May 13-19)
- Jadaliyya's Occupation, Intervention, and Law Page Resonates
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design