Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Joe Stork

Joe Stork was the editor of Middle East Report until 1995 and deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division from 1995 to 2017. He is currently chair of the advisory board of the Gulf Center for Human Rights.

MER Article

Bahrain Regime Stages Confessions, Rejects Compromise

At the end of May, the government of Bahrain summoned the international press to Manama for what it promised would be a major policy statement on Monday, June 3. I was in Bahrain at the time, conducting interviews for a report on human rights conditions there. Bahraini opponents of the regime in exi

Joe Stork • 9 min read

MER Article

Marion Farouk-Sluglett

We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Marion Farouk-Sluglett on March 1 in Salt Lake City. Marion had been diagnosed with cancer just a year earlier, but up until a few weeks before her death she continued to teach and write. In early December, she traveled to Washington for the MESA meet

Isam al-Khafaji, Joe Stork • 2 min read

MER Article

The Middle East Arms Bazaar After the Gulf War

In the course of a March 1991 “victory tour” of the Middle East after the US-led defeat of Iraq, James Baker, then secretary of state, piously proclaimed the hope that Desert Storm might be “the last great battle” in the region. Whatever credence this forecast may get from recent agreements

Joe Stork • 13 min read

MER Article

From the Editor (November/December 1995)

This issue marks a milestone for MERIP, as we celebrate this fall our twenty-fifth year as an organization and, in May 1996, 25 years of publication. It also marks a point of transition for me: As those of you who have seen our most recent appeal letter already know, at the end of this year I will b

Joe Stork, The Editors • 2 min read

MER Article

The NGO Phenomenon in the Arab World

Ghanem Bibi is co-founder and coordinator of the Arab Resource Collective based in Nicosia. ARC generates Arabic-language resources for use in community health and childhood development projects, and serves as a networking resource for Arab NGOs. Julie Peteet spoke with him in August 1994, shortly a

Julie Peteet, Joe Stork • 5 min read

MER Article

Hidden Death

There may be more landmines deployed per person in Kurdish Iraq (population around 3.5 million) than in any other region in the world. A 1993 State Department report estimates that the Iraqi army laid 3 to 5 million mines there during the Iran-Iraq war and in the months leading up to the 1991 Gulf w

Joe Stork • 1 min read

MER Article

Egypt's Factory Privatization Campaign Turns Deadly

The Egyptian government’s campaign to sell off the cream of its state-owned factories to private investors took a violent and murderous turn after some 7,000 evening-shift workers at the Kafr al-Dawwar Spinning and Weaving Factory staged a spontaneous sit-down strike on September 30, 1994. Security

Joe Stork • 3 min read

MER Article

An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Ashrawi, a professor of literature at Birzeit University, was the spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation to the bilateral peace talks in Washington. In early December, Ashrawi announced she would not serve in any official capacity in the new Palestinian authority, but would instead work t

Joe Stork • 2 min read

MER Article

An Interview with Salim Tamari

Salim Tamari, a contributing editor of this magazine, teaches sociology at Birzeit University. He also heads the Palestinian delegation to the multilateral talks on refugees. He spoke with Joe Stork in Ramallah in late October 1993. Some people here argue that there’s quite a lot of opposition to t

Joe Stork • 5 min read

MER Article

An Interview with Charles Shammas

Charles Shammas is the founder and project director of Mattin, an industry promotion organization in the West Bank. He is also a founding member of al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization, and of the Jerusalem-based Center for International Human Rights Enforcement. Joe Stork spoke w

Joe Stork • 7 min read

MER Article

An Interview with Khalil Mahshi

Khalil Mahshi is headmaster of the Friends’ Boys School in Ramallah. Joe Stork spoke with him there in late October 1993. How do you assess the accord and its importance? I didn’t know how to react. When Israeli friends asked me, “Why aren’t you happy? It’s mutual recognition, it’s the beginning o

Joe Stork • 6 min read

MER Article

An Interview with Samir Hleileh

Samir Hleileh, an economist who teaches at Birzeit University, is deputy director of the Palestinian Technical Committees and a liaison with the World Bank and other international agencies. Joe Stork spoke with him in late October 1993. The Oslo agreement builds in an Israeli economic component to

Joe Stork • 7 min read