Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Laurie King-Irani

Laurie King-Irani, former editor of Middle East Report, is a freelance writer and editor in Washington, DC.

Current Analysis

Elections Pose Lebanon's Old Questions Anew

Watching a wave of peaceful protests compel the Lebanese government to resign on February 28, 2005, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli hailed the victory of a “Cedar Revolution” in line with, among others, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and “the Purple Revolution in Baghdad.” Ereli went on to claim that

Sateh Nourredine, Laurie King-Irani • 11 min read

Current Analysis

Commemorating Lebanon’s War Amid Continued Crisis

At midnight on April 13, ringing church bells and the call to prayer echoed across Beirut. These haunting sounds intermingled over Martyrs’ Square, the unfinished main plaza of old Beirut where thousands of Lebanese have been mixing, day and night, since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in

Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read

MER Article

Does International Justice Have a Local Address?

The principle of universal jurisdiction, if realized in practice, can play a crucial role in the international campaign against impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Encoded in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,

Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Universal Jurisdiction

No sooner had the dust settled in Gaza following Israel's July 23 assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shehada—an operation that took the lives of 15 civilians, many of them children—than Palestinian officials began declaring this act the first war crime committed since the inauguration of the

Laurie King-Irani • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Detonating Lebanon's War Files

It is hard to say which news surprised Beirutis more on January 24: the previous evening's report from Brussels that a war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and others had moved one step closer to trial, or the sickeningly familiar roar of that morning'

Laurie King-Irani • 7 min read

MER Article

Land, Identity and the Limits of Resistance in the Galilee

There has never been anything abstract about the longings of the Palestinians. The object of their longing has always been well defined: the places that had been left behind in 1948. For these places were, and still are, the dominant components of the Palestinian identity. -- Danny Rubinstein

Laurie King-Irani • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Equal Rights for Arabs in Jewish State: A Goal Unrealizable

Azmi Bishara, a Nazareth-based Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, is recognized as one of the freshest voices speaking on behalf of the Palestinian people and their rights. A Ph.D. in philosophy, Bishara has effectively used his parliamentary position to articulate Palestinian national aspirations, as well as to promote

Laurie King-Irani • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Petition Charges Israel with War Crimes

QANA, SOUTH LEBANON -- A sprawling mass tomb in the heart of this small hilltop village bears silent witness to a war crime committed by Israeli forces here one spring day in 1996. The town, less than five miles away from Israeli-occupied south Lebanon, is the site of a United

Laurie King-Irani • 7 min read

Current Analysis

The Situation in Iraq: Democracy Cannot Be Manufactured at Foggy Bottom or the Pentagon

Few members of Congress are critical of US policy toward Iraq; fewer still are those willing to go public in their criticism of that policy. Not representative Cynthia McKinney. She is one of four members of congress who decided to send their senior aides on a fact-finding tour to Iraq

Laurie King-Irani • 6 min read