When we were arabs Current Analysis Memoir of a Jewish Arab Hayoun identifies himself as a Jewish Arab and traces his family history to show how Jewish Arabs were maliciously separated from their societies and how their identities were used in a game of colonial domination. Dana El Kurd • 11 min read
MER Article Countering the Surveillance State While investigating the harmful impact of government surveillance on an Arab-American community a filmmaker turns the tables by offering a primer on counter-surveillance research. Andy Clarno • 6 min read
Istanbul elections Current Analysis Autopsy of Erdoǧan’s Istanbul Defeat Turkey's authoritarian President Erdoǧan’s attempt to manipulate Istanbul's recent mayoral election led to a humiliating defeat. Despite the tight grip Erdoǧan and the AKP appear to have over Turkish politics, Turkey's population is much more fractious and agitated by the regime than previously kno Steve Niva • 14 min read
UAE Dubai Courts Current Analysis Scholars, Spies and the Gulf Military Industrial Complex A military-industrial complex is growing in the Gulf states. In May 2018, a British researcher Matt Hedges was arrested in the UAE and charged with espionage for researching this industry as a spy, not a scholar. His colleague Shana Marshall explains why. Shana Marshall • 11 min read
Hanieh Money Current Analysis The Imperious Rise of Gulf Capitalism Hanieh’s book is valuable for anyone interested in understanding the growing power of Gulf monarchies across the Middle East. Rohan Advani • 16 min read
TrumpNetanyahu Current Analysis Countering Christian Zionism in the Age of Trump Behind President Trump's fervent embrace of Israel are millions of Christian Zionists who believe that the establishment of a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine is a requirement for the fulfillment of end-times prophecies. But a growing movement of Christians is challenging this controversial theology. Mimi Kirk • 12 min read
ByLanaHaroun_Sudan Current Analysis Background to Ongoing Protests in Sudan Anti-government protests have rocked Sudan since the beginning of 2019, with police crackdowns leaving dozens of dead and many wounded. Large crowds have taken to the streets across the country to denounce a government decision in December to triple the price of bread and to demand the end of Presid E 4 Xek 1 Z 1549331118 • 1 min read
Current Analysis Egypt’s Arrested Digital Spaces Egypt's President Sisi has acquired sophisticated technological capabilities to block internet activity, passed restrictive internet legislation and now surveils users and censors content on a scale never seen before. Much of this has been facilitated by Western allies who have been more than happy Samuel Woodhams • 9 min read
An Israeli soldier and Palestinian boy next to the separation barrier. (Justin McIntosh/Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0) Current Analysis Disavowing Israeli Apartheid The decision by the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy’s (IARPP) to hold their annual conference in Tel Aviv, Israel cannot be written off as simply a misunderstanding, ignorance of global issues or unconscious enactment: it's a disavowal of current reality. Lara Sheehi • 9 min read
Birzeit University in the West Bank. (Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0) Current Analysis How One Palestinian University is Remaking ‘Israel Studies’ At Birzeit University in the Israeli occupied West Bank, students and faculty are fundamentally remaking the dominant paradigm of Israel Studies as it has been configured in the United States with its proud “advocacy” mandate on behalf of the Israeli state. Birzeit’s program turns this paradigm insi Rebecca L. Stein • 12 min read
Current Analysis Precarious Teachers Strike for Public Education in Morocco Over the past three years, striking and demonstrating teachers have mobilized against their new precarious status as contract-labor under government privatization reforms implemented in 2016. The teachers’ struggle is bound up in the broader fight by Moroccan unions against the government’s neoliber Zakia Salime • 10 min read
Current Analysis Israel and the Antisemitism Playbook in Great Britain and the Grassroots The ongoing attacks on Congressional critics of Israeli policies like Rep.'s Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for their alleged antisemitic remarks appear culled from the same playbook that Israel’s supporters in Great Britain used to tarnish Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn: continuously vilify the me Neve Gordon, Lynne Segal, Kristian Davis Bailey, Olivia Katbi Smith • 29 min read