Current Analysis A Century of Refusal On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, there has been a flurry of commentary about the controversial announcement, contained in a letter sent by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild. A Conservative parliamentarian, Rothschild was also a leading British advocate for the establishment of a Jewish Lori Allen • 8 min read
Current Analysis Another Brick in the Wall At ten o’clock in the morning, Thursday October 5, 2017, about 500 teachers gathered in front of the Budget and Planning Office in Tehran. [1] They were joined by thousands of colleagues protesting in front of education offices in a reported 21 cities across the country. Turning Global Teachers’ Zep Kalb • 10 min read
Current Analysis Refugees or Migrants? Much of the media attention on global displacement currently focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis and refugees’ attempts to enter Europe through Eastern Mediterranean routes. Certainly, the large scale of displacement that has occurred as a result of the war in Syria (the number of registered refugees has surpassed five Parastou Hassouri • 10 min read
Current Analysis Fifty Years of Occupation June 5, 2017 is the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which culminated in the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, among other transformations of regional politics. The post-1967 occupation and its consequences continue to structure the mainstream conversation Alaa Tartir, Sara Roy, Neve Gordon, Sherene Seikaly, Lori Allen • 23 min read
Current Analysis Fifty Years of Occupation June 5, 2017 is the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which culminated in the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, among other transformations of regional politics. The post-1967 occupation and its consequences continue to structure the mainstream conversation Lisa Bhungalia, Kareem Rabie, Mandy Turner, Sobhi Samour, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Gershon Shafir, Andy Clarno • 31 min read
Current Analysis Fifty Years of Occupation “Beautiful Israel” and the 1967 War Joel Beinin The 1967 Arab-Israeli war unleashed forces that reshaped Israeli politics and society. But much about the war is rooted in the military tactics, governance practices and political culture of “beautiful Israel,” as liberal Ashkenazi Zionists often nostalgically refer to the pre-1967 state. Maha Nassar, Ilana Feldman, Zachary Lockman, Noura Erakat, Joel Beinin • 23 min read
Current Analysis Labor and Class in Iran Mohammad Maljoo is a Tehran-based economist researching labor issues and the transformation of capital-labor relations in post-revolutionary Iran. Widely published in several languages, Maljoo is also the Persian translator of numerous books on political economy by thinkers such as Karl Polanyi, E. P. Thompson and Albert Hirschman. The bulk of Paola Rivetti • 14 min read
Current Analysis Lessons Learned (and Ignored) On May 23, 1997, Mohammad Khatami, who had spent most of the 1990s as head of the National Library, defeated Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the speaker of Parliament, to become president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The election was a turning point in post-revolutionary history—the underdog beat the Naghmeh Sohrabi, Arang Keshavarzian • 19 min read
Current Analysis The Travel Ban and Iranian-Americans By the end of his first few weeks in office, President Donald Trump had managed to rile up most everyone in the country who was not agitated already. Of the many unsettling Trump initiatives, one of the most contentious has been his effort to make good on campaign promises of Semira Nikou • 15 min read
Current Analysis Striking for Dignity and Freedom More than 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners began a hunger strike on April 17 for better conditions inside Israeli jails. Their demands include access to education, proper medical care and an end to the practice of solitary confinement. They are striking to make their families’ lives easier, too—for regular Amahl Bishara • 6 min read
Current Analysis Fear and Loathing in Turkey Shortly after the failed coup attempt of July 16, 2016 in Turkey, I received a frantic text message from a lifelong friend, Lale Kemal. Lale is a prominent freelance journalist with an impeccable 37-year record of non-partisan reporting and analysis. She is an internationally known expert on Turkish civil-military relations, Ümit Cizre • 17 min read
Current Analysis On the Breadline in Sisi's Egypt On March 6, 2017, hundreds of local residents took to the streets of towns and cities in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta after the Ministry of Supply cut their daily ration of subsidized baladi bread. By the following day, thousands were protesting in 17 districts across the country. In Neil Ketchley, Thoraya El-Rayyes • 10 min read