Current Analysis Mosireen Yesterday’s piece [http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/art-egypts-revolutionary-square] by Ursula Lindsey, entitled “Art in Egypt's Revolutionary Square.” is a very astute and measured account of the art that has emerged in Egypt, in the wake of, and inspired by, the momentous events in Tahrir o Ted Swedenburg • 1 min read
Current Analysis Hip-Hop of the Revolution (The Sharif Don't Like It) In Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, journalist Robin Wright describes and analyzes what she considers an important new trend in the Muslim world: the rejection of “Muslim extremists.” She views the Arab uprisings that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly spread Ted Swedenburg • 6 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2011) A question nagged at Occupy Wall Street and its myriad imitators, the most exciting social movement to emanate from the United States in more than a decade, for much of the fall. “What are your demands?” journalists persisted in asking. “What do you want?” The Editors • 9 min read
Current Analysis The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Arab Awakening The March 15 Youth Movement, whose name comes from demonstrations held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that day to demand unity between Fatah and Hamas, is the most direct Palestinian expression of the “Arab awakening” of 2010-2011. The next day, March 16, Fatah’s leader, Palestinian Authority (PA) Joel Beinin • 13 min read
Current Analysis Contesting Past and Present in Silwan On September 1, Elad -- a Hebrew acronym for “To the City of David” -- convened its eleventh annual archaeological conference at the “City of David National Park” in the Wadi Hilwa neighborhood of Silwan. Silwan, home to about 45,000 people, is one of 28 Palestinian villages incorporated into East J Joel Beinin • 9 min read
MER Article The Snake with a Thousand Heads In the summer of 2007, a lively and non-violent movement sprang up in the southern provinces of Yemen to protest the south’s marginalization by the north. The movement was sparked by demonstrations held that spring by forcibly retired members of the army, soon to be accompanied by retired state offi Susanne Dahlgren • 14 min read
MER Article BDS in the USA, 2001-2010 On April 26, 2010, the student senate at the University of California-Berkeley upheld, by one vote, an executive veto on SB 118 -- the student body resolution endorsing divestment of university funds from General Electric and United Technologies, two companies that profit from the Israeli occupation Noura Erakat • 19 min read
Current Analysis Bouteflika’s Triumph and Algeria’s Tragedy Shoes and pants soaked with rain, I tagged along with a journalist from the popular Arabic daily Echorouk—his paper my umbrella—while he visited polling stations in the Belcourt neighborhood of Algiers on the day of local elections in November 2007. At the first site, disgruntled party officials qui Jacob Mundy • 14 min read
Current Analysis Want to Fight Terrorism? Think Globally, Act Locally Militant Islam is under global scrutiny for clues to conditions that foster its rise, and to strategies for reversing that growth. But the key is not in Islamic doctrine, US foreign policy or formal ties to various nations, as many analysts have asserted. It lies at the community level, with clan an Khalid Mustafa Medani • 2 min read
Current Analysis Iran's “Security Outlook” Widespread apprehension attended the June 2005 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at least among those Iranians who had approved of the country’s direction under the reformist clerics led by President Mohammad Khatami. Their worries had little to do wi Farideh Farhi • 14 min read
Current Analysis Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity The longest and strongest wave of worker protest since the end of World War II is rolling through Egypt. In March, the liberal daily al-Masri al-Yawm estimated that no fewer than 222 sit-in strikes, work stoppages, hunger strikes and demonstrations had occurred during 2006. In the first five months Joel Beinin, Hossam El-Hamalawy • 12 min read
Current Analysis The Jewish Israeli Left, US Empire and the End of the Two-State Solution Roni Ben-Efrat is editor of Challenge magazine, a critical, left analysis of Israeli and Palestinian politics. She is a veteran activist for Palestinian rights inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories, and a founding member of the Organization for Democratic Action (ODA), a Marxist party with Jewish and Palestinian Israeli Rebecca L. Stein • 12 min read
