MER Article Israeli Interrogation Methods: A View from Jalameh In June 1996, Bashar Tarabieh, a resident of the US, visited his family in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. On August 19, three days before he was scheduled to return to the US, he was arrested at 2:15 am by Israeli security service and police agents. Charged with spying for Syria, burning down a Beshara Doumani • 6 min read
MER Article Palestinian Rights in Post-Oslo Israel Below are the proceedings of a roundtable discussion held in Nazareth, Israel, on June 24, 1996. The participants were: Aida Toma-Suliman, general director of Women Against Violence, Hala Espanioli Hazzan, chairperson of the Follow-up Committee on Arab Education in Israel, Hassan Jabareen, director (Author not identified) • 10 min read
MER Article Palestinian Political Prisoners Since the Oslo accords came into effect in May 1994, Israel’s treatment of Palestinian political prisoners has been a litmus test for a viable, just end to the Israeli occupation. Today the prisoners’ crisis continues to reflect an agreement that entrenches Israel’s remote control over Palestinians Yifat Susskind • 3 min read
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 Iraqi Sanctions, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Six years of the most severe Security Council sanctions in history have failed to dislodge the regime of President Saddam Hussein. These sanctions, however, have had a devastating impact on the most vulnerable sectors of Iraqi society, especially children. [1] Numerous studies by UN agencies and independent groups, including an Roger Normand • 14 min read
MER Article Israel's Interventions Among the Druze The rights of minorities and their relations with majority groups in power give rise to some of the most intractable struggles around the world. In the United States, for example, the affirmative action debate, a legacy of the civil rights struggle, pivots around the principle of “blindness” to coll Lisa Hajjar • 16 min read
MER Article Women's Court in Beirut From June 28-30, 1995, under the slogan “See the World Through the Eyes of a Woman,” a women’s court on political and social violence against women was held in Beirut. Inspired by similar courts organized by the Asian Human Rights Council, the Beirut court -- the first of its kind in the Arab world Jehan Helou • 3 min read
MER Article Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States The debate on citizenship in the Middle East was preceded by and now parallels the debate on civil society. In the West, discussion on these subjects often assumes Middle Eastern countries are incapable of sustaining democratic relations between state and society. [1] The citizenship debate question Suad Joseph • 17 min read
MER Article An Open Letter to a Jailed Iranian Writer Dear Dr. Saidi Sirjani: For almost 20 years now, I have known and admired you and your writings. Whatever your detractors may say, Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani cannot justly be accused of partisanship. I have known you as a fierce critic of Mohammad Reza Shah’s insufferable pretensions and intolerance o Andrew Whitley • 3 min read
MER Article Clinton, Ankara and Kurdish Human Rights China makes the headlines, but US policies toward the top three recipients of US aid -- Israel, Egypt and Turkey -- are perhaps the most egregious examples of the failure of the Clinton administration to make good on its commitment to human rights. While the human rights situation in the Maryam Elahi • 3 min read
MER Article The Remains of Anfal The physical remains of the General Security Directorate’s victims are strewn throughout Iraq, buried anonymously in common graves. It is hard for anyone outside the Baath’s inner circle to estimate how many young men went before firing squads after summary trials, or sometimes no trial at all, between Andrew Whitley • 2 min read
Can Military Intervention Be "Humanitarian"? “Humanitarian intervention,” the violation of a nation-state’s sovereignty for the purpose of protecting human life from government repression or famine or civil breakdown, is an old concept that has been given a new lease on life with the end of the Cold War. It is currently being practiced in Soma Rakiya Omaar, Alex de Waal • 15 min read
