MER Article


Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East

The editors of MER issue 312, “Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams,” assembled a list of literary works and films (available in English) that take up the prison across space and time. These works capture the themes of the issue: carceralism—that is, forms of un-freedom—and organized resistance against it.
(Author not identified) 10 min read

The Genocide Will Be Automated—Israel, AI and the Future of War

"We are here on the Gaza border," said Shalev Hulio, posing with a gun slung over his shoulder. It was November 7, 2023, and he was recording a video to announce the launch of his new cybertechnology start-up, Dream Security. In 2022, Hulio had stepped down from his
Leila Katibah 10 min read

Cairo's Incarcerated Geographies

In 2015, the Egyptian government announced a series of urban development plans, a schema that included having a city free of slums. As part of this plan, the state implemented a policy to relocate residents of so-called unsafe areas to new neighborhoods and redevelop existing neighborhoods using a combination of
Omnia Khalil 5 min read