MER Article The Greek-Turkish Population Exchange The photographs are compelling: Greek Orthodox Christians are gathered in small groups on the Aegean coast of what is now Turkey, wearing too much clothing for the hot day, whatever possessions they could carry sitting at their feet, their faces drawn with worry as they stare at the water, awaiting Sarah Shields • 11 min read
MER Article Refugees, Ransoms and Revolt Filmon, a 28-year-old computer engineer, fled Eritrea in March 2012 to escape political repression. Several weeks later, he was kidnapped from Sudan’s Shagara refugee camp, taken with a truckload of others to a Bedouin outpost in the Sinai, not far from Egypt’s border with Israel, and ordered to cal Dan Connell • 13 min read
MER Article Permanent Transients “We do not know our destiny. The Jordanian government might ask us to leave at any moment,” said Hana, a widow in her fifties. “There is no rest for a guest.” Isis Nusair • 20 min read
Current Analysis The Syrian Cataclysm For obvious reasons, coverage of the uprising and internal war in Syria has been dominated by the terrible human toll. An estimated 60,000 Syrians (or more) have been killed, with tens of thousands more scarred bodily and emotionally by the violence. As of the end of February, over 3 million Syrians Omar S. Dahi • 6 min read
Current Analysis Displaced Syrians As in Iraq, the internal war in Syria has forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes. Some 155,000 Syrians have registered [http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96136/Briefing-The-mounting-Syrian-refugee-crisis] with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq or Turkey Chris Toensing • 1 min read
MER Article Escaping Eritrea Said Ibrahim, 21, orphaned and blind, was making a living as a singer in Adi Quala bars when a member of Eritrea’s national security force claimed one of his songs had “political” content and detained him at the Adi Abieto prison. After a month Said was released, but he was stripped of his monthly d Dan Connell • 22 min read
MER Article The Politics of Aid to Iraqi Refugees in Jordan The school in Dahiyat Amir Hasan in East Amman is only half-finished, but even through the rubble and the clouds of concrete dust it is clear that the education there will be very different than in Jordan’s other government-run schools. The classrooms are spacious and positioned around multi-purpose Nicholas Seeley • 18 min read
Current Analysis Dismantling the Matrix of Control Almost a decade ago I wrote an article describing Israel’s “matrix of control” over the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It consisted then of three interlocking systems: military administration of much of the West Bank and incessant army and air force intrusions elsewhere; a skein of “facts on the Jeff Halper • 14 min read
MER Article The Forgotten Refugees of Balochistan While the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan and areas in bordering Pakistan occupies the imagination of millions in the West, the simmering conflict in the Pakistani province of Balochistan (Baluchistan) an its disastrous effects on the civilian population evade the radar of popular media. In 2005, Stephen Dedalus • 6 min read
MER Article A Different Kind of Memory “Who is trying to change the names of Haifa streets to the street names in the period prior to the War of Independence?” This question led an article in the December 15, 2004 edition of the Israeli daily Ma’ariv. Someone -- “people from outside,” said the mayor -- had placed signs in Arabic that lab Meera Shah • 12 min read
MER Article Of Reactivism and Relief As with every crisis that befalls the Palestinians in Lebanon, the Lebanese army’s siege of the Nahr al-Barid refugee camp impelled hundreds of people to pitch in with the relief effort. After fighting broke out in late May, and over 30,000 Nahr al-Barid residents fled to the nearby Baddawi camp, vo Mayssun Sukarieh • 3 min read
MER Article The Road to Nahr al-Barid How long will the state erect military checkpoints in residential areas, treating them as though they were camps sheltering wanted people and gunmen, while all the Palestinian camps, which shelter criminals and wanted people, enjoy freedom of movement, politically, militarily and in terms of securit Diane Riskedahl, Muhammad Ali Khalidi • 14 min read
