Category Archives: Middle East

Mob Action Charges Against Activists for Pro-Palestinian Encampment at UIUC

Posted on 10/18/2024 by Brian Dolinar

As students are returning to university campuses, we are seeing signs of continued support for Palestinians who are enduring an onslaught by Israeli military forces. Here at the University of Illinois, the first week of classes students chalked “DIVEST” on … Continue reading →

131 total views

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Police, Policing, Section, States'Attorney, University of Illinois | Tagged campus activism, pro-Palestinian activism, repression, student activism | Comments Off

The Gaza Protests and Grassroot Challenges to US Foreign Policy

Posted on 10/18/2024 by Janice Jayes

Letters to the editor, teach-ins, motions for divestment, campus protests, city resolutions . . . These expressions of citizen concern are not unique to the ongoing war on Gaza and are entirely appropriate to a democracy. Local communities have the … Continue reading →

97 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Peace movement, Vietnam War | Tagged campus protest, Champaign City Council, Gaza, local activism, peace movement, Urbana City Council, US foreign policy | Comments Off

Popular University for Gaza at UIUC

Posted on 07/29/2024 by Clara Belitz and Sana Saboowala and Izzy Grosof

From Friday, April 26 through Friday, May 10, we established a branch of the Popular University for Gaza at UIUC, joining the national student movement for Palestine. This encampment was just one small piece in the long movement for Palestinian … Continue reading →

261 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Section, Students, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged campus activism, divestment, Israel/Palestine, student protest, University of Illinois | Comments Off

May/June Issue Front Cover

Posted on 05/03/2024 by Public i

The Suffering in Gaza is Our Community’s Concern! 982 total views

982 total views

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Justice, Middle East, Palestinians, War | Tagged Gaza, Israel/Palestine, local politics, Middle East, Urbana City Council, war | Comments Off

City Business is Whatever the Community Cares About

Posted on 05/03/2024 by Dua Aldasouqi

Americans have been in the streets since October 8 demanding an end to the US-backed Israeli attack on Gaza. They’re at sporting events and camping out in front of top politicians’ homes. They were at tree-lighting and caroling events over the … Continue reading →

1,141 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Justice, Middle East, Palestinians, Politics, Section, Voices, War | Tagged Gaza, Israel/Palestine, local government, Middle East, Palestinian rights, Urbana City Council, war | Comments Off

Healing Culture in Wartime

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Evelyne Accad

Forty-one years ago when we organized the Common Differences conference on the UI campus, I was a young professor, already quite engaged in women’s issues, which had led to my research, writing, travels, and overall commitment. When I retired from the University of … Continue reading →

300 total views

Posted in Feminism, International, Middle East, Section, Voices, War, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminism, Lebanon, Middle East, war, women's rights, women's shelters | Comments Off

March/April Issue Back Cover

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Public i

Hundreds gathered in Westside Park on Saturday, March 2 as part of a Global Day of Action for Palestine. They heard speeches and then marched through downtown Champaign. 264 total views

264 total views

Posted in Imperialism, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Peace movement, Violence, War | Tagged anti-war, Gaza, Jewish activism, Palestine, peace movement | Comments Off

Winter Issue Front Cover

Posted on 02/12/2024 by Public i

Posted in Foreign Policy, Middle East, War | Tagged Gaza, Palestinian rights, US policy | Comments Off

The Age of Disconnect: US Policy and the War Beyond Gaza

Posted on 02/12/2024 by Janice Jayes

The hypocrisy gap between US diplomatic pronouncements and US actions is no surprise to world audiences, but the disconnect on display since October 7 has put the nail in the coffin of the American Century. American officials have been invoking … Continue reading →

1,290 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Section, War | Tagged China, Gaza, imperialism, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US foreign policy, war | Comments Off

Israel’s Violence Will Never Bring “Safety” to Anyone, Including Jews

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Sarah Lazare and Maya Schenwar

This article was published in Truthout on October 18, 2023. It has been updated to reflect numbers as of November 2, and lightly edited for style. The horror and heartbreak in Gaza reaches new proportions each minute: Israel’s siege has … Continue reading →

412 total views

Posted in International, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | Tagged colonial violence, Israel/Palestine, Jewish anti-Zionism, Palestinian rights | Comments Off

Frozen Conflicts, Flashmob Militants, and the End of the Gunpowder State

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Janice Jayes

Syria, Libya, Yemen . . . and now Sudan. Sudan has the unhappy potential to become the next of the intractable conflicts that have unfolded over the past decade. These multisided struggles involving a cocktail of militaries, militias, and mercenaries … Continue reading →

664 total views

Posted in Africa, Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Section, Violence, War | Tagged foreign policy, Middle East, Sudan, the state, violence, war, warlords | Comments Off

Silence and the Continuing Legacy of the US Invasion of Iraq

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Janice Jayes

The twentieth anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq slid by with an encore performance of the arrogance that characterized the invasion itself. In 2003 that arrogance disregarded inconvenient international norms as easily as it disregarded the Iraqi victims … Continue reading →

1,408 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Middle East, Remembering, Section, World-wide death and suffering | Tagged imperialism, Iraq invasion, Memory, US foreign policy | Comments Off

Labor Abuse as Product Placement at the World Cup

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Janice Jayes

The 2022 soccer World Cup began its takeover of global sports channels on November 20, transmitting endless images of cosmopolitan crowds enjoying the sparkling new stadiums of Qatar to audiences around the world. The country that hosts the World Cup … Continue reading →

654 total views

Posted in International, International, labor, Labor/Economics, Middle East, Section, Sports | Tagged ballwashing, exploitation, human rights, migrant labor, Qatar, World Cup | Comments Off

The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it … Continue reading →

935 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Politics, Racism, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

Yemen: A War of Many Fronts

Posted on 08/04/2021 by Valerie Hoffman

Journalists describe the conflict in Yemen as a sectarian proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but that fails to capture the complexity of the war: in October, 2020, Human Rights Watch reported more than thirty battle fronts between various … Continue reading →

845 total views

Posted in Arab Spring, Foreign Policy, International, International, Islam, Middle East, War | Comments Off

Black Lives Matter in the Middle East

Posted on 10/26/2020 by Janice Jayes

George Floyd’s murder horrified people of the Middle East just as it did many in the US and, just as in America, the outrage that followed exposed cultural fault lines, forced uncomfortable introspection, and was sometimes exploited for political purposes. … Continue reading →

Posted in African American, BLM, International, Middle East | Tagged Police Violence | Comments Off

Homewrecker: Trump, the Kurds, and the Grand Strategy We Have Been Waiting For

Posted on 12/24/2019 by Janice Jayes

Donald Trump’s October decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria took his own advisors by surprise, not to mention the Kurdish military units that were U.S. partners in the war on ISIS during the past five years. Perhaps the only … Continue reading →

Posted in International, International, Middle East, Syria | Comments Off

Bolton is Out! But Imperialist Aggression Against Iran is Still In

Posted on 11/02/2019 by Nick Goodell

On September 10, National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired from his post at the White House. With one of the staunchest advocates for US imperialism now out of the Trump administration, some were optimistic that the warmongering and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, Middle East, Politics | Comments Off

Anti-Semitism: Still the “Socialism of Fools”?

Posted on 06/13/2019 by Richard Esbenshade

Scandals over alleged anti-Semitism have recently ensnared leftist British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn; the populist Yellow Vest movement, which leans both Left and Right (and neither, rejecting both); and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), critic of Israel and supporter of … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-Semitism, Boycott, Israel, Israel/Palestine, Middle East | Comments Off

Congress must end American support for Saudi war in Yemen

Posted on 12/07/2017 by Mark Weisbrot

By Mark Weisbrot The New York Times editorial board recently took an unusual position of denouncing what it called “war crimes” by a U.S. ally, in a war in which the United States is actively participating militarily. “Saudis try to starve … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Middle East, military, Politics | Comments Off