Riportiamo di seguito un appello lanciato dal Department of Politics and Government della Ben Gurion University per sensibilizzare gli ambienti accademici e l’opinione pubblica a livello internazionale riguardo al rischio che il dipartimento venga chiuso a seguito di…
BLOG (archive)
OF LIBERALS, SECULARISTS, ISLAMISTS AND OTHER LABELS
Published: 16/07/2012I want to discuss here the labels assigned to Arab political parties and politicians (if you want to get to that directly skip till the end of the following quotes), but before let me point out what started this post…
PRESIDENT MORSI (FOR SURE THIS TIME)
Published: 26/06/2012I was in the train between Brussels and Paris when, twitching like a maniac as I pressed refresh on the Twitter app on my iPad and grumbled about the endless speech by Presidential Election Commission head Farouq Sultan, Mohammed Morsi’s…
WIKISHAM – DENUNCIARE LA REPRESSIONE DEL REGIME SIRIANO ATTRAVERSO LA SATIRA
Published: 15/05/2012
Il gruppo Wikisham è costituito da attivisti siriani tra i 18 e i 35 anni esperti in grafica digitale e animazione.
Wikisham si occupa della produzione di cortometraggi e serie di cartoni animati…
How Jordanian Parliament Lost Its Mind And Why Its Time To Dissolve It
Published: 27/04/2012The state of Jordanian parliament today reminds me of the Dead Sea. It’s the lowest point on Earth, it’s a body of water where nothing can survive, and it continues to recede every year causing an increasingly dire situation. The…
CRESCE LA DIFFUSIONE DI TWITTER NEL MONDO ARABO
Published: 02/03/2012
Sebbene la penetrazione di Twitter nei paesi arabi sia ancora relativamente bassa, nello scorso anno si è registrato un crescente interesse per questo social network, utilizzato sia da noti citizen journalists che da responsabili governativi…
SAUDI ARABIA’S UNREST IN QATIF
Published: 25/02/2012Here’s a piece on a topic that gets scant coverage generally speaking — the wave of protests and dissidence that has hit Saudi Arabia over the last year. Jess Hill in the Global Mail:It’s all happening in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern…
Joshua Landis and Nadim Shehadi on Syria
Published: 16/02/2012Two very smart friends — Josh Landis and Nadim Shehadi — had interesting things to say in the comment section of the last post. I hope neither of them mind me bringing those comments up to the main page so…
Mosireen – gli “ostinati” della rivoluzione egiziana
Published: 07/02/2012
La marcia egiziana verso un futuro migliore è appena cominciata.
Mosireen, ‘‘gli ostinati’’, gruppo mediatico di attivisti egiziani costituito da registi, produttori cinematografici e citizen journalists ne è una prova.
Il…
NASCE SALAMWORLD, IL SOCIAL NETWORK ISLAMICAMENTE CORRETTO
Published: 05/12/2011
I tradizionali social network Facebook e Twitter avranno presto un nuovo concorrente.
E’ tutto pronto, infatti, per il lancio di SalamWorld, i cui test partiranno all’inizio del prossimo anno.
L’ambizioso progetto,…
The Last Choice
Published: 11/10/2011Today the mood in Cairo was wary & melancholic. With the reality of what went down yesterday at Maspero hitting them with its full might, the general population that yesterday found itself on the brinks of chaos is utterly terrified.…
Dead where it doesn’t count
Published: 17/05/2011Yesterday, I spent the day at Maroun al-Ras on the Lebanese border with Israel. Before I get to some of the reactions I’ve read about the event and some of the questions raised by it, I’d like to discuss the…
Egypt – 10 points
Published: 30/03/2011I have only an hour left before my flight, so this will have to be bullet point style, no verbose exposition. This is nothing but food for thought. Agree or disagree, up to you:
Egyptian Protesters seem to believe…
The Arab Revolution Saudi Update
Published: 22/02/2011Remember, in a former post, when I said that Saudis were captivated and shocked by what happened in Tunis and Egypt but hadn’t collectively made up their mind about it? Well it appears that they have. Everywhere I go and…
Nord Africa: ascoltare i popoli
Published: 17/01/2011Questa volta la metafora della polveriera non è eccessiva. Con l’abbandono (forzato) del potere da parte del Presidente tunisino Ben Ali (in carica ininterrottamente dal 1987) si aprono scenari inquietanti per tutto il Nord Africa. Gli analisti politici, negli anni…
Le Proche-Orient après l’attentat d’Alexandrie
Published: 08/01/2011L’attentat contre une Eglise copte à Alexandrie le 31 décembre a suscité des condamnations unanimes. Y compris des instances musulmanes, contrairement à ce qu’écrit Vincent Giret dans l’éditorial du 3 janvier de Libération, « Survie » : « Seules quelques…
Wikileaks Shocker: Lebanese Defense Minister Reveals Plan to Stay out of Israel’s Way in Next War
Published: 06/12/2010If you haven’t yet seen them, be sure to check out the latest Wikileaks cables released to al-Akhbar, at least one of which is tremendously damning and could have major implications for the Lebanese political scene. (See here for the…
Women and the Rise of The Religious Conservatives
Published: 24/11/2010In Damascus women are increasingly falling under the conservative trend that is sweeping the region. Today, the percentage of women wearing the hijab on the streets of Damascus is on the rise.
Many reasons have been proposed for the increasing…
A Rentier Coup in a Rentier State
Published: 03/07/2010The quickly declining health of Ras Al Khaimah’s ruler is precipitating a round of intrigue and succession stories in the northernmost Emirate of the UAE. Sheikh Saqr Al Qasimi, 92, one of the longest ruling leaders in the world having…
Failed Summits -The Union for the Mediterranean at a standstill
Published: 30/06/2010After being in place for two years the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has not achieved any policy outcome and still lacks a visible rapprochement between the two shores. This is even more frustrating when considering that the Spanish EU…
Palestinian Rights in Lebanon: Reform on the Way?
Published: 24/06/2010Contrary to what many reported immediately after the fact, the debate in the Lebanese Parliament last Tuesday over the issue of Palestinian rights did not slam the door on any potential future reforms.
True, no law was passed. But the…
Blogger siriani e israeliani provano a superare le loro divergenze online
Published: 10/06/2010Original Version: Syrian and Israeli bloggers try to resolve their differences online
Siriani e israeliani stanno affrontando una delle grandi spaccature del Medio Oriente cooperando – sul web – alla ricerca di modi per promuovere la pace tra…
Sudan elections – A Travesty, a Logistical Nightmare, Irrelevant, Democracy
Published: 13/04/2010Sudan’s first multiparty elections in 24 years started yesterday in an atmosphere of anger, hope and confusion. The last election, in 1986, followed a people’s uprising that removed a military dictator. How times change. Today another military dictator – Field…
I “numeri 2″ dei talebani: forse sono troppi
Published: 27/02/2010La recente cattura del leader talebano, Abdul Ghani Baradar, offre lo spunto per delineare una mappatura dei mujaheddin “most wanted” catturati o uccisi dalle forze Nato e Isaf in Afghanistan, oppure dall’esercito pakistano oltrefrontiera. Baradar è stato preso grazie a…
Has Washington Decided to Focus on Syrian-Israeli Peace?
Published: 10/02/2010Is the return of a US ambassador to Damascus connected to a decision by Washington turn to the Syrian track of the peace process?
Jeb Koogler, a research fellow at the New America Foundation, writes here that the Al Sharq…
Politica internazionale 2009: ogni potere è responsabilità
Published: 29/01/2010Ci sono due modi di stilare i bilanci. Il primo è quello tradizionale, di tipo contabile: “tirare le somme” e mettere il segno più o il segno meno al totale. Il secondo è quello che identifica invece le linee di…
DIARIO ISRAELIANO: Fra i Drusi del Golan
Published: 22/01/2010Majdal Shams (Alture del Golan) – A. è una ragazza bellissima, ha 30 anni, due figli e un sorriso luminoso che le scintilla negli occhi verdi. Abita a Majdal Shams, un villaggio druso del Golan, al confine con la Siria.…
Natale di sangue per i copti egiziani
Published: 09/01/2010La presenza della minoranza cristiano-copta in Egitto rappresenta da sempre un motivo di apprensione per il governo del Cairo. La difficile convivenza con la maggioranza musulmana è sfociata spesso in scontri diretti. L’ultimo risale alla notte tra il 6 e…
Shooting Your Foot: Jordan’s Afghanistan And CIA Connection
Published: 07/01/2010It has undeniably been the talk of the town here in Amman, to say nothing of the local virtual spheres; an interesting contrast to the local mainstream media that has remained relatively hush-hush about the death of Sharif Ali bin…
In Gaza, even the walls go underground
Published: 28/12/2009A wall is going down at the Egypt-Gaza border – but by ‘down’, I do not mean it is falling: it is going underground. 20 to 30 meters deep, to be exact.
After unconfirmed rumours first reported by Israeli…
Hajj
Published: 30/11/2009was invited by the representative of Imam Khomeini in Hajj Affairs, Mr. Mousavi Khoeiniha to be a member of the International Affairs Delegation, in 1983. I had attended the Omra ceremonies of Hajj when I was very young, but this…
Movie Review: Pomegranates and Myrrh
Published: 05/11/2009Yesterday I went to the movies and watched the Palesinian movie “Pomegranates and Myrrh” directed by Najwa Najjar. I showed a preview for this movie in my post Click here for a review. I will not spoil the movie for…
Expanding my settlement in the West Bank
Published: 27/09/2009They are building on our yishuv (settlement) right now. There is heavy machinery in place and I hear about plans for around 50 houses or so. Right now all they have done so far is taken part of a hill…
The Second Biden Mission to Iraq
Published: 18/09/2009Writing about the Iraq policy of the Obama administration is difficult these days. There is a dearth of policy statements, and what little exists in the public domain is either rather bland or involves a continuation of the policy of…
La « résistance non-violente » dans les territoires palestiniens : Changement de stratégie ou recherche d’une légitimité nouvelle ?
Published: 30/07/2009Le texte qui suit est une communication effectuée en juillet dans le cadre du Séminaire “Violence, droit et Justice”, co-organisé par le Laboratoire de Théorie
…
Delicious
Syria: An Uprising, Not a Revolution
Published: 10/07/2011It has been four months, give or take, since the beginning of the protest movement in Syria. Many pages have been written about the nature of this conflict, from many points of view–pro and contra. Aside from the propaganda being…