Category: Middle East

By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson, and Sang-Min Kim While Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, Julia Masterson is research associate, and Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow at the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared in Arms Control Now of the Association on August 11, 2021. WAHINGTON, DC (IDN) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi […]

Torture in Syrian military hospital By Rita Joshi BERLIN/KARLSRUHE (IDN) — The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced on July 28 that it has filed charges under the principle of universal jurisdiction against Alaa M, a Syrian doctor who fled to Germany. M is accused in 18 cases of torturing people and subsequently killing one of […]

By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — The Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has informed the Security Council of the humanitarian plight of Palestine refugees as affected by the recent Israel-Hamas conflict.

By Thalif Deen NEW YORK (IDN)— When I walked out of a polling booth after voting in one of the US Senatorial elections in New York city several years ago, I was accosted by a reporter and a cameraman for the Middle Eastern TV network Al Jazeera. The woman reporter, who was also a UN […]

By J Nastranis NEW YORK | GAZA (IDN) — The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has welcomed the ceasefire agreed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel on May 21 after more than ten days of rocket fire and airstrike exchanges between the warring parties that have killed more than 250 […]

By Thalif Deen* NEW YORK (IDN) — The destruction of a 12-storeyed building in Gaza City on May 15—which was home to several news organizations including the Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera—has triggered a loaded question: was it a deliberate Israeli airstrike to silence the media or was it an avoidable accident? Norman Solomon, Executive […]

By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — A senior UN official in charge of the region has urged the Palestinian authorities to set a new date for heading to the polls, originally scheduled for May 22. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had announced the postponement of the planned parliamentary elections, amidst a dispute over voting rights in […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Over the course of a lifetime spent fighting for women’s rights and equality, Nawal El Saadawi inspired generations of women even while she faced threats against her life and imprisonment. Aged 89, she died on March 21 in a Cairo hospital after a long illness.

By Sean Buchanan LONDON (IDN) – “The UN said some three years ago that it expects Gaza to become ‘unliveable’ by 2020,” recalls Majed Abusalama, award-winning Palestinian journalist, scholar, campaigner and human rights defender. “Since then, Israel not only refused to take action to reverse Gaza’s rapid deterioration into a post-apocalyptic wasteland but intensified its attacks […]

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali * FREMONT, California (IDN) – The United Nations has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for Palestinian self-determination and end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967. The resolution was approved on November 19 by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee — the committee that deals with human rights and […]