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Content about Human Interest

December 23, 2013

Israeli authorities released Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi, who waged one of the longest hunger strikes in history, freeing him to return to his East Jerusalem home.

The Israeli prison service released prominent Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi on the evening of Dec.

July 17, 2013

Israeli forces bulldozed the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert—amid protests over a Knesset bill that would expropriate Bedouin lands.

Israeli forces used bulldozers to demolish the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert on July 16—for the 53rd time in three years. The demolition came one day after thousands o

October 10, 2012

Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement appears to have been caught in an egregious anti-Semitic faux pas. The responses fall into the usual three broad categories: principled repudiation, cynical exploitation, and kneejerk rallying around the perpetrator...

Here we go again. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement appears to have been caught in an egregious anti-Semitic faux pas.

February 7, 2012

Egyptian authorities cancelled the annual Jewish pilgrimage to the grave of a 19th-century Moroccan rabbi Yaakov Abu Hasira in the Nile Delta village of Daymouta, after Islamists threatened to protest and attack the pilgrims.

We've been following how Jews are faring in the post-revolutionary Arab world, and have noted positive signs from Tunisia and mixed signals from Libya.

December 17, 2011

The simultaneous mainstreaming of the seemingly opposed phenomena of anti-Semitism and anti-Arab racism appears contradictory—for those whose thinking lacks dialectical spark.

The simultaneous mainstreaming of the seemingly opposed phenomena of anti-Semitism and anti-Arab racism appears contradictory—for those whose thinking lacks dialectical spark. Even though it is now only the most hardcore fringe elements of the radical right that espouse both, do not be deluded.

November 20, 2011

A funeral procession in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar erupted into clashes with Israeli forces after a Jewish settler fired on the group and Palestinian mourners responded by throwing stones. Israeli forces fired tear gas and live bullets.

A funeral procession in the West Ban town of Beit Ummar erupted into clashes between Israeli forces and locals on Nov. 20, after a man in an unmarked vehicle, initially identified as a Jewish settler, fired towards the group and Palestinian mourners responded by throwing stones. Israeli forces shortly arrived at the scene, and started firing tear gas at the Palestinians.

October 1, 2011

The US has already cut funds to the Palestinian Authority as a punitive measure in response to its statehood bid. From Kosova to Western Sahara, numerous other countries around the world similarly wait and sacrifice for UN recognition.

The UN Security Council’s Standing Committee on Admission of New Members is currently considering Palestine's application for full United Nations membership.

September 10, 2011

Xenophobes and Christian fundamentalists are behind the anti-sharia measures now passed or pending in more than a dozen states—but secular progressives resist efforts to impose sharia on the unwilling in the Muslim world. Can we avoid confusion?

Oklahoma's constitutional amendment that bars the state's judges form considering sharia law is heading to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, after Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange ruled it unconstitutional, saying "the will of the ‘majority’ has on occasion conflicted with the constitutional rights of individuals." Oklahomans voted up the amendment last yea

August 12, 2011

Is there a formal boycott of Whole Foods? And if there is, is there a dichotomy between boycotting it and the boycott-divestment-sanctions movement for Palestinian  self-determination?

Let’s be real: A boycott is a nuisance. It has to be, if it’s going to be effective—that is, if it doesn’t involve not doing something you and lot of other people have been doing, it’s not going to have an impact.

March 24, 2011

Disgraced NPR exec Ron Schiller merely stated the obvious by calling the Tea Party movement racist—but then went on to engage in a racist trope himself with his canard that the media is "owned" by the Jews. Why has anti-Semitism, traditionally a bugaboo of the right, become acceptable on the left?

Republicans going in for the kill on public radio were notoriously dealt a coup by the secretly taped sting interview given by NPR top fundraiser Ronald Schiller to undercover conservatives posing as potential donors from a non-existent Muslim group. Both Ronald and NPR executive Vivian Schiller (no relation) stepped down in the aftermath—part of an almost uniformly craven response on the part of public broadcasters and liberals in general. Those who aren't retreating are merely crying foul. Among lefty commentators, Jason Linkins on Huffington Post March 14 charges that "deceptive editing" made Ron Schiller's comments seem worse than they really were. That strikes us as somewhat beside the point. It would also be a little beside the point to complain about how widespread this game of "gotcha" has become (the left having pulled off similar stings of Scott Walker and Sarah Palin), and the effect this is having on our intellectual climate—although it is pretty funny to watch right-wing websites and left-wing websites each complaining that the "biased" media are giving coverage to the other side's stings at the expense of their own. But there are some far more serious points here that nobody seems to get. 

March 2, 2011

The push to tweak the 14th Amendment ominously coincides with a mainstreaming of pro-Confederacy revisionism—pointing to the emergence of a homegrown American fascism. 

 

February 18, 2011

A few years ago it was only voices such as Scott Ritter and the ever-dependable Counterpunch that employed right-wing nationalist rhetoric about how the United States has surrendered its sovereignty to Israel, complete with sentimental