Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Dirty Work—The Hidden Machinery and Human Toll of Europe’s Broken Recycling Trade
An illegal dump in Adana, Turkey in 2020. Plastic packaging from popular British supermarkets like Sainsbury's and French frozen food retailer Picard is ending up being dumped illegally in the Turkish countryside. (Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images)
Migrant Workers

Dirty Work—The Hidden Machinery and Human Toll of Europe’s Broken Recycling Trade

As Europe sends increasing amounts of illegal waste to Turkey, activists and investigators are revealing how the country’s state-backed recycling boom depends on fraud, off-the-books subcontracting and a rising death toll of migrant laborers.
Adnan Khan • 15 min read
'We Want to Breathe'—Dispatch from Gabes, Tunisia
Protesters carry placards and chant slogans as they march in the southern city of Gabes, Tunisia, on October 31, 2025, demanding the dismantling of the state-run phosphate processing plant. (Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images)
Activism

'We Want to Breathe'—Dispatch from Gabes, Tunisia

A few weeks into the 2025 school year, in a middle school in Chott Essalem, Tunisia, students began to feel dizzy and light-headed and their throats tightened. Within minutes, they began collapsing, one after another. More mass asphyxiation events, as residents describe them, occurred throughout the month of September and
Dhouha Djerbi • 8 min read
The Limits of Protection and Profits—Five Years into the Abraham Accords
A billboard in Tel Aviv in June 2025 by the “Coalition for Regional Security” Israeli political-security initiative depicting (L to R) leaders of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United States, Israel, UAE, Oman, Morocco and Bahrain, with the Hebrew slogan “A time for war, a time for settlement; now is the time for the ‘Abrahamic Covenant.'” Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
Issue 315-316

The Limits of Protection and Profits—Five Years into the Abraham Accords

A Review of Elham Fakhro’s ‘The Abraham Accords: The Gulf States, Israel, and the Limits of Normalization.’
Arang Keshavarzian • 11 min read
The Military-Industrial Backbone of Normalization
A drone used for law enforcement at the International Exhibtion For National Security and Resilience in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, 2022. (Karim Sahib / AFP via Getty Images)
Issue 315-316

The Military-Industrial Backbone of Normalization

In February 2025, as international condemnation of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza reached new heights, Abu Dhabi hosted the International Defence Exhibition and Conference. Over five days a record 34 Israeli arms companies, including giants like Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, showcased their latest wares alongside
Tariq Dana • 11 min read
Artificial Humanitarianism—The Data-Driven Future of Refugee Responses
A Sudanese girl who fled the war in Sudan gets her iris scanned using a biometric registration machine at a Transit Centre for refugees in Renk, South Sudan, on February 13, 2024. Luis Tato/AFP via Getty ImagesSophia at the AI for Good Global Summit 2018, Geneva. Photo courtesy of the UN’s ITU ((International Telecommunication Union). Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.
Current Analysis

Artificial Humanitarianism—The Data-Driven Future of Refugee Responses

AI and big data are changing contemporary humanitarianism for better and worse.
Samer Abboud • 9 min read
Times of Struggle and Cultural Liberation—A Conversation with Elias Khoury
Elias Khoury. Originally posted on Facebook by the Lebanese publishing house Dar Al Adab in 2013. Photographer unknown.Palestine in a World on Fire, co-edited by Katherine Natanel and Ilan Pappé.Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury.Children of the Ghetto, My Name is Adam, by Elias Khoury.
Current Analysis

Times of Struggle and Cultural Liberation—A Conversation with Elias Khoury

An Excerpt from 'Palestine in a World on Fire' in light of Elias Khoury's passing.
Elias Khoury, Ilan Pappe • 20 min read
State Secrets and Crimes—Rape at Israel's Sde Teiman Prison
Knesset members Limor Son Har-Melech (right) and Yitzhak Kroizer (in white) from the far right-wing Otzma Yehudití party stand with armed and masked reservists from Force 100. Israeli right-wing activists demonstrated with masked IDF reservists and broke into Beit Lid military police base following the detention of 9 military reservists from the unit today, who were suspected of sexual abuse of a detainee at the Sde Teiman compound. Matan Golan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Current Analysis

State Secrets and Crimes—Rape at Israel's Sde Teiman Prison

A timely preview of MER's fall issue, 'Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams.'
Lisa Hajjar, Basil Farraj • 7 min read
Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature
Beirut by Barrack Zaila Rima, Ibrahim Nasrallah’s The Second War of the Dog and The Solar Grid by Ganzeer.Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik.Iraq +100: Stories from a century after the invasion, edited by Hassan Blasim.Inside the Giant Fish by Rawand Issa.Poster for the film “Kenopsia” by Mohamed Omar.
Current Analysis

Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature

From beautiful dystopias to experimental graphic novels, how authors in the region are tackling climate change.
Marcia Lynx Qualey • 10 min read