Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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UCSC International Students Increasingly Vulnerable Amid Wildcat Strike — UCSC_COLA_strike_400x400

Current Analysis

UCSC International Students Increasingly Vulnerable Amid Wildcat Strike

UCSC graduate student workers are striking for a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their salaries. International students are particularly vulnerable both to the high cost of housing and to punitive measures by the university.

Ingy Higazy • 7 min read

Iraqi Protesters Thwarted by Trump's Iran Policy — Iraqi_protests_in_October_2019_(Liberation_square)

Current Analysis

Iraqi Protesters Thwarted by Trump's Iran Policy

The recent US assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Soleimani has had dire consequences for the Iraqi protest movement and its calls for substantive changes in the Iraqi political system.

Yousef K. Baker • 10 min read

Moving Beyond the Apartheid Analogy in Palestine and South Africa — The Palestinian Youth Movement delegation at a women’s hostel in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg.The Palestinian Youth Movement delegation meets with South African youth in the Alexandra township.The Palestinian Youth Movement delegation meeting with the Young Communist League of South Africa.

Current Analysis

Moving Beyond the Apartheid Analogy in Palestine and South Africa

The Trump administration's "Deal of the Century" for peace between Israel and Palestine is being compared to South African apartheid. Palestinians are questioning the usefulness of this analogy.

Loubna Qutami • 15 min read

The Battle for Truth about CIA Torture — JanetHamlin_Guantanamo

Current Analysis

The Battle for Truth about CIA Torture

The 9/11 case at Guantanamo is the last active front in the battle for truth about US torture. Official secrets, lies and myths are exposed and challenged, motion by motion, witness by witness.

Lisa Hajjar • 14 min read

Agrarian Politics and the Slow Revolution Yet to Come

Almost a decade after the 2011 uprisings, we now have an excellent synthetic text by Habib Ayeb and Ray Bush, long-time activists and researchers of (North) African agrarian questions as they relate to food sovereignty, social equality, and the ecology.

Max Ajl • 6 min read

The Post-Oslo Neoliberal Laboratory

A review of Toufic Haddad, Palestine LTD. Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territories (London: I.B. Taurus, 2016), 368pp. [su_dropcap style="simple" size="5"]T[/su_dropcap]oufic Haddad begins his sharply critical examination of the international donor and financial community’s role in

Ibrahim K. Shikaki • 13 min read

Remaking AUC in the Corporate Image of US Foreign Policy — El_Gouna_AmUniv

Current Analysis

Remaking AUC in the Corporate Image of US Foreign Policy

Over the past few years, students and staff at the American University in Cairo have joined forces with faculty against the increasingly draconian measures taken by the AUC administration.

A Special Correspondent • 8 min read

Speculating on Climate Change in the UAE — spaceship in desert

Current Analysis

Speculating on Climate Change in the UAE

Why did Abu Dhabi build an ambitious eco-utopian planned city called Masdar City and what does it all mean?

Matan Kaminer • 12 min read

Current Analysis

A Tribute to the Palestinian Artist Kamal Boullata

We mourn the passing of the great Palestinian artist, Kamal Boullata, who died on August 6, 2019. Kamal was a dear friend and colleague, and closely associated with MERIP from its earliest days. We offer the following tribute.

The Editors • 11 min read

Occupying Palestinian Space — PeteetSpace

Current Analysis

Occupying Palestinian Space

Peteet’s main theoretical contribution is to show how the violent territorial expansion of Israeli settler-colonialism has developed mobility regimes that govern and restrict Palestinian movement through space.

Haim Jacoby • 7 min read

Kushner's Technocratic Vision and the Unlearned Lessons of Fayyadism — CelebratingUSembassyMove_May2018_IsrMinForAff

Current Analysis

Kushner's Technocratic Vision and the Unlearned Lessons of Fayyadism

Jared Kushner unveiled the economic side of President Trump's "deal of the century" for Palestinians in June 2019. In addition to its economic flaws is a technocrat's aversion to confronting Israel's entrenched occupation.

Alexei Abrahams • 13 min read

Russia Opens Digital Interference Front in Libya — libya isis lion

Current Analysis

Russia Opens Digital Interference Front in Libya

The Middle East is increasingly awash with fake news and misinformation campaigns. Russia has become a major vector of these disinformation campaigns, affecting virtually every major flashpoint in the Arab world. It just opened a new info-war front in Libya.

Nathaniel Greenberg • 13 min read