IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
I recently traveled to Tuskegee, Ala., to meet with civil rights icon Rosa Parks’s lawyer, Fred Gray, and we talked about the role of the Montgomery bus boycott in breaking up racial segregation. “The boycott was the spark that ignited the end of Jim Crow segregation...
about 5 days ago
I talked to my family in Gaza earlier this week and asked them: "How do you sleep at night when you don't have electricity?" The temperature at night there doesn't go below 74 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity is high. My 12-year-old sister answered: "We don’t." She explained that even if they try to sleep, open all the windows, drink a lot of water - still, they can’t breathe.
about 1 week ago
As a young boy growing up in Bethlehem, I was often excited when our family had company. My dad, a Christian clergyman, loved to take us and the guests to Hebron. Dad would take us to the Cave of the Machpela, situated within the Ibrahimi Mosque, where Abraham and his family are buried and would tell the story of how Abraham obeyed God’s calling even when it came to the request to sacrifice his own son.
about 2 weeks ago
Next Wednesday (19 July), Radiohead will step on stage in Tel Aviv in knowing and deliberate contravention of the boycott of Israel called for by Palestinian civil society and adhered to by leading cultural figures. In so doing, they will lose the respect of thousands of music fans across the region and around the world.
about 2 weeks ago
I was surprised to read in Rolling Stone that Thom Yorke believed critics of Radiohead’s scheduled concert in Tel Aviv were simply “throwing shit” at the band in public, without speaking to them privately. This is both inaccurate and – even if it were accurate – quite irrelevant.
about 2 weeks ago
There are many reasons people may be barred from entering the state of Israel. If they present a risk of criminal or terrorist activity, for instance. If they tell lies at the border or don’t cooperate with border officials. If they’re suspected of trying to immigrate illegally.
about 2 weeks ago
At an April conference in Washington DC held by the Middle East Policy Council, University of Pennsylvania-based political scientist Professor Ian Lustick had some strong criticism for what he described as “the continuous merry-go-round of American-orchestrated negotiations".
on June 19, 2017
December 2013 echoed with the wailing of women, as they mourned the killing of 15 year old Wajih al-Ramahi by Israeli forces in Jalazon refugee camp. His young face, lifeless and underground, was printed on posters as young children decorated the narrow alleyways with them.
on June 13, 2017
Who says there is no coordination between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority? On Sunday evening, Israel gladly accepted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas request to cut the already-dilapidated electricity supply to Gaza, in order to make life for its residents that much more difficult. Think about the significance of cutting electricity by 40 percent in the middle of a blazing summer.
on June 12, 2017