4 ChangeEyewitness Report: Venezuela Up Close
Monday, May 20, 2019
Pat Fry. It was 7 AM April 30th in Caracas when I awoke to hear gun shots outside my hotel. Our group, seven US citizens and one Canadian,…
Istanbul Elections: a Turkish Constitutional Crisis?
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Richard Falk. Prefatory Note: There are important recent developments in Turkey. An unprecedented decision by the High Electoral Council (HEC) of Turkey to cancel the outcome of the…
Populism, annexationism, messianism: increasing influence of religious zealots
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Moshé Machover. Binyamin (‘Bibi’) Netanyahu’s motive for calling an early election to the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), one year before the end of its term, was purely personal: it…
The UAE’s Crusade against Regional Democracy
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Jonathan Fenton-Harvey Civil societies and political actors in the Middle East and North Africa have continuously fought for democratic change and positive reforms since the 2011 Arab Spring…
Trump’s America, Netanyahu’s Israel
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Adam Shatz. Israel’s legislative elections on 9 April were a tribute to Binyamin Netanyahu’s transformation of the political landscape. At no point were they discussed in terms of…
Noam Chomsky: Confronting Ultranationalist, Reactionary Movements Across the Globe
Sunday, April 14, 2019
On Thursday night, hundreds of people packed into the Old South Church in Boston to hear the world-renowned dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky speak. He looked back at…
Algeria in revolt: “We woke up and you will pay!”
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Hamza Hamouchene. What is happening in Algeria is truly historic. The people won the first battle in their struggle to radically overhaul the system. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president for…
Elections in Israel: Ever further to the right
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Tony Greenstein. In most western countries, political parties compete in general elections over issues such as taxation, nationalisation/privatisation, poverty, etc. Those in most European countries, with the exception…
As Abbas Ages, Fatah Moves to Consolidate Power
Friday, February 8, 2019
Ramzy Baroud. Five years after spearheading what is inaptly referred to as a ‘government of national reconciliation’, Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, has finally resigned. “We put our…
5.5 Million Women Build Their Wall in Kerala
Monday, January 14, 2019
Vijay Prashad. On Jan. 1, 5.5 million women in the Indian state of Kerala (population 35 million) built a 386-mile wall with their bodies. They stood from one end…
Lessons to Learn on the 25th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Hilary Klein Twenty-five years ago today, the Zapatistas rose up in arms. Twenty-five years – it’s hard to believe! It’s been many years since the Zapatistas were the…
Globalised Authoritarianism: Megaprojects, Slums, and Class Relations in Urban Morocco – Book Review
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Koenraad Bogaert, Globalized Authoritarianism: Megaprojects, Slums, and Class Relations in Urban Morocco (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018). Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? Koenraad Bogaert (KB):…
Aziz Al-Azmeh in conversation: Part III Women, democracy and political Islamisms
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Concluding part of dialogue: Political Islamism, women and democracy Ardeshir Mehrdad: As you have probably observed, amongst the authors dealing with feminist-Islamism some place their emphasis on the…
Aziz Al-Azmeh in conversation Part 2: Political Islamisms the labour movement and women
Friday, December 7, 2018
This is the second part of a three-part conversation carried out with the Syrian academic Aziz Al-Azmeh. Here Professor Al-Azmeh addresses the various forms that political islams take…
Books on Middle East 2018 – tales of repression, ruse and resistance
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East. David Kirkpatrick, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018. From 2011 to 2015, David Kirkpatrick was the…
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition struggles to be heard
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Ayla Jean Yackley. ISTANBUL — Five months ago, Selahattin Demirtas, a popular Kurdish politician jailed for his fiery speeches targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, staged an unlikely challenge…
The Women of the Revolution: inside the Kurdish Rojava Revolution
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
David Pratt. A remarkable story is unfolding that defies the usual narrative about Syria. In contrast to the misogyny and anti-democratic values of the jihadists of the Islamic…
After Four Decades of Chaos is Iraq Finally Stabilizing?
Monday, October 15, 2018
Patrick Cockburn. Changes of government in Iraq are often fiercely disputed and frequently violent. When the monarchy was overthrown in 1958, the young King Faisal II was machine gunned in…
Book Review: Women in crossfire, Diaries of the Syrian Revolution
Friday, October 12, 2018
Robin Yassin-Kassab. ‘A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution’ by novelist Samar Yazbek is part journalism, part personal memoir, and all literature. It’s literature of…
Iraq: Haider al-Abadi is losing his grip on power
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Patrick Cockburn. Posted on ZCommunications September 25, 2018. An Iraqi joke says that their country must have the most environmental government in the world since the same political leaders are…
Squeezing Iran: Part two the Iranian perspective
Friday, September 28, 2018
Interview with Ardeshir Mehrdad. Mehdi Kia: In the first part of the interview[1]http://www.middleast4change.org/squeezing-iran-part-1-trumps-project-in-the-middle-east/we talked of the evolving line-ups in the Middle East in the backdrop of recent massive…
The Zapatistas’ Dignified Rage: Revolutionary Theories and Anticapitalist Dreams of Subcomandante Marcos
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Benjamin Dangle. Book Review: The Zapatistas’ Dignified Rage: Final Public Speeches of Subcommander Marcos. By Subcommander Marcos. Introduction by Nick Henck. Translation by Henry Gales. (AK Press, 2018)….
The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu: Book Review
Friday, September 7, 2018
Adam Shatz. Posted on London Review of Books vol 40 no 16, August 30 2018. Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu by Anshel Pfeffer, Hurst, 423 pp,…
Iraqi Protests: Deep Anger and Simple Demands
Monday, August 13, 2018
Darya Najim and Krekar Mustafa. Posted on Alliance of Middle East Socialists August 2, 2018 Editor’s Note: Below we print an opinion article submitted by two Iraqi Kurdish…
Can Freedom and Capitalism Co-Exist?: Book review
Friday, August 10, 2018
Chris Wright. Posted on Counterpunch August 7, 2018. Being run by business, American culture suffers from an overwhelming preponderance of stupidity. When a set of institutions as reactionary…
Israel Illegally Enshrines Apartheid in Its “Basic Law”
Friday, July 27, 2018
Marjorie Cohn. Posted on Truthout July 24, 2018. On July 19, 2018, the Israeli Knesset enacted a law that illegally enshrines a system of apartheid. The legislation, which has the…
Localisation: A strategic solution to globalised authoritarianism
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Helena Norberg-Hodge. Posted on TNI Longreads. For those who care about peace, equality and the future of the planet, the global political swing to the right over the…
Women are at the forefront of challenging extremism in Idlib
Friday, July 6, 2018
Leila Al Shami. Posted on Leila’s Blog July 5, 2108. This was originally published at Chatham House. Here is a longer, un-edited version. In May, SMART News Agency,…
One Question: The future of Gaza
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Posted on State of Nature June 28, 2018. One Question is a monthly series in which we ask leading thinkers to give a brief answer to a single…
Prisoners of a Vision: Dissidents in Sisi’s Egypt
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Tom Stevenson. Posted on LA Review of Books, June 27, 2018. ON JANUARY 31, 2017, four lawyers arrived at the steps of Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on the…