Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"There is a striking discrepancy between the lack of feeling aroused by the deaths of tens of thousands of human beings—in their majority anonymous, unrecorded by the authorities and denied the dignity of a proper burial—with that excited by, say, the 1,000 lives lost in the crossing from East to West Germany during the Cold War. There is one obvious explanation: an African, an Arab or an Afghani who drowns in the Mediterranean, in flight from war, oppression or extreme poverty, is not seen as a human being in the same way as the Germans who were trying to flee ‘communism’ and were hailed as martyrs for liberty." — Stathis Kouvelakis Endemic racism One photo shows a volunteer with the Spanish Red Cross comforting a migrant (above) on a beach in Ceuta. The young woman, identified as Luna, told Spanish TV she did not know the man's name, only that he had come from Senegal. "He was crying, I held out my hand and he hugged me," she told RTVE. After the image of th

How Imperial hopes for the Commonwealth led to British citizenship redefined along racial lines

The Crisis of European Social Democracy

It’s a good summary. However, I think another dimension should have been added: the political economy and the geostrategic importance/role of Israel as an imperialist state allied with the major Western powers.  “ A whole lexicon of white liberal ideological vocabulary was marshalled over the decades to the task of defending the Zionist regime in its ongoing colonial war against the Palestinian people. White liberal (and conservative) apologists for Israel insist that what exists in Palestine is not a colonial war of conquest and a native anti-colonial liberation struggle, but rather a "conflict", a term which began to be used since the early 1920s at least by the Zionists and later by the British, and appears in earlier Zionist documents, presented as a neutral descriptor.” Why the West supports Israel’s ‘right to defend’ its apartheid regime Related From Balfour to Johnson

  “I  do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right.   I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, 'The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here.' They had not the right, nor had they the power.” —Winston Churchill  To the   Palestine Royal Commission   (12 March 1937) on a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.   Quoted in Gilbert, Martin: "Winston S. Churchill, Volume 5, Companion Part 3, Documents: "The Coming of War, 1936-1939" . He

 

This is a good take on the political economy of occupation/colonisation. Confronting the Reality of Power in Palestine

Can the Other, in light of all that is happening, still be regarded as my fellow creature? When the extremes are broached, as is the case for us here and now, precisely what does my and the other’s humanity consist in? The Other’s burden having become too overwhelming, would it not be better for my life to stop being linked to its presence, as much as its to mine? Why must I, despite all opposition, nonetheless look after the other, stand as close as possible to his life if, in return, his only aim is my ruin? If, ultimately, humanity exists only through being in and of the world, can we found a relation with others based on the reciprocal recognition of our common vulnerability and finitude? In a world characterized more than ever by an unequal redistribu- tion of capacities for mobility, and in which the only chance of survival, for many, is to move and to keep on moving, the brutality of borders is now a fundamental given of our time. Today we see the principle of equality being und

A search of the media aggregator Factiva finds that the five US newspapers with the highest circulation — the  Wall Street Journal ,   USA Today , the  New York Times , the  Washington Post , and the   Los Angeles Times  — have run 343 articles this century containing the phrases “Israel’s right to self-defense,” “Israel has a right to defend itself,” or “Israel’s right to defend itself.” Querying the same outlets in the same period for “Palestinian right to self-defense,” “Palestinians have a right to defend themselves,” or variations of “Palestinians’ right to defend themselves,” produces just two results, nearly identical pieces about an ex-guard at a US Air Force base reputed to have said that Palestinians have such a right. Palestinians Have the Right to Defend Themselves

  Achille Mbembe

 The BBC: It’s not a conflict. But we have seen headlines similar to this one, about Syrian children, for instance.  Now let’s change the headline above to “Animals feared killed and missing in Israel-Gaza conflict” and see how many likes we get. Or, let’s have those mothers and their children seeking refuge at the gates of civilised England, Poland, France or Hungary and see what happens. and On the land of  Liberté, Égalité,  Fraternité An Arab problem?

After a few days of deliberation, Boris Johnson, a racist PM , has finally managed to show courage and condemn ‘anti-Semitic abuse’ in London. Apparently, some protesters have used guided missiles to penetrate the Iron Dome* of the nation, killing more than 180 people.  The brave PM has also expressed his resolve to hunt down the perpetrators. “We will bring them to justice,” he added with a smile. Courage also means holding your ground as an imperialist with a great empire in your psyche and national pride, standing firm with the state terror of an ally.  * The Iron Dome was developed in the aftermath of Brexit to protect the frontline workers and the healthcare system, to eliminate corruption and nepotism, to prevent any radicalism or any revival of trade union power, and to ward off the undesirable from entering the country. It has been alleged that contracts for construction of the Dome went to friends and associates. I, for one, don’t believe it. 

I have just finished reading Global Middle East Into The Twenty-First Century . Apart from a couple of essays which I have found dry, the collection of 24 short essays is really worth reading.   It is accessible to both students and those who are eager to read about different topics related to the region in its global context, from music, food and Levantines in Latin America to oil, Egyptian cotton, Mo Salah and ports of the Persian Gulf...

Blasphemy Wars