Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

UAE-Israel deal: The new hegemons of the Middle East

When the New York Times brings its support for US militarism home

Why International Law Can't Save Palestine

From time to time we are reminded of the Tiananman man facing the violence a "non liberal democracy". How come that "the international law/community"  ignores young blonde girls! Newsletter:  "We thought the house was empty"

Talking about sex and sexuality in Palestine  (in Arabic) Generally speaking, the 1950s nationalist revolutions were much more radical then the 2011 "revolutions".* Similarly, the current writings about religion and sexuality in the Middle East are much less radical than the 1960 and 1970s writings by the Syrians Abou Ali Yassin  and Sadiq Jala Al-Azm, for example.  Although different sexual practices, albeit discreet, are very common, Wilhelm Reich's Sexual Revolution is still relevant for the region. Contemporary writings do not step outside the dominant bourgeois discourse, and they tend to anchor their analyses in a Western-centric persepctive of sexuality, ignoring commodification and sexualisation of the body by capitalism.  Even from a bourgeois perspective, the tendency is to disassociate the dominance of capitalist relations, i.e. bourgoeis norms and morality, from changes in people's sexual practices and gender relations. After all, that was the con

Jacob Mundy shows how multiple foreign interventions are perpetuating the ongoing Libyan civil war in the latest iteration of a process of globalized state unmaking that has become familiar across the greater Middle East since 2001 in places like Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and most recently in Yemen. Omar Dewachi traces the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in war-related wounds—which US military doctors labelled Iraqibacter—to the biological legacy of decades of sanctions, war and intervention in Iraq, and notes that antibiotic resistance is increasingly being found in other militarized intervention zones in the region. Lisa Bhungalia , Jeannette Greven and Tahani Mustafa argues that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against the Palestinians—which gives Israel free reign to violently dispossess Palestinians while simultaneously withdrawing US aid for food, schools and hospitals—has both worsened Palestinian lives and has paradoxically weakened some

Good, but I expected more on the geo-political economy. Trump's America, Netanyahu's Israel

Surprise! Surprise! These Palestinians are really depriving many people of a few things. BCRI reversed their decision to award Dr. Angela Davis the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award Also in Arabic

Warning! Anyone who links to this article or reads it is anti-Semitic. "The holy of the holies" is untouchable

"The label 'terrorist' works to identify a little enclave of evil, a sub-population of evil-doers, from whom the rest of humanity distinct. It works to hypocritically stratify global violence, so that we know who is entitled to its use, and whose rustiest weapon is an outrage." When the ANC were "terrorists"

"The Corbyn incident suggests that to be complicit in the violence of the Israeli occupation – as western governments are – is acceptable, but to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause is to court condemnation." Another exercise in hypocrisy

"It’s good that people become enraged when Israel kills, imprisons and besieges Palestinians. They should be enraged. But when those same people ignore or make excuses for Assad killing, imprisoning, torturing and besieging Palestinians, it becomes clear that they aren’t actually interested in Palestinians, and certainly not in human rights."  — Qunfuz

"A traumatised society traumatising those wround it." — Arthur Neslen, author of Occupied Minds - A Journey Through the Israeli Psychy . My interview with Neslen back in 2006

A critique of solidarity

Macron's embrace of Israel is a throwback to France's imperial past

At the heart of it is the bourgeois liberal notion of justice—wherein equal and unequal people must be treated equally. It is equalizing the violent acts of the conqueror with those of the conquered. It is neither the Aristotelian nor the Marxist notion of justice—wherein justice means treating equal people equally and unequal people unequally.

Please, accept our apologies. Sorry for using labour strikes when we should have worked; sorry for using suicide bombing when we should have used fireworks and partied in your nightclubs; sorry for using hunger strikes when we should have thanked you for the food and shelter; sorry for stabbing you with knives when we could have cuddled you with pillows; sorry for being in residential areas when you dropped your smart bombs; sorry for threatening your borders and throwing ourselves at your bullets when all you wanted was to defend yourself. Sorry for all the trouble we have caused you, the "international comunity", the UN, and all your friends. The victim must apologize to the killers 

Because it is not Manchester or Nice. "Palestinian men, women, and children, slaughtered in their own homeland for the crime of wanting independence and sovereignty over their own country. The Western media will present no face to those murdered, no name, no age, no background, no hospital images of mangled bodies and doctors frantically trying to save lives. There will be no interviews with family members or friends telling us how wonderful and caring their deceased loved ones were - because the Western media kno w that to do so would humanise the Palestinian people and create international sympathy for their cause. Western nations are complicit in these war crimes, treacherous Arab nations are silent, and those shameless African nations who clambered over each other to attend the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem have disgraced the memory of those who fought for African independence and against apartheid. The proverbial image of David vs Goliath could not be played out

One of the tools of the oppressor, the terrorist state, is to portray itself as a victim.  And the rest of humanity enjoys the spectacle, as usual. Muslims and non-Muslims have watched the Syrians massacred, the Yemenis slaughtered, refugees drowning, Rohingyas "genocided" ...  The more I hear and read about this, the more I feel ashamed of myself and my position in this world. I had years of struggles and protests against both: first against a police state and then against imperialist one. I came to realise the futility of such struggle. I despaired. The more I read about the last two centuries, the more I know about the huge scientific progress as well as about barbarism and our collective complicity in it. And, sadly, our complacency and complicity will continue in the coming atrocities. My only solace is to continue reading in order to keep a sharp mind; to survive in a swamp. "Area of terror"

Anti-semitism This is probably the first time I remove a post from the blog. Enough is enough and The Labour Party, Israel, and anti-semitism So not to confuse a crude depiction with serious opposition to the crimes of the Israeli state as a settler, colonial, apartheid and imperialist state. And not to use the anti-semitism exploited by the Western imperialist state to silence any oppsition to the Israeli state or deflect attention from an alternative,  small as it is, to the status quo, exploitation, austerity, plunder, wars, oligarchy, corruption, stduents debt, neoliberalism, obscene inequality, cuts in social services, xenophobia, hypocrisy, double standard, attacks on pensions, teaming with autocrats for financial and geopolitical interests, etc.