https://www.middleeastmonitor.com Latest news from the Middle East and North Africa Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:39:48 +0000 en-GB Middle East Monitor 30 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/favicon.png?fit=32%2C32&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com 32 32 116394717 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230716-muslim-slaves-taken-to-brazil-were-expensive-and-worked-to-earn-their-freedom/ Sun, 16 Jul 2023 08:00:35 +0000 , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=652091 During our trip to Salvador in May, we tried to contact people and institutions with information about the 19th-century slave uprisings in the Brazilian state of Bahia, especially the Malê Revolt (January, 1835). The Beninese Yoruba heritage is remarkable in the Bahia Candomble and its Brazilian religious syncretisms. Benin tragically became known as the "Slave Coast". The Malê prompt questions about the religious-political determination of the revolt, aiming for more than just liberation; the intention was to defeat local Roman Catholicism. There are still gaps in our knowledge of the African influence on the American revolutions against slavery, the academic focus of which tends to revolve around the French Revolution. We needed to interview the griot Nanci de Souza Silva, […]]]> 652091 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230503-the-palestinian-cause-and-argentinas-equidistant-policy/ Wed, 03 May 2023 14:07:00 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=632759 Although geographically distant, Argentina has a history of solidarity with Palestine. Before the approval of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, the South American country was a contender as a possible location for a "national home for the Jews". This idea appeared in Theodor Herzl's The Jewish State published in 1896. Argentina was identified as one of the options for the Zionist project, along with Palestine, due to the fertility of its lands and its small population at that time. According to the Zionist ideologue, Argentina was "one of the most fertile countries in the world, [that] extends over a vast area, has a sparse population, and a mild climate." Herzl believed that, "The Argentine Republic would derive […]]]> 632759 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230424-descendants-of-ottomans-in-latin-america-los-turcos/ Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:52:03 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=630888 Many Ottomans who migrated from the Ottoman Empire to Latin American countries in the 19th century in search of a better life and were described as "Los Turcos" (Turkish people) have achieved significant success in many fields from politics to business, from art to literature. There were various waves of migration from the Ottoman Empire to Latin America from 1860 to the end of World War I, while World War II forced even more people to migrate to Latin America. Some immigrants were first greeted by the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and preferred to stay in Latin America, although they set off for the US hoping to see the Statue of Liberty. Immigrants who arrived […]]]> 630888 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230328-palestinian-activists-gather-from-across-latin-america-to-boost-cause/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 14:54:39 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=625060 The Palestinian Latin Forum has participated in the second conference of the Palestinian National Union (UPAL) held recently in Barranquilla, Colombia. The conference lasted for three days and was attended by Palestinian and foreign delegations from various countries across Latin America, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia and El Salvador. The aim of the conference was to renew Palestinian activism in Latin America, building trust and cohesion across its broad spectrum of Palestinian society, seeking a more effective role and building a political entity that represents all Palestinian communities across the continent. The conference also attacked the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo normalisation process and affirmed its rejection and lack of recognition of both. It also stressed its refusal […]]]> 625060 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230310-el-salvadors-community-seeks-to-build-ties-with-palestinians-around-the-world/ Fri, 10 Mar 2023 15:25:29 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=620882 The efforts of El Salvador´s Palestinians in supporting the Palestinian cause were not limited to holding local and international conferences or appealing to humanitarian institutions to raise awareness of the ongoing violations against Palestinians in the occupied territories. Instead, they took the initiative to expose the occupation and support the struggle of the Palestinians through media and television channels. In El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated of the seven Central American countries, a local channel dedicates a weekly TV programme to highlight the Palestinian case and the violations committed against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. "I was invited by many TV channels in El Salvador to speak up and explain what happens in Palestine and the […]]]> 620882 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220121-bukele-makes-first-visit-by-a-salvadoran-president-to-turkey/ Fri, 21 Jan 2022 16:46:07 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=528428 The Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele, landed in Turkey last Wednesday, 19 January, to meet with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The next day, both leaders signed a deal worth $100 million, including trade and investments in defence, energy and infrastructure, immediately after the inauguration of the Salvadoran embassy in Ankara. During a press conference, Bukele pointed out: "We already have deals almost closed to build new ports by a Turkish company, to build a geothermal power plant by a Turkish company and to buy military equipment from Turkish companies … Then we have another meeting with another company that's going to help us build our first satellite, so we can send it to space; the first Salvadoran satellite, but […]]]> 528428 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191224-11-presidents-in-latin-america-have-had-arab-origins/ Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:47:38 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=377717 Unique in the modern era, there have been 11 presidents in Latin America with Arab origins (ten plus one President-elect), a result of more than a century of Arab migration to the region. Throughout this period, Arab migrants have been considered as a significant and important section of society. All 11 presidents are of either Lebanese, Syrian or Palestinian origin. Carlos Menem Carlos Menem is the longest ruling president among those with Arab origins. He governed Argentina for ten years, from 8 July 1989, to 10 December 1999. Menem was born to Syrian parents who migrated to Argentina. He studied law, supported the exiled Argentine leader in Spain, Juan Perón, and protested against dictatorship. Having won the 1989 presidential election, […]]]> 377717 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190717-who-killed-oscar-and-valeria-the-inconvenient-history-of-the-refugee-crisis/ Wed, 17 Jul 2019 01:03:49 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=353689 History never truly retires. Every event of the past, however inconsequential, reverberates throughout and, to an extent, shapes our present, and our future as well The haunting image of the bodies of Salvadoran father, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his daughter, Valeria, who were washed ashore at a riverbank on the Mexico-US border cannot be understood separately from El Salvador's painful past. Valeria's arms were still wrapped around her father's neck, even as both lay, face down, dead on the Mexican side of the river, ushering the end of their desperate and, ultimately, failed attempt at reaching the US. The little girl was only 23-months-old. #AgeOfTrump The bodies of a Salvadoran migrant and his daughter lie on the bank of […]]]> 353689 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190204-candidate-of-palestine-origin-wins-salvador-presidency/ Mon, 04 Feb 2019 14:12:18 +0000 Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=326999 A candidate of Palestinian origin, Nayib Bukele, won Sunday's presidential election in El Salvador, clinching over 50 per cent of the vote, according to the country's official electoral board. According to preliminary results (with nearly 90 per cent of ballots counted), Bukele, 37, won almost 54 per cent of the vote, the electoral board announced late Sunday. By winning a majority of ballots cast, Bukele, who ran for the center-right Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), avoided a runoff poll slated for March. READ: From Central America to Syria there is a conspiracy against refugees Carlos Callejas of the center-right Nationalist Republican Alliance won around 32 per cent of the vote, while Hugo Martinez of the center-left-leaning Farabundo Marti National Liberation […]]]> 326999