https://www.middleeastmonitor.com Latest news from the Middle East and North Africa Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:33:31 +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/20230725-book-review-a-stranger-in-baghdad/ Tue, 25 Jul 2023 08:06:20 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=654915 An unexpected visit from former British diplomat and family acquaintance Duncan Claybourne to Iraqi-British psychiatrist Mona Haddad in 2003 sets the scene for Elizabeth Loudon's novel, A Stranger in Baghdad (Hoopoe Fiction, 2023). The reader is plunged immediately into intrigue with the possibility of revelation, only to discover the many intricacies which bind all of the characters together, each a protagonist in their own right, and all against a backdrop of British colonialism and its aftermath in Iraq. The book shifts back to 1937, when Mona's mother, Diane, moves to Baghdad after marrying an Iraqi doctor, Ibrahim Haddad. British Diane is a misfit in both worlds: she challenges her own family's stereotypical views through her marriage, while in Iraq she […]]]> 654915 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230724-the-clergy-and-the-modern-middle-east-shii-political-activism-in-iran-iraq-and-lebanon/ Mon, 24 Jul 2023 18:30:59 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=654896 It is often stated that within the world of Shia Muslim seminaries, the cities of Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran represent two contrasting camps in Shia scholarly stances on politics: one of quietism and the other of activism, respectively. This simplistic narrative has not only been perpetuated by Western media and academia, but also embraced by some within the Shia community. However, Mohammad Kalantari, in his book, The Clergy and the Modern Middle East: Shi'i Activism in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, sheds light on the complexity of the situation. He argues that this oversimplification obscures the reality, which requires a deeper contextualisation of the political realities faced by the influential Shia clerical elites in the Middle East, particularly […]]]> 654896 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230717-memory-makers/ Mon, 17 Jul 2023 12:52:42 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=652892 Historical memory is at the forefront of Russia's wars in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere. However, this historical memory is not about things in the past that actually happened, or real history, it is a constructed past to fit the Kremlin's objectives. Memory serves in place of ideology to give Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the credibility to enact certain policies and, every day, Russians take it very seriously, asserts Jade McGlynn. Her new book, Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin's Russia, makes for fascinating reading. Myth becoming memory, while certainly not unique to Russia, there is a centrality to it that makes learning about it key to understanding Russian politics. "Russia will never be at peace with its […]]]> 652892 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230711-george-orwell-and-russia/ Tue, 11 Jul 2023 12:18:44 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=651379 The 20th century had no more prolific writer on the dangers of authoritarianism than Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell. Orwell's writings continue to impact us today and, in Russia, his works continue to have a special resonance as Masha Karp explores in her new book, George Orwell and Russia. Reflecting upon the contemporary relevance in the context of Putin's Russia and the war in Ukraine, Karp writes, "Back in 1942, Orwell was looking for ways to stop the world from sliding into totalitarian nightmare where there is no objective truth and the 'leader' can control the past, present and future", Orwell points to two things that authoritarian post-truthers and those concerned by them should […]]]> 651379 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230707-the-emperor-and-the-elephant-christians-and-muslims-in-the-age-of-charlemagne/ Fri, 07 Jul 2023 19:58:13 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=650479 Charlemagne, the 8th century Frankish King, holds a near-mythical status in European history. He is widely regarded as a stalwart defender of Christendom against an expanding Islamic realm. Additionally, his role as a unifier of Europe has solidified his reputation as the "Father of Europe". By successfully uniting significant portions of Western Europe, he accomplished a feat not achieved since the decline of the Roman Empire. This enduring legacy has persisted to the present day. That his grandfather, Charles Martel, won a decisive victory against Muslim forces in present-day southern France at the Battle of Tours in 732 CE, has also added to his distinguished pedigree. This enduring legacy of the Carolingians (the dynasty consisting of Martel's descendants) has often […]]]> 650479 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230703-three-worlds-memoirs-of-an-arab-jew/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 20:01:36 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=649532 The term "Arab-Jew" is often considered contradictory, as it seemingly represents conflicting identities within the geopolitics of the Middle East. However, Avi Shlaim, an Iraqi-born British-Israeli historian, challenges this notion in his personal story, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew. Shlaim argues that this designation should not be viewed as a dichotomy. Instead, he highlights a period in modern history, prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, when indigenous Jews residing in Muslim-majority lands—known as Mizrahim—lived harmoniously alongside their Muslim and Christian neighbours. They played a significant role in the diverse societies, as was the case for Shlaim, growing up in Baghdad, often referred to as the metropolitan "Abode of Peace". The title Three Worlds aptly captures the […]]]> 649532 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230630-disenchanting-the-caliphate-the-secular-discipline-of-power-in-abbasid-political-thought/ Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:52:54 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=648275 Did secularism in the Arab world only really begin in the 20th century after European colonisation? Historians in both the Arab World and the West have long argued that secularism is a uniquely European phenomenon that was exported to the rest of the world through empires. There is no such thing as a separation between Islam and politics and all political thought in the past is Islamic, they contest. Hayrettin Yucesoy argues this generalisation is wrong and while the current way of thinking and practising secularism might be a European export, pre-modern Muslim politics did have its own form of secularity. Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought offers a window into a neglected piece […]]]> 648275 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230623-islam-science-fiction-and-extraterrestrial-life-the-culture-of-astrobiology-in-the-muslim-world/ Fri, 23 Jun 2023 07:39:24 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=646700 Islam and science fiction may not immediately seem like a natural pairing, but the Muslim world has indeed fostered a fascinating history within this genre. In his book titled Islam, science fiction, and extraterrestrial life: The culture of astrobiology in the Muslim world, Jorg Matthias Determann, an author and academic based in Qatar, delves into the exploration of "scientific imagination" as expressed through various forms of media, including literature and film. The book encompasses a wide range of associated themes, such as space, time, world building, extraterrestrial life and ufology. It is quite fitting that the opening chapter 'Lord of the Worlds' is a reference to the first surah of the Quran, Al-Fatihah, which the author explains, based on a literalist interpretation, […]]]> 646700 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230609-the-caliph-and-the-imam-the-making-of-sunnism-and-shiism/ Fri, 09 Jun 2023 08:27:27 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=643596 The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism by Toby Matthiesen is an extraordinary and comprehensive study that traverses centuries and continents, delving into the intricate evolution of the two major sects of Islam. This scholarly work meticulously examines the historical development and transformation of the Sunni and Shia schools of thought, providing invaluable insights into their origins and influences across diverse time periods and geographical locations. While the subject of sectarianism in Islam is not novel, Matthiesen's contribution to the field distinguishes itself through its considerable scope and extensive coverage. Unlike other works that dwell on the worn-out – though mandatory – narratives of the ancient schism over succession, the author tactfully limits this explanation to […]]]> 643596 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230526-sumud-birth-oral-history-and-persistence-in-palestine/ Fri, 26 May 2023 16:42:48 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=640007 "Oral histories always beg the question of what lives and cultural forms are isolated, erased and made insignificant by bringing this narrative to the fore," Livia Wick writes in the introduction to her book, Sumud: Birth, Oral History and Persistence in Palestine (Syracuse University Press, 2023). Wick's research unfolds against a historical backdrop of how Palestinian oral history embarked upon different trajectories from the Nakba onwards, notably the shift in 1967 to Palestinian nationalism and the contributions made through gender and class, notably the involvement of Palestinian women in Palestinian narratives. Wick notes, "Oral history in the contemporary Occupied Territories is a gendered and classed genre of witnessing in Palestine, often co-produced by young, refugee and rural, working class women." […]]]> 640007 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230523-authoritarian-century/ Tue, 23 May 2023 15:55:00 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=639121 Could the end of liberalism be the end of diverse multi-ethnic states, from Indonesia to the United States? Azeem Ibrahim seems to think so and aims to make the case that a post-liberal world is not only authoritarian, but also dangerous to the internal harmony of many countries throughout the world. He argues, "The ideological core of liberalism is that all human beings have equal inherent moral worth and that, therefore, they must all have their dignity equally recognised and be given freedom to pursue their own well-being and interests, at least in so far as it does not interfere with anyone else's ability to do the same."  This is the essence of liberalism he outlines in his new book […]]]> 639121 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230519-taming-the-messiah-the-formation-of-an-ottoman-political-public-sphere-1600-1700/ Fri, 19 May 2023 14:39:40 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=637945 "Arabic is eloquence, Persian is wittiness, Turkish is abomination, and the rest is filth," Evliya Celebi, the 17th century Ottoman travel writer, is reported to have remarked. The high regard for Persian was not merely linguistic appreciation, but also speaks to a school of thought, culture, belief system and political contention within the Ottoman society of his era. To be part of the Persianate was to belong to a movement that was progressive and often put you in opposition to state power, according to Aslihan Gurbuzel. Her new book Taming the Messiah: The Formation of an Ottoman Political Public Sphere, 1600-1700 aims to both challenge our understanding of Ottoman political thought and move us away from state-centric approaches. Before the […]]]> 637945 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230331-transitional-injustice-and-enforcing-the-peace-on-palestine/ Fri, 31 Mar 2023 15:44:25 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=625628 Brendan Ciaran Browne's contribution to the literature on Palestine is not only welcomed, but sharply focused. Veering away from the mainstream discourse that protects the two-state compromise at the expense of Palestinians, Transitional (in)Justice and Enforcing the Peace on Palestine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) discusses the convergence between transitional justice and settler-colonialism, noting the flaws associated with avenues obfuscating or eliminating the need for decolonisation. In the absence of the settler-colonial reality, 'the conflict' narrative which has usurped discourse on Palestine restricts resolution, due to a false equivalence between the coloniser and the colonised, even as Palestinians are deprived from the hegemony that decides their fate. Peace building approaches that do not address Zionist settler-colonial erasure, Browne notes that, "far from […]]]> 625628 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230328-in-the-shadow-of-the-prophet-essays-in-islamic-history/ Tue, 28 Mar 2023 10:09:47 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=624957 Few can claim to have produced a wealth of scholarship and achieved mastery over Middle Eastern history, but Roy Mottahedeh's insatiable curiosity for the past has left us with a treasure trove of works. Reading essays that he has written over the past fifty years and collected together in his new book In the Shadow of the Prophet: Essays in Islamic History, you get a sense of the past whispering to you in more ways than one. Mottahedeh not only dissects the past, but also reflects the concerns of certain periods in essays that are themselves now historical artefacts. For me, this is what made this volume a pleasure to read. Mottahedeh has gained many admirers over his career as […]]]> 624957 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230323-unknowing-and-the-everyday-sufism-and-knowledge-in-iran/ Thu, 23 Mar 2023 17:00:52 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=624425 A group of men and women have gathered with an instructor to partake in a religious ceremony which, aside from worship, represents something broader in their lives: how to take the experiences from the session and apply them to everyday life. "I was in another world during Fana [a mystical state of being]," one woman told Seema Golestaneh during a session of dhikr [remembrance of God]. "I have enough energy for the whole week now." Golestaneh's new book, Unknowing and the Everyday: Sufism and Knowledge in Iran, explores Persian-speaking Sufi movements in contemporary Iran through the lives of practitioners from Sufi masters to students. A central question being explored in the book is how concepts like knowledge and what we […]]]> 624425 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230307-hostile-homelands-the-new-alliance-between-india-and-israel/ Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:36:57 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=620004 Azad Essa's book, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel (Pluto Press, 2023), offers detailed insights into the politics of Zionism and Hindutva. With an introduction by Linah Alsaafin, the reader is introduced to India as a purported supporter of Palestine "contingent on Israeli interests".  Zionism and Hindutva, which shape Israel and India respectively, share historical similarities. For Vinayak Savarkar, who developed the Hindutva ideology, Zionism was a model to emulate. "If the Zionists' dreams are very realised – if Palestine becomes a Jewish state – it will gladden us almost as much as our Jewish friends," Savarkar wrote in the 1920s. Drawing upon both ideologies, Essa illustrates how India's foreign policy shifted from drawing comparisons between Palestine […]]]> 620004 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230227-assignment-china-an-oral-history-of-american-journalists-in-the-peoples-republic/ Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:25:34 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=618280 In 2020, with the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak still unknown, Chris Buckley of the New York Times received a phone call from a woman at the Wuhan Foreign Affairs Office in the People's Republic of China. It was a few days into the lockdown. "We know you are here. We would like you to leave," she told him. "I guess one interpretation of it," said Buckley, "was they wanted to get press out of the city." This anecdote is included in a new collection of stories, testimonies and writings by American journalists who have covered China, collected by Mike Chinoy, himself a former American correspondent in the country. Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the […]]]> 618280 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230223-nine-quarters-of-jerusalem-a-new-biography-of-the-old-city/ Thu, 23 Feb 2023 13:26:02 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=617081 Matthew Teller had to unlearn much of what he had learnt about Jerusalem before he could write his book Nine Quarters of Jerusalem – A New Biography of the Old City, of which a new softback version is now available. Teller's journey, prompted by his visit to the Old City as a child and ongoing visits as an adult, serves the reader willing to challenge the assumptions typically held about this troubled and historic city and its supposed "four quarters": Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Armenian. In fact, according to Teller, the city is more of a nine-quarter place, as the title of his book makes clear. However, the Palestinian Jerusalemites would never refer to the four historic quarters in any […]]]> 617081 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230216-inventing-laziness-the-culture-of-productivity-in-late-ottoman-society/ Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:12:37 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=615608 Locals and foreigners alike often ask why people in the Middle East are "so lazy". While such a view held by people from outside the region has its roots in racist stereotypes, many within the region hold a similar opinion, regardless of whether or not there is any merit to it. Where did the idea of Middle Eastern laziness come from, and why did it become so pervasive in our discourse? Tackling these questions is Melis Hafez in her book Inventing Laziness: The Culture of Productivity in Late Ottoman Society. The notion took off in the 19th century in response to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the global capitalist economy. As Hafez argues, something changed […]]]> 615608 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230210-hocine-tandjaouis-clamor-offers-a-poetic-memoir-of-the-algerian-revolution/ Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:37:46 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=613932 For the Algerian-born Parisian poet, Hocine Tandjaoui, the memory of the Algerian War of Independence, and the personal biography that shapes it, is best relayed through poetry. His genre-bending book, Clamor, uses the medium of poetry and the trigger of sound—specifically the discordant cacophony of war—to place readers in the place of a child whose coming of age was malignantly impacted by the soundscape of a colonised Algeria. It begins when Tandjaoui is five years old, the age of his first recollection of colonisation and the war that broke out in response. The violence could only be described as such: "This was a country that transformed some of the humans that occupied it into half-gods, whereas the others were reduced […]]]> 613932 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230131-ida-in-the-middle/ Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:43:36 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=611181 Nora Lester Murad's young adult novel, Ida in the Middle (Crocodile Books, 2022), explores Palestinian identity and makes it relatable to a non-Palestinian audience. Ida, a young teenager, is born in the US to Palestinian parents. She is bullied and ostracised at her school because of her Palestinian heritage, while the Israeli narrative was protected by the school administration when some classmates formed a club called "Love the Holy Land". Start a Muslim club, the Principal suggests. But Palestine is not a religious question. The ensuing protest by Ida's parents to the school Principal results in Ida's "diversity" scholarship to a private school, where Ida is chosen to participate in a very selective regional competition. From a teenager who desired […]]]> 611181 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230123-among-the-almond-trees-a-palestinian-memoir/ Mon, 23 Jan 2023 15:39:23 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=608483 The Palestinian return is never as envisaged. For Palestinian poet and author Hussein Barghouti, his struggle with cancer prompted a return to Palestine from his "voluntary exile" after 30 years, as he describes his absence due to studies and work. Among the Almond Trees: A Palestinian Memoir (Seagull Books, 2022) is a literary narration of a return that is marred by the author's impending death. Commencing with Barghouti's visit to the hospital in Ramallah at the time of the Second Intifada, he ponders his presence amid "the martyred and the wounded", almost as if realising that his identity in the current political situation is somewhat lost. Yet the author brings Palestine to life through rich, evocative recollections, observations and slivers […]]]> 608483 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221229-the-jnf-kkl-a-charity-complicit-with-ethnic-cleansing/ Thu, 29 Dec 2022 10:24:35 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=602934 The JNF/KKL: A Charity Complicit with Ethnic Cleansing by academic and civil rights activist Dr Uri Davis is the latest offering by MEMO Publishers and brings to light the on-going "greenwashing" policies of the Apartheid State of Israel, which has been facilitated with the collusion of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an internationally-recognised charity that pre-dates the establishment of the Jewish state. As such, it is argued that the JNF is complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The "alternative guide-book" to the organisation is a product of Davis' years of scholarship and field-research and consists of relevant documents and case-studies carried out by the author over the past two decades. An introduction is also provided by esteemed anti-Zionist Israeli […]]]> 602934 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221224-book-review-zionism-during-the-holocaust-the-weaponisation-of-memory-in-the-service-of-the-state-and-nation/ Sat, 24 Dec 2022 15:05:58 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=602621 Tony Greenstein's well researched book, Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of the State and Nation will not sit well with proponents of the propaganda that sustains Israeli colonisation of Palestine. While several Israeli authors have touched upon the links between Zionism and Nazism, Greenstein's book brings this history to the fore and exposes how Zionist leaders were concerned with the establishment of the colonial state, as opposed to preventing the killing of Jews during the Holocaust. In his introduction, Greenstein writes, "This book is a response to a Zionist historiography which has attempted to write anti-Zionism out of history and consign it to a 'state of oblivion'." The book is divided in three parts, […]]]> 602621 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221216-no-way-to-gaza/ Fri, 16 Dec 2022 09:13:53 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=601070 NO WAY TO GAZA is a book recently published in London by MEMO, narrated by three Brazilian professors travelling from Cairo through Sinai, in the summer of 2019, to do research in Gaza in collaboration with universities there. The book is a harrowing story of passage to Gaza, lasting several days of sleeping in cars without food or water, of harsh treatment of passengers, chaos, inefficiency, corruption, plain bribery and pure vengeance. No consideration was given to the old, young or sick. The working hours are too short, with many cases of total shut-down, unlike any border point which is open 24/7. The frequent search every few kilometers (which could have been done once) was for pilferage from gifts passengers […]]]> 601070 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221124-markets-of-civilisation-a-review/ Thu, 24 Nov 2022 18:17:51 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=596585 Muriam Haleh Davis's new book Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria explores the colonial roots of Algeria's transition into a modern capitalist economy. But it is more than that; it is a critical examination of how race and racialisation by French authorities formed the development of the North African country. Throughout the last 2 centuries, a triumphalist narrative has been told to us about the development of capitalism in Europe, which converted a backwater into a modern, rational, scientific and rich part of the world.  Other parts of the world were held back from progress but, if they adopt the same model, they too can be great. However, this is the story of capitalism that not only […]]]> 596585 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221030-tolerance-is-a-wasteland-palestine-and-the-culture-of-denial-by-saree-makdisi/ Sun, 30 Oct 2022 11:00:15 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=587730 One of the most startling aspects of Israel's ongoing takeover of historic Palestine is how, despite the catalogue of human rights abuse, violations of international law and the practice of the crime of apartheid, the Zionist project has been able to maintain support for its cause amongst large sections of the Western liberal community. It is quite common, for example, to find celebrities and politicians who are instinctively opposed to racism, making generous donations and offering support to pro-Israel causes whose main function is to preserve a system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. This strange phenomenon, which has come to define the hypocrisy of liberals that continue to support Israel, has been given a special label: Progressive Except for Palestine […]]]> 587730 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221027-the-huthi-movement-in-yemen-ideology-ambition-and-security-in-the-arab-gulf/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 09:08:31 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=589774 The devastating war in Yemen has been raging for eight years, and with the recent expiry of a UN-brokered truce, conflict between the warring parties remains unlikely to end any time soon. This is all to the detriment of the Yemeni people. The belligerents at the centre of this conflict are the Zaydi Shia Ansar Allah movement, known more generally as the Houthis. With the support of political and military allies, the movement succeeded in taking control of the capital Sanaa in 2014, a move referred to as the 21 September Revolution. The formation of an effective quasi-state would eventually trigger the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in an attempt to re-instate the ousted internationally-recognised Yemeni government, which has thus far […]]]> 589774 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221023-psychoanalysis-under-occupation-practising-resistance-in-palestine/ Sun, 23 Oct 2022 07:08:42 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=585246 This complex subject is presented with meticulous research by Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi in Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practising Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022). The book goes beyond the 1948 Nakba to portray how Israel's settler-colonial violence cannot be removed from the Palestinian experience and its psychological impact, and the importance of a decolonial approach by clinicians towards their Palestinian patients in order to understand their psychological trauma as well as contribute towards the collective goal of liberation. "Psychoanalysis provides a theoretical framework for Palestinian clinicians and for ourselves to understand the experiences of Palestinians and the conditions of Zionist settler colonialism and military occupation under which they live," write the authors in their introduction. The book presents ample feedback […]]]> 585246 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221018-the-lebanon-uprising-of-2019-voices-from-the-revolution/ Tue, 18 Oct 2022 17:07:53 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=587352 This new book edited by Jeffrey G. Karam and Rima Majed seeks to make sense of the October 2019 uprising that shook Lebanon. The Lebanon Uprising of 2019: Voices from the Revolution pulls together experts from political science, sociology, economics, the arts and other fields with the objective of giving readers a holistic approach to the topic. As a small Mediterranean country with a population of 6.8 million and 18 officially recognised religious sects, as well as millions of refugees from Syria and Palestine, many have characterised Lebanon as a pressure cooker waiting to explode (again), and yet the October 2019 protests surprised everyone. After a devastating wildfire left parts of the country in ruins, a proposed tax on the […]]]> 587352 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221016-power-born-of-dreams-my-story-is-palestine/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 08:31:58 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=582735 Sharing a very personal account of his own incarceration at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities, MEMO's Palestinian political cartoonist, Mohammad Sabaaneh, offers us a glimpse into this harrowing and dehumanising experience in his graphic novel published last year, Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine. Exploring topical themes such as freedom, oppression and the human will to endure and resist, Sabaaneh loosely depicts his own ordeal after his arrest in 2013 and subsequent five months imprisonment for "contact with a hostile organisation", which turned out to be the publication of several of his cartoons in a book written by his brother, a member of the Hamas Movement, about Palestinian political prisoners. This book is on the shortlist […]]]> 582735 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221011-the-north-caucasus-borderland-between-muscovy-and-the-ottoman-empire-1555-1605/ Tue, 11 Oct 2022 15:08:12 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=585349 Regions such Dagestan, Chechnya and the Caucasus tend to make us think of territories that are firmly under Moscow's control as part of the Russian Federation. However, Russian control only stretches back a few hundred years. Large parts of the region came under the Ottoman Empire and in the 16th century, the Muscovy Duchy (later known as Russia) and the Ottomans began competing with each other in the North Caucasus. This often forgotten history is the subject of Murat Yasar's new book The North Caucasus Borderland: Between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire, 1555-1605. The Caucasus is a large region and in the 16th century it had a number of different rulers and administrations. This made the Caucasus attractive to different […]]]> 585349 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221009-al-haq-a-global-history-of-the-first-palestinian-human-rights-organisation/ Sun, 09 Oct 2022 11:00:24 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=583841 Human rights, in itself, have long been a contentious industry, developing over the decades and adapting to particular regions and surroundings. It is no different in Palestine, and perhaps even more so under the ongoing Israeli occupation, which remains one of the greatest focuses for human rights work in contemporary times. Central to the field of human rights in Israel's occupation of Palestine is the NGO Al-Haq – otherwise known as Law in the Service of Man (LSM) – which the professor Lynn Welchman extensively lays out in her book 'Al-Haq: A Global History of the First Palestinian Human Rights Organisation', published in 2021. In the book, Welchman takes the reader through the story of its beginnings and establishment in […]]]> 583841 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221002-things-you-may-find-hidden-in-my-ear-poems-from-gaza/ Sun, 02 Oct 2022 08:00:27 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=582383 Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear defies order and structure. It is a staggeringly diverse collection and as deep, heavy and haunting as the very days Israel rains down bombs and drones on Gaza. Some of Mosab Abu Toha's subjects in this recently published poetry collection are vast and ungraspable: the 2014 war, F-16 aircraft, immigration, family, exile and loss – especially loss. Each poem uniquely details the alienating cruelty of living under Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip, which has been under a strict Israeli siege since 2007. Given Israel's escalating violence against Palestinians, including its latest three-day bloody onslaught on Gaza last month, resulting in 49 people, including 17 children and four women, being killed, only […]]]> 582383 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220925-sambac-beneath-unlikely-skies/ Sun, 25 Sep 2022 08:00:05 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=580038 It's Christmas Eve in London and Heba Hayek's narrator is looking to bake something that reminds her of home. She settles for basbousa, a coconut yoghurt semolina cake, which translates as 'little kiss.' "No one should be this far," she thinks to herself at the end of a video call in which her father and mother argue over whether she should add cream to the top or middle of the cake. Heba's narrator was born in Palestine and has now moved abroad to study where she is trying to navigate her feelings of being a foreigner in a strange land and memories of home. Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies, published by Hajar Press, is a collection of vignettes on a girlhood […]]]> 580038 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220918-vehicles-of-decolonisation-public-transit-in-the-palestinian-west-bank/ Sun, 18 Sep 2022 08:00:53 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=578433 A prominent part of Israel's colonial violence is the deprivation of free movement for Palestinians. Maryam S. Griffin's book, Vehicles of Decolonisation: Public Transport in the Palestinian West Bank (Temple University Press, 2022), provides details of the ways in which Israel collectively denies mobility for Palestinians and how, as a result, Palestinian public transportation becomes "a site of social struggle." Griffin's writing contextualises the ramifications of public transportation for Palestinians from within Israel's colonial framework, thus setting the scene for readers to engage with a political reality that is either denied or obfuscated. "Public transport is severely affected by the policies and practices of Israeli settler colonialism," the author asserts in the introduction. Giving an overview of how Israel's colonial […]]]> 578433 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220911-the-palestinian-national-movement-in-lebanon-a-political-history-of-the-ayn-al-hilwe-camp/ Sun, 11 Sep 2022 08:00:22 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=577279 Of the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Ain El-Hilweh ('Ayn Al-Hilwe) is the largest in both area and population and is known among its 33,000 or so inhabitants as the "Capital of the Diaspora". This title is fitting considering the unmatched degree of political and territorial autonomy the Palestinians enjoy, arguably more than in any other Arab country. It is also one of the most contested refugee camps in the country, containing a host of different political factions, many of which have their own armed militia. Navigating through this complex political landscape, Erling Lorentzen Sogge's The Palestinian National Movement in Lebanon: A Political History of the 'Ayn Al-Hilwe Camp provides an ethnographic study on the post-Oslo camp politics […]]]> 577279 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220906-putins-war-in-syria-russian-foreign-policy-and-the-price-of-americas-absence/ Tue, 06 Sep 2022 12:12:02 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=577646 "It turned out that Syria is our sacred land," wrote a Russian blogger sarcastically in 2016 following attempts by some public figures to recast Syria as part of Russia following Moscow's military intervention in the country's civil war in 2015. Before then, the idea of Syria being part of the Russian homeland would have seemed absurd to most of us, but as part of the propaganda effort to drum up support for Russia's Mediterranean war "narratives emerged that Syria is intrinsically connected to the very creation of Russia," writes Anna Borshchevskaya in Putin's War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America's Absence. Indeed, according to Russian parliamentarian Semyon Bagdasarov, "If there was no Syria, there would be […]]]> 577646 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220904-reclaiming-humanity-in-palestinian-hunger-strikes-revolutionary-subjectivity-and-decolonizing-the-body-2/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 08:55:35 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=576616 The deployment of the physical body into a site of struggle and resistance remains one of the most poignant and controversial methods of protest. Due to its tremendous toll, practising hunger strikes have always provoked extreme reactions, from bitter irony to deepest admiration. In just a matter of days, physical and mental deterioration begin to take effect. Ultimately, it can lead to death. However, despite this high cost risk, hunger strikes have become a long-standing tradition and weapon for Palestinian prisoners, whose revolutionary subjectivity, according to Ashan Ajour, is exercised through this radical political action in the Israeli jails to not only regain, but also maintain dignity and humanity. This book is on the shortlist for the Palestine Book Awards […]]]> 576616 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220802-the-making-of-martyrdom-in-modern-twelver-shiism-from-protesters-and-revolutionaries-to-shrine-defenders/ Tue, 02 Aug 2022 12:54:28 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=570779 The concept of martyrdom is one that is shared by all three Abrahamic faiths and one which, by the time of the advent of Islam, was understood firmly by Christians and Jews of the era. Yet what sets Islam apart from the others, argues Adel Hashemi in The Making of Martyrdom in Modern Twelver Shi'ism… is that the notion of martyrdom emerged during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and "was first articulated by him as part of the process of state-building". Complementing the pre-existing body of literature on martyrdom in Islam, this work narrows down the subject to "sectarian martyrdom" as it has evolved in Shia Islam over time. This development led to a paradigm shift, […]]]> 570779 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220708-fixing-stories/ Fri, 08 Jul 2022 13:02:30 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=566106 Arjomand takes us into the critical and largely invisible work of the media fixer. Defining what  fixers do is difficult as their role can be quite fluid but, essentially, the general idea is when a journalist visits a country or an area they are not local to or familiar with, they often hire a local intermediary to help them find and do stories. These fixers can perform a number of different tasks, from finding interviewees, arranging travel or helping the reporter to understand the local context. Studying Turkish, Kurdish, Afghan and Syrian fixers in Turkiye, Noah Amir Arjomand takes us into their world. Arjomand himself has been on both ends of the study, both as a journalist hiring fixers and […]]]> 566106 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220626-occupying-habits-everyday-media-as-warfare-in-israel-palestine/ Sun, 26 Jun 2022 09:13:51 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=563847 "Sovereignty is made out of a patchwork, weaved together from institutions, private companies, and most significantly technology itself, which dictates certain behaviour and habits." Israel's security narrative has become heavily reliant on media technology, as Daniel Mann's book "Occupying Habits: Everyday Media as Warfare in Israel-Palestine" (I.B.Tauris, 2022) shows. Drawing upon the Israeli Defence Forces's archives, the author discovers that the expansion of media technology has actually created a form of impunity for the military and the state, while desensitising Israeli soldiers and the settler population in the process. The desensitisation which Mann writes about is intertwined with the perception of home and violence, which in Israel are synonymous and which Hagar Kotef discussed in her book, "The Colonising Self […]]]> 563847 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220612-in-the-labyrinth-of-the-kgb/ Sun, 12 Jun 2022 16:16:30 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=561394 A popular Russian-speaking Jewish satirist from Kharkiv, Leonid Osmolovskyi, had become a shadow of his former self by the 1980s. Once famed for his witty essays and part of a generation of radical thinkers, artists, journalists, poets, writers and historians who came up in the eastern Ukrainian city in the 1960s, Osmolovskyi spent his later years drinking heavily and isolated from his fellow writers and friends. He revealed towards the end of the 1970s that he had been approached by the KGB to act as an informer, an approach that he rejected. The Soviet intelligence agency sent Osmolovskyi to an infamous psychiatric clinic, where he was "diagnosed" with schizophrenia and imprisoned for seven months as a danger to society. He […]]]> 561394 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220606-spacing-debt-obligations-violence-and-endurance-in-ramallah-palestine/ Mon, 06 Jun 2022 09:12:29 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=560122 "Debt is about borrowing in the present and repaying in the future. In both cases it is the future that is at stake when debt is thought about as a political problem." Christopher Harker's ethnographic study "Spacing Debt: Obligations, Violence, and Endurance in Ramallah, Palestine" takes an in-depth look at how Palestinians living the daily consequences of Israeli colonialism, colonial violence and military occupation navigate the constraints of debt and its impact in terms of perpetual social crisis. While the book focuses on debt in Ramallah from 2008 onwards, the author gives a detailed chronology of debt throughout Palestinian history starting with the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate in terms of the Palestinian people's dispossession from their land. It […]]]> 560122 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220521-jinwar-and-other-stories/ Sat, 21 May 2022 13:24:11 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=557265 Alex Poppe's collection of short stories is a turbulent itinerary of the marginalised. At face value, the observations laid out in Jinwar and Other Stories tend to border on humour at times. Yet, a cautious approach spells out layers of pain and oblivion as the protagonists in her literature grapple with war, its aftermath and their own place in societies, both their own and others'. What stands out in Poppe's literature is the recurring reality of violence, moulded into a theme that permeates the book. The different characters in each story live their own narrative, at times intertwined with others through coincidental meetings or mundane settings, making it impossible to avoid encounters that cross the fine line between past and […]]]> 557265 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220519-media-of-the-masses-cassette-culture-in-modern-egypt/ Thu, 19 May 2022 08:50:29 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=556885 In his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture In Modern Egypt, Andrew Simon recounts how, on 12 June, 1974, US President Richard Nixon landed in Cairo for a "tour of peace" in the Middle East. Embroiled in the Watergate scandal at home, many American media outlets branded Nixon's tour as an escape from the turmoil in Washington, dubbing it Nixon's Hijra, a reference to Prophet Muhammad's forced flight from Makkah (Peace Be Upon Him). Egyptian President Anwar Sadat laid on a big welcome for his American guest with celebrations in the Egyptian media and a throng of crowds lined up in Cairo to greet the US President. Cries of "Welcome to the man of peace!", "We believe in […]]]> 556885 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220511-the-story-of-the-banned-book-naguib-mahfouzs-children-of-the-alley/ Wed, 11 May 2022 16:03:31 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=554818 Since it was first published in 1959, Naguib Mahfouz's 'Children of the Alley' has drawn objections from scholars at Al-Azhar and instigated an attack on his life. Then in 1988 it won the Egyptian writer the Nobel Prize for Literature. What is it about this novel that sparked such debate across Egypt, the Arab World and Europe? In 'The Story of the Banned Book,' journalist and writer Mohamed Shoair seeks to answer this question, diving deep into the various interpretations and defences of Mahfouz's most famous novel. 'Children of the Alley' is the story of a neighbourhood in Cairo, in particular the alley in which descendants of Gabalawi, who lives in a mansion in the middle of the desert, live. Strongmen control the alley and extract protection money from […]]]> 554818 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220328-rivers-of-the-sultan-the-tigris-and-the-euphrates-in-the-ottoman-empire/ Mon, 28 Mar 2022 08:31:16 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=545685 "From a deep history perspective, Ottoman rule in Iraq — the land of ancient Babylonia — was a political oddity," writes Faisal Husain in Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates In the Ottoman Empire. "In its millennia-long history, Iraq was never ruled from Istanbul before the sixteenth century… among the most distant imperial capitals to ever govern Babylonia for any considerable stretch of time were Persepolis and Antioch in the second half of the first millennium BC. But Achaemenid and Macedonian rule in Iraq pales into insignificance compared to what the Ottomans accomplished from the sixteenth century, ruling from a far more distant capital and for a far longer span." Of central concern to the Ottomans were control […]]]> 545685 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220323-being-there-being-here-palestinian-writings-in-the-world/ Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:44:01 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=545242 Maurice Ebileeni's study of Palestinian literary narratives and the imaginings of the Palestinian homeland highlights the need to rethink both. Being There, Being Here: Palestinian Writings in the World takes the reader on a multifaceted journey through land, continents and languages as these intertwine with Palestinian authors' perceptions, imaginings and affinities to Palestine. Exile – a common experience of Palestinians – has played a major role in shaping diverse narratives that play out in literature, indicating a wide spectrum of how home is perceived, related to, expressed and narrated, in contrast to the Palestinian national narrative that is mainly built upon the legitimate right of return. Ebileeni writes that Palestinian literature "is grounded in the idea of imagining a Palestinian […]]]> 545242 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220317-the-unsettled-plain-an-environmental-history-of-the-late-ottoman-frontier/ Thu, 17 Mar 2022 12:16:57 +0000 , Middle East Monitor https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=543963 How does history look at non-urban, rural populations who lived through the last century of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish republic? Chris Gratien's The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier takes us through the experiences of the inhabitants of a central Anatolian plateau called Cukurova, a broad area which includes cities like Adana and the port of Mersin, as well as the Taurus and Amanus mountains. Cukurova underwent a number of major changes, going from the geographical centre of the Ottoman Empire to a frontier zone on the edge of modern Turkey. "The name Cukurova gestures to that region's recent environmental transformation," explains Gratien. "The label Cukur connotes a depression. Coupled with […]]]> 543963