Beirut shaken by crackdown on violent protests
January 16th, 20200 BEIRUT — An upsurge of violence in Lebanon’s protests against the ruling elite, with police meting out beatings and protesters hurling stones, has alarmed rights groups and whipped up public fury. After a brief lull in largely peaceful protests since October, people filled the streets again this week, angry at a political class that...
A third choice for the Lebanese crisis
January 16th, 20200 How did Lebanon end up on the brink of financial collapse? A country that many have called in the past the Switzerland of the Middle East and the birthplace of Khalil Gibran and Kamel Al-Sabbah. With the third largest shipping company (CMA-CGM) in the world belonging to a Lebanese family, the country benefits from one of the richest...
Washington rebuffs Iraqi request to pull out troops
January 10th, 20200 BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has rebuffed an Iraqi request on Friday to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions following the U.S. killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad. Iraq looks set to bear the brunt of any further violence between its neighbor Iran and the United States, its...
Ukraine says Iran cooperating in plane crash probe, cautious on blaming missile
January 10th, 20200 KIEV — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Friday that Iran was cooperating with an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane, and that Kiev was not ruling out any version yet of what might have happened. Canada and others have said the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by...
Gaza rocket sends Netanyahu to shelter during campaign rally
January 2nd, 20200 TEL AVIV — A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at a southern Israeli city on Wednesday as it hosted a campaign rally by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prompted him to take shelter briefly before resuming the event, Israeli TV stations reported. The Israeli military confirmed the launch against Ashkelon, which is 12 km (7.5...
Ann Arbor city officials and anti-Israeli protesters sued in federal court
December 30th, 20190 ANN ARBOR — A civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on December 20 names as defendants members of the Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends as well as several Ann Arbor city officials. The plaintiff in the case, Marvin Gerber, is an Ann Arbor resident and a long time member of the Beth...
Newly named Lebanon PM vows to form government quickly
December 21st, 20190 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s newly named prime minister said on Thursday he would quickly form a government to pull the country out of economic crisis after he was designated with backing from the Hezbollah group, Amal Movement, Free Patriotic Movement and their allies. Hassan Diab, a little-known academic and former education minister who...
Singing all the way to the bank: Lebanese protesters fear for their savings
December 13th, 20190 BEIRUT — Protests in Lebanon took a musical turn on Thursday when a group of activists toured banks, performing songs voicing fears over the fate of savings locked up in the banking system, which has been caught up in a major economic crisis sweeping the country. In lyrics set to the scores of famous Lebanese songs, a half dozen...
Lebanon’s largest Christian political party says it won’t join government on Hariri’s terms
December 13th, 20190 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s largest Christian political party, Free Patriotic Movement, will not join a new government under the terms set by caretaker premier Saad al-Hariri, but will not obstruct the formation of a new cabinet, its leader said on Thursday. The position of the Free Patriotic Movement led by Gebran Bassil could ease the...
Israel bars Gaza’s Christians from visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem at Christmas
December 13th, 20191 GAZA — Christians in the Gaza Strip will not be allowed to visit holy cities such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem to celebrate Christmas this year, Israeli authorities said on Thursday. Gazan Christians will be granted permits to travel abroad, but none will be allowed to go to Israel and the occupied West Bank, home to many sites holy...
Side by side, glimpses of Palestinian refugee camps then and now
December 13th, 20190 History has marched on since they arrived in the middle of the last century, seeking refuge for what they thought would be a few weeks, but staying for a lifetime. Around them the Middle East lurched from conflict to civil war to peace and back again. But for Palestinian refugees in these camps, there has been little movement over...
Levin, more than 100 Democrats send letter to Pompeo expressing “strong disagreement” with Israeli settlement policy reversal
November 29th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Led by U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township), more than 100 Democratic members of Congress have signed a letter expressing “strong disagreement” with the Trump administration's decision to no longer classify Israeli settlements in the West Bank of Palestine as illegal under international law. The...
Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen at Gaza protest
November 29th, 20190 GAZA — Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager near the border fence with the Gaza Strip on Friday, Palestinian officials said. Israel’s military said soldiers had been fending off Palestinians who had approached and tried to sabotage its security fence. The military also said the demonstrators threw a number of...
Iraqi PM quits after cleric’s call, but violence rages on
November 29th, 20190 BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced his resignation on Friday after the country’s senior Shi’a Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Violence raged on in southern Iraq, however, killing at least 21 people, and protesters...
Israel’s Netanyahu Indicted on bribery and fraud charges
November 23rd, 20190 TEL AVIV — Shortly after Israel’s ceremonial President Reven Rivlin informed parliament that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main political rival were able to form a coalition, the country’s attorney general formally charged Netanyahu on serious charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. With an......
Lebanese protesters pack streets to mark independence day
November 23rd, 20190 BEIRUT - Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lebanon on Friday to mark independence day with a fresh wave of demonstrations against a ruling elite accused of rampant corruption and steering the country into a deep crisis. The unprecedented wave of nationwide protests erupted five weeks ago, leading to the...
Arab American leaders criticize Whitmer’s decision to ignore community concerns before departing for Israel
November 21st, 20190 DEARBORN — Arab American community leaders representing a wide group of civil rights advocates, political and local civic organizations held a press conference on Thursday, November 21 to express their strong disapproval of Governor Whitmer's trip to Israel this week and her decision to ignore their community concerns prior to...
Statement of Michigan Arab Americans regarding Gov. Whitmer’s trip to Israel
November 21st, 20192 DEARBORN — Governor Whitmer is currently visiting Israel. We Arab Americans became aware of this trip, like most Michiganders, from media reports this past Sunday, November 17, the same day she departed. Michigan is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, boasting several hundred thousand residents...
How Western media bias allows Israel to get away with murder in Gaza
November 20th, 20190 An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when.” The answer came on......
U.S. angers Palestinians, violates international law with reversal on Israeli settlements
November 19th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration changed the U.S. position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Monday, reversing four decades of American policy and further undermining the effort to gain Palestinian statehood. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. is repudiating the 1978 State Department...
Governor Whitmer trip to Israel angers Palestinians and Arab Americans
November 19th, 20191 LANSING - Governor Whitmer decision to travel to Israel from November 17th to November 23rd, angers Palestinians and Arab Americans in Michigan. The governor will visit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem to meet with government, business, and nonprofit leaders. Whitmer traveling to Israel while the Israeli army is bombing Gaza......
Tenuous truce in Gaza as Islamic Jihad, Israel differ on terms
November 17th, 20190 GAZA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and Israel declared a halt to hostilities across the Gaza Strip border on Thursday, but a lasting ceasefire appeared tenuous as they differed on terms. Islamic Jihad said an Egyptian-mediated truce went into effect at 0330 GMT, about 48 hours after Israel triggered the...
Lebanese media: Major parties agree on ex-minister Safadi as prime minister
November 17th, 20190 BEIRUT — Three major Lebanese parties have agreed on nominating Mohammad Safadi, a former finance minister, to become prime minister of a new government, the Lebanese broadcasters LBCI and MTV reported on Thursday. The agreement was reached in a meeting on Thursday between outgoing Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon’s leading......
