Worldcrunch
As the war in Gaza nears nine months, bombardments continue, even in the camps where displaced people live. Death and fear are everywhere, as is hunger. Palestinian human rights activist Moustafa Ibrahim is also displaced now. In this personal essay, he addresses the hopelessness that people in Gaza face as they see Israel committing genocide.
From the Nakba to now, Palestinian authors have used the trope of amputation as a literary symbol of loss and unity in the face of adversity.
Zionism shares with Nazism the claims of building what they call National Socialism, though the nationalism always takes over. There are lessons in the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, and the current politics of the far right in Europe.
The Israeli army’s spokesman said that those talking about eradicating Hamas are “throwing sand in the eyes” of the Israeli public. It was a clear challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu, who counterattacked even as he remains under fire from all sides.
The Israel-Hamas war, now in its 9th month, has made the Eid al-Adha celebrations impossible for the Palestinians in Gaza. They spent the holiday amid relentless bombing, killing and destruction.
This spring, Kharkiv has been under almost daily shelling. Yet cafes, beauty salons, theaters and shops are still open in Ukraine’s second-largest city, and residents are spending time in parks, jogging and maintaining elements of a normal life.
Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia’s formal recognition of Palestine as a state highlights that Arab countries, many of which recognized Palestine in 1988, have not built upon that step.
Mediation efforts are ongoing to halt the escalation between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which could degenerate into all-out war at any moment. But diplomacy seems powerless in the face of the logic of war.
In 19 years in Gaza, she always felt lost in her mind, body and even time. She was desperate to escape abroad, and made one attempt after another to find a way out. Eventually she did, for better or worse.
As the U.S. presidential election draws closer, independent Russian-language media Vazhnye Istorii spoke with American politics specialists about the possibility of a second Trump term and what it would mean for the Russia-Ukraine war, traditional U.S. allies and China.
In his latest book, Spanish meteorologist and author José Miguel Viñas traces the history of painting, observing the skies of artists from different times and latitudes. Walking through a Madrid museum, he explains different types of clouds and historical climatological events.
The political project in the Arab world, both of tyrants and their opponents, has been focused on visions of glory and repeating slogans. But what is a movement if it doesn’t seek to improve the lives of those for whom it claims to speak?
Hamas attack on Oct. 7 created a deep rift in the confidence of Israel’s citizens, in their country’s security, military and moral superiority. The Zionist project may never recover.
The death of a 27-year-old hotel worker on the island of Kos, and the subsequent arrest of a suspect from Bangladesh, had set off a firestorm back in Poland that mixes anti-immigrant contempt with victim blaming. One year later, the storm hasn’t quieted down, as the investigation remains open.
As the upcoming French and American elections show, the Western democratic model is being put into question — both externally by revisionist powers, and internally.
The Israel-Hamas war has made transportation almost impossible in Gaza, where more than 80% of the population is displaced and more than 65% of the road networks are destroyed. The high costs are forcing some Palestinians to stay put despite the dangers.
The G7 countries meeting in Italy are examining a proposed $50 billion loan to Ukraine, a way of preempting possible future obstacles: Trump in the U.S. and the far-right in France. The wildcard is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
More and more Palestinians in Gaza have no choice but to resize their clothes after losing weight after eight months of war. They desperately search for tailors to fix or tighten their clothes, who try to do their job despite the lack of electricity.
Israel’s special forces rescued four hostages on Saturday, an apparent major success of the war in Gaza. Yet, paradoxically, the operation has created a political crisis for Benjamin Netanyahu, leading to protests and the resignation of several war cabinet ministers.
Comparisons between the wars in Europe and the Middle East tell us a lot about the standpoint of those who compare. They also signal to a new world order that has yet to be shaped.
More workers are leaving the country by illegal means. Those who are caught are deported back home, but often have nothing to return to — except government surveillance.
Israel is like a huge elephant in a room of fragile ceramic pieces. It may be able to get out, but Israel will certainly not emerge from its war in Gaza completely unscathed.
French Mirage jets and training of pilots on Ukrainian soil: these two announcements by Emmanuel Macron last night, as his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky was in France for the June 6 ceremonies, mark an increased commitment — to help Ukraine restore the balance of power.
After taking in an undocumented Nigerian baby some 30 years ago, a patient of our Naples-based psychiatrist is worn down by the legal process and the risk of her daughter’s “repatriation.”
Israel’s war on Gaza, with the support of the West, is not far from the necessities of capitalist accumulation in many regions of the world, or at least about managing the crisis of contemporary global capitalism.
Over the past two weeks, Vladimir Putin has stated four times that Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine, but that those negotiations would be based on “current realities at the front,” by which he means maintaining occupied territories under his control.
The killing of an Egyptian soldier by Israeli fire on the border with Gaza, and Israel’s control of a buffer zone has increased tensions between Israel and Egypt, which finds itself in a difficult position.
Two weeks ahead of the Ukraine conference in Switzerland, Volodymyr Zelensky blamed China for sabotaging the meeting at Russia’s behest. Urkaine’s president may use the upcoming D-Day memorial to raise the stakes with his own allies.
Palestinian women are suffering disproportionately in the Gaza conflict, where they represent 70% of casualties and more than half of the displaced people.
The U.S. president’s plan has been approved in principle by Hamas and the Israeli prime minister, but significant contradictions remain. In Israel, opposition voices are increasing, and the survival of Netanyahu’s government is at stake.
Eight months into the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has lost the battle of world public opinion. This may seem unfair to Israelis, but the right to self-defense does not authorize anyone to disregard international humanitarian law. And undermining these legitimate international bodies will only cause wider chaos.
Since the war in Gaza broke out, the Israeli military sealed off the Palestinian enclave and barred independent journalists from entering. In many cases, it targeted the few journalists still working there, especially photojournalists. Daraj spoke with one such reporter, Ahmed al Danaf.
The Israeli Prime Minister appeared on French television to try to convince European audiences of his war aims. But his main weakness is his lack of vision for the “aftermath”: he has nothing to offer the Palestinians.
The French president wants to convince Vladimir Putin to halt military deployment around Ukraine. But some in Moscow believe the Russian president is only interested in negotiating with the U.S. about the wider global balance of power.
Ukraine is not allowed to attack Russian territory. Israel, on the other hand, has free rein. These are the would-be restrictions of Western weapons in two wars that might seem to have little in common.
The efforts of chief prosecutor Karim Khan to try Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister over the Gaza war could be a starting point to hold Israeli political and military officials accountable for crimes have committed over many years against Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “tragic accident” after the deadly bombing of a camp for displaced Palestinians near Rafah; but this rare act of contrition does not mean the Israeli leader has changed his strategy, despite the indignation of the rest of the world at the number of civilians killed.
Russia is on the offensive, bombing the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv almost every day. Visiting the city over the weekend, President Zelensky again called for stronger, faster Western aid.
The “day after” the war in Gaza increasingly becomes hard to even imagine, as Israel’s prime minister sticks to his guns despite all evidence that says Hamas cannot be eradicated. The humanitarian toll, including Sunday’s airstrike on a displacement camp in Rafah, makes negotiations look increasingly impossible.
Two young Palestinians have sought to help children in war-torn Gaza. They first established a classroom between tents of displaced people to educate children. The second used virtual reality glasses as a psychological treatment especially for injured children.