That numb, helpless anger you feel when a group of innocent people have been murdered in another jihadi attack. This is quickly followed by contempt for those who try and hijack the tragedy for their own ends, be it for self-publicity or political grandstanding, whether at home or overseas. Once this has passed, reflection sets in […]
Posts under ‘Middle East/North Africa’
The battle for Mosul
Jan 30th, 2017 by Mike Phipps.Last week, I received the following email: “Dear Friends, As you might have heard, the American Coalition have been bombing civilian areas in Mosul. Over the past few days the coalition targeted 3 houses of well known professors and researchers in Mosul University. One of them was my college professor and mentor Prof. Dr Mohamad […]
Military action is not the answer for Aleppo
Dec 22nd, 2016 by Mike Phipps and Liz Davies.What is happening in Aleppo is a human rights calamity. It’s impossible to watch the footage without wanting to do something, immediately. That leads some on the left to surprising positions. Disrupting Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on December 10 did nothing to help civilians in Aleppo; it diverted attention from the important pledges he made on women […]
Why Blair is the guy whose face is on the placard
Jun 9th, 2016 by David Osland.Richard Nixon famously told a press conference that he was ‘not a crook’. And in the sense that the late US president was never found guilty of anything whatsoever, the statement is factually incontestable. Likewise, Tony Blair is not a war criminal, even though contention to the contrary is a longstanding commonplace among anti-war campaigners, […]
Why the Left must stop talking about ‘Zionism’
May 2nd, 2016 by Jon Lansman.There is every justification for talking about the rights of Palestinians, for campaigning against the profound injustice that has been done to them and for criticising the actions and policies of the Israeli government but there is no defence for antisemitism, whoever makes the accusation. As the Jewish Socialists’ Group (JSG) has rightly argued, “accusations of antisemitism are […]
Yemen’s calamity – blood on Britain’s hands
Apr 25th, 2016 by Mike Phipps.The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) has published a new report, A Shameful Relationship: UK Complicity in Saudi State Violence by David Wearing. It exposes how the UK’s supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia for its devastating bombing of Yemen systematically violates international law. UK-made aircraft, bombs and missiles have been used in the bombing and […]
Mosul – did the US deliberately bomb civilians?
Mar 25th, 2016 by Mike Phipps.“Mosul and Kirkuk bombed by US,” reported the Daily Mail on 24 March. The United States has been targeting Mosul and Kirkuk in recent days as Washington slowly moves troops into the region to open a new front in its ground war on Iraq, which has been waged mainly from the south via Kuwait.” So […]
Iraq – the killing continues
Feb 8th, 2016 by Mike Phipps.Mike Phipps finds no grounds for optimism in recent developments 2016 began badly for human rights in Iraq. Here are some headlines from the first few weeks of the year, focusing on the crimes of ISIS. ISIS executes 80 people by firing squad in central Nineveh – Iraqi News (9 January). ISIS executes 12 people […]
What hope for Gaza?
Jan 25th, 2016 by David Pavett.In 1993 the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat shook hands on the lawn of the White House to seal the deal of the Oslo Accords (Oslo I). The terms of the accord were vague but gave rise to hope and received support from both Palestinians and Israelis. The accord envisaged […]
NATO’s disastrous legacy in Libya
Dec 31st, 2015 by Andy Newman.There is almost an air of desperation in the recent unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2259 that seeks to bring together a critical mass of Libyan factions and actors to support a new unity government of national accord that will oversee a peace process. Libya’s new Presidency Council will form a government within 30 days […]