Analyses
Middle East
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Manuela Dviri 12 June 2023Israeli rallies began in November, after Netanyahu’s victory and the formation of a new government through a coalition of six right-wing parties. At a press conference held on January 4, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin announced the government’s plan to reform the judicial branch that would empower the executive branch to override it. - Nicole Hamouche 9 June 2023The enormity of Beirut’s port blast and of the extortion of the Lebanese population of their deposits and life savings account for the default of the rule of law in this former enclave of liberty and democracy in the Middle East. Insidiously, Lebanon is becoming a police state, where freedom of expression and basic human rights such as access to education and health are being denied.
- Marina Forti 8 March 2023Iran’s street demonstrations seem to be over. Since January, the news coming from inside the country reports minimal, albeit flashy gestures: a banner hanging from an overpass, graffiti, or small impromptu demonstrations. Signs that collective anger continues to simmer
- Sofia de Benedictis 6 March 2023On February 6th, two devasting earthquakes left officially over 45 thousand dead in Turkey while the actual figure is estimated to be three to four times higher. This year Turkey is marking 100 years since the founding of the Republic in 1923 and in his most recent essay, The Turkish Malaise, Cengiz Aktar, argues that a combination of factors have led to its current sorry state, which first and foremost is due to the fact that modern Turkey has never faced the sins of its past, and ignoring them has led to Erdogan’s swing towards totalitarianism and kleptocracy over the last 10 years.
- Nicole Hamouche 1 February 2023“Art is before anything, the confrontation with one’s destiny”, wrote the Lebanese poet, Nadia Tuéni. And the Lebanese have had indeed no choice but to confront their destiny. Against all odds, the last years of repression and depression, marked by the October 2019 revolution, the port’s blast, and the financial crisis, have given rise to a buoyant creativity in all forms.
- Claudia De Martino 16 January 2023The Supreme Court’s affaire is diverting the public opinion from a plan that may bring about a breakthrough: the final blow to the “two States-solution”.
- Arghawan Farsi 21 December 2022More than 50 percent of Iran’s population is under-30. That is why the loudest voices in cyberspace came from the Iranian Gen Z who has been the most vocal against the Iranian regime. From videos on TikTok of young students tearing pictures of Supreme Leader Khamenei, to short clips of teenagers knocking off clerics’ turbans, Iran’s Gen Z has found new and innovative ways to oppose the regime. However, this change did not just start with the revolution.
- Federica Zoja 15 December 2022As Tunisians head to the polls on Saturday the 17th of December, more is at stake than just the revival of the Tunisian Assembly, suspended since July of last year. Kais Saied may see his presidency in jeopardy if conditions do not soon improve in the country.
- Umberto De Giovannangeli 22 November 2022A “fundamentalist” Israel calls into question already complex relationships in the Arab world and with its longest ally, the United States.
