Lebanese justice ministry accuses former central bank chief of financial crimes
September 6th, 20240 Lebanon's justice ministry formally accused former central bank governor Riad Salameh of financial crimes on Thursday, the state news agency and judicial sources said, echoing charges brought against him by state prosecutors when he was arrested this week. Salameh, 73, was arrested on Tuesday over alleged financial crimes, including...
Israel, Hamas agree to zoned three-day pauses for Gaza polio vaccinations, WHO says
August 30th, 20240 UNITED NATIONS – The Israeli military and Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn,...
San Francisco State University divests from weapons companies aiding Israel’s war on Gaza
August 30th, 20240 San Francisco State University has begun the process of divesting from four weapons manufacturers currently involved in Israel's war on Gaza, in a move activists are describing as a "major victory" for Palestinian rights advocacy in the United States. The announcement by Students for Gaza SFSU comes at a crucial time for the student...
Divest from Israeli killing machines or else: Pro-Palestinian student government at U of M makes good on its promise
August 30th, 20241 ANN ARBOR— Pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan were frustrated by their inability to persuade the university to divest endowment funds from Israel and military-weapons manufacturers, so they came up with an idea: Run a slate of candidates for student government based on a provocative platform. If elected, they’d...
Erdan’s war on the U.N.: The brutal wish of failed Israel diplomat
August 30th, 20240 Departing Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan clearly had an unpleasant experience at the world’s largest international institution. In an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv on August 20, the disgruntled envoy said that “the U.N. building should be closed and wiped off from the face of the...
Prolonging genocide as a smokescreen: On Israel’s other war in the West Bank
August 23rd, 20240 Promises of "absolute victory" in Gaza are nothing but "gibberish", according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant's comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on August 12. The explanation of why Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the...
Helicopter of Iran’s late President Raisi crashed due to weather, Fars says
August 23rd, 20240 The helicopter crash in which Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in May was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying, Iran's semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a security source informed of the final investigation results. The communications center...
Democratic National Convention denies request for Arab American speaker, allows parents of hostage to speak
August 23rd, 20240 The Democratic National Committee declined a request from the "uncommitted" delegates for a member of the Arab American community to speak at the party convention in Chicago. “The answer is no,” Michigan uncommitted delegate Abbas Alawieh told journalists outside the United Center. “I said, 'No is unacceptable. No is...
Israel’s demands for keeping military presence in Gaza blocking ceasefire deal
August 23rd, 20240 Disagreements over Israel's future military presence in Gaza and over Palestinian prisoner releases are obstructing a ceasefire and hostage deal, according to 10 sources familiar with the round of U.S.-mediated talks that concluded last week. Sources, who include two Hamas officials and three Western diplomats, told Reuters the...
Pro-Palestinian publisher Osama Siblani describes pro-Israeli groups’ attack on him as frustration for losing the American public opinion battle
August 23rd, 20240 Several pro-Israel organizations and their allied media in the United States renewed their condemnation last week at the inclusion of The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani in discussions aimed at restoring the confidence of the Arab and Muslim American voters in the Democratic Party's candidate for the White House, Kamala...
Rep. Debbie Dingell addresses Israel’s War on Gaza in Washtenaw County town hall
August 17th, 20241 U.S. Rep Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) and a group of western Washtenaw County politicians hosted a town hall for community members to voice concerns and ask questions. Dingell started the town hall at the Chelsea District Library by acknowledging potential constituent concerns. “If anybody were to write a book (about the last...
Restoring fear – why Israeli soldiers rape
August 17th, 20240 On October 25, Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that “Muslims are not afraid of us anymore.” It might sound odd that Feiglin saw the element of fear as critical to Israel’s well-being if not its very survival. In actuality, the fear element is directly linked to Israel’s behavior and...
Trump says he told Netanyahu to end Gaza war, but criticizes ceasefire call
August 17th, 20240 On Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their last meeting in July to quickly end Israel's war in Gaza, but the former president also criticized ceasefire demands. "He knows what he's doing, I did encourage him to get this over with," the former...
As Gaza death toll passes 40,000, corpses are buried in yards, streets, tiered graves
August 17th, 20241 Tiers of graves are stacked deep underground in a bloated Gaza cemetery, where Sa’di Baraka spends his days hacking at the earth, making room for more dead. “Sometimes we make graves on top of graves,” he said. Baraka and his solemn corps of volunteer gravediggers in the Deir al-Balah cemetery start at sunrise, digging new...
Travelers in Lebanon attempting to leave the country, airlines halt flights to Beirut amid rising tensions
August 10th, 20240 LEBANON — As tensions rise in the Middle East and an anticipated attack from Iran looms, Lebanese natives and foreigners attempt to evacuate the region at Lebanon's Rafic Hariri airport. Following Israel's strike in Beirut's southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah's second in command as well as Israel's strike in Tehran that killed......
Zionism on the brink: The Gaza war beyond Netanyahu
August 10th, 20240 The idea that the war on Gaza is essentially waged and sustained by and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, for long, dominated political analyses on the subject. The notion is often kept alive by public opinion inside Israel. Most polls produced since the start of the Israeli genocide on Gaza suggest that an...
On the eve of the primary elections: A protest in Dearborn against Israeli attacks in the Middle East
August 10th, 20240 DEARBORN – On the eve of the Michigan primary elections, dozens of pro-Palestinian supporters protested Monday in front of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn to condemn Israel's ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The protesters also denounced the assassination of Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukr in southern Lebanon and Hamas......
Al Jazeera journalist and cameraman killed in Israeli strike
August 2nd, 20240 Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza strip, according to Al Jazeera. Their deaths mark nearly 113 journalists or media workers killed since the violence between Israel and Hamas began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The CPJ...
When “prophets” become memes: Rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu
August 2nd, 20240 Great orators in history would not have been recognized as such if their words carried no value. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is neither a great orator, nor did his speech before a joint Congressional session on July 24 have actual worth. It was an expression of his desperation, if not defeat, on all fronts. This is not...
White House grants deportation reprieve to Lebanese, citing Israel-Hezbollah tensions
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House will offer deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 11,500 Lebanese nationals already in the U.S., due to conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, President Biden said in a memo on Friday. The measure, under an authority known as Deferred Enforced Departure, will allow...
Biden’s administration tells Americans in Lebanon: “Be prepared to shelter in place”
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON – D.C. – On Wednesday, the Biden administration urged Americans in Lebanon to “shelter in place” amid rising tensions in the Middle East over a series of attacks and retaliation among Hezbollah, Israel and Iran. The State Department updated its travel advisory for the entire country of Lebanon to Level 4: Do Not......
Nasrallah: War with Israel has entered “new phase” after killings of top resistance leaders
August 2nd, 20241 On Thursday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the...State Department issues DO NOT TRAVEL advisory for Lebanon
July 31st, 20240 FROM U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's Office With the Israeli government escalating the risk of regional war, we want to make sure you are aware of recent travel advisories. The State Department has issued a Level 4 Do Not Travel Advisory for Lebanon, and has encouraged Americans who are already in the country to leave at the earliest and......
Gaza death toll: how many Palestinians has Israel’s campaign killed?
July 26th, 20241 Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes. The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed more...
Harris urges Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and bring the hostages home
July 26th, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home. Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which......
