Dearborn mother pleads for return of 3-year-old twins their father abducted to Saudi Arabia
July 22nd, 20200 DEARBORN — Madonna Saad is imploring elected officials to help with the safe return of her 3-year-old twin children Nour and Hussein Al-Abdulaziz after an ongoing abduction case that has lasted almost a year. On Aug. 6, 2019, the twins were taken by their father, Ali, a Dearborn resident, on what was supposed to be a three-week...
Good news from Washington: AIPAC, Israel losing to progressive Democrats
July 19th, 20200 While the U.S. administration of President Trump remains adamant in its support for Israel, the traditional Democratic leadership continues to employ underhanded language, the kind of “strategic ambiguity” that offers full support to Israel and nothing but lip service to Palestine and peace. Trump’s policies on Israel and...
Arab American medical student leads initiative to bring medical supplies to Lebanon
July 18th, 20200 ROCHESTER — Majd Faraj, a second-year medical student at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB), is leading a project to bring much needed medical supplies to Lebanon. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the Lebanese healthcare infrastructure this year. The problem has been compounded by an already...
Pro IDF group goes on the attack against Ann Arbor City Council candidate Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani
July 17th, 20204 ANN ARBOR — A former board member of the Friends of the IDF (FIDF), a group that calls itself the sole representative of the Israel Defense Forces and is its biggest donor in the U.S., has expressed his objection to the candidacy of Ann Arbor City Council candidate Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani. For decades Savabieasfahani and others...
Lebanon’s advisers to work on compromise on financial plan, sources say
July 17th, 20200 BEIRUT - Lebanon’s financial adviser Lazard will see if a government financial rescue plan can be adjusted to reach a compromise workable for the International Monetary Fund, two sources said on Friday, after the plan hit resistance from politicians, banks and the central bank. The plan, which...
Hamtramck becomes the fifth city in the U.S. to pass resolution denouncing discriminatory citizenship laws in India
July 16th, 20200 HAMTRAMCK — The Hamtramck City Council passed a resolution on Tuesday denouncing the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which took effect in India last December, making it the fifth U.S. city to make such a stand against India’s widely criticized new law. The group Coalition of Americans for Pluralism in India...
On Israel’s bizarre definitions: The West Bank is already annexed
July 15th, 20200 Wednesday, July 1, was meant to be the day on which the Israeli government officially annexed 30 percent of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the Jordan Valley. This date, however, came and went and annexation was never actualized. “I don’t know if there will be a declaration of sovereignty today,” said Israeli Foreign...
Iran’s coronavirus death toll exceeds 12,000 as lockdown curbs ease
July 8th, 20200 TEHRAN (REUTERS) — Iran’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 12,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with 153 deaths in the past 24 hours, amid a sharp rise in the number of daily infections and deaths in the past week as lockdown measures have eased. The total number of infections has reached 248,379, with 209,463 people...
U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear bid by Iraqis to avoid deportation
July 4th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a bid by a large group of Iraqis convicted of crimes in the United States to prevent imminent deportation to their home country, where they say they could face persecution and torture. The justices let stand a lower court’s 2018 ruling that the federal...
Vatican summons U.S., Israeli envoys over West Bank annexation moves
July 4th, 20200 ROME/LONDON/PARIS – The Vatican, in a highly unusual move, summoned both the U.S. and Israeli ambassadors to express the Holy See’s concern about Israel’s moves to extend its sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. A Vatican statement on Wednesday said meetings with Cardinal Pietro...
Read full letter signed by Tlaib and 12 others condemning Israel’s annexation plans
June 30th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and 11 others members of the House and Senate released a letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that calls on him to stop the new unity government of Israel from carrying out its plans to annex Palestinian territory in the...
Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and others sign letter amid calls on Israel to cease annexation of West Bank
June 29th, 20203 WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and eleven others have signed on to a letter expressing deep concerns over the Israeli government’s plans to annex occupied Palestinian territory. Former presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has also signed on to the...
PA political circus: Why Abbas must hand the keys over to the PLO
June 29th, 20200 The painful truth is that the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas has already ceased to exist as a political body that holds much sway or relevance, either to the Palestinian people or to Abbas’ former benefactors, namely the Israeli and the American governments. So, when the Palestinian Authority prime minister,...
Lebanon’s president sees ‘civil war’ climate as critics boycott meeting
June 28th, 20200 BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun warned on Thursday of an “atmosphere of civil war” during recent unrest in Lebanon and what he described as attempts to stir up sectarian tensions as a financial crisis sweeps the country. Aoun, a Maronite Christian, was speaking at a meeting that he said was called to protect civil peace, but...
U.N. chief, European and U.S. lawmakers call on Israel to ditch West Bank annexation plan
June 28th, 20200 NEW YORK — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel on Wednesday to abandon plans to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, warning this threatened prospects for peace with the Palestinians. “If implemented, annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law, grievously harm the......
The ‘Palestinian Chair’: Exposing Israel’s direct role in U.S. violence
June 20th, 20200 Exposing Israel The banning of deadly police practices by many American states and cities following the murder of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers is, once more, shedding light on U.S.-Israeli collaboration in the fields of security and crowd control. From California to New York, and...
Lebanon adviser in IMF talks quits, citing ‘no genuine will’ for reforms
June 19th, 20200 BEIRUT — A financial adviser working with Lebanon’s government in talks with the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that he had resigned, citing “no genuine will” to reform and attempts to dismiss the size of losses in the financial system. Lebanon began IMF talks in May, aiming to secure aid to steer its way out of......
‘Wolf warrior diplomacy’: Israel’s China strategy in peril
June 6th, 20200 Israel’s balancing act that allowed it to reap America’s unconditional and, often, blind support, while slowly benefiting from China’s growing economic influence and political prestige, is already floundering. Thanks to the heated cold war between the U.S. and Chinese economic superpowers, the Israeli strategy of playing both...
Lebanese singer depicts herself as a Black woman, draws outrage
June 4th, 20201 BEIRUT — Earlier in the week, Tania Saleh, a Lebanese singer and visual artist based out of Beirut, decided to show her support for international protests by photoshopping her face on that of another, presumably Black woman’s, face and posting it on her social media accounts. The image, which may have been well-intentioned, was...
Netanyahu appears in court, becoming first ever Israeli prime minister to be put on trial
May 24th, 20200 JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in court on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust Sunday, becoming the first Israeli prime minister ever to go on trial. The trial came just a week after Netanyahu was sworn in for a record fifth term, after he secured an unexpected power-sharing deal with his main opponent, Benny...
Father of Lebanese woman shot dead in the streets of the U.K. pays tribute in wake of her death
May 23rd, 20200 UNITED KINGDOM — The father of a Lebanese woman who was shot dead in the streets of Blackburn in Lancashire County in the United Kingdom paid tribute to her on Thursday, saying he hoped his family would be safe in the U.K. after they fled Lebanon. Law student Aya Hachem, 19, was shot from a passing car in a case of mistaken......
My Beit Daras, my Nakba: Two Palestinian intellectuals reminisce about their destroyed village
May 15th, 20200 Dr. Ghada Ageel and Dr. Ramzy Baroud have more in common than their scholarly research on Palestinian history and politics. They are both refugees and the direct descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their historic village of Beit Daras at gunpoint during the catastrophic events that led to the Palestinian Nakba of...
U.S. sends $225 million in emergency food aid to Yemen as famine-stricken country reports first COVID-19 related deaths
May 6th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States will send $225 million in emergency aid to Yemen to support food programs, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Aid groups have been forced to scale down operations in the country, which has been rocked by food insecurity and war in recent years, because of the......
A Machiavellian fiasco: How ‘centrist’ Gantz resurrected Netanyahu, Israel’s right
April 22nd, 20200 It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to destabilize the political fabric of Israeli society for years to come. In a surprising move, Gantz has entered into precarious political...
Spreading the virus of occupation: Spitting as a weapon in the hand of colonial Israel
April 15th, 20200 Spitting at someone is a universal insult. In Israel, however, spitting at Palestinians is an entirely different story. Now that we know the deadly coronavirus can be transmitted through saliva droplets, Israeli soldiers and illegal Jewish settlers are working extra hard to spit at as many Palestinians, their cars, doorknobs and so......
