Middle East

During a visit to Israel by friends from Europe and Latin America to disseminat Silo’ Message and Universalist Humanism, we had the opportunity to attend the Fourth International Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality (ICSCS) at the University of Haifa. We were invited by the director of the Education Department Prof. Ofra Mayseless.

An album by international artists to benefit the
Global March to Jerusalem – North America.

The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have inspired popular
movements worldwide to take to the streets to peacefully protest against contemporary injustices. Many artists in these movements are also using music as a way to non-violently resist.

Imagine this scenario: A developing nation decides to selectively share its precious natural resource, selling only to “friendly” countries and not “hostile” ones. Now imagine this is oil we’re talking about and the nation in question is the Islamic Republic of Iran… [the original article was published February 17, on Al Akhbar]

Yemen has been facing a new wave of internal displacement, with tens of thousands of civilians fleeing tribal clashes in the north and fresh fighting between Government troops and militants in the country’s south.

Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked by the raids that Israeli troops carried out on two Palestinian TV stations in the West Bank in the early hours of 29 February, seizing equipment and thereby forcing the stations to close.

Cairo – The women of Egypt were at the vanguard in the eighteen day January 2011 mass uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. But since then, they have been sidelined and pushed back into the shadows.

Beirut – Bahrain has routinely convicted hundreds of opposition activists and others of politically motivated charges in unfair trials, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report. The government should void the convictions in trials before Bahrain’s military and civilian courts that fell far short of international fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said.

Today there are more than 1.3 million internally displaced Iraqis, with 500,000 of them “living in extremely precarious conditions”. This is just one of the consequences of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, started in 2003 and ended -only officially- few weeks ago.

Cairo — A Cairo military court on Sunday [26 Feb.] heard witness testimony in a case against a soldier who allegedly performed “virginity tests” on seven female protesters on 10 March 2011. 22-year-old Samira Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the military doctor whom she accuses of conducting the tests on her and six other female detainees near Tahrir Square.

Opponents to the present Syrian government are discounting the referendum that took place Sunday 26th February 2012 saying it’s a delaying tactic. Whatever, the reality, the poll went ahead and time will tell. Something naggingly insists though that if no one trusts anyone how can a political process move ahead? Why not trust the people of Syria?