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Category: History/Archeology

How Broadway helped Irgun’s Zionist terrorists in their war against British rule

How Broadway helped Irgun’s Zionist terrorists in their war against British rule

In a letter to the New York Times published on December 2, 1948, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and 26 other leading American Jews wrote: Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the…

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The past is being destroyed in Palestine — as well as the present

The past is being destroyed in Palestine — as well as the present

Olivia Snaije writes: It is nearly impossible today to imagine Gaza as a thriving port on the sparkling Mediterranean, where a rich socioeconomic exchange took place over thousands of years of human history. Yet for millennia, Gaza was an essential stopping point on the overland route between Africa, Asia and Europe. Rich archaeological treasures found in the area indicate that trading was brisk throughout the Bronze Age — including finds indicating a close relationship with Ancient Egypt — to Hellenic…

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The U.S. lacks what every democracy needs

The U.S. lacks what every democracy needs

Richard L. Hasen writes: The history of voting in the United States shows the high cost of living with an old Constitution, unevenly enforced by a reluctant Supreme Court. Unlike the constitutions of many other advanced democracies, the U.S. Constitution contains no affirmative right to vote. We have nothing like Section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, providing that “every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of…

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Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

The Times of Israel reports: The German government sharply rejects allegations before the UN’s top court that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and warned against “political instrumentalization” of the charge. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says in a statement that Israel was “defending itself” after the “inhuman” attacks by Hamas on October 7. He says Germany would intervene as a third party before the ICJ under an article allowing states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention….

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Don’t turn away from the charges of genocide against Israel

Don’t turn away from the charges of genocide against Israel

Megan K. Stack writes: The word genocide rings loudly in our imagination. We think of Rwanda, Bosnia, the Armenians, the Trail of Tears and, of course, the Holocaust. I have heard many people balk at the suggestion that Gaza could be experiencing genocide. The Holocaust, after all, wiped out over 60 percent of European Jews. Israel’s war — instigated, no less, by the murder of Jews — has killed about 1 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza. One percent is…

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Nelson Mandela’s support for Palestinians endures with South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

Nelson Mandela’s support for Palestinians endures with South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

The Associated Press reports: Barely two weeks after he was released from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela flew to Zambia to meet with African leaders who had supported his fight against South Africa’s apartheid system of forced racial segregation. One figure stood out among the men in dark suits eagerly waiting to greet Mandela on the airport tarmac: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, wearing his black and white checkered keffiyeh headdress, had traveled to see the newly freed Mandela. He grabbed…

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The first world orders were not European. They came from Asia

The first world orders were not European. They came from Asia

Ayşe Zarakol writes: The process that gave rise to Eurocentrism in social sciences and history is somewhat comparable to the follies of youth. Little children have difficulty believing that their parents existed before their birth. Teenagers often think that they are the first ones to have the experiences they are having as they make their way into adulthood. Young people usually think of previous generations as stodgy and old-fashioned, and of themselves as uniquely special and innovative. And they imagine…

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How apartheid history shaped South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

How apartheid history shaped South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

Chris McGreal reports: Israel has denounced South Africa’s legal action at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide and war crimes in Gaza as amounting to support for Hamas. Israel called the charge that it was intentionally killing thousands of Palestinian civilians – which the ICJ is expected to start hearing on Thursday – a “blood libel”. Jewish organisations in South Africa accused the ruling African National Congress of siding with terrorism and antisemitism. But South Africa’s lawsuit…

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Lots of people will vote this year. That doesn’t mean democracy will survive

Lots of people will vote this year. That doesn’t mean democracy will survive

Brian Klaas writes: The greatest paradox of modern politics is that there are more elections than ever before in human history, and yet the world is becoming less democratic. Voting will take place in more than 60 countries this year—an unprecedented number—containing roughly half of the global population. But even with all this voting, democracy is under severe threat, endangered by predatory politicians who rig elections and disgruntled voters willing to hand over power to autocratic leaders. The most pivotal…

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Sufis still gather in Afghanistan

Sufis still gather in Afghanistan

Annika Schmeding writes: My introduction into the world of Afghanistan’s Sufism began in 2015, over lunch with my friend Rohullah, the director of a research institute in Kabul. I had been working in Afghanistan in various sectors from government to nongovernmental jobs, and had returned to explore topics for a PhD that I had embarked on, a year prior. I asked what had happened to Afghanistan’s Sufis. Were they all gone? Afghanistan had, after all, once been the cradle of…

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War on Gaza: Netanyahu, Hamas and the origins of the 2023 Nakba war

War on Gaza: Netanyahu, Hamas and the origins of the 2023 Nakba war

Avi Shlaim writes: Politically speaking, Netanyahu looks like a dead man walking. What is clear is that Netanyahu’s new policy of eradicating Hamas has no chance of succeeding. Hamas has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which commits terrorist acts when it targets Israeli civilians. Even if all its commanders are killed, they would be quickly replaced by new recruits and more militant ones. But Hamas is also a political party with institutions and a social movement with…

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What happened when the U.S. failed to prosecute an insurrectionist ex-president

What happened when the U.S. failed to prosecute an insurrectionist ex-president

Jill Lepore wrote earlier this month: Jefferson Davis, the half-blind ex-President of the Confederate States of America, leaned on a cane as he hobbled into a federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia. Only days before, a Chicago Tribune reporter, who’d met Davis on the boat ride to Richmond, had written that “his step is light and elastic.” But in court, facing trial for treason, Davis, fifty-eight, gave every appearance of being bent and broken. A reporter from Kentucky described him as…

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What does it mean to erase a people – a nation, culture, identity? In Gaza, we are beginning to find out

What does it mean to erase a people – a nation, culture, identity? In Gaza, we are beginning to find out

Nesrine Malik writes: I will start this column with a question for you, dear reader. What connects you with your country, and makes you feel it is yours? What gives you a sense of identity and belonging? It’s the physical things, of course – where you live, where you were born, where your family and friends reside. But underlying those practical aspects, I suspect, are all the other things that you don’t think about, that you take for granted. The…

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Mehdi Hasan interviews Jewish journalist Masha Gessen on comparing Gaza to a Nazi-era ghetto

Mehdi Hasan interviews Jewish journalist Masha Gessen on comparing Gaza to a Nazi-era ghetto

  Russian-American writer Masha Gessen received backlash in Germany and a scaled-back ceremony for a prominent award after they compared conditions in Gaza to those of Nazi-era Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe in a recent piece. MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan speaks with Gessen, a staff writer at The New Yorker, about the controversy.

Welcome to the Nixon Renaissance, where ‘Tricky Dick’ is cool and Watergate was a set-up

Welcome to the Nixon Renaissance, where ‘Tricky Dick’ is cool and Watergate was a set-up

Ian Ward writes: In late August, Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy took a break from his typical campaign events to make a pit stop at an unusual venue for mainstream Republicans: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Speaking before a packed house, Ramaswamy was slated to deliver a speech on foreign policy. But his opening remarks served the more provocative purpose of challenging Nixon’s much-maligned status in the annals of conservative history. “He is by and away the most underappreciated president…

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How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today

How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today

Masha Gessen writes: There are now dozens of antisemitism commissioners throughout Germany. They have no single job description or legal framework for their work, but much of it appears to consist of publicly shaming those they see as antisemitic, often for “de-singularizing the Holocaust” or for criticizing Israel. Hardly any of these commissioners are Jewish. Indeed, the proportion of Jews among their targets is certainly higher. These have included the German-Israeli sociologist Moshe Zuckermann, who was targeted for supporting the…

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