Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia are legendary and largely ignored by the Western elite. That oil is certainly tasty. But the Kingdom is changing, slowly but surely, through a very modern medium: “5 riyals” – less than two dollars – that’s all the money many unemployed Saudi youths have in their pockets. It’s also…
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
Perhaps it’s time to switch off the Saudi oil pump
Brutality and censorship in Saudi Arabia is legendary. This news is therefore unsurprising: A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has…
How to handle human rights the Israeli way
The Wonk Room reports: Reporting that the Israeli government “has decided to take a much more aggressive stance” toward human rights NGOs, the Jerusalem Post quotes Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev attacking Human Rights Watch for raising raising funds from private Saudi individuals. Regev told the Post that “A human rights organization raising money in Saudi…
‘If You Don’t Agree With Us You’re Antisemitic’
My latest New Matilda column, co-written with Independent Australian Jewish Voices blogger Michael Brull, responds to predictable charges of political bias by the Zionist lobby: Labor MP Michael Danby’s accusation of antisemitism against two Jewish writers is a false and dangerous misuse of that term, write the accused, Michael Brull and Antony Loewenstein Sometimes, people…
They blog, I blog, we all blog
The following review of my book The Blogging Revolution appears in the latest edition of Harvard University’s Nieman Reports: An Australian blogger interviews dissident bloggers worldwide, and in his book he explains why what they do matters and who is trying to stop them. By Danny Schechter I am a blogger, a media critic, and…
Anything to keep the occupation out of the headlines
Following the Australian’s article on the weekend about the Australian government’s impending trip to Israel, today’s paper publishes the following responses: The anti-Israel bigotry to which you refer in the editorial defending Julia Gillard’s visit to Israel (“A trip worth taking”, 13-14/6) is vividly illustrated in Amnesty International’s recently released annual global report. The survey…
Let the Muslims be heard
PBS Newshour invited four Arabs to dissect Obama’s Cairo speech a few days ago, including The Angry Arab. Watching these individuals discuss the pros and cons of the address was intriguing, not least because the vast majority of the US media used white talking heads instead:
Obama in Cairo
My following article was published today on the popular US website Mondoweiss: Back in 2005, then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a rousing speech at Cairo’s American University. “For sixty years”, she argued, “my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East…
Bow to our king, bitches
What Saudi Arabia can’t teach the US about decent journalism: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Saudi Arabia Press Restrictions colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat
If they renounce violence, when will you?
Interesting analysis from the MEC Analytical Group about Britain, Hamas and Hizbollah: There are indications of some flexibility in British policy towards Hamas and Hizbullah. On 21 May the Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a speech at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (text here) in which he called for “a coalition of consent” between…