It happened nearly 65 years ago, in November 1945. After the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco in June and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August.
Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, future Prime Minister Anthony Eden and Liberal leader Clement Davies all talk in Parliament about the need to rethink nationalism [...]
Author Archive for halfiranian
While the UK news is full of stories about John Bercow and his role as Speaker of the House of Commons, spare a thought for his opposite number in the Palestinian parliament: Aziz Duwek (pic above).
Duwek was released today after nearly three years in Israeli prison. He was seized along with 40 others six months [...]
How do we know the Iranian elections were rigged?
Published by June 15th, 2009 in Uncategorized. 3 CommentsHighly Improbable Numbers
The numbers. Official figures claim Ahmadinejad won 63% of the vote or 24.5M ballots cast. An extra 7M people are supposed to have voted for him since the second round of the last election when there was only one other candidate, Rafsanjani, another conservative.
Some pictures from my past few days with Josh (and his Christian Peacemaker Team buddies) in the South Hebron Hills. All the pictures you see are taken on the Palestinian side of the so-called ‘Green Line’.
Have a look at this UN map (2 Megs) to see the area (south of Hebron). The map also gives [...]
Martyr poster of Samer in the Yarmouk camp, who died fighting for Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Will Smith in ‘I am Legend’
“Would you ever blow yourself up?” 24-year-old Ibrahim asked me over the bubbles of his water-pipe.
I had just stepped off the plane back to Damascus, having spent the flight watching Will Smith’s heroic role as [...]
“The people of Britain and America support the Iraq war. That’s why they re-elected Blair and Bush.” (near-daily comment I hear)
“Well not really. It’s just they prioritise their own issues. Like the domestic economy or opposing abortion. You can’t expect citizens of one country to care about those somewhere else. Everyone votes for self-interest. The [...]
I’ve been in Syria for the past six weeks so haven’t been reading the Guardian (or writing on this blog).
However, I just came across a May 22nd copy of the Guardian on Indymedia, which to be frank, was shocking.
The headline of the article reads: Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out [...]
Today I had lunch with two colleagues, Samir and Farid.
“He asked what caste we are – I don’t know that!” complained Birmingham-born Samir, as he nudged his battered cod with a fork.
Samir is about to get married. Or at least he hopes so. He’s lined up a girl (a friend of his sister) [...]
Today’s truck bomb in Baghdad has killed well over a hundred people.
In our media, it becomes just another bomb attack in Iraq – a conflict that bores us these days. Well, to jog your memory, here’s a list of major bomb attacks in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein:
Farmer Hasan Turkmen and his son Ahmad sit outside their demolished house just north of Jenin in the West Bank, September 2003. Israeli forces had arrived that very morning giving them ten minutes to clear out the house. There are no militants in the Turkmen family, their crime was to have built the house without [...]
