One law for the West and another for the rest?
The scales of justice. Photo by James Cridland/Wikimedia Commons. No one is above the law.— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 31, 2024 On December 1 Joe Biden, acting under the author...
Derek Sayer
I’m speaking! (and you’re not)
Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr. Red lines? What red lines? If anyone…
Not even the main event
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed during an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib. An eternity ago, back in March, accepting his Academy Award for The Zo...
Is the West finally seeing sense on Gaza?
Aftermath of an Israeli bombing raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Photo courtesy the Palestinian News & Information Agency-WAFA/Wikimedia Commons. In my most recent article...
Our dead don’t seem to count the same way
The Great Mosque of Gaza in the late nineteenth century. Photo by Maison Bonfils/Library of Congress. The discrepancy between Western framing of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza has often…
States of exception
Stripped, blindfolded, and bound Palestinian civilians are taken prisoner and ordered into a line by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza in December 2023. Photo from a social media post by…
The measure of our evil
Gazan children. Photo by gloucester2gaza/Wikimedia Commons. “It’s been 300 days since October 7—the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” posted UK Foreign Secretary ...
First we take Manhattan
Student encampment at Columbia University. Photo courtesy Columbia Students for Justice for Palestine/X. There are snipers on the roof of the school where I got my MA. There are police…
All the perfumes of Arabia
Lavender fields near Hitchin, England. Photo by DeFacto/Wikimedia Commons. “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” —William Shakespeare, Macbeth,…
Powerful stories
Destruction in Gaza following an Israeli bombing raid. Photo courtesy Fars News Agency/Wikimedia Commons. Red lines In his State of the Union address, delivered on March 7, US President Joe…
The threshold of intent
Medic carrying a wounded Palestinian child in Gaza. Photo courtesy Fars Media Corporation/Wikimedia Commons. On March 18, the world’s famine watchdog the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), whose “main…
A moral crossroads for the West
Palestinian children survey a series of destroyed apartment buildings in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo by Shareef Sarhan/United Nations/Flickr. Seven weeks have now passed since the International Court of Justice…
An extreme act of protest
On February 25, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in…
Is the tide turning on Israel?
Damage in Gaza caused by Israeli airstrikes, October 2023. Photo courtesy Islamic Relief Canada. After four months of war, some Western leaders seem finally to be waking up to the…
Eyeless in Gaza
A young woman carries her infant while walking on Rashid Street, west of Gaza City, on January 11, 2024. Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa/UNICEF/Flickr. “There is almost no kind of outrage…
A clarifying moment: Canada and the ICJ ruling on genocide in Gaza
The Peace Palace, seat of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. The court is the principal judicial body of the United Nations. Photo by the United Nations/Flickr.…