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By Ayman Mohyeldin in Middle East on February 8th, 2010
Photo from GALLO/GETTY

We all know what its like when we go to the doctor's office for that routine check up once a year ... and undoubtedly there is that moment of anxiousness when the doctor looks you in the face to level his criticism on what you can do better next year. 

So you leave the office, go to the nearest gym, sign up for that cardio class and then off to the supermarket to get that new low fat salad dressing. It's a new year and you are gonna take your health seriously!

A universal human right for all...

That's the way it should be ... for you and for the people of Gaza. But Gaza's health report card just came back ... and it ain't looking good for the 1.7 million people living under a stifling siege.

Even worse, there is little the people here can do about it.

Tags: Gaza
By Teymoor Nabili in Middle East on February 3rd, 2010
Photo from EPA

It's been a busy few weeks on board the bomb-Iran bandwagon.

It wasn't quite gunboat diplomacy, but President Obama sent missile "defence" equipment to the Persian Gulf, a move Iran dismissed as a "puppet show".

The Pentagon then tried a test-run exercise, responding to a theoretical Iran attack. The test flopped. (Peaceful protests by Americans against the testing resulted in multiple arrests and reports that police "roughed up" protestors.)

By Ayman Mohyeldin in Middle East on January 31st, 2010

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The streets of Gaza erupted on Sunday evening... not in anger or protest... but in rare celebration. 

That's right, tens of thousands of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip took to the streets celebrating Egypt's victory over Ghana which crowned them champions at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. 

For the second time in less than a week (the other was when Egypt routed Algeria 4-0 on Thursday) Gazans were seen waving Egyptian flags and chanting Egyptian songs in a moment of jubilation in the besieged and war-reeling territory where there is often very little to be happy about on such a grand scale!

Tags: Gaza
By Teymoor Nabili in Middle East on January 31st, 2010

Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders conducted a 3 year study among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Although the focus of the study was to measure how effective counselling could be for those suffering psychological trauma, the report also highlights that severe psychological distress is widespread:

Among 1,254 patients, 23.2% reported post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], 17.3% anxiety disorder (other than PTSD or acute stress disorder), and 15.3% depression. PTSD was more frequently identified in children ≤ 15 years old, while depression was the main symptom observed in adults.

The cause of the problem?

The three major traumatic events reported by patients were witnessing a murder or physical abuse (53.4%), property destruction or loss (32.7%), and killing of a close family member (31.5%)

By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on January 30th, 2010
Photo from AFP

Israeli Mossad is already a strong suspect in the recent killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the United Arab Emirates. The charter member of the al-Qassam Brigades was electrocuted and strangled in his Dubai hotel room, and God knows what happened to him in between. 

Al-Mabhouh's murder evokes a certain sense of deja vu.  Anyone who has read the brilliant work "Kill Khalid:  The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas" would know exactly what I'm talking about. 

It chronicles how a Mossad hit team posing as Canadian tourists set out on the streets of Amman, Jordan in 1997 to eliminate the Hamas political leader. 

By Teymoor Nabili in Middle East on January 29th, 2010

Setareh Sabety has posted a poem - They Did Not Hang My Son Today - in honour of Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, two young men hanged in Tehran before dawn on Friday after being convicted of counter-revolutionary activity. 

Rahmanipour's father has spoken of how he only learned of his son's death from the TV news, and his lawyer told Al Jazeera she was allowed to see Arash only once, and was not allowed in the court room during the actual "trial".

 

Last week, a former counsellor for the Iranian Embassy in Tokyo became the second Iranian diplomat to resign in protest at the regime's post-election behaviour.

By Ayman Mohyeldin in Middle East on January 27th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Two congressmen in the United States are among the first to publicly call for end to an Israeli-imposed siege on Gaza. 

Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) sent a letter, signed by over 50 members of the US Congress to President Barack Obama urging him to ease the humanitarian suffering of the people of Gaza by lifting Israel's siege on the coastal territory. 

In the letter, the congressmen urged the president "to press for immediate relief of the suffering of the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts".

The letter states that the crisis triggered by the siege on Gaza "has devastated livelihoods, entrenched a poverty rate of over 70%, increased dependance on erratic international aid".

By Teymoor Nabili in Middle East on January 22nd, 2010

Juan Cole adds some perspective to the media coverage of the suffering in Haiti:

 

When a relief plane for the Physicians without Borders isn't allowed to land by US military authorities at the airport in Port-au-Prince, there is an outcry.

But Israeli military authorities will not allow any relief planes at all to land in the Gaza Strip (the Israelis destroyed Gaza's airport in 2001).

We cheer when a Haitian child is rescued from the rubble, but ignore the thousands of Gazan children who are suffering malnutrition and being buried by Israeli policy, a policy that is a war crime.

By Ayman Mohyeldin in Middle East on January 20th, 2010

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It probably has not made the headlines in most press around the world, but Israel has recently decided to expel an American journalist working for the respected Ma'an News Agency, based out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For the first time in a week, journalist Jared Malsin was allowed to use his mobile phone on Wednesday morning to inform Ma'an that he was being placed onto an El Al flight to Prague

The case of Jared Malsin has implications for foreign journalists who work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). When the story of his detention first emerged, I spoke to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the case. He told me, Jared's deportation was politically motivated based on his work.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium, Middle East on January 18th, 2010

laden1.jpgYou have probably heard of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, but have you heard of Mohammed Badie and the Muslim Brotherhood?

If not, you should reconsider all of your assumptions about Islam and al-Qaeda's terrorism and whether confronting or reforming Islam is the answer to the al-Qaeda challenge.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - which boasts an estimated half a million members and commands the support of about one third of the country's population (there are no accurate public figures) - has over the weekend elected Badie, a 63-year-old scientist, as its leader or "guide".

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