Recent “peace” deals between Israel and Gulf Arab states herald not a more just and harmonious region, but a more militarized, securitized, and repressive one, argue Orwa Ajjoub and Rahaf Aldoughli.

 “Abu Ali… Abu Ali.” I heard the trembling voice of my friend Thaer, along with a barrage of frantic knocks on the door, waking me up after midnight on 21 August, 2013. “There is only one reason for Thaer to come to me after midnight,” I thought while rushing out to meet him. “It must be a massacre.” We lived in Eastern Ghouta, in the…

When a new “Progressive International” invited Syria’s Yassin al-Haj Saleh to join, he was happy to accept. When he then submitted this letter for their publication, they ceased contacting him without explanation.

The testimony delivered last month in a court in Germany’s Koblenz by the man who has come to be known as the “gravedigger” revived discussion of the atrocities committed in the Syrian regime’s prisons, and the killing of inmates by torture or the dreadful detention conditions in general. The witness, whose identity is withheld for safety reasons, and is officially referred to in the trial…

Doctors are rightly cherished in our Covid-plagued world, but can they write poetry? A new translation of a 13th-century Syrian classic recalls a time when physicians were also rockstar musicians, celebrated authors, and public intellectuals.

The famine looming today in Syria is caused not by a lack of food, but by policies consciously adopted by the Assad regime for many years, argues Yassin al-Haj Saleh.

Beirut’s wounds are starting to heal, but its system is more broken than ever. That must change before rebuilding becomes feasible, writes the owner of a popular hostel, café, and bar destroyed in the giant port blast.

“Beirut doesn’t look like herself this time.” –    Mahmoud Darwish Now that the sheer panic and adrenaline of the initial seconds have receded, along with the subsequent relief of the realization that this wasn’t a war—not in the conventional, July 2006 sense, anyway—there remains, of course, the deep, piercing grief for the staggering loss; the burning bile at the back of the throat; and,…

This text is inspired by the testimonies of many Syrians imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. Some are my own experiences, while others I only heard or read about, but carried with me long afterwards. Pronouns may change throughout the stories, as at times I combined several testimonies in a single speaker. While this may risk adding some confusion to the text, most of us do…

Ever since the Assad family seized power in Syria almost fifty years ago, the national parliament has been reduced to an object of widespread ridicule. Officially known as the People’s Council, it was turned by Hafez al-Assad’s regime into a caricature of a toothless legislature. The ratification of the 1973 constitution saw legislative power—already de facto in Assad’s hands—transferred formally to the presidential palace in…