• Labour Pains

    The Caravan: A journal of politics and culture, November 1, 2011 Sitting outside of the small pharmacy she and her husband own in Palawan—the Philippines’ western-most province, a far-flung island known as the last frontier—Diana recounts how she let her application for American citizenship lapse. “We never responded to the [US] embassy,” she says. “So …

  • What State? Whose Authority?

    The Boston Review, October 10, 2011 The stage and big screen are ready and waiting in Ramallah’s Clock Square on September 23. Workers unload plastic chairs from a truck. Banners bearing the slogan “Palestine 194” hang from nearby buildings. Preparations are almost set for the public viewing of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech …

  • Language becomes a political weapon in Israel

    Al Jazeera English, September 1, 2011 Inter Press Service, September 1, 2011 Speaking to the US congress in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu boasted that his country is a beacon of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, that it is the only place where Arabs “enjoy real democratic rights”. It’s true that …

  • Israel’s tent protests symptom of larger identity crisis

    Foreign Policy, August 19, 2011 The media has been quick to depict the Israeli tent protests as a middle class movement. But there are other groups taking part: Palestinians, low-income Jewish Israelis, migrant workers, and African refugees. While all of these groups face a number of serious problems—as does Israel’s middle class—one was living outdoors …