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Uncounted and Unacknowledged: Syria's Refugee University Students and Academics in Jordan
[The following report was issued by the University of California Davis Human Rights Initiative and the Institute for International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund.] Uncounted and Unacknowledged: Syria's Refugee University Students and Academics in Jordan The following is a brief preliminary report ... Read More »
From High to Low and Back Again: A Fish Above Sea Level
Samak fawqa satah al-bahr [A Fish above Sea Level]. Directed by Hazim Bitar. Jordan, 2012. Recently I had the opportunity to view the independent film Samak fawqa satah al-bahr (A Fish above Sea Level) at the University of Jordan. This is the first feature-length film by Hazim Bitar, who both wrote and directed it. ... Read More »
Reconciling Return and Rights: Palestinian Refugees and the Emergence of a "Political Society"
Analyses and debates on the reconfiguration of rights, democracy, social justice, and dignity in the Arab region suffer from a chronic methodological nationalism—which perpetuates the idea that people seek and fight for rights and self-determination solely in their national state and territory, seen as the natural ... Read More »
Joint PHROC Statement: UN Resolution on Settlements--Another Missed Opportunity
[The following statement was issued on 25 March 2013 by the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council.] Occupied Ramallah, 25 March 2013 - On Friday, 22 March, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (the Council) adopted a resolution, tabled by the State of Palestine, the Organisation of ... Read More »
King Abdullah II of Jordan, World Statesman?
This week, Jeffrey Goldberg published a now infamous interview with King Abdullah II of Jordan in The Atlantic. Its contents have reverberated all around the blogosphere, generating heated real-life debates. Even before the full interview was made public, the New York Times culled out the most egregious of quotes for ... Read More »
Open Sesame: Memories from a War-Torn Generation
Open Sesame Curated by Ola El-Khalidi apexart, Manhattan 17 January -- 2 March 2013 Through a small collection of objects, maps, letters, and photographs, Open Sesame leads viewers back in time to 2 August 1990— the morning Iraq invades Kuwait. The exhibit pieces together the miscellaneous ... Read More »
The Rising Cost of Electricity in Jordan
[Click on the image to view or download larger version of this illustration.] Read More »
Fun, Football, and Palestinian Nationalism
Some of the most enduring memories of fieldwork in al-Wihdat refugee camp are the several evenings I spent watching football matches in the company of my friends. Al-Wihdat is a Palestinian refugee camp established in 1955 on the outskirts of Amman, the capital of Jordan. The camp today is fully incorporated ... Read More »
Romancing the Throne: The New York Times and The Endorsement of Authoritarianism in Jordan
On 23 January 2013, elections were held for the seventeenth parliament of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. During the past several months, the monarchy and its allies hailed the 2013 parliamentary elections in Jordan as both the symbol and litmus test of the regime's commitment to "reform" in the country. ... Read More »
Palestinian Refugees in Jordan and the Revocation of Citizenship: An Interview with Anis F. Kassim
[Anis F. Kassim is an international law expert and practicing lawyer in Jordan. He was a member of the Palestinian legal defense team before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the 2004 landmark case on Israel’s separation wall, and that led to the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the ... Read More »
First Jordanian Elections post Arab Uprisings; Challenges of Reporting from Syria
This week, Amman-based activist and writer Hisham Bustani updates VOMENA on the first Jordanian parliamentary elections since the Arab uprisings, and what they mean for the country. More than thirty journalists were killed in Syria in 2012 alone. Istanbul-based freelance journalist Justin Vela talks about the ... Read More »
International Foundation for Electoral Systems FAQs on Jordanian Elections
[The following report was issued by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems on 16 January 2013. While polls have closed at the end 23 January for the 2013 Jordanian parliamentary elections, the document offers details on the policies and procedures guiding the electoral system. It should be noted, though, ... Read More »
On the Exhibition THIS IS also GAZA
To write this commentary, I draw on my knowledge as historian of twentieth-century Palestinian painting as well as my own experiences with some of these artists when I co-curated Al Jisser Group’s exhibition in New York, “Williamsburg Bridges Palestine.” Additionally, I have a little experience visiting ... Read More »
Supporting Rula Quawas and Academic Freedom: An Interview With A Former Student
On 2 September 2012, Professor Rula Quawas was removed from her position as the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Jordan under nebulous circumstances. In a letter addressed to the president of the university, the president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Professor ... Read More »
When is Something, Something? Jordan’s Arab Uprising
Throughout the early months of 2011, and the Arab uprisings, I was living and conducting research in Jordan. I paid close attention to the reverberations of the Arab Spring on the ground in Jordan, and grew frustrated with the absolute lack of attention, or worse yet, dismissal of political ... Read More »
Getting Past the Brink: Protests and the Possibilities of Change in Jordan
On Tuesday, 13 November 2012, protesters took to the streets across several cities in Jordan. The immediate spark for the protests was the government’s announcement that it would cut fuel subsidies as a means of addressing its budget deficit and securing a two billion dollar loan from the International Monetary ... Read More »
Why Not Jordan?
The 13 November withdrawal of fuel and electricity subsidies has sparked vigorous demonstrations in Jordan, prompting renewed speculation about whether the wave of Arab uprisings that began in late 2010 has finally arrived in the Hashemite Kingdom. Indeed, amidst the rush of scholarly attempts to explain why ... Read More »
Is the Sky Falling? Press and Internet Censorship Rises in Jordan
Since January 2011, the Jordanian political scene has been significantly affected by the waves of change in the region collectively known as “the Arab Spring.” Emboldened by regional events, some fear that barriers have been broken in Jordan as political and labor activists throughout the country have taken to the ... Read More »
Sexual Harassment Video that Led to Removal of Rula Quawas as Dean at the University of Jordan
The following video was produced by students of the University of Jordan's Feminist Theory class during the fall semester of the 2011-2012 academic year. The video addresses sexual harassment experienced by female students on the University of Jordan campus. It was uploaded to YouTube on 9 June, 2012. The ... Read More »
Letter Concerning Removal of Professor Rula Quawas from Her Post as Dean at the University of Jordan
[The following letter was issued by the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association concerning the removal of Professor Rula Quawas from her position as Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Jordan after a her students produced and published a video on sexual ... Read More »
The River Has Two Banks: Full Program (Various Locations, Sep. - Nov. 2012)
The River has Two Banks The politics of segregation has greatly hindered a collective understanding of shared realities and common histories across the east and west banks of the River Jordan. As individuals who are invested in the relationship between Palestine and Jordan, the historical trajectory of the ... Read More »
الأردن يبحث عن نفسه: الحكم والإصلاح والبعد الإسرائيلي
يعاني الجسم السياسي الأردني من حالة إنهاك واستنزاف متفاقمين. فالحكم يعيد اجترار نفسه ضمن نفس المجموعة من المسؤولين الذين أصبحوا عبئاً على النظام أكثر من كونهم سنداً له. وبواقع الممارسة، عزل النظام نفسه عن قاعدته الشعبية خصوصاً المتعلمة والمثقفة والناشطة سياسياً مما جعله يدور في حلقة مفرغة. واستعاض الحكم عن أسلوب ... Read More »
Appeal to Defend Freedoms of Expression and the Press in Jordan
[The following statement was issued by the Jordanian Coordination Group of Electronic Websites (CGEW) on 13 September 2012 and published on Ammon News.] Despite King Abdullah II's repeated assurances that Jordanians enjoy unrestricted freedom of expression and free media, successive Jordanian governments for ... Read More »
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Migrant Workers Caught Between Employers' Abuse and Poor Implementation of the Law
[The following report was issued by Tamkeen for Legal and Human Rights.] Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Migrant Workers Caught Between Employers' Abuse and Poor Implementation of the Law General Summary Administrative and Legal Framework of Migrant Workers in Jordan According to statistics released by the ... Read More »
الأردنيون: الحقيقة المُرَّة
يمر الأردن الآن في مرحلة من انعدام الوزن وفقدان التوازن السياسي. فالعبث بإرادة الشعب ومشاعره من خلال فرض سياسات وقرارات وقوانين تتناقض ورغبة الشعب قد دفعت الأمور في مسار خطر . الكثيرون يتساءلون عن ما أوصل الأردن إلى ھذا المأزق ، ولماذا؟ الإجابة لا تستدعي ذكاءً خارقاً أو قدرة فائقة على التحليل. إن مسار السياسة ... Read More »
Jon Stewart's Theater of the Absurd
Soon after King Abdullah II ascended the throne of Jordan in 1999, he began using media and advertising campaigns to distinguish himself from his father King Husayn and to present his policies to his subjects. While for decades King Husayn’s picture appeared all over the country – garbed in bedouin, military, ... Read More »
Press Release: The River Has Two Banks
The politics of segregation has greatly hindered a collective understanding of shared realities and common histories across the east and west banks of the River Jordan. As individuals who are invested in the relationship between Palestine and Jordan, the historical trajectory of the two compels us to examine where we ... Read More »
Syrian Population Regression
Population: ~ 22.5 Million
2011: 5,800+ (killed)
2012: 60,000+ (killed) and 500,000+ (external refugees)
2013: 70,000+ (killed) and 1,000,000+ (external refugees)
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Syria Map and Stats
Population: 22,517,750
GDP: $107.4 billion
Unemployment: 8.3%; Youth Employment (ages 15-24): 19.1%
Internet Users: 4.469 million
Exchange Rate: ~ 98.00 Syrian pounds per US dollar
GDP Growth Rate: 3.2%
Military Expenditures: 5.9% of GDP (World Rank: 10)
Health Expenditures: 2.9% of GDP (World Rank: 180)
Population Growth Rate: 0.913%
Age Structure: 0-14 years: 35.2%; 15-64 years: 61%; 65 years and over: 3.8%
Literacy: 79.6%
Religious Demographics: Sunni Muslim 74%; other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%; Christian (various denominations) 10%
Ethnic Demographics: Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
The United States has been a close ally of one of the most repressive Islamic states in the world—Saudi Arabia—and has had little difficulties with Turkey’s Islamic government. The “fear of Islamists” component of this narrative is clearly a red herring.click | email | tweet
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