Mustafa Qadri

As protests and celebrations marked the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution in Iran, international pressure on the world’s newest nuclear state is increasing, writes Mustafa Qadri

Thirty-one years ago this week a coalition of religious and secular Iranians ousted the pro-US Shah. The move from the Shah’s superficially modern, Western-centric monarchy to an independent Islamic theocracy in 1979 marked one of the biggest geopolitical shifts in the Middle East in recent history.

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…was to Al Arabiya. You can read a transcript of it here. As has been his want in a still very young political career the rhetoric is top notch. But material changes from previous US Mid-East policies are yet to be seen.

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U.S. President Barack Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomacy but his first statement on the conflict between Arabs and Israelis was strikingly similar to old U.S. policies.

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“Nobody is seriously concerned about Iranian aggression. There has been no sign of any. But they are upset about Iran’s influence in the region. Also in the background is the concern that Iran might turn East. That’s not discussed very much but that’s certainly a policy concern,” the feisty US political dissident added.

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On Saturday armed settlers from Kiryat Arba invaded a Palestinian house in Hebron where a wedding was taking place, throwing stones and harrassing guests. Two of the guests were wounded and one, 15 year old Hamza Abu Hitta, was thrown from the roof. He suffered a broken back and is in hospital, where his condition [...]

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“One wall Obama won’t be breaching” NewMatilda.com 29 July 2008
(On Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin, Germany and his omission of Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank)

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“Mindless violence or endless cycle?” OnlineOpinion.com.au 9 July 2008
(On the bulldozer attack on West Jerusalem by a Palestinian Israeli citizen)

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“Guilt by association” NewMatilda.com 7 July 2008
(On the punishment of NGOs coordinating their activities in the Gaza Strip with Hamas)

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“Israel’s new wave of refugees” NewMatilda.com 30 June 2008
(On the recent influx of African refugees to Israel)

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THIS month marks the 41st year of Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. For ordinary Palestinians the occupation has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a giant prison. “[This] occupation put[s] you in a cage, a cage on your life and on your mind so you never feel safe,” says Mahmoud, an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

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“The house right across the street was hit. It’s not like World War II but it’s a long term, ongoing kind of action that is causing a lot of insecurity and tension and anxiety. So people are traumatised even though there’s no colossal damage … of course [there's] the bombs that Israel sends to Gaza. But that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t find one person in Sderot who’s not been traumatised in one way or another by this endless conflict.”

I recently visited Sderot, the Israeli town one kilometre from Gaza that is routinely targeted in rocket attacks. You can read the entire report here.

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The relative lack of critical analysis of the United States’ military aid package to favoured Middle East nations reveals a great deal about contemporary measures of peace and security (Report, August 1). How, exactly, does a $20bn military aid package foment peace? The US offers yet another golden handshake to regimes, Jewish and Arab alike, [...]

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My most recent piece is an interview with a friend from Gaza:

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In June of this year I had a letter published in The Guardian regarding the British sailors caught by Iran in disputed waters. A friend has just told me that the letter was also published in The Australian. The version in The Australian goes like this:

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Imagine if a bunch of Iranian sailors were captured between the high seas and British territorial waters (A peculiar outrage, March 30). The media would say they had no right to be there in the first place. They would certainly be paraded on TV. The prime minister would condemn this act of aggression by Iran. And Iran would profess that it was unlawful for Britain to detain its sailors, who were merely undertaking a routine exercise on the high seas. This scenario appears absurd because one cannot think of a circumstance where the Iranian military would be roaming around waters in western Europe. And that absurdity is at the heart of the present situation.

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