Middle East & North Africa

On June 20, 2013, the Heinrich Böll Foundation Israel, the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue held the conference 20 Years since the Oslo Accords - Success and/or Failure?. In advance of a comprehensive publication of contributions, we are pleased to present this analysis by Dr. Ephraim Lavie on the early foundation of obstacles in the Oslo negotiation process.

Dr. Ziad Majed is a Lebanese professor and political writer. The Syrian journalist Ahmad Silal talked with him about the international and Arab positions in relation to the Syrian revolution and the challenges that face it.

In wars, rape has been used as a tool to go beyond the physical and military defeat of the enemy, to subdue a society politically and morally. The present article, written by psycho-therapist Dr. Jamal Khalil Sobh, sheds light on the repeated war crime of rapes of women, including the recent tragic incidents in Syria.

In Syria the majority of the population is in revolt against the authoritarian regime, that has ruled Syria since 1970. The United Nations called the situation recently "a civil war". But why is it that the far Right and certain far-Left groups in a number of Western nations agree in their hostility to the Syrian revolution?

The Lebanese author and leftist activist Fawwaz Traboulsi has followed the the Arab revolutions as a writer and analyst, writing down his insights 2012 in his book „Democracy is Revolution“. Mohammad al-Attar met him for the interview about Syria in Beirut.

The anthology „Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus“, supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s office in Beirut, is one of the six books to receive the „English PEN Award for Outstanding Writing in Translation“ in the year 2013. 

The NGO Monitor inquired again about our funding for "+972 - Advancement of Citizen Journalism", which helps managing and editing their site 972mag.com. The NGO monitor cites a number of contributions to the site as too critical of Israel and accuses the site of being part of the international campaign to demonize Israel. We neither share this general assessment nor do we agree with everything that is posted on 972mag.com.

After brutal attacks against African refugees in conjuncion with a demonstration at Tel Aviv's HaTikva, high-ranking politicans of the Israeli governement are demanding a tougher action against illegal immigrants. But there are also more and more voices that support more agreeable solutions.

This paper outlines the tasks and character of an international mission aimed at supporting Israel and Palestine in the implementation of a peace agreement. It is the result of intensive consultation among a group of high-level experts - amongst them security experts from Israel, Palestine, Europe and Canada. The consultation process was organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Looking at the upcoming parliamentary election in Iran, the sociologist Dr. Hosein Ghazian analyses the challenges of this election in the light of recent political developments in Iran.