Nicola Pratt 🇵🇸✌️
@nicolapratt.bsky.social
Professor of the International Politics of the Middle East, trade unionist, anti-imperialist, feminist
The BRISMES Committee on #AcademicFreedom has published a statement on academic #boycotts. These can be consistent with—and even necessary for—upholding academic freedom and fundamental human rights, particularly in contexts of systemic injustice. Read the statement in full: bit.ly/CAF_Boycotts...
On 1 July, following the #BRISMES2025 keynote lecture by Dr Rana Barakat, BRISMES members and conference participants stood in solidarity with all those affected by Israeli bombardments. #StopArmingIsrael #EndTheGenocide
Thank you to everyone who attended the plenary “Ruins and Rebuilding: Academic and Activist Solidarities Across Borders” at #BRISMES2025. Our heartfelt thanks to our invited speakers Muna Dajani, Jasmine Gani, Golam Khiabany, Aya Nassar and Hala Shoman for their time and words.
🙏🏾Thanks @brismes.bsky.social for an inspiring & empowering conference in Newcastle. I wish German scholarly associations such as DAVO, DVPW would aim to create such solidarity & community amongst scholars. Also a big thanks to BRISMES members for electing me into the Committee for Academic Freedom.
On 2 July, following the BRISMES Annual General Meeting at #BRISMES2025, members and conference participants stood in solidarity with Alaa Abd El-Fattah and Leila Soueif. #FreeAlaa #SaveLaila #FreeThemAll
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at #BRISMES2025 — to our plenary and keynote speakers, our conference organising team and student volunteers, and to our amazing hosts at Newcastle University, including the support staff who made the event possible.
📢 Call for Papers Join SARN UK's AHRC-funded First International Conference at the University of Sussex, Brighton. 🗓️ 18–19 Sept 2025 | 📍University of Sussex Theme: Rebuilding Syria: Reflections, Innovations & Collaborations 📝 Submit by 20 June 2025 🔗 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#BRISMES2025 | Registration for non-speaking delegates for our 2025 BRISMES conference “Destruction, Loss, and Recovery in the Middle East” is now open! 📅 Register by 12 June 2025 More information & registration: shorturl.at/2Xf4S
#AcademicFreedom | With utmost urgency BRISMES CAF demands that the Prime Minister’s Office immediately intervene and lobby the Egyptian government for the immediate and unconditional release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Read our letter: shorturl.at/SALSt (1/3) #FreeAlaa
The BRISMES Committee on #AcademicFreedom has published a response to the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) report on #studentencampments and #Palestine solidarity. Read the statement in full: bit.ly/CAF_04062025 Please share widely.
🎓 MENACS Talk 🎓 🗓️ 4.00pm; 13 Jun 25 📍 MAH Resource Centre, Sussex University, Campus, Brighton 🕰️ Chaired by Dr @ferasalkabani.bsky.social Join SARN UK's member Reem Noureddin's talk on: 'The Gendered Impact of Conflict & Crisis: Syrian Girls’ Education & the Pathway to Recovery’
KCL UCU sends its solidarity to the students who have, since Monday evening, re-occupied King’s Strand campus quad to protest our university’s continued complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and oppression of the Palestinian people. Our full statement ➡️ docs.google.com/document/d/1...
KCL UCU Encampment Solidarity Statement
KCL UCU sends its solidarity to the students who have, since Monday evening, re-occupied King’s Strand campus quad to protest our university’s continued complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and opp...
docs.google.com
On Nakba Day let's recall British complicity in covering up the horrors of 1948 and the years preceding it. Below, a Guardian article from 1977 by the Historian Bernard Wasserstein reveals the destruction of key documents related to Palestine by the British State in the decade after the Nakba.
On May 15, Palestinians mark the Nakba. What began in 1948 remains the world’s longest unresolved refugee crisis.
Palestinian ex-prisoner of almost 30 years Wael El Gaube details Israel's horrifying treatment of detainees as revenge following the October 7 2023 attacks
Israel is targeting Palestinian prisoners as revenge
Palestinian ex-prisoner of almost 30 years Wael El Gaube details Israel’s horrifying treatment of detainees as revenge following the October 7 2023 attacks.
newarab.com
A police attack on a film screening is just one of the assaults on student freedoms that have turned UCLA into more of a fortress than a place of higher learning, write four UCLA faculty members.
UCLA Is Now Nearly Unrecognizable as a University
A police attack on a documentary film screening is just one of the assaults on student freedoms that have turned UCLA into more of a fortress than a place of higher learning.
thenation.com
BREAKING: Court orders Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri to be *freed* from ICE detention. Dr. Khan Suri — whose research focuses on peace building — was detained by the Trump administration two months ago. Follows the freeing of Mohsen Mahdawi & Rumeysa Ozturk.
BREAKING: Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri to be Released From ICE Detention
The release strikes another blow to the Trump administration following the release of Mohsen Mahdawi and Rumeysa Ozturk.
zeteo.com
"The ICC's chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen. American staffers have been told that if they travel to the U.S. they risk arrest. Some NGOs have stopped working with the ICC" after Trump sanctioned the court. apnews.com/article/icc-...
Trump's sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal's work
Nearly three months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
apnews.com
Israel has rapidly accelerated its destruction of Rafah in April and May. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, even when spending time analyzing recent satellite imagery. From me, Samuel Granados, Aaron Boxerman, and @rileymellen.bsky.social Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Gazans Once Escaped To Rafah. Now Israel Is Razing It. (Gift Article)
In the last few weeks, Israel has demolished extensive areas of Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.
nytimes.com
University of Warwick staff & students stand with Palestine 🇵🇸 #workplacedayofaction #nakba77 # EndTheGenocide @pscupdates.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Hope to see colleagues at Warwick Uni at this day of events for Palestine #Nakba77 #EndTheGenocide #FreePalestine
Heartbreaking and enraging. #StopBombingYemen
Middle East Eye (Unofficial)@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · last yr.At least 30 people killed in a US strike on a Yemeni migrant detention centre, says Houthi group - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/least-30-people-killed-us-strike-yemeni-migrant-detention-centre-says
Today the ICJ will start a 5 day case on whether Israel is meeting its humanitarian obligations in the occupied Palestinian territory as the occupying power. Israel will of course ignore its ruling. Rory Challands reporting
Israeli military spending soars by 65 percent following Israel's war on Gaza - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-spending-soars-65-percent-following-israels-war-gaza
Israeli military spending soars by 65 percent following Israel's war on Gaza
<article data-history-node-id="421783" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-spending-soars-65-percent-following-israels-war-gaza" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israeli-military-spending-soars-65-percent-following-israels-war-gaza" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israeli military spending soars by 65 percent following Israel's war on Gaza</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Global military spending hits record $2.72tn amid Middle East surges</p> <ul> <li> <p><strong>Global military spending surged</strong> to $2.72tn in 2024, marking the sharpest annual rise since the Cold War, according to SIPRI.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Israel’s defence budget jumped 65 percent</strong> to $46.5bn, its largest increase since the 1967 Six-Day War. Military costs now make up 8.8 percent of GDP, the world’s second-highest share.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Lebanon also boosted spending by 58 percent</strong>, though its total remained far lower at $635m.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Iran cut military expenditure by 10 percent</strong>, spending $7.9bn amid economic sanctions.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>"Major rises were limited to Israel and Lebanon,"</strong> said SIPRI researcher Zubaida Karim, despite expectations of broader Middle Eastern increases.</p> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </article>
middleeasteye.net
International NGOs largely continue to support a Eurocentric framework for development, even as they claim to be "decolonising" their practices. @surbhikesar.bsky.social and I explain our research on the Reimagining Development podcast: open.spotify.com/episode/36yd...
We cannot allow this to be normalised. #boycottIsrael #StopArmingIsrael #EndTheGenocide
Middle East Eye (Unofficial)@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · last yr.Four killed in Israeli air strike on Khan Yunis home - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/four-killed-israeli-air-strike-khan-yunis-home
US airlift delivers hundreds of bombs to Israel, say Israeli media - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/us-airlift-delivers-hundreds-bombs-israel-say-israeli-media
US airlift delivers hundreds of bombs to Israel, say Israeli media
<article data-history-node-id="421397" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/us-airlift-delivers-hundreds-bombs-israel-say-israeli-media" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/us-airlift-delivers-hundreds-bombs-israel-say-israeli-media" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">US airlift delivers hundreds of bombs to Israel, say Israeli media</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Israeli media said on Thursday that the United States has ramped up military support by sending hundreds of bombs to Israel in what they describe as the largest airlift of its kind in years.</p> <p>According to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, nine American military cargo planes landed at Nevatim Airbase within 24 hours, unloading large quantities of munitions.</p> <p>The report claims the bombs are meant to prepare Israel for possible strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites if ongoing diplomatic efforts collapse.</p> </div> </div> </article>
middleeasteye.net
Why did UK media ignore Lammy's secret meeting with Israeli foreign minister? - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/why-did-uk-media-ignore-lammys-secret-meeting-israeli-foreign-minister-0
Why did UK media ignore Lammy's secret meeting with Israeli foreign minister?
<article data-history-node-id="421409" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/why-did-uk-media-ignore-lammys-secret-meeting-israeli-foreign-minister-0" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/why-did-uk-media-ignore-lammys-secret-meeting-israeli-foreign-minister-0" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Why did UK media ignore Lammy's secret meeting with Israeli foreign minister?</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>In theory, the role of the media is to tell the truth and hold power to account. <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uk" target="_blank">British</a> newspapers and broadcasters have not fulfilled this function when it comes to <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israel</a> and the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-war-gaza" target="_blank">Gaza war</a>.</p> <p>On the contrary, British journalists have repeated the lies promoted by Israeli and British politicians. Some have produced fresh lies of their own, effectively acting as the propaganda arm of the Israeli state. </p> <p>The latest case in point concerns this week’s <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arrest-warrant-sought-israeli-foreign-minister-visit-britain" target="_blank">visit</a> of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar with his British counterpart, David Lammy. There’s no question this was major news. </p> <p>Saar was meeting the British foreign secretary just days after Israeli authorities <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/6/israel-detains-two-british-mps-on-parliamentary-delegation" target="_blank">detained and deported</a> two Labour MPs - a month after Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5klgv5zv0o" target="_blank">broke its ceasefire</a> with Hamas, opening the way to a fresh round of atrocities; and almost two months into Israel’s latest illegal blockade of Gaza. </p> <p>All this amid growing speculation that Israel is pressing for a new war on <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran" target="_blank">Iran</a>.</p> <h3>Read more: <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-did-uk-media-ignore-lammys-secret-meeting-israeli-foreign-minister">Why did UK media ignore Lammy's secret meeting with Israeli foreign minister?</a></h3> <p><img alt="Foreign Secretary David Lammy is pictured in London on 26 March 2025 (Benjamin Cremel/AFP)" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/max_2600x2600/public/images-story/uk-lammy-london-march-2025-benjamin-cremel-afp.jpg.jpg?itok=bx4U6267"></p> <section> </section> </div> </div> </article>
middleeasteye.net