The Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon is just the latest in a sequence of disenfranchisements that have plagued the Middle East for generations. In 1948, just years after Lebanon was founded, the Palestinians were pushed out of their homeland by the Israelis and the Lebanese granted them refuge....
Over 22.5 million people have been forced to flee their countries. Last year, less than 200,000 were resettled. It’s a famous story, though perhaps not famous enough. The 1939 voyage of the MS St. Louis, a German ocean liner, was recounted in a 1974 book and a 1976 film (both titled Voyage...
World Refugee Day should be an observance of communities that have opened their hearts and cities to those in need. While I have often expressed my thoughts about the Syrian, Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, even including the burdens carried by Jordan and Palestine, it is only a...
American foreign policy is at the root of forced migration from different parts of the world, and human rights advocates must address the problem at its heart. Human rights advocates and organizers working on immigrants’ rights in the United States must take a broader approach in our advocacy,...
Now that he cares about the fate of Syrian children, Trump should open up our country — not bomb theirs. When I saw footage of the alleged sarin gas attack in Syria, I felt ill. The whole episode, which killed up to 100 civilians in Syria’s Idlib province, was ghastly. But worst of all was...
Islamophobia and indifference in an age of terror tarnish the legacy of Paris as the city of light. The old city is still beautiful in its elegant, well-designed, almost understated way. In fact, it’s hardly old. What we see, the streets in which we play the flâneur, were designed and built...
As Aleppo falls, the world has forgotten about civilians in Syria. I woke up this morning to a video of an old Syrian man gesturing wildly at a camera as bombs tore up the concrete behind him. He looked like many Arab grandfathers I know, bearded and wearing a plaid shirt decorated with...
Images create a particular political language that shapes our way of understanding refugees. The image of the stunning gaze and green eyes enthralled the world when it was captured by award-winning photographer, Steve McCurry, and appeared on the front page of National Geographic in 1984. The...
The US presidential campaign debate on Middle East policy has focused disproportionately on the response to the Islamic State. This series instead focuses on five alternative Middle East policy challenges facing the next president. In this final part, Ryan J. Suto discusses addressing the human...
Just think for a moment: Why are refugees headed for Europe and beyond? “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst...
