American University of Beirut

Op-Eds

Jenin Women’s Tobacco Diaries:
Women Workers’ lives Between Colonialism, Exploitation, and Survival

June 8, 2023

Kholoud Al Ajarma

Tobacco cultivation and cigarette production, known locally as "Arabic cigarette" in the city of Jenin and its villages, have become basic sources of livelihood for thousands of Palestinians whose daily lives are hampered by Israeli policies, limited job opportunities, and financial need.

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Agriculture in Palestine: Non-market Production

June 5, 2023

Fairouz Salem

Palestinian farmers are often forced to destroy their crops as a protest of Israeli crops flooding the Palestinian market. This occurs with the watermelon crop almost every summer season,  when Palestinian farmers find pre-season Israeli watermelons sold in Palestinian markets at low prices.

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The Modest Harvest of the Algerian Labor Movement

April 28, 2023

Gianni Del Panta and Lorenzo Lodi


In the 2010s, mass movements emerged in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Algeria was all but an exception. Although long-standing autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika smoothly weathered the 2010-11 revolutionary cycle (Volpi 2013), he was forced to resign in April 2019, after which a popular movement known as the “Hirak” mobilized uninterruptedly for nearly six weeks.

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This is what a feminist economic future looks like

Published in 2022 in collaboration with Oxfam

Rima Majed


Plumber Mariam Tawfeeq Matlaq fixing a water tank on the roof of her house, in Zarqa, north of Amman, Jordan. Oxfam has supported Mariam to train other women to become plumbers across Zarqa (Picture: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam)

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The Emotional Labor of Surviving Precarity in Egypt​​

​Wednesday March, 15, 2023​

​Harry Pettit​



 When we met, Mahmoud immediately suggested he had no chance: “There will be an army of people there!” We arrived at 9 a.m., and Mahmoud was told to take a ticket and wait outside the gates along with around 200 others. He took ticket number 850 for the day. The application was open for 10 days, suggesting many thousands would be applying. Following Mahmoud, several others we spoke to who were waiting patiently for their turn also expressed that they had no chance of acceptance. ​


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​​Dismantling Green Colonialism: Towar​​ds a Just Transition in North Africa​​​​Friday

 February 3, 2023

Hamza Hamouchene

​​


The reality of climate breakdown is already visible in North Africa and the Arab region, undermining the ecological and socioeconomic basis of life. Countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt are experiencing severe recurrent heat waves and prolonged droughts, with catastrophic impacts on agriculture and small-scale farmers. 


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Domestic Elites and IMF Executives: Who Are Our Overlords?​​​​​​​

​​Friday December 16, 2022

Ahmad Al-Sholi


The IMF, last-resort creditor for economically failing sovereigns, attached about 26 conditions on average to each of its loans in 2016-2017, up from an average of 19 conditions in 2011-2013, according to this review. This is despite the IMF's own guidelines review in the interim that makes “parsimony in program-related conditions," a principal.


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​​​Engineered Food Insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa

Friday December 2, 2022

Giuliano Martiniello

 

Having integral elements in the mechanics of global agricultural value chains such as food, feed, fertilizers, and fuel, Russia and Ukraine (and Belarus) play key roles in the overall functioning and stability of the global food system.

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East Mediterranean Natural Gas: A Lubricant for Israel’s Regional Integration

Friday, July 1, 2022

Sai Englert



On March 28, 2022, foreign ministers from Israel, the US, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met in Sde Boker

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How the Corruption-Centric Discourse in the Arab World Proved Self-Defeating

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Amr Adly



During the two major rounds of popular mobilization and revolutionary collective action in 2011 and 2019, corruption came to occupy a central position in the opposition's discourse on underdevelopment, injustice and inequality, and despotism in the Arab world

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Understanding Capitalism in the MENA and the Process of Neoliberal Reform

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

​​​Joseph Daher



Alongside the absence of democracy, or its significant shortcomings, the widespread economic marginalization and intense socioeconomic grievances constituted one of the most important causes of the uprisings that erupted in the Middle East and North Africa

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