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Created on Saturday, 20 April 2013 11:26
Public Seminars
 The Afro-Middle East Centre invites you to a speaking tour of Johannesburg and Cape Town by Awad Abdel Fattah, Palestinian politician from Israel. Fattah will be in South Africa talking about the façade of 'Israeli Democracy' at the University of Cape Town and the University of Johannesburg in April 2013.
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Created on Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:01
By Afro-Middle East Centre
 The 31 March agreement between Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in which the two leaders expressed their ‘common goal to defend’ the many holy sites in East Jerusalem from the continued threat of Judaisation may be the first step in initialising a radical alteration in the nature and proposed solution to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Created on Monday, 01 April 2013 13:21
By Khalid Mish’al
In August 2010, AMEC published the English translation of an interview with Khalid Mish’al, head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). The interview laid out the vision and strategies of Hamas at the time. A few months later, uprisings began in North Africa and spread across the Middle East and North Africa, changing the nature of politics and the balance of power in the region. In November 2012, the Beirut-based Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations hosted a conference with the theme ‘Islamists in
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Created on Saturday, 13 October 2012 16:49
By Heidi-Jane Esakov
 During the forced removals of the South African suburb of Sophiatown in 1955, around 65,000 residents were moved and "dumped in matchbox houses" in black townships. Only a few years before that, in 1948, Bedouins of Israel's Naqab/Negev region, who Israel had not expelled, were also forcibly moved "from their ancestral lands into a restricted zone called the Siyag (literally, 'fenced in')". And, just as Sophiatown was completely bulldozed, the Negev village of Al-Arakib was recently razed to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest.
As a South African it is particularly difficult not to see the stark parallels between the experiences of black South Africans under apartheid and of Palestinians today.
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Created on Friday, 12 October 2012 01:22
By Afro-Middle East Centre
 As Turkish troops amass on the Turkey-Syria border, and artillery exchange between the two countries threatens to enter its second week, there has been some speculation that Turkey might declare war on Syria. Yet, despite mounting tensions between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that Turkey, which has unambiguously aligned itself with the Syrian opposition, has no intention of going to war with its beleaguered neighbour. In turn, Syria’s President Bashar al Asad is well aware that even unintentional provocation that could open up a front with Turkey would be suicidal. The Syrian government is clinging tenaciously to power, and Asad will not want to put further pressure on an already fatigued and over-stretched military.
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Created on Saturday, 08 September 2012 11:35
 Opening Remarks by International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim at the International Conference of the Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC) on MENA: A transforming Region and its impact on the African Continent, Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria, 27 August 2012.
I wish to thank you kindly for the invitation to address this distinguished audience who have gathered here to discuss what is most certainly a relevant topic. For the many visitors from far afield, I extend to you a warm South African welcome and hope that you will enjoy every moment of your stay in our friendly country.
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Created on Wednesday, 22 August 2012 15:23
 Can a state be both democratic and ethnically self-defined? The Afro-Middle East Centre’s (AMEC) latest publication Pretending democracy: Israel, an ethnocratic state unpacks this issue by using Israel as a case study. Based on papers presented at AMEC’s 2010 conference themed ‘Locating ethnic states in a cosmopolitan world: The case of Israel’, the book interrogates concepts such as ‘cosmopolitanism’, ‘nationalism’, ‘ethnocracy’ and ‘citizenship’.
Comprising eighteen chapters and divided into four themes over 416 pages, the book presents a comprehensive and lucid analysis of the Israeli state from its founding and the myths that enabled its establishment to the 2008/09 Gaza war and its consequences. The thematic areas covered are: ‘Israel and its founding myths’, ‘The ethnic state and its victims’, ‘Comparative ethnic nationalisms’ and ‘Beyond ethnic nationalism’.
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Created on Monday, 16 July 2012 02:00
By Ghassan Izzi
 The Syrian uprising has placed Hizbullah in a predicament in terms of its ability to maintain its alliance with the Syrian regime and also enjoy the sympathy of the Arab people, especially that of the Syrians These issues may be understood through a number of indicators. There have been suggestions that Hizbullah is attempting to support the perpetuation of the Syrian regime but is, at the same time, preparing for a post-Asad Syria.
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Created on Thursday, 12 July 2012 02:00
By Afro-Middle East Centre
 The audacious bombing of the high-level crisis cell meeting of Syrian President Bashar al Asad’s inner-circle last week that left four of Asad’s closest aides dead, had Syrian opposition groups elatedly proclaiming ‘the beginning of the end’ of the Asad regime. This was echoed by much of western media, which loudly forecast the imminent ousting of the Syrian president.
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Created on Saturday, 30 June 2012 02:00
By the Afro-Middle East Centre
 The sixteen month long Syrian uprising hit a critical juncture last Friday, 22 June, when Syria downed an unarmed Turkish F4 Phantom plane. An enraged Turkey maintained the plane was shot down in international airspace after it had only momentarily, and accidentally, strayed into Syrian territory while on a training sortie. Syria, which immediately admitted it had shot down the plane, countered that the plane had been gunned down over Syrian territory and that its forces had acted to protect its sovereignty. Although the incident has potentially changed the rules of engagement between Turkey and Syria, it is by no means a game changer for either.
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Created on Saturday, 13 April 2013 08:34
The Afro-Middle East Centre invites you to a seminar entitled Israeli society and prospects for change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Presented by internationally renowned Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, and moderated by Prof Ran Greenstein.
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Created on Monday, 08 April 2013 09:57
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies
 Summary
The Israeli rightwing continues to control the composition of the new government, but with a big difference this time: the rise of a new rightwing force that has created polarisation between the secular and the religious right. This may see the disintegration of the Likud base of the government that is composed of a mixture of both religious and secular.
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Created on Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:55
By Afro Middle-East Centre
 Expectations were low for US President Barack Obama’s first visit to Palestine-Israel. In light of a frosting of relations between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially after Netanyahu endorsed Obama’s presidential rival Mitt Romney in last year’s US presidential election, and a tacit acknowledgement that the so-called ‘peace process’ had stalled, the trip was more an affirmation of the avowed support of the USA for Israel than a hope for anything more significant.
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Created on Saturday, 13 October 2012 16:39
By Osman Abdi Mohamed
 In recent months Al-Shabab has been suffering successive losses at the hands of Somali government forces fighting alongside the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). It has lost strategic cities and towns in central and southern Somalia with little or no resistance at all. While these losses might not be complete game-changers, they are a clear indication that the group is in bad shape, at least at the moment. A greater and more devastating loss for Al-Shabab, even more so than the loss of ground, is the loss of all credibility with the larger Somali public.
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Created on Friday, 28 September 2012 01:28
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies
 It has been decades since the Israeli leadership has attempted to interfere in American presidential elections in the manner Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted in the past few weeks. It is not unusual or extraordinary for the Israelis and the American Zionist lobby groups allied to them to strive to influence American elections; but Netanyahu's interference in this election has been blatant and audacious, with outbursts reflecting despair and fear or, perhaps, calculated haste.
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Created on Tuesday, 04 September 2012 16:54
By AlJazeera Centre for Studies
 At the end of August 2012, Egypt's first civilian and first post-revolution president, Muhammad Mursi, completed his second month in office. The president, whose assumption of power sparked waves of doubt and ridicule, seems to have settled into his new job quite well after a tough run-off and a narrow electoral victory. In doing so, he has refuted all expectations of his quick fall and has reflected rare political statesmanship and great courage in decision-making. After his four brief trips outside the country, Mursi seems determined to revive Egyptian foreign policy.
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Created on Friday, 10 August 2012 02:00
By Afro-Middle East Centre
 Sunday’s attack on an Egyptian border post near the Egypt/Israel border has threatened to reconfigure relations between Egypt and Hamas, and Egypt and Israel. Around thirty-five men attacked a border post near the Egyptian town of Rafah, killed sixteen soldiers, and commandeered two vehicles which were then used to cross the border into Israel. Israeli helicopters destroyed the armoured vehicle which successfully crossed the border. It is alleged that some of the men reached the post by sneaking through tunnels connecting Egypt and Gaza and that some Gazan group might have been involved.
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Created on Thursday, 12 July 2012 12:29
By the Afro-Middle East Centre
 Events of the past few days in Egypt point to a clash within the political elite; it is, however, not likely to be a dramatic confrontation but a slow war of attrition stretching over the next few years. At the heart of the battle is the attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's first democratically-elected president, Muhammad Mursi, to relocate state executive powers within the presidency and legislative powers within the democratically-elected parliament.
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Created on Sunday, 08 July 2012 16:43
By ‘Izzat Shahrour
 The use of China's veto over the Syrian crisis demonstrates that it no longer needs to sit on the fence on such international issues. In other words, there is no ambivalence on China’s part; it is decisive in its actions and no longer desires to either please everyone or to provoke anyone. China had previously maintained diplomatic relationships with smaller countries in order to gain support against Taiwan at the United Nations, or more generally to defend China against criticism of its human rights record. China is now recognised as an emerging international power especially after it asserted itself as a major economic force. Its strategic interests have changed and with that its relations with other major powers. These developments have effected a change in its policies and diplomatic conduct.
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Created on Monday, 25 June 2012 12:36
By Zeenat Sujee
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) uprisings have brought to the fore numerous human rights issues. Several studies1 have found that a number of countries are not fully compliant in upholding their international obligations - according to the various human rights treaties and conventions. In the MENA region, in particular, many countries have experienced political changes which have had a detrimental effect on the implementation of certain rights, not least of which are the rights of refugees.
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The clashes currently occurring in various areas in Iraq, which left over 180 people dead in the past week, threaten the stability and territorial integrity of Iraq, and may result in the region dividing along sectarian lines. This becomes more likely when the Syrian crisis, and its potential spillover into Lebanon, are considered. The clashes began on Tuesday, 23 April, when the Iraqi army attacked peaceful protesters in the town of Hawijah in the ‘mixed’ Kirkuk province, resulting in over fifty protesters being killed. Consequently, Iraqi Sunnis began calling for increased armed resistance against the central government, with some advocating secession for Iraq’s Sunni-majority provinces.