Leon Blum High School, named after the first Jewish prime minister of France, sits in a depressed suburb of Paris populated mainly by Muslims. The majority of the students in Anne Gueguen’s history and geography class are bored and unruly. It’s a wonder she’s able to teach them anything. This is the setting of Once […]
Sports and politics collided in 1936, when the winter and summer Olympic Games were held in Germany. Opponents of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime called for a boycott, believing that participation would be a validation of Germany’s openly antisemitic policies and practices. Critics blasted this approach, claiming the Olympics fostered national pride and unity as well […]
In parliamentary elections held in Turkey last June 7, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) received nearly 13 percent of the popular vote, giving it 80 seats in the 550-member National Assembly. It marked the first time that a primarily Kurdish party had cleared the 10 percent electoral threshold to enter parliament. […]
There is a nip in the air as autumn arrives incrementally in Toronto. The days are shorter and cooler and the nights are chilly. The sun shines less strongly, but you can feel its pleasant warmth on your skin. This is the time of the year when the green leaves on deciduous trees gradually turn […]
The timing of the latest outburst of Palestinian unrest in the West Bank and Israel is hardly surprising. With the peace process having shuddered to a screeching halt and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank continuing apace, the probability of a Palestinian reaction was inevitable. I’m frankly surprised it didn’t happen much […]
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was won by the National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition of human rights activists, labor unions, lawyers and businesses which played a significant role in guiding Tunisia to the promised land of democracy after its political upheaval in 2010 and 2011. The uprising in Tunisia spread to the rest of the […]
The nuclear agreement signed by Iran and the six major powers in July has emboldened the Iranian leadership to carry on as usual with its aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East. Under the terms of the accord, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program for 10 to 15 years in exchange for sanctions relief to […]
Beyond the blindingly white Sikh temples and sleek highrises of Vancouver, voracious gangsters sporting hip clothes, spiffy shoes and menacing revolvers strut their stuff in broad daylight and in the darkness of night. In Deepa Mehta’s bouncy and buoyant new feature film, Beeba Boys, which opens in Canada on October 16, this violent nether world […]
Is the two-state solution dead? One might think so, judging by the latest violence convulsing the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Padraig O’Malley, a professor of peace and reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts, believes that the two-state solution has had its day in the sun and has been overtaken by events on the ground. […]
This very lengthy Canadian election campaign has revolved around many topics, but it seems that some of the most emotional involve Islam and Muslims. And the way the three main political parties handle these hot-button issues may determine their relative standings on election day on October 19. There have been debates about the intake […]