Middle East Research and Information Project

None of this is possible without your support! Please consider us this Giving Tuesday for a one-time or monthly donation!

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Our Latest Issue and New Website Material Politics of Normalization, and the New MERIP.ORG

In October, we launched a brand new website, powered by Ghost! This was a huge achievement for our organization and has already made MERIP more accessible, easier to read and more engaging.

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Middle East Research and Information Project Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

We've begun archiving our zoom events on YouTube this year and launched a new channel -- check it out and subscribe!

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The MERIP Podcast - Middle East Research and Information Project MERIP30 Ardmore Ave. PO Box 390Ardmore, PA 19003

We've made some amazing strides as an organization this year -- here are some of the new ways you can engage MERIP!

In July, we launched The MERIP Podcast. You can listen to all the episodes on our website or your preferred platform!

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All of our work is freely available, but producing it relies on your support! Please consider a one-time or monthly donation this Giving Tuesday!

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The MERIP Podcast Episode Ten: Raouf Farrah On the Sumud Convoy, the Gaza Flotilla, and North African Solidarity

Farrah also joined Executive Director James Ryan to talk at more length about his experience on the MERIP Podcast.

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On the Road to Rafah—The Sumud Convoy and New Maghrebi Geographies of Resistance When the last bus came to a halt in Sirte, a coastal city in Central Libya, many thought it marked the end of the road. But it was only a turning point. What began as the Sumud Convoy—a historic act…

Raouf Farrah provided a dispatch based on his experience organizing the Global Sumud Convoy and how it's re-mapped Palestinian solidarity in Maghreb.

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Identity and Cultural Diplomacy of the Abraham Accords In December 2020, three months after the Abraham Accords were signed enabling the first commercial flights between Israel and the UAE, a short video went modestly viral on Israeli twitter. A man in a…

Shir Alon examined how the Accords have reshaped conceptions of Arabness and Jewishness inside Israel.

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The Abraham Accords and Sudan’s Global Counterrevolution On October 23, 2020, Sudan became the third Arab-majority country to normalize relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords. The deal between Israel and the civilian-military Sudanese Transitional…

Bayan Abubakr's essay in this issue placed the Accords at the intersection of genocide and revolution in Sudan.

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The Military-Industrial Backbone of Normalization In February 2025, as international condemnation of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza reached new heights, Abu Dhabi hosted the International Defence Exhibition and Conference. Over five days a record 34…

Tariq Dana offered us a report on the arms deals that undergird the Accords and facilitate repression across the region.

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Hardwiring Normalization—Infrastructures, Extraction and Gaza’s Future In the summer of 2025, a 38-page blueprint circulating inside the Trump administration was leaked to the press: the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (GREAT) Trust. At…

The lead article in this issue, from Rafeef Ziadah, analyzed normalization efforts through the proposed plans for reconstruction in Gaza.

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Material Politics of Normalization Summer/Fall 2025

Our Summer/Fall Double Issue, Material Politics of Normalization, reassessed the Abraham Accords after five years to demonstrate how so much of the material support for the Accords paved the way for the genocide in Gaza.

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All of our work relies on your support -- please consider a one-time or monthly donation to MERIP this Giving Tuesday.

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Tajali also joined Executive Director James Ryan for the first episode of our new podcast, to discuss her article in the wake of the US/Israeli war on Iran earlier this year.

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Women and Politics in Post-Jina Iran - MERIP The past and present of Woman, Life, Freedom. Featuring an update from Iranian civil society on Israel’s expanding war.

Mona Tajali gave us an incisive analysis of the state of the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

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Syria's New Men - MERIP Masculinity and the post-Asad political order.

Rahaf Aldoughli returned to Syria after 14 years of exile to interrogate the ruptures and continuities in the masculine attitudes in the wake of Ahmad al-Sharaa's victory over Bashar al-Asad.

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Our Managing Editor Marya Hannun spoke with Sudanese activist Raga Makawi about the role of women and feminism in the counter-revolutionary war in Sudan.

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Israel’s War on Reproduction in Gaza - MERIP On reprocide as a tactic of eliminationist violence.

Hala Shoman offered us this wrenching chronicle of how Israel has made conception and reproduction impossible for many Gazans.

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We opened this issue with a roundtable from leading gender scholars, all longtime MERIP contributors, on the state of the field and the trajectory of gender politics in the region over the last 30 years.

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New Gender Frontlines Spring 2025

Our Spring 2025 Issue, New Gender Frontlines, took stock of the role gender plays in the current moment of genocide, repression of dissent, and border violence.

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Support MERIP on Giving Tuesday Dear Friends and Comrades, Two weekends ago, friends and colleagues gathered in Washington, DC for the annual Middle East Studies Association conference, where we reflected on and honored the memory ...

If you’d like a slightly longer plea from me, you can read it here: www.merip.org/2025/12/supp...

Friends, I am so proud of the work we’ve done at MERIP this past year. One of the best things about our little organization is that it runs largely on volunteer and part-time labor, with crucial support from our readers. Everything we do is made possible through small donations. Help if you can!

All of our work relies on your support -- please consider a one-time or monthly donation to MERIP this Giving Tuesday.

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Merchandise MERIP is pleased to offer a limited quantity of merchandise items. New items will be added to this page as items become available, and announcements of newly available items will be made on our…

If you enjoyed this issue -- consider picking up a poster of the cover featuring art by the Palestinian artist Samar Hussaini!

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Our Executive Director, James Ryan, followed up with Helen Lackner in September on an episode of our new podcast!

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Yemen’s Ansar Allah - MERIP On the Houthi movement's roots, governance and resistance.

Journalist Helen Lackner gave us an overview of the role of the Houthis in the ongoing regional war.

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Artificial Humanitarianism—The Data-Driven Future of Refugee Responses - MERIP n Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, to pay for food at one of the World Food Programme (WFP)’s distribution centers, Syrian refugees must lean into an iris scanner that registers their […]

The issue also featured a special report on the impact of data and AI on refugee management across the Middle East from Samer Abboud.

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Hanging by a Thread—The Red Sea Blockade and Jordan's Fragile Garment Industry - MERIP Houthi attacks have revealed an industrial paradox.

Researchers Katharina Grüneisl and Taher Labadi offered a deep report on how Jordanian garment workers were navigating the politics of the Houthis' Red Sea blockade.

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Dispatch from South Lebanon—Life as Resistance at the End of the World - MERIP A look at land, and life, on Lebanon's frontlines.

The issue also included a searing dispatch from South Lebanon in the wake of Israel's invasion last fall.

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A Primer on Lebanon—History, Palestine and Resistance to Israeli Violence - MERIP n September 17, 2024, pagers exploded across Lebanon, indiscriminately killing at least 32 people and blinding or otherwise maiming thousands. The next day, walkie-talkies exploded, again killing and…

The issue featured a new Primer on Lebanon and its entwined relationship with Palestinian solidarity and resisting Israeli violence.

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