Joelle Abi-Rached

Gaza and the End of History - Boston Review The apocalyptic scale of death and destruction lays bare the contradictions at the heart of the liberal international order.

"[Gaza] exposes what is fundamentally wrong today: a persistent inability to recognize every human being as equal and deserving of dignity and life, whatever their beliefs, skin color, or religious affiliation."

thank you @joelleabirached.bsky.social for this painful but essential piece

Thank you for telling this story, a forceful yet surgical account that resists simplification while confronting the enormity of the horror.

• @joelleabirached.bsky.social on Gaza and the discrediting of the liberal international order

• @davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social on Mamdani’s triumph and the future of the Democratic Party

• @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social on memoirs of the Arab Jewish world destroyed by colonialism

Gaza and the End of History - Boston Review The apocalyptic scale of death and destruction lays bare the contradictions at the heart of the liberal international order.

“Gaza has become a symbol both of Western hypocrisy and its victims’ recourse to human rights as a final forum for collective deliverance—the deliverance of the wretched of the earth, whoever and wherever they may be. The consequences cannot be overstated.” @joelleabirached.bsky.social

Gaza and the End of History - Boston Review The apocalyptic scale of death and destruction lays bare the contradictions at the heart of the liberal international order.

By underwriting Israel’s genocidal onslaught so flagrantly, Western governments have hastened the final discrediting of the legal order the West itself developed after World War II. @joelleabirached.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/gaz...

Painful to write—born of disappointment. I call for critical engagement with the West, not bashing its epistemic frameworks: expose its racism and double standards while salvaging and advancing the universal human‑rights framework forged after WWII. Perhaps the baton now rests w/ the ‘Global South.’

Hassan Khalil's brother held in fake cancer drugs case Mohammad Khalil, the brother of Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil, has been arrested in the case of the fake cancer drugs that have entered the Lebanese market, media reports said. Al-J...

One word: criminals

www.naharnet.com/stories/en/3...

Congrats Erik!

More than 160 Gazan medics held in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture Senior doctors claim they were subjected to months of physical abuse, as UN calls for release of those still detained

Disconcerting.

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Do Pandemics Ever End? | NEJM Since pandemics are sociopolitical as well as epidemiologic events, their end is determined not only by epidemiologic criteria but also by social, political, economic, and ethical concerns.

Now that measles is on the rise again in the US, along with bird flu becoming 'endemic', it is worth pondering the question once again: Do pandemics ever end? www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

“Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale.” Virchow

The Rivierization of the World - Boston Review Trump’s plans for Gaza crystallize the dreams of empire.

When Trump speaks of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” he draws on a deep reservoir of American imperial myths and reflects the increasingly naked and brazen imperatives of today’s hyper-capitalism.

@joelleabirached.bsky.social on the Rivierization of the world:

The Rivierization of the World - Boston Review Trump’s plans for Gaza crystallize the dreams of empire.

When Trump spoke of turning Gaza into the most beautiful “Riviera of the Middle East,” he was drawing on a deep reservoir of imperial myths and reflecting the increasingly naked and brazen imperatives of today’s hyper-capitalism. @joelleabirached.bsky.social

The Rivierization of the World - Boston Review Trump’s plans for Gaza crystallize the dreams of empire.

American sociologist George Ritzer once wrote of the “McDonaldization of society,” the process whereby the logic of consumerism became a totalizing form of social control. Now, it seems the “Rivierization of the world” will supplant it.

@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Trump’s plans for Gaza:

From the Editors: Trump’s Return - Boston Review Introducing our Winter 2025 issue.

From the editors: introducing TRUMP’S RETURN, our new issue.

Featuring @davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social @morefius.bsky.social @econmarshall.bsky.social @joelleabirached.bsky.social @mschmitt9.bsky.social @janicefinewjl.bsky.social @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social Noura Erakat, Robin D. G. Kelley, & more

Never Again and Again | Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman a comic

Brilliant @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social : www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

I wrote this several months ago when Jared Kushner’s unsettling suggestion went largely unnoticed. Now, it’s no longer just a misstep—it’s becoming policy.

The View from Besieged Beirut - Boston Review In the wake of exploding pagers, universalism plunges into the abyss.

“Are Gaza and the West Bank merely the targets of a grand real estate project, as Jared Kushner unashamedly confessed during a conversation at the Harvard Kennedy School earlier this year?” @joelleabirached.bsky.social

Edited by @ahlie.bsky.social, Jeremy Greene, and me. Contributions from us along with @ctimmermann.bsky.social, @joelleabirached.bsky.social, Lidia Hellou, Eric Carter, Laurence Monnais, @hanspols.bsky.social, @doravargha.bsky.social, Per Haave, Scott Podolsky, David Jones, Sebastian Fonseca...

On another matter, I see Medicine on a Larger Scale has a webpage now. You could pre-order the paperback but I advise waiting till June 2025 to get it all open access
#histSTM #STS #histmed #globalhealth

Delighted to have a chapter in this important forthcoming book. Mine, co-authored with Lidia Helou, explores the genealogy of social medicine in the Arab world and the colonial roots of a concept we take for granted today.

Our next issue, TRUMP’S RETURN, is coming soon—featuring @davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social on Trump’s coalition, Noura Erakat on the imperial boomerang, Robin Kelley on fighting back, and much more.

Subscribe now—use code RETURN20 for 20% off—to be on the first shipment:

bostonreview.net/memberships

Delighted to be included in this special issue on neotrumpism, resistance, political violence, and its lingering traumatic sequelae.

The View from Besieged Beirut - Boston Review In the wake of exploding pagers, universalism plunges into the abyss.

"Are Gaza and the West Bank merely the targets of a grand real estate project, as Jared Kushner unashamedly confessed during a conversation at the Harvard Kennedy School?" @joelleabirached.bsky.social

A must read paper.
#Syria

« Are we doomed to repeat the traumas of the past? Will trauma beget more traumas? What kind of reconciliation can Syrians pursue while embracing the imperative of Holocaust survivors to “forgive but not forget,” making remembrance a moral and historical duty? »

Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.

Can we ever heal from deep historical traumas? Or are we doomed to reenact the traumas of the past? Are we irremediable, “human debris” as Ben-Gurion qualified Shoah survivors?

My latest on #Syria in @bostonreview.bsky.social

www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...

Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.

How will the Syrian people, who have endured so much suffering, find a path to healing? How do we think about the deep traumas inflicted on populations where violence and fear served as the currency of the ruling political class?

Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.

Hello, @bsky.app. My first post will be on the lingering effects of historical traumas. Overcoming these morbid symptoms may be Syria’s greatest challenge. My latest in @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...

Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.

"How do we think about the deep traumas inflicted on populations where violence and fear serve as the currency of the ruling political class and its security apparatus?"

@joelleabirached.bsky.social on Syria's coming reckoning, for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...

Syria’s “Human Debris” - Boston Review The new government’s greatest challenge may be rebuilding a just society in the aftermath of barbaric state violence.

Hello, @bsky.app. My first post will be on the lingering effects of historical traumas. Overcoming these morbid symptoms may be Syria’s greatest challenge. My latest in @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/syr...