Links for April 10-15 2010

Did I forget the links again? Do read the first link, very nice local reporting on an issue that's long nagged at me: the barricades surrounding the US Embassy in Cairo's Garden City neighborhood, which is also where I live. The permanent barriers and checkpoints are really getting tiresome and have depressed this part of Central Cairo that should be vibrant. I am relatively unaffected since I don't drive, and can easily cycle (yes I am the one of the crazy khawagas who cycles across Cairo) past the barriers. But it's really rather bad for the neighborhood, increasing traffic density through small streets and blocking off a thoroughfare in Lazoghly St. It's just not very nice for local residents, who of course were never consulted in the process. Not to mention the image of America it gives: it looks like the second biggest embassy in the world, in a key regional ally, is in a Green Zone. And it's not only the Americans, the nearby Brits are to blame too (and perhaps, a little further off, the Canadians and Belgians too.)

Also, there's a new movie about Garden City that I'm dying to see.

• US embassy in Cairo drives out the locals | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt
  The Garden City Liberation Front shall triumph!
• Middle East International Film Festival: "Neighbors" (Tahani Rached, Egypt)
  I want to see this film about Garden City, where I live.
• Hamas says group wants to maintain cease-fire

  For the record - remember this during the next war.

• Hamas orders Gaza smuggling tunnels shut

  Very odd - just after Israel's alert about Sinai?

• La « Mal-Vie »: Rapport Sur La Situation Des Droits Économiques, Sociaux Et Culturels En Algérie

  Report on the Algerian malaise.

• Interior Ministry to compensate Islamist torture victims | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

  LE10m to the thousands imprisoned over 20 years, some without trial.

• Maroc: la position du missionnaire devient de plus en plus inconfortable « Ibn Kafka's obiter dicta

  Ibn Kafka on the Morocco missionary affair.

• Mohammed ElBaradei Has No 'Flirtation' With the Muslim Brotherhood | The Middle East Channel

  Samer Shehata demolishes Ilan Berman's post on ElBaradei.

• The Thirsty Fish

  Interesting economics and Iran blog.

• 90 NGOs in 17 governorates joined “The coalition of freeing civil work in Egypt” « The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights

  Coalition against new NGO law.

• Exclusive: Images reveal devastation in Yemen’s hidden conflict in the north | Amnesty International

  Aerial bombing destroyed homes in North Yemen.

• World Bank urges Israel to ease West Bank limits (AFP)

  And how about Gaza?

• Rabbi: Make foreign workers accept Laws of Noah - Ynetnews

  Just like the Saudis.

• Setting the record straight on Caspian Makan | GlobalPost

  On Neda Soltan soi-disant fiancé.

• Africa’s Drug Problem - NYTimes.com

  Fascinating story about West Africa's narcostates and cocaine traffic to EU.

• Ill Fares the Land - The New York Review of Books

  Invaluable Tony Judt.

• IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank - Haaretz - Israel News

  This is criminally insane. Deportation to where?

• Is this where the holy land is headed? - The National Newspaper

  Imagining Israel/Palestine in 2027.