For the past few months, the news has been mostly taken up with the war in Ukraine and the mobilisation of the West against the Russian invasion. But by concentrating on that war the media have tended to neglect the non-Western world, the rest of the world, i.e. most of the humanity. In the Middle East and the Maghreb, that conflagration is not viewed as a world war between “democracies” and “dictatorships”. People tend to criticize the relativistic nature of the principles of morality and international law invoked by the West apropos the war in Ukraine. Nor is it seen as an absolute priority on the international agenda at a time when so many local conflicts drag on and on, forgotten but not less murderous, from Yemen to Libya by way of Palestine; at a time when climate disruption and food emergencies endanger whole populations.
Reporting current events involves rethinking the order of precedence among news items so often dictated by the mainstream Western media. Orient XXI has for its main objective sorting out the flood of news which overwhelms us. This is what we have tried to do over the past few months by spotlighting the reactions (and public opinion) in Arab countries, in Turkey and Iran to this war in Ukraine. And by insisting on the centrality of the Palestinian question for the whole region, of the apartheid in Israel-Palestine, centrality confirmed by the reactions to the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh.
We want to continue this task of clarification. As Algeria prepares to celebrate its 60 years of independence on 5 July, we have begun publishing a long dossier, France-Algeria: two centuries of history, under the supervision of historian Malika Rahhal. We are preparing a podcast on Gamal Abdel Nasser to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the coming to power in Egypt of the “Free Officers Movement”. After the series of articles on the role of the pro-Israel lobby in France, other investigative series will soon be appearing on the influence of the United Arab Emirates and on the French sales of armaments in the region. Nor do we intend to neglect the social life, the cultural issues, the TV series, the popular singers, the theatrical activity, often indicative of underground movements that sometimes break the surface despite the order imposed by dictatorships. And finally, our Italian edition has now hit its stride, alongside those in French, Arabic, English, Persian and Spanish.
From the very beginning, we opted for a no-charge policy (and no ads) to reach the widest possible audience. You have massively approved this choice as well as our decision to finance the site via two annual campaigns for contributions. With this one, which began on 30 May and will go on until mid-July, we need to raise 40,000 euros. Your contribution will help Orient XXI to go on speaking out with its unique voice, affording a different view of the Arab and Muslim world.
We know that we can count on you.