In 2019, BBC Persian released a documentary about the 40 best films made and screened legally in Iran after the 1979 Revolution. These films were chosen based on the votes of experts and individuals involved with Iranian cinema. The present study analyzes the three best movies on the list and argues that post-revolutionary Iranian cinema demonstrates some resistance and opposition to the ideology of the Islamic Republic and the government’s official narrative. The three movies investigated in this paper – Bashu, the Little Stranger; The Tenants; and The Runner – each show a unique account of resistance through alternative meaning-making, symbolism, and escapism. Bashu, the Little Stranger presents an alternative account of the Iran-Iraq war, a message of love and unity in an era of conflict and violence. The Tenants criticizes the status quo through symbolism and allusion. The Runner shows a different perspective on war, focusing on the plight of civilians while the government was engrossed in war and mobilization. These forms of resistance in Iranian cinema show the persistence of negotiation and opposition to the dominant culture in a restrictive political system. Despite pessimistic predictions, Iranian cinema under the Islamic Republic has been far from a simple ideological tool of the government.

Robert G. Rabil Lebanon and Turkey: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Realities London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2024, 226 pp. (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-5381-7750-1

This article examines the effect of the war between Israel and Hamas on the perception of the Nakba among members of the younger generation in the Arab society living in Israel. Although the research began before the outbreak of the war, the flight of more than a million Gazan Palestinians from their homes was a catalyst for the examination of this issue because the discourse of the Nakba against the background of scenes similar to those of the war in 1948 came up for public discussion again. The results of the study show that the Nakba is an integral part of the collective memory of the younger generation among Israeli Arabs. Since the beginning of the third millennium, it has been present with them more strongly than previous generations. It was also found that the more the younger generation deals with the Nakba and remembers it, the greater the fear of the possibility of another Nakba following a security escalation between the State of Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, and against the background of the sight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians leaving their homes on their shaky ground. This concern is also accompanied by feelings of loss of trust in Israeli democracy and an increase in the feeling of personal insecurity following the coming to power of a right-wing government in Israel in January 2023.

The article is a study of Hamas poetry during the period from the founding of the organization (1987) until the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993). Poetry is one of the media that Hamas employs to transmit political, social, and religious messages that fit with its worldview of Islam cum Palestinian nationalism. In its formative years, dozens of Hamas poets used this special channel to give voice to the organization’s fundamental ideas. The article looks at 11 poets who were affiliated with Hamas leadership circles and who were intensively engaged in writing poetry during those years. It describes the background to this activity, extracts the main messages and motifs raised by the verse, and examines the goals served by this lyrical composition.

Kurdish ambitions and demands relative to the Iraqi central government have always impacted the equilibrium of the country. Kurdish requests shifted from demanding autonomy to insisting on recognition, causing the various Iraqi administrations to change their policies towards the Kurds many times. These changes in Iraq’s policies often caused violent repercussions among the Kurds, which sometimes escalated into armed conflicts. This paper aims to analyze the events that occurred between the Kurds and the Iraqi government from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, specifically: the 1st and 2nd Iraqi-Kurdish War, how foreign countries were involved in these conflicts, and what were the short- and long-term consequences of the wars on the Kurdish population that paved the way to the al-Anfal Campaigns. A more in-depth analysis will be done on the 2nd Iraqi-Kurdish War and on the eight al-Anfal Campaigns, as the consequences were devastating for the Kurdish population, and marked a turning point in Kurdish relations with foreign countries. The goal of this study is to add a new understanding on how Iraqi and Western foreign policies affected the Kurdish sense of identity and of the state-building process that led to what is known today as the Kurdistan Regional Government.

This article focuses on the current COVID-19 implications for the fissure between the Syrian regime and the Kurds in Syria. It explains how the Syrian Kurds cope with COVID-19, given the region’s political status and the current state of play in the Syrian war. It sheds light on (1) the practical application of Kurdish semi-autonomy in Syria along with its successes and shortcomings in the public health sphere; and (2) how COVID-19 has affected intra-Kurdish politics in Syria and Kurdistan. Although changes in the political framework of Syria are not expected in the near future, the pandemic has underscored the fissures between the Kurds and the central government. Since the pandemic reached Syria, the Syrian government has almost completely neglected the health situation in the Kurdish territories. The Kurdish Autonomous Administration, in turn, recruited all the means at its disposal to cope independently with the crisis. These on-the-ground developments are signs for both the overt and covert, anxious hopes and strivings of the Kurds for autonomy. To assess the prospects for Kurdish autonomy, the article also analyzes the Kurds’ relationships with the states involved in the Syrian conflict and the historical landmarks of intra-Kurdish politics.