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Monica Marks Profile picture
Monica Marks
@MonicaLMarks
Prof of Middle East Politics @NYUAbuDhabi. Tunisia, Turkey, Gulf. PhD @StAntsCollege Oxford. Fulbright, Rhodes, @HarvardWCFIA. 13 yrs writing on Tunisia.
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Dec 16 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Assad used secularism “to gain legitimacy among international actors, while rejecting its implementation.”

True for Syria & most MENA authoritarian states. When you hear an Arab ruler described as “secular,” or pitching themselves as such to Westerners, think very critically. We should resist repeating the fiction that any MENA authoritarian, from the relatively forward-thinking (eg: Ataturk) to the sadistically depraved (eg: Assad) embraced “secularism” according to any commonly accepted definition of that term.

Doing so creates 3 serious problems:
Dec 8 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
My god. It’s happening. A post-Bashar Syria.

The transition starts now. Make no mistake: it will be incredibly rocky.

But today, take a beat to hear the soft, human joy of many Syrians as they cry, embrace, learn if wrongly jailed loved ones survived & vow “now we can go home.” Growing up as a young researcher in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, losing dear ones to counterrevolutionaries’ prisons, seeing how swiftly atrocities breed vengeful atrocities & studying extremists have made me reflexively caveat hope with realism, celebration with concern.
Nov 19 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
In 1986, Netanyahu lambasted Apartheid at the UN, where he was Israel’s Permanent Representative from 1984-88.

He condemned Arab countries for selling oil to South Africa, and called Apartheid the “ultimate abomination."

But his words were at odds with Israeli foreign policy 🧵 Image
Image By the mid-1970s, Israel had shifted its South Africa policy to alignment w/ the Apartheid state. And throughout much of the 1980s, South Africa was actually Israel's second largest trading partner after the USA.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky explains why in his excellent book here: Image
Nov 6 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
The most shocking result of yesterday’s election, from my pov:

Despite centring her presidential bid on a promise to “stop Gaza’s genocide on Day 1” & selecting a Muslim running mate who campaigned on Palestine, the Green Party’s Jill Stein won fewer Michigan votes than in 2016. Image For comparison, here are the Michigan results from 2016.

In 2016, Jill Stein won 50,700 votes in Michigan (1.1% of the state’s total).

Yesterday, with 99% of Michigan’s precincts reporting, she won 44,642 (0.8% of the state’s total). Image
Oct 26 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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Image Asking Palestinians, @LibyaLiberty says, is key- but what does that mean?

To my knowledge, we don’t have polling on what Palestinians who are actually living in Gaza & the West Bank think re: Harris vs. Trump.

But we do have reporting that’s interviewed them:
Oct 11 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
How to spread mutual humanisation in an atmosphere of reciprocal radicalisation has been one of my primary concerns as an educator this year.

Many professors are afraid to discuss Israel-Palestine. But facilitating humane & evidence-based discussion now is more vital than ever. I’ve heard stories that haunt me.

The film “Farha,” about the 1948 Nakba, was shown in one class. Some students were upset that Israeli soldiers in an execution scene did not kill the baby (after having killed its family), because they believed Israelis wouldn’t show any mercy.
Aug 27 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
This film hasn’t blown up yet, but it should.

It’s about an Italian medical student who takes the unheard-of step of studying abroad in Gaza in 2019, during the March of Return.

@java_films put it on YouTube 5 days ago:

Here are 3 reasons I loved it: 🧵

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Image 1. Sometimes the simplest stories are the hardest-hitting. That’s the case here.

This is not a film “about” politics or activism. It’s about the first Erasmus exchange student to ever study abroad in Gaza.

The student, Riccardo Corradini, is a 24 yr-old studying war medicine:
Aug 26 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
This platform is an extraordinary tool—I’ve met wonderful people through it & seen excellent work done with it.

But it’s also a festering pit of inhumane extremism.

The discourse on Noa Argamani dancing illustrates, yet again, how twisted bullying unites extreme right & left 🧵 Image For those who don’t know, Noa Argamani is an Israeli noncombatant taken hostage by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7. She was freed by an IDF military operation on June 8.

She had zero control over being taken hostage—a crime under international law—or being freed.
Aug 16 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
No American news program has done as much to broadcast the truth of what’s happening in 🇮🇱🇵🇸 since 10-7 as @amanpour.

Watch this riveting interview w/ Yulia Novak, director of @btselem—one of Israel’s premier human rights organisations—about Israeli prisons.

Some highlights: 🧵 “Our prison system was always a tool for oppression of the Palestinian people," said Yulia. But since October 7, Israeli jails "became torture camps in practice."

The abuse is “systemic” & “organised.” The horrors revealed at Sde Teiman torture camp are “the tip of the iceberg.”
Aug 14 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Most pro-Palestine activists I’ve met in the Arab world believe that, if Arab countries were democracies, they’d do more to help Palestinians.

But I’ve not heard anyone make that connection between more democracy & space for pro-Palestine advocacy in the USA.

I think we should: Public opinion polling in the United States shows more dissatisfaction with Israel’s behaviour than ever.

The shifts are generational in speed, and certainly not happening quickly enough to force the policy changes that Gaza so desperately needs.

But they’re happening.
Aug 12 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
As I’ve said before, and as this tweet from Kamala’s National Security Adviser reiterates, she won’t commit to an “arms embargo” on Israel.

Restrictions on some offensive arms to Israel could be on the table after Nov. w/ Kamala, but not w/ Trump.

There are 3 main reasons why: 3 main reasons why Kamala won’t commit to “arms embargo” & certainly not before Nov:

1. She’s VP so it’s awkward to defy Biden’s policy line

2. She needs to hold a coalition of supporters & donors together, which spans ardent Zionists & anti-Zionists, to win
Aug 7 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I loathe sharing triggering content, but I am—in tears, tbh—making an exception here.

Why?

Bc these monstrosities are enabled by my country, the US, which excuses Israel’s crimes & arms it without conditions.

Bc rape is deplorable.

Bc Americans must know & work to stop this I have consistently deplored sexual violence against Israeli civilians on & since Oct 7. I have lost relationships w/ many friends & even colleagues because of that stance.

But it’s a hill I’m glad to die on. Rape is sick. Torture is sick. You’ll never catch me excusing either.
Jul 25 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Kamala had to make this statement.

Yesterday's Hamasnik cosplayer protest in DC featured terrorism apologia, vandalism (illegal) & flag burning (legal but moronic PR).

It was a gift to Republicans, who are painting Harris & Biden as anti-🇮🇱 wingnuts cosy w Hamas supporters.

1/ Here are some pictures from the protest.

It was an attention-grabbing distraction & a very useful gift to Netanyahu, who lapped this up to portray all pro-🇵🇸 protesters as un-American, pro-terrorism, antisemitic buffoons who are also useful idiots for Iranian agendas.

2/


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Jul 25 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Few thinkers mix principled progressivism & informed pragmatism in US foreign policy as well as @mattduss.

Here, he advises 4 initial policies Kamala Harris can adopt on 🇮🇱🇵🇸 that are good for both actors, good for US coherence/strength & good for Democrats moving into November: 1. Commit to conditionalising arms transfers to Israel so that any US-supplied military aid being used in violation of US law stops.

This would be in line w/ the April letter petitioning Biden to conditionalise offensive US military aid to Israel signed by Pelosi & other Dems.
Jul 24 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
On the 🪂 left, I’ve seen some cheer Trump as a wolf gratifyingly devoid of Harris’s sheep’s clothing re: 🇵🇸.

This view echoes the manner in which some find partial solutions (the grey area) more dangerous than the black or white maximalism of “true” enemies or “true” allies. 1/ Those who espouse this view have also tended to reserve especially vitriolic disdain for Palestinians, pro-Palestine & Palestinian-led groups that share perhaps 3/4 or more of their critiques & goals, but strive for a 2 state solution, condemn Oct 7 or humanise Israeli civilians.
Jul 19 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
AOC just spent an hour weighing in on efforts to replace Biden as the nominee. It’s an important listen.

She thinks an open convention is lunacy & that multiple red alerts on the dashboard aren’t getting enough consideration.

Here are her 7 main points, as I understood them: 🧵 1. Legal viability

AOC thinks that pundits, pollsters & columnists are underestimating the legal challenges Republicans could mount to the presence of another candidate on the ballot in key swing states including but not limited to Ohio.
Jul 13 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Helpful explainer on DSA’s decision to yank endorsement of its star politician, @AOC. The move contradicted most members’ wishes & political common sense.

It had “less to do with Ocasio-Cortez’s actions than with the byzantine factional politics of DSA’s national leadership.” For AOC to win back DSA’s endorsement, she’d have to fulfil the following conditions.

This decision will, I predict, have a self-marginalising effect on DSA, since few politicians could meet these maximalist conditions & have a prayer of getting elected anywhere in the US.
May 20 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Everyone needs to read the ICC's charges.

It says there are reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas leaders bear criminal responsibility for extermination, rape, sexual violence, torture & other war crimes & crimes against humanity.

They holding Hamas, and Israel, accountable.

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Image Here are the ICC's arrest warrant charges against Netanyahu & Gallant.

Contentious charges like genocide are not on this list. Instead, the ICC opted for rock-solid charges w/ clear evidence, eg: Netanyahu & Gallant have used starvation of civilians as a method of war: Image
May 15 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Unbelievable, but true. Tunisian social media networks are abuzz today w/ the absurd idea that Zuckerberg not only gives a fig about Tunisia, but is part of some Western plot to destabilise it.

The truth is different, ofc, but just as grim & deserves book-length studies: 🧵 The weakness of Tunisian Arabic content moderation on platforms like Facebook—a phenomenon more tied to neglectful resource allocation in small language markets (w/ parallels in Myanmar, for ex)—plus Saied’s xenophobic conspiracies, metastasised into a storm of hateful content.
May 10 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
Tunisia has, like many societies, long struggled w/ anti-Black racism as the scholar @HudaMzioudet documents.

But following President Saied’s Feb. 2023 “great replacement” speech, Tunisia rapidly morphed into the most violently anti-Black environment I’ve ever experienced 🧵 Within weeks of Saied’s speech, pogroms against Black migrants & refugees—sometimes implicating the security forces themselves—resulted in stabbings, rapes, evictions & chasing people from their homes at knife-point and more abuses. Even Black Tunisian citizens were targeted.
May 9 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Sickened by Europe’s descent into fascism, the Austrian Jewish author Stefan Zweig & his wife Charlotte committed suicide in 1942. They were found, having escaped to Brazil, overdosed on barbiturates, holding hands.

His memoir, The World of Yesterday, describes what was lost. 🧵 Image This quote reminds me of what some friends in the Arab Spring, & in Tunisia in particular, have suffered. The tumultuous ups & downs, and the gaping sense of all that was lost: