05.03.2026

Nur - a regional collective

Statement issued by Moshé Machover and Yassamine Mather

The existential crises currently engulfing Iran, Israel, Palestine and the surrounding Arab states - from the genocide in Gaza to the relentless annexation and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank - are not isolated tragedies. They are different fronts of a single, interlocking, regional conflict. In the current landscape, borders are tragically lopsided: they remain porous for the flow of global capital and the deployment of military force, yet they are rigid and lethal for the oppressed and the displaced.

Nur (Light) is a new multimedia project rooted in the tradition of revolutionary socialist internationalism. Co-founded by Moshé Machover, a pioneering figure in Middle Eastern socialist thought and a founding member of the Khamsin collective, and Yassamine Mather, an Iranian socialist and combatant for workers’ struggles, we are building a platform where the ‘national question’ is finally addressed through the lens of a regional solution.

Why this approach?

• The interlocking trap: One cannot comprehend the genocide in Gaza, the looming shadow of full-scale war in Iran or the systemic repression of the Iranian, Arab, Turkish, Kurdish and Assyrian peoples without analysing the overarching regional repressive security architectures. We reject the ‘siloed’ view of liberation; Palestinian freedom is inseparable from the struggle against the reactionary regimes in the entire region surrounding it.
• Socialist federation: Following the intellectual lead of our predecessors, we advocate a regional socialist federation. This is not a utopian dream, but a material necessity - the only viable alternative to the perpetual cycle of ethnic cleansing, settler-colonialism and religious sectarianism.
• Breaking the silos: While most outlets focus narrowly on the ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’ or the ‘Iran crisis’, Nur connects the dots. We demonstrate how strikes in Tehran, protests in Beirut and resistance in Gaza are all part of the same pulse of regional transformation.

We will feature rigorous analysis, long-form articles and dialogue:

• Moshé Machover: Bringing decades of analysis on the class nature of the Israeli state, comrade Machover will expand on his seminal thesis that the Zionist project is a unique form of settler-colonialism that cannot be resolved through ‘two-state’ diplomacy. He argues instead for a revolutionary integration of the region, where the overthrow of Zionist structures is linked to the socialist transformation of the entire Arab east.
• Yassamine Mather: She will focus on the Iranian working class as a pivot for regional anti-imperialism and a bulwark against both domestic autocracy and western intervention.

We are seeking support to build a platform that refuses to simply report on the ‘Middle East’ as a series of disparate catastrophes. Instead, Nur aims to help cultivate a regional left - one capable of thinking, organising and dreaming beyond the maps drawn by colonial powers.