Amelia Smith

Amelia Smith is a writer and journalist based in London who has reported from across the Middle East and North Africa. In 2016 Amelia was a finalist at the Write Stuff writing competition at the London Book Fair. Her first book, “The Arab Spring Five Years On”, was published in 2016 and brings together a collection of authors who analyse the protests and their aftermath half a decade after they flared in the region.

January 22, 2014
Film Review: Occupation 101
These days there are a number of documentaries and academic books that address the Israel Palestine conflict; many of them, like Occupation 101, reveal how Israeli policy in the...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: When I Saw You
It’s hard to recreate the 1960s with only a quarter of the budget you intended to shoot on. But that’s exactly what Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir did to film...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: Gaza Calling
The Tedious Occupation of Bureaucracy Six years ago Palestinian director Nahed Awwad, her husband and their four-week-old daughter were on the way to Germany from their home in the...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Theatre Review: The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution
The most disturbing part of Caryl Churchill’s The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution is the relevance its main themes have today. Set in a psychiatric hospital at...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: Apples of the Golan
One villager cuts open an apple and presents to the camera the fruit before him. Inside, in a neat circle, are five pips – one for each point of...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: Infiltrators
The cameraman passes a microphone through a gap in the separation wall and a hand from the other side finds just enough space to take it; for one mother...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: Though I Know the River is Dry
Qalandia, “I hate the word,” says the protagonist as he walks through the familiar metal grille that protects the crossing between the West Bank and Jerusalem in the occupied...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Film Review: When the Boys Return
Nadar Khallaf lays out colourful cards in the centre of the circle and asks each of the 12 young men surrounding him to pick two of them. A member...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
In Egypt, socially conscious music festivals flourish
“It’s kind of strange, but okay. You can’t help but dance- in an awkward fashion- but it was well worth it,” music lover Yahya Karali commented on a recent...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Bringing a taste of Egypt to London: Koshari Street, a street food experience
In 2011, it was handed out to keep protestors in Tahrir Square going as they demonstrated against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30 year rule; since 1950 Abou Tarek’s...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Who will be the next (televised) president of Palestine?
Considering the Palestinians have only had two presidents in over 20 years, it’s no wonder they are taking it upon themselves to elect their own leader – or a...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem opposes 'My Name is Rachel Corrie' production at the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem
Over the past few weeks, Jerusalem’s deputy Mayor David Hadari has been busy writing letters. First he outlined a proposal to market 900 new housing units in an illegal...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Bringing contemporary Moroccan art to London
Finding a riad-style warehouse teeming with beautiful Moroccan furniture isn’t quite what you expect when stepping off the tube at Greenford in west London. But it is in a...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
#withoutwords: emerging Syrian artists at the P21 Gallery, London
There is something unnerving about Fadi Al Jabour’s doll. Painted using oils in the abstract realistic style, from a distance she is a cute with round cheeks and blond...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
UK hip hop producer to take recording studio to Gaza
Dai Dream may be a British hip hop producer from Liverpool, but he has a huge fan base in the occupied territories. “I love Palestine and I love the...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
January 22, 2014
Photographing Gaza: Paul Hansen and the World Press Photo Award
In the winning image, a group of men carry the bodies of two young Palestinian children wrapped in funeral shrouds down an alley in Jabaliya refugee camp in the...
Published in: Blog, Blogs - Culture
May 18, 2013 | Amelia Smith
Lord David Steel speaks to MEMO
It's time to cancel the European Union's trade association with Israel if their government persists in violating international law
Published in: Europe & Russia, Interviews, UK