Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Amelia Smith
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Under the war on terror Egypt is ethnically cleansing the Sinai Bedouin
Last month the Egyptian government demolished Bedouin-owned houses in Tarabin village in South Sinai on the grounds that they were not “legally” owned...
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North Sinai: Creating a new Egypt in Sisi’s image
In the heart of Al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai Governorate, Metito is building a desalination plant at the cost of $96 million. The water group, which is headquartered in the UAE, says the plant will provide enough water for 750,000 people. But as construction rolls ahead, local residents...
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Sink Without a Trace: ‘Balancing politics and aesthetics’
An exhibition in London shone a light on the loss of life which results from people being forced to risk their lives to survive...
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International bodies condemn the Libya air strike, but they have failed the country
Late last night the UN failed to agree on a statement condemning an air strike which killed 44 refugees in a detention centre in Libya because the US ambassador said he needed Washington’s approval. The UN-recognised GNA Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj has blamed the commander Khalifa Haftar, who controls the...
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Egypt ‘ambassador of poor’ released, rearrested and denied family visits
Before she was arrested Somaya Nasef spent her time walking the streets of Cairo looking for medicine to administer to street children. Essential drugs like insulin and penicillin have been disappearing from pharmacy shelves for years due to the turbulent economy, a crisis exacerbated when Egypt floated the pound in...
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Forced out by the Crown Prince’s reforms, a wave of Egyptians arrive in Turkey
In 2008 Mariam Ahmed and her family set off east from her homeland Egypt and landed in Saudi Arabia where they became part of the Kingdom’s two million strong Egyptian expat community. Lured by the promise of a salary up to six times its equivalent in Egypt, Mariam recalls her...
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UK arms deals gave Egypt the legitimacy it needed to kill Morsi
In 2018 a cross-party group of British MPs asked the Egyptian government for access to Mohamed Morsi amid fears that the former President’s death was imminent. The answer that came back was a firm “no.” Authorities insisted he was receiving adequate treatment, though no evidence was given to quell growing...
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Obituary: Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first, democratic president
It was at a retrial for colluding with Hamas yesterday that the Brotherhood leader collapsed in his sound proof box and was transferred to hospital...
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As Egypt starves, Sisi stirs horror in Libya and Sudan
In a recent Foreign Policy article Brotherhood member Yehia Hamed forecast that Egypt will soon be bankrupt if it continues in the same vein. External debt has increased fivefold in the last half decade whilst public debt has more than doubled. With the bulk of resources being funnelled away from...
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Egypt family face ‘severe breakdown’ at son’s impending execution
In March 2015 masked men broke down the door of Khaled Saddouma’s house, entered his son’s bedroom where he was sleeping and dragged him out of the house without telling his family where they were taking him. Authorities sent dozens of armed police officers, security forces and armed vehicles to...
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Far-right terror is on the rise. So why is Trump in the UK?
The UK’s first female Prime Minister in 26 years – only the second in our history – has chosen as her farewell performance to welcome the right-wing President of the United States, Donald Trump, on a state visit. This is a man who has multiple sexual misconduct cases to...
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Egypt forcibly disappears baby from his home in Alexandria
On 9 March Manar Abu Naga was forcibly disappeared from her home in Alexandria along with her husband Omar and their one-year-old son Braa. “One of the neighbours told us that their house was raided and that they were kidnapped by men in civilian clothes,” says her brother Mustafa Abdulhamid....
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Egypt journalist detained in public loo, 'beaten' by police at Edinburgh Airport
At 4pm on Thursday 13 December Egyptian journalist AbdulRahman Ezz was prevented from boarding his flight to France from Edinburgh Airport where he intended to cover the yellow vest demonstrations in Paris. Waiting for him at the door of the plane was a policeman wearing civilian uniform who asked for...
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Turner Prize entry refutes Israel claim Umm Hiran killing was terror attack
In the early hours of 18 January 2017 Keren Manor was filming a raid on the unrecognised Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran in the Naqab desert, just metres away from where one of its residents, Yaqoub Abu Al-Qi’an, was bleeding to death. How he came to be here would soon...
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19-year-old Brit who snapped Egypt from plane window arrested for spying
Last week, as the plane carrying 19-year-old Muhammed AbdelKasem and his friend descended into Borg El Arab Airport in Alexandria, Muhammed took out his phone, leaned towards the window and took a photo of Egypt from above. Muhammed thought he was doing what numerous tourists do when they arrive in...
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‘I know where her father is,’ said manager of Egypt nursery before expelling two-year-old daughter of political prisoner
On Wednesday afternoon the nursery where Rana Greash’s daughter was enrolled called her and invited her for a meeting. “My partner knows who Laila’s father is,” said the manager when Rana arrived. “He knows where her father is and has refused to allow Laila to continue at the nursery.” The manager...
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Former Sinai MP: ‘Mubarak was a treasure to Israel. Sisi is much more than that’
In 2014, fresh from the coup they led against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the government offered Yehya Okail the position of deputy mayor of North Sinai. He wasn’t the most obvious choice. The 2011 revolution had elevated Okail to Member of Parliament for the Brotherhood’s political wing, the...
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In the land of my birth: A Palestinian boyhood
Reja-e Busailah has lost two dear parts of himself over the course of his lifetime: his sight and his homeland. In his autobiography, “In the land of my birth: A Palestinian boyhood”, Busailah documents his childhood in the lead up to the loss of Palestine in the 1948 Nakba and...
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As benefactors to the worst dictators in the Middle East we have a unique role to play in Khashoggi’s case
One image that resonates in the aftermath of Jamal Khashoggi’s death is of the man standing outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul wearing a blue suit jacket and clasping his hands together. He bows as Jamal walks past – “welcome to your death”, we can imagine him saying. This image...
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P is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book
Unlike the alphabet books which currently saturate the children’s book market in the UK, where A is for apple and B is for ball, “P is for Palestine” offers young readers something new – a window onto the culture and heritage of Palestine. In Dr. Golbarg Bashi’s book, A...
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When we get rid of the Tories, life might just become better in the Middle East
Since Jeremy Corbyn became the Labour Party leader through a landslide victory in 2015 the Tories, backed by certain elements of the British press, have tried to convince the public that he is a closet racist. This was highlighted perfectly in a late August edition of the Daily Telegraph that...
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Persecuted at home, denied asylum in South Korea: the Egyptians with nowhere to go
In December 2012 Abdelrahman Zaid became one of the thousands of civilians to be incarcerated in Mubarak’s sweep to end the Arab Spring. At the time of his arrest he was holding documents to say he was a Palestinian refugee due to his father’s origin and the media used...
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The British government has no British values
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor is currently pushing for the execution of human rights campaigner Israa Al-Ghomgham. As Israa waits to learn her fate, the rest of the world looks on in horror at the prospect that the first female human rights activist in the Kingdom could be about to...
