Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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What would a non-colonial State of Israel look like?
As the Israeli elections on 9 April approach, MEMO interviews Arab MKs, current and former, as to their experiences of working within the Israeli political system, and their hopes for the future. ...
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63% of a British audience would prefer to cut ties with Saudi Arabia
A night of compelling debate at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster on Monday evening concluded with 63 per cent of the 1,000-strong audience voting for the motion that “The West should cut ties with Saudi Arabia”. The debate was organised by Intelligence Squared and began with a not insignificant...
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Is Labour’s anti-Semitism row fuelled by pro-Israel online ‘guerrilla warriors’?
The Labour Party in Britain has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism ever since Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in the 2015 leadership contest. The crisis has since threatened to tear the party apart. Now, though, what appears to be an organised campaign to fuel the row has been uncovered, raising...
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To Israel ‘the mere existence’ of a Palestinian Muslim Congresswoman is a menace
One of the founding myths of Israel is the non-existence of the Palestinian people. Tragically this myth served the country to great effect especially in denying the return of refugees (750,000, half the population) to their country following their expulsion in 1948 and in continually hindering the Palestinian people’s...
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Source of pro-Israel guerrilla warriors on social media exposed
A number of prominent Jewish-American leaders are funding covert, anonymous campaigns targeting pro-Palestinian student activists, The Forward has found. The Jewish daily newspaper, which has been publishing valuable information concerning the source of funding for these hyper-aggressive and shadowy groups – which spearhead coordinated hate campaigns against critics of...
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Turkey is indispensable to peace and stability in the region, prominent experts conclude
Turkey’s location in a strategic part of the world is a “blessing and a curse,” Professor Gülnur Aybet said this week at a major panel discussion in Central London. Speaking under the heading of “Turkey in a Changing Middle East”, Prof. Aybet explained the Republic’s foreign policy to the...
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Generation Hate Part 1
Al Jazeera have released a new documentary on the racist group Generation Identity in France...
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George Bush Snr leaves behind a tainted legacy
For centuries, the Middle East has cast a long and dark shadow over the legacy of many a statesman wanting to leave his mark on history. Unlike Europeans, the Americans largely resisted the allure of the region until 1945, when President Franklin D Roosevelt met with Saudi King Abdul...
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About a War
Rating 4/5 Why do people who are normally good commit acts of evil? A great many have been bedevilled by the question but the answer is as elusive as when it was first posed in many foundational stories within religious traditions and cultures that too have grappled with the question...
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UAE links damage the integrity of universities upholding democratic freedoms
Relations between Britain and the UAE came under scrutiny after a judge in the Emirates sentenced a British academic to life imprisonment last week. Matthew Hedges, a PhD student from Durham, was charged in a five-minute hearing in Abu Dhabi with spying for the British government. He had been...
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How far will Saudi Arabia go to make sure that Bin Salman survives?
A Saudi campaign to save Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has been gaining momentum since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on 2 October. With each passing day, the likelihood that he will survive the biggest crisis to hit the Kingdom since the 9/11 terrorist attacks — 15 of...
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Palestine’s new Ambassador in London wants to reclaim the narrative for his people
After the Trump administration ignominiously called time on the Palestinian diplomatic mission in the US less than two months ago, the top PLO diplomat in Washington, Dr Husam Zomlot, was assigned to more familiar surroundings in Britain to take charge of the London Embassy. This week, in a meeting...
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Balfour in the Dock
Balfour in the Dock is a contemporary work looking at a 750-page magnum opus on Palestine by outstanding British journalist J M N Jeffries (1880-1960). His book Palestine: The Reality is a masterpiece with the depth and breadth to have become the canonical work on the history of Palestine...
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Profile: Jamal Khashoggi (22 January 1958 – 2 October 2018)
Jamal, a leading journalist and columnist on the MENA, and an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime, was killed on 2 October at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul...
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Khashoggi’s killing and the rise of a mafia state
Good nicknames have the amazing ability to capture the essence of a person’s life better than any well-written biography. When we hear “the greatest,” “the people’s champion” or the “Louisville lip” we automatically think of Mohammed Ali. When someone says “the king of rock and roll” the image of...
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Oslo conference: Experts cite Israel’s desire for 'racial segregation' for Accords failure
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, MEMO hosted a conference in London, UK on 29 September 2018...
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Oslo was a colonial tool which was never going to end Israel’s occupation
On the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords, it is an appropriate time to consider what has been called “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles.” That’s what the late Edward Said wrote in his essay, “The Morning After”. Hopeful that the Palestinian leaders had...
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If criticising Zionism is anti-Semitic, then why isn’t it Islamophobic to criticise Islamism?
Should critics of political Islam be described as racist Islamophobes? It’s a question that ought to garner serious discussion in light of the ongoing “anti-Semitism” row engulfing the Labour Party in Britain. Zionism and Islamism have enough in common as political ideologies that if criticism of one is deemed “anti-Semitic”,...
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The unholy alliance between Israel and alt-right ideologues
The man described as the “most dangerous political operative in America” gave an interview recently where he rejected the accusation that he was an anti-Semite. His comments said a lot about the current debate on the issue and why known anti-Semites from the far-right have been singing Israel’s praise. Speaking...
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Labour's anti-Semitism row highlights the hypocrisy of Corbyn’s enemies, again
There is a great irony in the current row over anti-Semitism within the Labour Party. Critics of Jeremy Corbyn are frothing at the mouth with rage over his endorsement of a definition of anti-Semitism that omits controversial examples, which conflate criticism of Israel with racial discrimination against Jews. The...
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Labour under pressure from pro-Israel proxies over ‘chaotic’ definition of anti-Semitism
A Jewish organisation which has acted as a proxy for the Israeli Embassy in Britain and lobbies on its behalf is putting pressure on the Labour Party to adopt a controversial definition of anti-Semitism. The definition in question insists that comparing Israel’s policies and practices to those of the...
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Why Israeli tech companies fear the Jewish Nation State bill
Israeli politicians have been trying for years to pass a “Nation State” bill to prioritise the country’s Jewish characteristics over democratic principles. The controversial proposal described by its critics as an “apartheid bill” is momentous; second only to the declaration of national independence, as some have claimed. While Israel...
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The US passes another milestone in its decline
The US has often failed to live up to its own ideals but never before has it systematically rejected long-standing values which, in the eyes of many, has made the country great. Domestically it’s passed another milestone towards decline by ripping children from the arms of their parents and...
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Misconceptions around refugees are a threat to a tolerant society
Figures released by UN refugee agency make for grim reading. According to the UNHCR the number of displaced people worldwide is estimated at 65.6 million, of which 22.5 million are refugees. The agency stresses that these figures are unprecedented, and warns that we are now witnessing the highest levels...