Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Samira Shackle
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If left unchecked, Abu Shabab’s Israel-backed militia promises nothing but disaster for Gaza
The large family of an Israeli agent in Gaza has thrown itself on the mercy of the Palestinian people after it emerged that one of their sons had betrayed them all in an unforgivable act of treachery. Rafah-born gangster Yasser Abu Shabab enjoyed relative anonymity as a drug dealer...
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Israel has no right to exist – show me the law that says it does!
Last thing at night and first thing in the morning I check my live feeds for news from Gaza. It’s a depressing job I’ve done for nearly 600 days and it usually ends in tears. Mine! Tears for Gaza, tears for the destruction of Palestine, tears for the babies,...
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Militia rule in retreat? Gheniwa’s death sparks a new security equation in western Libya
Recurring clashes in Tripoli On 12 May 2025, Tripoli was rocked by violent clashes following the assassination of Abdul Ghani al-Kikli, widely known as “Gheniwa,” commander of the Stability Support Apparatus (SSA). As one of the capital’s most powerful militia leaders, Gheniwa’s death marked a major turning point in...
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How will Al-Sharaa respond to the Israeli attacks?
Israel has gone too far in its attacks on Syria this time, as its warplanes bombed the vicinity of the presidential palace in Damascus. In a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered the bombing “a clear message to the Syrian regime: We...
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A musical revolution over Palestine is radicalising Arab youth
The genocide in Gaza has triggered a movement in global youth culture not seen since the incendiary climate of the late 1970s. This musical phenomenon has also provoked a Zionist-led media frenzy, driven by hysteria and moral panic last evidenced when Punk rock burst onto the music scene. Scholars...
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Bin Salman’s shame as Arabs dance while Gaza burns
The Arab world must not and cannot remain silent any longer. It is, after all, this very silence that has allowed the slaughter of Palestinians to take place in Gaza these past 550 days. It’s very easy to criticise Britain and remind everyone why the Union Flag is known...
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Leila Khaled: Bold, brave and beautiful
It is with great sadness that I am writing this article about an amazing woman whose life in this world must be remembered for its drama, courage and determination. Her name is Leila Khaled and she was a source of inspiration and admiration for thousands of bewildered teenage girls...
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Marching may not save Gaza, but voting can
Voters have no idea of their own power and most democratically-elected politicians in the world hope it stays that way. If they could eliminate the voting process in the world’s democracies, it would certainly suit the agenda of some very powerful people who do some very bad things. Looking...
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Trump, Starmer and Netanyahu are a triumvirate of evil
The Zionist state is on the verge of economic collapse and many of its citizens are leaving, but shush, don’t tell anyone. In fact, no one is talking about this, certainly not in Tel Aviv or Israel’s friends in the Western media, in case it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy....
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Israel not only weaponises humanitarian aid, but also criminalises those who deliver it
During Ramadan, I tend to put down my pen and spend most working hours supporting charities operating in Palestine. These NGOs are not that popular with Labour’s liberal lefties who are afraid of helping anything or anyone linked to Gaza, such is the unrelenting intimidation from the Zionist lobby....
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Is Starmer waiting for a Christchurch-style atrocity in Britain before taking Islamophobia seriously?
I am a Muslim. People say I don’t look like one, but then again what does a Muslim look like? We are not all olive or brown skinned, and unless men wear a specific hat, and women cover their head with a hijab, and both wear traditional (in the...
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Israel and its supporters struggle to hide behind the last fig leaf of decency
The UK’s Queen Victoria (1819-1901) commissioned a fig leaf to cover Michelangelo’s statue of David because she was said to be shocked by the nudity. Ever since then the humble fig leaf has been used as a euphemism to censor, protect and control what society can see, read or...
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World’s longest-serving prisoner freed after 44 years in Israeli prisons
After 44 years in Israeli prisons, the world’s longest-serving political prisoner was freed on Thursday as part of the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement. Nael Barghouti’s time in prison saw him become one of the most prominent figures in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. His release marks a pivotal...
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We should never side with dictators, urges US presidential wannabee: Really?
“We must choose a side, and it should never be the side of dictators.” It’s a simple enough statement, but when you examine the background of the person who has just said it you have to wonder if wilful blindness is becoming a contagion among America’s political elite. Either...
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The Scots and Palestinians are cut from the same cloth
The pettiness of Zionist groups and their ability to claim “terrorism” at every turn, never ceases to amaze me. Nor does their pathological pursuit of anything and anyone pro-Palestine. Just the other day I was at a fundraising event for Gaza where the host wore a striking tartan on...
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Genocide scholar blasts Trump’s Gaza plan as ‘Classic genocidal white man’s colonialism’
US President Donald Trump has declared to the entire world that he intends to commit a war crime in Gaza by expelling its Palestinian population, according to a prominent genocide scholar. Trump’s remarks were made “without any conscience or compassion, as if the Palestinian people, including hundreds of thousands...
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It’s back to the future, as Nazi-neocon insanity prompts Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” This enduring quote is commonly attributed to the late genius Albert Einstein. Decades after his death in 1955, politicians are still rediscovering his meaning today as they reinvent government policies while proclaiming their newfound passion...
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Hind Rajab is indeed the Anne Frank of the Gaza Genocide
Every day in Palestine is an anniversary marking a tragedy or killing that is so horrific that it stops people in their tracks around the world. This article is a reminder, lest we forget. Anniversaries provide an opportunity to look back on shared experiences, both positive and negative, and...
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The privilege of dying in the West and the Gaza child with no name
My mother died last night. Joyce Ridley and her 98 years are gone forever, but definitely not forgotten by the three generations she left behind. Since I posted the news on Facebook — that’s how we communicate such sad news these days — I’ve been inundated with instant messages...
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Israel reaps the whirlwind around organ harvesting rumours
There are some persistent rumours around the Israeli treatment of Palestinian prisoners that simply refuse to go away. As soon as speculation arises about rape and organ harvesting the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) flexes its muscles and swats away such horrific stories accusing the accusers of anti-Semitism and...
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Hamas ghosts surface in display of Chutzpah
For the last 15 months Hamas fighters have been viewed and feared by their Zionist foe as “ghosts” haunting a deep underground labyrinth of tunnels reaching out across the densely populated Gaza Strip. Yahyah Sinwar, the late head of Hamas in Gaza, who was killed by an Israeli drone...
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There’s no cure for Israel’s terminal sickness as it destroys Gaza’s health sector
Every woman has a special bond with her obstetrician, the person who delivers her babies. This was illustrated recently when the legendary singer Adele spotted her “baby doctor” in the audience at her Las Vegas concert. In scores of videos posted on social media, the Grammy Award-winner walks through...
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Are we witnessing the return of the monarchy to Egypt?
This won’t be a success… This is what I said as the general entered his new palace, in the new administrative capital, arrogantly, imitating the only president in the world whose pretentious walk in his palace was broadcast before it became a custom for the general; Russian President Putin....
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Can Palestinians and Israelis coexist in a single democratic state?
Seventy-six years of occupation, ethnic cleansing and settler-colonisation leading up to today’s genocide in Gaza cannot disappear overnight. In light of this, does the historical Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish vision for a single democratic state where Palestinians and previous Israelis coexist make any sense? How would such a state...