Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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‘Palestinianised’ Chileans revolt against their ‘Israelised’ government
Watching Chilean President Sebastián Pinera brutally cracking down on protestors in the capital Santiago, I begin to recollect reflections of Israeli activists and author Jeff Halper. In his 2015 book, “War Against the People”, the former director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, suggested that people across the world…
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‘Ethnic cleansing is a dishonest and baseless smear’, says Turkey official
Turkey rarely gets a fair hearing in the Western press, I am reminded by Abdurrahim Boynukalin, chairman of AK Party UK, when I press him to answer questions about Ankara’s military incursion on its south-eastern border with Syria. The former deputy minister of Ankara and a member of parliament for…
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With all eyes on Turkey, is this the moment for it to rise?
US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and green light a Turkish military incursion in the north-east section of the country was greeted with dismay. It has even confounded those closest to him like Senator Lindsey Graham, one of his staunchest supporters. The Republican senator from…
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MEMO hosts Remembering Jamal one year on
It is exactly one year since Jamal Khashoggi walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul where he was met by a team of Saudi assassins, hand-picked presumably by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia himself, determined to follow the instructions of their superiors who demanded nothing less than the “head…
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Iran may dodge a bullet thanks to Trump’s misfortune
It is hard to view US President Donald Trump’s Iran policy as anything but an own goal. His decision to unliterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal and embark on a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, cheered on by Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was meant to…
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Netflix is obsessed with telling heroic Israeli spy stories which distort reality
It should come as no surprise to find Israel’s name being mentioned whenever new declassified intelligence records are released. Mossad spies are often found behind sinister plots, including those against countries that have traditionally been seen as Israel’s friend, most recently against its greatest ally, the US. Tel Aviv’s habit…
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Remembering the Sabra and Shatila massacre
Thirty-seven years ago this week, one of the bloodiest chapters in Palestinian history unfolded in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Surrounded by Israeli forces from all sides, thousands of refugees, bereft of leadership and protection from the international community, were slaughtered during a two day killing spree in the Shatila…
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Legal victory over FBI ‘Muslim registry’ – demands review of “war on terror” policy
Civil rights groups have long suspected security agencies of keeping what they call a “Muslim registry”, in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack. The tide of anti-Muslim hostility that has spread across the US, and subsequently throughout Europe- with little resistance it should be said- they argue has…
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Saudi-backed Yemen government calls for legal action against the UAE
“A civil war within a civil war,” is how the International Crisis Group (ICG) — an independent NGO — has described the situation in Yemen. The observation summed up perfectly the chaos that inevitably follows misguided military intervention in a country where tangled politics guarantees that friends and foes alike…
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Is Britain going to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?
The administration of US President Donald Trump has come to be defined by racism on the domestic front and recklessness on the international stage, and yet the British government under Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to follow Trump’s lead in what has been his most controversial policy to date:…
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India annexes Kashmir under the dark shadow of Netanyahu and Modi’s far-right embrace
The depth of love between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi has few parallels. Many traits unite the current crop of populist, power-hungry, authoritarian strongmen that have been on the rise of late, but few have enjoyed the kind of relationship that has blossomed between…
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We all deserve an investigation into BBC Panorama’s propaganda
The British public were subjected to an hour of anti-Palestine propaganda by the BBC last week when it aired a Panorama programme on the “anti-Semitism” row within the Labour Party. The public service broadcaster appeared to be doing very little public service when it unleased what was, by any reasonable…
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Khashoggi’s murder reflects our age of impunity
We are witnessing the global retreat of democracy under an “age of impunity,” warned former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a Fulbright Lecture last month. The former Labour MP who is now the chief executive of the International Rescue Committee spoke at length about the dark cloud that hangs…
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PalExpo knocks down Israel’s Separation Wall
Billed as Europe’s biggest cultural festival on Palestine, thousands arrived expecting to partake in a celebration of the rich heritage of the holy land and to experience reality as it is endured by millions of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel. The two-day festival of music, art, culture…
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There is no parity between ethnic cleansing in Palestine and Jews’ exodus from Arab states
British Conservative MP Theresa Villiers blundered into a debate on Israel and Palestine last week. In doing so, the former Northern Ireland Secretary rehashed discredited myths the function of which has historically been to shield Israel from taking responsibility for the plight of Palestinian refugees. During deliberations in the House…
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With the ‘taboo’ lifted on the Israel lobby, now it’s time to register AIPAC a foreign agent
Since US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar stirred controversy with tweets about the power of the US’ Israel lobby, a flood of articles has followed exposing not only the hypocrisy of those attacking her, but lending support to claims made by the Minnesota representative about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).…
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The core of Zionism is settler-colonialism, not democracy
The passing of Israel’s Nation-State Law last year rekindled age-old questions about Zionism and Jewish self-determination. To unpack these issues, I sat with Professor Joseph Massad who was in London to give a keynote speech on “Israel’s fear of democracy” at a MEMO conference in the capital. “Zionism,” he told…
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Purging critics of Israel is no way to fight anti-Semitism
With Israel seeking to purge public spaces of its critics, the decision by the New York Times to ban its publication of political cartoons entirely over alleged anti-Semitism, perhaps should not have come as a surprise. Nevertheless, few expected the 168 year old paper, with 43 million Twitter followers and…
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‘Israel’s extreme right wing government has finished any hope for a Palestinian state’
Last year, Palestinian citizens of Israel suffered two major set-backs in their ongoing fight for equality. The first was the Nation-State Law, which basically turned non-Jews into second class citizens. The second, which is related to the first, was a slump in Palestinian and Arab representation within the Israeli Knesset…
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Israel is ‘weaponising culture’, erasing Palestinian history with Eurovision
Calls to boycott this year’s Eurovision song contest have focused on Israel’s brutal occupation. Mercury Prize-winning rock band Wolf Alice, for example, gave their backing by evoking images of Israel’s domination over Palestinians saying that it was “weaponising culture” and that the Zionist state was a “serial human rights abuser”…
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A new civil rights movement unites Palestinians and Black Americans
Since its launch in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) has evolved into one of the most effective campaigns against racism. This year’s IAW kicked off in South Africa earlier this week in customary fashion, with leaders of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), whose former leader the late Nelson Mandela…
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Jeremy Hunt’s hostility towards the UN shows he is not serious about the Israeli occupation
In their desperate attempt to divert attention from the brutal reality of its military occupation, Israel and its supporters have successfully employed a number of tactics. None, however, have been more effective than the claim that institutions like the UN and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International are anti-Semitic…
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Israel’s treatment of Bedouins is a ‘heinous crime’ says Knesset member
The fate of Palestinian citizens of Israel is often ignored in the many examples cited for why it is an apartheid state. This assertion rests on a number of irrefutable facts, which prompted former US President Jimmy Carter to write his New York Times bestseller, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. The…
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Debunking the myth of Labour’s ‘anti-Semitism crisis’
Pro-Israel groups aided by the mainstream media have led the assault on the Labour Party over its handling of allegations of anti-Semitism. Their goal, it seems, is no less than the removal of Jeremy Corbyn as leader with the unfounded claim that he is partly responsible for the surge in…