Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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Algeria: A populist leader challenging our notions of what is possible in the Middle East
Much has been said and written about the rise of populism around the world and the threat it poses to traditional politics, dominated as it has been by the centre right and centre left. As the new wave of populism sweeps across various continents, the Middle East has been somewhat…
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Sudan bloody war shows UAE is an agent of chaos and instability
In 2019, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary organisation called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) pledged over $1bn to help stabilise the Sudanese Central Bank in the aftermath of the economic crisis and protests which led up to the ouster of dictator, President Omar Al-Bashir. “We put $1.027…
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Foreign Affairs magazine lays down the facts about Israel apartheid and Jewish supremacy
The remarkable pace by which the term “apartheid” has moved from the margins of the Israeli-Palestinian debate to its centre was on powerful display this weekend. The prestigious American magazine, Foreign Affairs, widely considered one of most influential foreign policy magazines shaping Washington’s thinking, added its weight behind the claim…
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The dark, Islamophobic world of a UAE ‘dirty smear campaign’
A “smear campaign” alleged to be orchestrated by the United Arab Emirates and executed through a Geneva-based private intelligence firm has apparently been peddling hateful misinformation associated with anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists, an article in New Yorker Magazine has revealed. In “The dirty secrets of a smear campaign”, which is as…
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In rushing to consensus, UK media failed in its duty during Labour anti-Semitism row
I’ve been watching the fallout from KC Martin Forde’s first public interview since the release of his report examining the handling of anti-Semitism complaints within the UK Labour Party. I’ve also been listening to British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan discuss his new book, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading…
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We cannot begin to defeat authoritarianism without first combatting Islamophobia
Discrimination and outright hatred towards Muslims have risen to “epidemic proportions”, the UN said while issuing a warning to mark the first anniversary of the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. Launched on the third anniversary of the Christchurch Mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which 51 Muslim worshippers were killed…
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UK Labour owes an apology to pro-Palestinian British Jews ‘purged’ from the party
It seems a long time since UK’s Labour was accused of “purging Jews” from the party over allegations of anti-Semitism. But does the party and its leader Keir Starmer owe an apology to anti-Zionist Jewish members for the way they have been treated? Near universal concern over Israel’s metamorphosis into an anti-democratic apartheid regime suggests that an apology is long overdue. British Jews critical…
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Israel’s ‘right to exist’ challenged in expert testimonies
“Israel’s right to exist” has been challenged in expert testimonies by leading scholars Professor John Dugard and Professor Avi Shlaim. Dugard is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa. He has served intermittently as Judge of the International Court of Justice. His other high-profile appointment was at the…
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Israel has never had a democracy, so how can it lose it?
What should we make of the daily warnings issued about democracy being in peril in Israel? Over the weekend it was US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides who sounded the alarm. “What unites America and Israel is the love of democracy and democratic institutions,” said Nides while calling on the…
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Thomas Friedman shows that liberal Jews have no reason left to defend Israel
I watched the recent discussion between Thomas Friedman and Peter Beinart with great interest. Friedman, a New York Times columnist and arguably the journalist who has most shaped the US debate over Israel-Palestine in recent decades, was invited onto Beinart’s podcast to talk about Zionism, the two-state solution and Israel’s…
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Is Rishi Sunak really going to appoint critic of IHRA UK’s free speech tsar?
A staunch critic of the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism is reportedly being considered by the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to become the first ever Director for Free Speech on university campuses. Favoured by Israel, the IHRA has become a major fault line between…
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Jewish supremacy is state policy, says Netanyahu
American Jewish leaders are right to be worried. As Benjamin Netanyahu peels away at the façade that has maintained support for the occupation state within liberal Jewish constituencies in the US and elsewhere, they are discovering that their democratic image of Israel is but a figment of their imagination. Any…
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The Israel you knew, has not ‘gone’ it never existed
Israel’s war on Palestine is not confined to the battlefield. It is also waged in the media, nowhere more prominently than in the New York Times. Long regarded within the industry as a national “newspaper of record”, its record on impartially reporting on Israel’s brutal military occupation and takeover of…
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What British comedian, David Baddiel, gets wrong about Israel and anti-Semitism
British comedian, David Baddiel, is right about one thing: Jews are not “collectively responsible” for the policy and behaviour of the State of Israel, but he is complaining about the wrong group. Instead of criticising left-wing progressives and black anti-racists for why he thinks “Jews Don’t Count” within such spaces,…
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Donors withdraw millions in support for controversial programme whitewashing Israeli crime
One of Israel’s most successful initiatives peddling state propaganda has suffered a major blow following the decision by major donor, the Adelson Family Foundation, to pull millions of pounds from the “Birthright” Israel programme. The highly controversial initiative offers all-expenses-paid trips to Israel for 18–26-year-old Jews. Since its inception in…
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Outrage over the rise of Jewish Power will not stop shameless dishonesty about Israel
Israel’s far-right ultranationalists have become the new power brokers. For the foreseeable future, the government of the Occupation State will include openly fascist parties. The likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are likely to be handed important ministerial positions that will further entrench Israel’s illegal occupation. Nevertheless, despite their…
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Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial
One of the most startling aspects of Israel’s ongoing takeover of historic Palestine is how, despite the catalogue of human rights abuse, violations of international law and the practice of the crime of apartheid, the Zionist project has been able to maintain support for its cause amongst large sections of…
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Historians reveal Israel’s use of poison against Palestinians
The details of Israel’s secret use of biological weapons and poison against Palestinians during the 1947/48 ethnic cleansing campaign has been revealed in a recent article by historians Benny Morris and Benjamin Kedar. The 84-year-old Kedar is professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the more well-known Morris…
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British democracy undermined by ‘lawless’ Labour weaponising anti-Semitism
The first of three programmes produced by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) on the turbulent five years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the UK Labour party was aired yesterday. It began by asking: is UK Labour a “lawless party”? Revelations by the I-Unit – which is the same team behind…
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Elizabeth II: Britain’s last colonial queen
When Queen Elizabeth II took to the throne in February 1952, the British Empire had entered its last days. Though Britain maintained control over vast swathes of the planet and counted hundreds of millions of people as subjects, the beginning of the “Second Elizabethan Era” was marked by unrest and…
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An anti-Semitism expert says that progressives ‘have the right to exclude Zionists’
A leading expert on anti-Semitism has said that university campus groups “have the right to exclude Zionists.” Writing in the Times of Israel, Kenneth Stern argued that, although it may be “hurtful” and counterproductive, the right of progressive groups to exclude advocates of the occupation state must be respected. Stern…
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Attack on anti-Zionist Jewish leader exposes scale of UK Labour’s anti-Palestine problem
The scale of Labour’s anti-Palestine problem under the leadership of Keir Starmer was laid bare yesterday following the election of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). Wimborne-Idrissi, who is a co-founder of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) – the main grouping of left-wing Jews in the Labour…
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Palestine exposes the limits of free-speech and the morally bankrupt ‘cancel culture’
The firing of Palestinian American woman, Natalie Abulhawa, has sparked a debate over free-speech, “cancel-culture” and the ever-growing crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. The 25-year-old athletic trainer was fired by a private girls school in Bryn Mawr over years-old social media posts criticising Israel. In March the Council on American-Islamic Relations…
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‘The world is bigger than five,’ says Turkiye’s UN reform campaign
Turkiye brought its UN reform campaign to London last week with the fifth panel discussion in a series of public events across 12 countries. “The world is bigger than five” is the key message of the campaign launched by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nearly a decade ago. It has…