Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nasim Ahmed
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Remembering the US Invasion of Iraq 2003
On 19 March 2003, the US led the western invasion of Iraq in a war many consider to be the worst foreign policy disaster in modern history. Justified under the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) allegedly possessed by the country’s dictator, Saddam Hussein – which turned out…
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Victories continue to mount against pro-Israel defamation campaign
Libelling human rights activists who expose the brutal reality of Israel’s seemingly never-ending military occupation of Palestine has been the standard modus operandi of anti-Palestinian groups. This tactic has been relatively successful in recent years because a number of western governments, including Britain’s, view vocal support for Palestine and opposition…
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Asking Modi’s India to help peace in Palestine shows the UN’s incredible lack of judgement
The UN decision to seek India’s assistance in resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict is not only inexplicable, but also shows an incredible lack of judgement. Injecting some new blood into the so-called peace process — which, let’s be honest, has been a spectacular failure — may well be a good idea,…
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Only in apartheid Israel can an app offer option not to be picked up by Arab cab drivers
An Israeli taxi-hailing app, offering its Jewish customers the option which guarantees that they will not be picked up by an Arab cab driver, is being sued by human rights lawyers. Gett, a global firm with users in most major cities, is facing a pay-out of $47 million in damages…
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AIPAC is in a losing battle to preserve Israel’s bipartisan status in America
The latest clash in the American civil war over Israel, which pits liberal progressives against right-wing reactionary nationalists, ended with an apology at the weekend by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Better known as AIPAC, the anti-Palestinian group issued a full apology for posting an advertisement accusing the Democratic…
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Peace plans have no function except to serve Israel’s colonial takeover of Palestine
It will prove to be Israel’s misfortune that the Zionist project to take over Palestine got underway at a period when settler-colonialism was coming to be viewed with moral and legal contempt. Nevertheless, such has been the effectiveness if its hasbara — propaganda — that even as the world entered…
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UK mosque cancels event with pro-Israel group
The UK’s most high-profile pro-Israel group, spearheading the campaign to conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel, has been forced to cancel an event with London Central Mosque following a letter of protest highlighting its anti-Palestinian views. British Muslims expressed shock over the event organised by pro-Israel Board of Deputies of…
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Hasn’t the US been a greater source of instability in the Middle East than Iran?
During a televised discussion over which country has been the main source of instability in the Middle East, I struggled to place Iran ahead of the US. While it is self-evident that no single country can be held responsible for all of the region’s pain and suffering – just as…
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Hindu nationalists are seeking the Israelification of India; they must be stopped
In their quest to refashion India as a Hindu state, Hindutva extremists have placed themselves on a collision course with the country’s secular constitution. Their goal is no less than the reformation of India as an ethno-religious state affording special rights and privileges to Hindus within a multi-tier system of…
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‘The concept of Islamophobia’ is anti-Semitic claims pro-Israel commentator
Cries of anti-Semitism took another extraordinary turn yesterday after one of Britain’s leading advocates for the state of Israel insisted that the charge of Islamophobia was itself anti-Semitic in an article titled “Don’t fall for bogus claims of ‘Islamophobia’”. This remarkable claim, which dismissed serious concerns over the rise in…
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UAE targeted UN and FIFA using American Al-Qaeda spy programme
A controversial spy programme developed by senior US operatives on behalf of the UAE for tracking Al-Qaeda terrorists was repurposed by the Gulf monarchy to target political opponents and human rights activists, a Reuters investigation has uncovered. Amongst the many high-profile victims of the secret counterterror surveillance unit designed to…
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It’s not just Muslims threatened by Israeli groups churning far-right hatred
Last week, a Guardian investigation traced a network of Facebook accounts fuelling far-right Islamophobic pages around the world to Israel. Journalists at the UK daily uncovered a plot to take over some of Facebook’s largest far-right pages in an attempt to foment hatred towards Islam and Muslims while fostering support…
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UK’s chief rabbi urges voters not to back Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn
With three weeks to go until the British public cast their vote in what is expected to be a close race in the country’s most important general election, and with the Labour Party closing the gap on the Conservatives, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis launched a scathing attack yesterday by accusing…
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Guardian columnist peddles fake news to accuse Corbyn of anti-Semitism
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has successfully constructed an image for himself as a vanguard of truth. The newspaper columnist’s most recent novel, To Kill the Truth, published under the pseudonym Sam Bourne, attests to the anxieties he suffers over the proliferation of fake news and the erasure of history.…
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Jewish Chronicle urges Britons not to vote for Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn
With just over a month to go until the British public cast their vote in what is expected to be a close race in the country’s most important General Election in recent history, a pro-Israel Jewish community newspaper with a worrying track record of making libellous allegations has urged the…
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Where the Bird Disappeared
One would be at stretch to find another place on earth where the mining of history evokes as much controversy as Palestine. You would struggle even further to name a political movement more successful than Zionism in its ability to excavate history and string together a political narrative connecting three…
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MEMO’s Palestine Book Awards gets underway in London
MEMO’s award season got under way last night in front of a packed gathering in London who helped launch the 8th Palestine Book Awards. The audience at the pre-launch event for MEMO’s flagship event, were treated to an engaging conversation with this year’s shortlisted authors who discussed their works ahead of…
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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…