Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Amelia Smith
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Sisi is neither a reliable, nor a credible negotiator for the Palestinian conflict
During his visit to the White House on Monday Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi told Trump he was confident the US President could broker a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Kick-starting talks was tipped to be top of the agenda when the two met in Washington early this...
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Adam Curtis: ‘Gaddafi’s story holds up a mirror to Western hypocrisy’
There are two notable things about Gaddafi, says Adam Curtis. The first is that he was obsessed with the idea he was a global thinker and the second is that he hated the British establishment. Shunned by the Arab World, Gaddafi decided he would try and liberate Britain instead...
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Lebanese artist Nadim Karam: ‘I try to bring dreams to a city’
“I always say that I try to bring dreams to a city in order to create joy,” says Lebanese artist and architect Nadim Karam when I ask him about his iconic work, Archaic Procession, a series of five-metre high animalesque and humanoid sculptures positioned around Beirut in the nineties....
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Over 1.5m Syrian refugees are lost in Lebanon
Sheikh Abdo, a refugee from Syria, had nothing when he arrived in Lebanon but still offered sanctuary to others who had crossed the border. At first people were sleeping in his back garden until he secured permission from a local charity to manage some nearby land. Once he had...
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‘Tony Blair and George Bush opened the gate of hell in Iraq’
By the time Zaradasht Ahmed had finished his education in 1991 the Gulf War had started and he was conscripted into the army. Instead of serving in the armed forces he made the decision to go to Europe. “I didn’t understand who to fight for so I defected; I...
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Egypt’s Christians have been forgotten by the church and the government
In early December relatives of 29 Christians killed in a church bombing carried the coffins of the deceased through the streets of Nasr City, a district in Cairo, to be buried. It was only later that the terror group Daesh claimed responsibility for the blast, which hit the church...
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Palestinians in Syria: Nakba Memories of Shattered Communities
When recollecting the Nakba, Palestinian refugees in Syria recall fishing in the Jordan River, the trees on their land and the houses they once lived in. With these memories they evoke a world that was destroyed by the 1948 Catastrophe, rather than the actual death and displacement of hundreds...
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Abandoned child refugees are targeted for slavery and sex abuse in Europe
When Omar’s family crossed the Turkey-Bulgaria border it was February and it had begun to snow. Whilst the children took shelter, urinating on themselves to keep warm, Omar’s father and his uncle went out to look for food. They never came back because they froze to death. Later, Omar’s...
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Egypt’s refugee crisis: Sisi is the problem
On Saturday military strongman Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi promised to punish the “wrongdoers” responsible for the boat that capsized off the coast of Egypt last week. At least 194 people drowned after the overcrowded vessel gave way to the sheer number of people on board; 169 people have been rescued...
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In the aftermath of Syria's ceasefire the war on children resumes
In a recent interview with Channel 4 News one of President Assad’s key advisors said reports of chlorine attacks on children are “irrelevant to reality”. She was referring to the offensive earlier in the month when barrels suspected of containing chlorine gas were dropped from a helicopter onto a market...
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World leaders have categorically failed: Regeni is Egypt’s last chance for human rights
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has become the latest in long line of world leaders queuing up to meet Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi. Whilst Clinton will meet the military strongman at the UN General Assembly next week, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball said he would be welcome...
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Arab cinema fights censorship at home and hate crime in the West
In June, Oscar-winning screenwriter David Franzoni announced his upcoming biography of the 13-century Persian poet Rumi, a production he believes will counter the negative portrayal of Muslims put forward in Western films. Yet despite the premise for the film, it was LA-born Leonardo DiCaprio who was tipped to play...
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Depicting the future of Palestine
"There can be a pornographic interest in reducing Syrian and Palestinian artists to spectacles, relics and survivors"...
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Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian child prisoners speak
Ayman Abbasi was beaten so badly when he was arrested his parents could barely recognise their son at the court hearing. He was held at Almaskoubia interrogation centre, released under house arrest, and then imprisoned again. In his cell Abbasi enjoyed listening to the radio to “escape” what was...
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Comedians to read all 2.6 million words of Chilcot report at Edinburgh Fringe Festival event
It took seven years to complete, over £10 million of taxpayers’ money yet a paperback version will set you back by £767: The Chilcot report. For those that don’t have the money to purchase their own copy, or the patience to read it, a collection of comedians, authors and...
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A British step to help Palestinian entrepreneurs defy the occupation
Manar Shab’an builds vertical gardens by growing taller vine vegetables above varieties that grow in the shade they provide. In her greenhouses she weaves together vertical and horizontal growing patterns into a grid and recycles water so that the excess from one plant can be used to feed others....
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Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World
In the seventh century Arab World a king’s legitimacy was recognised through the praise he received from his contemporary poets – because of this a ruler is often remembered by which poet they are associated with. Abu Firas al-Hamadani, for example, is remembered in connection with the great poet...
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Palestinian flutist Nai Barghouti: Art has become a privilege and not a right
When Nai’s mum was pregnant with her second daughter she asked her neighbours to help think of a name. “If I had a third daughter I would call her Nai,” replied her neighbour, and the name stuck. In Arabic Nai translates as wooden flute, the instrument that often features...
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Bojo is a disaster for the Middle East
Since his surprise appointment as Foreign Secretary yesterday, much has been made of Boris Johnson’s column in the Telegraph. In a particularly disturbing contribution that was penned in the aftermath of the Assad regime’s capture of Palmyra from Daesh earlier this year he said it was bizarre to feel...
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Whether they are African American or Palestinian, all lives matter
Like the people of Palestine, African Americans in the US will continue to be subject to discrimination and violence long after the cameras withdraw...
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Syrian-Kurdish poet Amir Darwish: “It is not a crisis for the Syrian people, it is a universal crisis”
Amir Darwish tells me that poetry chose him at the age of 16. Originally from Kobani in northern Syria, he was born and raised in Aleppo – making poetry not only an unusual choice for someone of his generation, but a dangerous one. It was the nineties and the...
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Iraqi poet Adnan Al-Sayegh: “My poetry has always been related to freedom”
In the early eighties Adnan Al-Sayegh and his friend Ali Al-Ramahi spent much time discussing and writing poetry together. One day one of Ali’s works was published – it was critical of Saddam Hussein and his government and several days later he was killed. “Until now this has been a great influence on me; whenever I write I feel as though I’m writing for him. His soul is always in mine,” says Al-Sayegh. It wasn’t...
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Preparing at grassroots for a peaceful, post-war Syria
“Peace in the context of some of the communities we’re working in is such a loaded term. We actually avoid using it because peace can mean surrender, submission."...
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Refugees have helped the West expand its war on terror
In 2016 up to 150,000 refugees will pass through the West African country of Niger and cross its northern border into Libya or Algeria to catch a boat and make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. In May the landlocked country requested €1 billion to help prevent...