“Are you an Egyptian superhero?” asks a young Egyptian girl in Cairo in Disney’s latest Marvel offering, Moon Knight. “I am” answers Layla El-Faouly, towering in her commanding white and gold winged suit. With those two words, Layla, Disney and Marvel create history as we finally witness an Arab superhero on screen. And it’s a … Read more
Face down. In a ditch. That’s how and where Shireen Abu Akleh’s life ended. Face down. In a ditch. She should be alive. At work with her colleagues doing her job. A reporter. At home with her family. A daughter, a sister, an aunt. In Palestine, among Palestinians who loved and admired her. But she’s … Read more
“I managed to overcome my fears in difficult times because I have chosen journalism in order to be close to the people. It might not be easy to change the reality but at least I was able to convey the people’s message and voice.” These are Shireen Abu Akleh’s words in an Al Jazeera video … Read more
On May 15, Lebanese voters will go to the polls to elect a new parliament. Lebanon has changed significantly since the last general election in 2018. Indeed, after the emergence of the October 17 protest movement, an economic and financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut port explosion, and disruptions to energy and food security … Read more
Israel should not be allowed to whitewash the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh with yet another sham ‘investigation’. The only possible response to the hasty offer Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid made to the Palestinians to conduct “a joint pathological investigation” into the killing of renowned Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh can be … Read more
On Friday, May 13, The New York Times website ran the headline “Israeli Police Attack Funeral of Slain Palestinian Journalist”, which was then updated to “Israeli Police Attack Mourners at Palestinian Journalist’s Funeral”. The journalist in question, of course, was 51-year-old Shireen Abu Akleh, the veteran Al Jazeera reporter shot in the head and killed … Read more
This week saw the most serious unrest in Sri Lanka since the aftermath of the Easter Bombing in 2019. A month-long protest in Colombo, calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign, was attacked by pro-government mobs. Protesters retaliated swiftly, chasing down those who took part in the attacks, with videos and photos of stripped and … Read more
The Marcos dynasty is returning to the pinnacle of power in the Philippines. Almost exactly 50 years after Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and established a dictatorship in the country, his namesake son is set to take over the Malacañang Presidential Palace. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr secured more than 30 million votes in the May … Read more
Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered. She was not “killed”. She was murdered. She was shot in the face. Not in the arm or a leg. In the face. That’s not a “kill” shot. That’s a murder shot. Abu Akleh was shot in the face, on purpose, while doing what she has been doing since 1997 … Read more
This morning, a beep on my phone woke me up at 8am. It was a notification from a Telegram channel called “Martyrs of Palestine”. I wasn’t shocked. It is, after all, not unusual for us Palestinians to wake up to the news of one or more of us having been killed in a raid by … Read more