20 Feb 2026 — Staying late reading a history book about prophet Mohammad and listening to early 20th century songs of Umm Kalthoum while waiting for the US to tell us that they have started bombing Iran again (or not). 23 Jan 2026 – “When I saw you in Egypt last August, you looked very […]
“The Israeli revenge war has become a watershed, but it is by no means some sudden new trend.” First published in The New Humanitarian on October 27, 2025 Twenty-four years ago, on 11 September 2001, I sat on the veranda of a picturesque seafront restaurant in the Gaza Strip. I had started working for the […]
31 July 2025 – Borges said that heaven will be a library. This is how I felt in Hodges and Figgis Bookshop after visiting the old Trinity college Library in Dublin. The new books and the old manuscripts and the serious ess of it all compared to the AI hype and post-truth internet flood. 22 June 2025 — Two […]
Published 5 April 2025 in the EU Observer and co-authored with Petra Stienen “In the trash-strewn zigzagging streets of Al Husseiniya, a slum less than 15km south of Damascus, Ahmad Bakr walks with his Oud strung on his shoulder on his way to a small apartment where he runs a music school. Al Husseiniya is […]
Celebrations of liberation are fading and sectarian violence has returned. Can Syrians avoid vengeance? First published in the Prospect Magazine on March 15, 2025 Fourteen years ago, I stopped traveling to Syria. A security agency was suspicious of my visits because my passport listed my profession as a journalist. So I felt a bit anxious […]
19 Jan 2025 – Palestinian poet Refaat Al’ar’eer was killed by an Israeli bomb on December 6, 2023, after he wrote this poem below. Let us execute his will left in the poem below, let us make kites, the least we can do now on the day of a temporary ceasefire in a war that […]
Time for the UN to Check Out of the Four Seasons As Geir Pedersen, the UN envoy to Syria, left the abandoned Sednaya prison near Damascus, a woman spat in his direction and threw her shoes at his car — a gesture of deep disrespect and disdain in the Middle East. Prior to the collapse of the Assad […]
29 September 2023 — Some of my friends whose opinions I very much respect admiringly shared an analytical piece by Cheryl Benard on Afghan women after the failure of the American Neo-imperial project and their ignominious withdrawal this month. Here is the piece: https://unherd.com/2021/09/the-truth-about-afghan-women/… I found the main points of attractions in the piece either […]
First published in MadaMasr on 13 October 2020 Even as the Saudis and the Emiratis continue to wage war in Yemen, they should step up and at least double the money they have been providing for humanitarian aid in the country. It is a moral duty and an ethical obligation, and although these are clearly […]
This was first published by MadaMasr on 6 September 2020 Less than three days after a massive explosion in Beirut killed nearly 200 people, injured several thousand and devastated the city, the head of the World Food Programme, the largest UN relief agency, flew into the Lebanese capital and drove to the site of carnage. […]
