Middle East Monitor Conversations

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MEMO spoke to Motasem A Dalloul, a survivor of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in the first of a new series of regular updates from the ground. Dalloul describes the daily struggle to survive: hunger, cold, the collapse of healthcare, and ongoing Israeli violations despite the so-called ceasefire.

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/447fpn8k
Visit our website: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/

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In this episode of Conversations with MEMO, we explore a growing fracture inside the US right wing, particularly the MAGA movement, over Israel. While united for decades in its hostility towards Islam and Muslims, the American right now finds itself at a crossroads. The once seamless coalition is splintering between “America First” nationalists and staunch “Israel First” loyalists.

Author and commentator Jamal Kanj joins us to unpack how this division came to be, and how pro-Israel voices in the US are attempting to reassert dominance over the national narrative on Palestine. We discuss the illusion of US-Israel “shared values,” the role of institutionalised propaganda, and the power of lobby groups like AIPAC in shaping foreign and domestic policy.

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What if the global definition of anti-Semitism wasn’t only about protecting Jews — but also shaped by surveillance of Muslims and the politics of the War on Terror?

In this MEMO conversation, Professor James Renton — historian of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, empire, and global politics — uncovers the hidden history behind the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, now adopted by governments and universities around the world.

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In this episode of A Conversation with MEMO, we speak with Yousef M Aljamal, editor of the book If I Must Die by the late Dr Refaat Alareer. The episode focuses on Refaat’s final poem, written shortly before he was assassinated by Israel, and how the book came together in the months after his death. Yousef talks about the personal and political meaning of the poem and why it has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance around the world.

We also discuss the challenges of editing the book while still grieving, and what it means to protect the voice of someone who can no longer speak for himself. Yousef shares memories of Refaat as a teacher, mentor and writer who believed in using literature to resist Israeli occupation and imagine a free Palestine.

Bio: Yousef M. Aljamal

Yousef M. Aljamal is a Palestinian author, journalist and translator from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in Gaza. He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and works as the Gaza Coordinator for the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He has written and translated extensively on Palestinian resistance and incarceration, including Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag. He is the editor of If I Must Die, a posthumous collection of writings by Dr Refaat Alareer, and co-author of A Shared Struggle: Stories of Palestinian and Irish Hunger Strikers. Through his work, he amplifies Palestinian voices globally in support of justice and liberation.

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In this episode of a Conversation with MEMO, we speak with Shai Parnes, Public Outreach Director at B’Tselem, about the organisation’s landmark report “Our Genocide”, which declares that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Shai reflects on what it meant – emotionally, politically, and collectively – for their team to release this report from within Israeli society. We discuss the moment they knew the term genocide could no longer be avoided, and the significance of framing the report as “our genocide”.

We explore why B’Tselem waited until now to publish this conclusion, despite earlier warnings from Palestinian groups and legal scholars. Shai explains how the events of October 7 became a catalyst for annihilation, and why the current violence cannot be separated from the apartheid foundations laid between 1948 and 2023. The conversation covers key themes from the report including demographic engineering, spatial separation, ideological denial, and dehumanisation.

Finally, we take a look at the culture of denial in Israel.

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In this episode of A Conversation with MEMO, historian Peter Shambrook shares the compelling story behind his book Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine, 1914–1939. Through a detailed revisit of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, he unpacks how Britain’s broken promises to Arab leaders helped set the stage for the modern Israel–Palestine conflict.

Shambrook takes us into the minds of British policymakers during World War I and the interwar years, showing how decisions such as the Balfour Declaration emerged from geopolitical chess, not concern for the indigenous population of Palestine.

Shambrook challenges the dominant histories that downplay Arab voices and calls on younger generations particularly those involved in protest and activism, to engage with the historical roots of the conflict and the UK’s role in its making. His work comes at a moment when acknowledgment of this history feels more urgent than ever. As one reviewer notes, “this definitive work is a must-read,” laying bare a chapter of British deceit that echoes into today's political landscape.

00:01:09 – Why Write This Book?
00:09:05 – Research and Historical Certainty
00:16:06 – Maps and British Expectations
00:25:03 – Pressure in Parliament
00:38:57 – The Balfour Declaration in Policy
00:44:24 – Homeland vs. State
00:50:11 – Zionist Strategy Before WWI
00:59:12 – Morality and Personal Responsibility

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In this episode of MEMO’s podcast, host Nasim Ahmed speaks with Palestinian American scholar Karam Dana about his new book, To Stand with Palestine: Transnational Resistance and Political Evolution in the United States. Karam, a professor at the University of Washington Bothell, explores how the Palestinian struggle, especially from the diaspora, has become a powerful force for political change. The conversation touches on the book’s central idea: that transnational activism has reshaped what solidarity with Palestine looks like, particularly in the US.

They discuss what inspired Karam to write the book and how key events, including how Israel’s genocide in Gaza, have brought its themes into sharp focus. From social media activism to anti-Boycott Divestment and Sanctions laws, Karam breaks down how Palestinians and their allies are navigating the legal, political, and cultural landscape in America.

Part of MEMO’s lead-up to the 2025 Palestine Book Awards, this episode offers a thoughtful and timely look at how the fight for justice in Palestine connects with broader movements for racial and social justice. Karam makes the case that Palestine is not just a political issue, it’s a window into how power, solidarity, and resistance are evolving today.

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In this episode of Conversation with MEMO, we sit down with solicitor Fahad Ansari to unpack the intensifying crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism across Western democracies. Against the backdrop of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, the discussion dives deep into the erosion of free speech, the use of counter-terror laws to silence dissent, and the alarming shift from democratic to authoritarian tendencies in dealing with pro-Palestinian voices.

Fahad, whose firm recently launched a legal challenge against the UK's proscription of Hamas, shares insight into the chilling legal and political environment confronting activists today, raising urgent questions about the double standards embedded in the West’s commitment to freedom of expression.

The conversation also explores the unprecedented attempt to label Palestine Action a terrorist group, and the broader implications this could have for civil liberties and the future of political activism. Fahad provides a legal lens on these developments, drawing from real cases and legal battles led by his firm, now rebranded as Riverway to the Sea.

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The Gaza-bound aid ship Conscience was attacked by Israeli drones in international waters last week, injuring several people and damaging the vessel. As part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the ship was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

For the latest on the attack, MEMO's Nasim Ahmed speaks with Ann Wright, a former US Army colonel and diplomat who is a key organiser with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

Ann Wright is a retired US Army colonel and former diplomat who resigned in protest over the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Since then, she has been a vocal peace activist and human rights advocate, playing a leading role in numerous anti-war and pro-justice movements. Wright is a key organiser with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

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After a new age spirituality movement sprung up in the West in the late 19th century, the wisdom of Egyptian holy men, the healers of Palestine and the fakirs of the Ottomans were highly sought after from clubs in New York to Paris. Joining us to discuss how things changed in the West and the Middle East is the author of a book on the Middle East's own new age moment.

A new book 'Holy men of the Electromagnetic Age' aims to shake up how we see the history of new age spirituality. While we tend to associate seances, mind-reading, healing crystals, magic and spiritual sciences with a new age movement that sprang up in the West and which took some inspiration from India and the East in the 1960s, an entire global movement towards new age spirituality took off in the late 19th century and by the 1920s had reached a new height. A forgotten part of the new occult movement is the men of the Middle East that helped shape it. The wisdom of Egyptian holy men, the healers of Palestine and the fakirs of the Ottomans were highly sought after from clubs in New York to Paris. Eager young men and refugees sought to make their fortune in the West from performances that included mind reading and communing with the dead. They were seen as spiritual healers, who brought with them esoteric knowledge of the unseen world known to eastern wisdom, but forgotten by Western materialism. While the West was gripped by theosophy, the Middle East too experienced its own new age moment, where old assumptions were turned on their head. Joining us is the book's author Raphael Cormack.

Cormack is Assistant Professor of Arabic at Durham University. He is a writer, editor and translator. His first book, 'Midnight in Cairo', is a history of Cairo's early 20th century entertainment industry told from the perspective of its female stars. 'Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age' is his second book.

Special announcement: It has been quite a ride, MEMO Conversations was founded five-years ago and has been a core production for Middle East Monitor. Great guests, conversations and wonderful hosts have created a truly engaging product. Producer and host Usman Butt has been at the heart of running the show, however, the time has come for Usman to move on and we wish him the best of luck.

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Join us as we explore why Britain repeatedly deceived the Palestinian leadership and assess Britain’s direct role in displacing Palestinians ahead of the creation of the occupation state of Israel. Was there ever a real chance that London might have abandoned the Balfour Declaration? Or was the Palestinian resistance doomed from the outset?

During this week's MEMO in Conversation we are joined by historian and researcher Blake Alcott, author of the monumental 1,500-page book 'The Rape of Palestine: A Mandate Chronology'. This meticulously compiled work traces, through original documents, the calculated betrayal of Palestine by the British colonial administration from 1917 to 1948. With nearly 500 letters, reports and official records, Alcott lays bare how Britain systematically enabled Zionist colonisation while suppressing Palestinian resistance. This conversation is not just of important historical value, it’s an urgent exploration of how the roots of today’s crisis can be found in the Mandate-era decisions that reshaped the Middle East.

Alcott takes us through some of the book’s most explosive revelations, including early Palestinian warnings that were ignored, the King-Crane Commission’s damning but buried report, and the desperate lobbying efforts that ensured Britain remained firmly in support of Zionist settlement. We explore why Britain repeatedly deceived the Palestinian leadership, shutting them out of decision-making while empowering Zionist institutions like the Jewish Agency. As we discuss Britain’s direct role in displacing Palestinians, Alcott examines whether there was ever a real chance that London might have abandoned the Balfour Declaration — or if Palestinian resistance was doomed from the outset.

Blake Alcott was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1945, received a BA in philosophy in 1968 from Wesleyan U. in Connecticut, moved to Zurich and became a Swiss citizen, was a self-employed cabinetmaker until 2000. He obtained an MPhil in environmental policy in 2006 from University of Cambridge and a PhD in sustainability strategies in 2013 from the University of East Anglia. He went on to live in Turkiye and returned to Zurich, where he now lives, writes and plays tennis.

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With Donald Trump back in the White House vowing to tighten sanctions against Iran, the Gulf's ties with the Islamic Republic are in new unchartered waters, how will the US president's actions alter relations in the Middle East?

Iran and the GCC countries have a long history of suspicion, co-operation, competition, conflict and dialogue. During the fallout of the Arab Spring in 2011, we saw an intense rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which saw both nations sponsoring different sides in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. We also see close cooperation between them, despite sanctions on Tehran, the United Arab Emirates is a key trading partner and a place for Iranians to do business. However, the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon, the fall of Assad in Syria and the new Trump administration in the US, means the GCC and Tehran are in choppy new waters. What are the implications of these changes and how will leaders across the Gulf respond to one another? Helping us to understand all of this is Mehran Kamrava.

Kamrava is Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar. He also directs the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies. Kamrava is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including, most recently, 'How Islam Rules in Iran: Theology and Theocracy in the Islamic Republic' ; 'Righteous Politics: Power and Resilience in Iran'; 'A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis' and 'Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran’s Islamic Republic'.

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The genocide in Gaza has raised an important matter, Jews are not facing an existential crisis concerning the state of Israel, but a moral one — one that could reshape Jewish tradition more profoundly than any crisis in centuries, Beinart says.

Cast as a Cassandra figure within the Jewish community, Peter Beinart has been both celebrated and excommunicated for his outspoken criticism of Zionism and Israel’s policies. In the wake of the Gaza genocide, he argues that Jews are not facing an existential crisis concerning the state of Israel, but a moral one — one that could reshape Jewish tradition more profoundly than any crisis in centuries. In this MEMO in Conversation, we explore what it means to grapple with this moral reckoning and whether mainstream Jewish discourse is prepared to face it.

Together, we dismantle deeply ingrained narratives — like the idea that Jewish history is a perpetual cycle of persecution and survival, encapsulated in the phrase, “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” Beinart challenges us to reconsider Purim, not just as a tale of Jewish resilience but as a warning about the dangers of unchecked power. We also discuss the paradox of Israeli victimhood: How does a regional superpower backed by the world’s most powerful nation continue to centre its identity around historical trauma? And how has this currency of victimhood been weaponised by right-wing populist movements both in Israel and beyond?

The conversation delves into the language of evasion — how euphemisms like “transfer” and “security measures” have been used to obscure the brutal realities of ethnic cleansing. We also confront one of the most controversial questions: Was a Jewish state in Palestine ever possible without the Gaza genocide? Finally, we tackle the uncomfortable but urgent issue of anti-Semitism: How has it been used as a shield against legitimate criticism of Israel, and what are the dangers of this
misuse for Jews worldwide? Has Israel become a false idol, where rejecting a Jewish state is now seen as a greater heresy than rejecting Judaism itself?

Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He is also a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an MSNBC Political Commentator, Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He writes the Beinart Notebook newsletter on Substack.Com

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Western media has often distorted the image of the Palestinian resistance, shaping narratives in a way that harms the fate of Palestinians, but truly understanding Hamas is the only way to have a meaningful conversation on events in the Middle East, the co-author of a book on the movement says.

At a time when Western governments refuse to engage with Hamas politically, Helena Cobban's book 'Understanding Hamas: And Why That Matters' challenges dominant narratives and offers a nuanced exploration of the Palestinian movement, its origins, ideological evolution, and its role within Palestinian society. Drawing on decades of research and expertise, she unpacks why truly understanding Hamas is essential to any meaningful conversation on Israel, Palestine and the prospects for peace.

We explore key arguments from the book, including the shifting nature of Hamas’ charter and how its relationship with the West has shaped its political strategy. We also dive into the misrepresentation of the book in corporate media, particularly in the UK, and discuss the broader patterns in how Western media frames discussions about Hamas and Palestinian resistance. Cobban sheds light on the consequences of media distortion, the chilling effect it has on public discourse, and how these narratives shape policymaking in Washington, London and beyond.

Cobban unravels the book's larger purpose and where she and her co-editor, Rami G.Khouri, hope readers take away from it. Far from being a work of advocacy for Hamas, 'Understanding Hamas' is a rigorous, research-driven analysis of the group and its motivations.

Cobban is a British-American writer and researcher on international relations, with special interests in the Middle East, the international system and transitional justice. She is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Washington DC–based Centre for International Policy. She is the founder and CEO of the book-publishing company, Just World Books, and the Executive President of the small educational non-profit organisation, Just World Educational.

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The Arabs of Khuzestan and the Iranians of Iraq were at the forefront of suspicion, anxiety and whose loyalty was questioned by the national building projects in Iran and Iraq in the 20th century.

People who inhabit the border regions of any country often find themselves being treated with a mixture of suspicion and opportunity by the metropoles of these countries. Khuzestan, Iran’s border province with Iraq, is no different. Famed for its Arab population, the Arabs of Khuzestan have been at the centre of 20th century modernising projects, tensions between neighbours and the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. But one does not need to live in close proximity to a physical border to be seen as a border person within the modern nation state project, running parallel to the Arabs of Iran are the Iranians of Iraq, who were a cause of anxiety for nationalist regimes in Baghdad. What can we learn about history and politics through the prism of people who inhabit the boundaries of the Middle East’s nation state project? Joining us to help answer this question is Shaherzad Ahmadi.

Bio: Shaherzad Ahmadi earned her BA from UC Davis in History. After graduation, she studied Persian and Arabic in Tehran before moving to Austin, Texas for her PhD at UT Austin's Department of History. Her research, on Arab Iranians in the Iran-Iraq borderland, animates both her scholarly articles, in top journals of her field, as well as her book, published by UT Austin Press, Bordering on War. Book review can be found here https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250213-bordering-on-war-a-social-and-political-history-of-khuzestan/

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Events in the MENA directly impact Italy which is just 35 miles away, but how are the changing political dynamics affecting Rome's Middle East policy?

Italy's fate is deeply entangled with the Middle East and North Africa, the Italian island of Pantelleria is just 35 miles off the Tunsian coast. Whenever tensions flare up in the Middle East and North Africa it triggers public debate in Italy, getting the MENA right is a key national interest for Rome. When Giorgia Meloni became leader of Italy, many wondered how the far-right government would tackle the MENA region differently. Meloni actively cultivated close ties with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Gulf. Italian diplomacy managed to quickly secure the release of detained Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested in Iran in December 2024. Rome also sought to change the European Union's position on engaging with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria. But, with the collapse of Al-Assad, the lack of Italian diplomatic activity to bring to an end Israel's war on Gaza and a new Donald Trump administration in the White House, what is Rome's place with regards MENA policy? Joining us to make sense of all of this is Maria Luisa Fantappiè.

Fantappiè is head of the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa Programme at Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI). She served as Special Adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva (2020-2023) and at the International Crisis Group (2012-2020), engaging at the highest level of policy in Europe, the United States and across MENA (Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emirates). In 2018, she was seconded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the European advisory mission for security sector reform in Iraq (EUAM). Her research interests include the MENA region, EU foreign policy and great powers competition in this area, conflict prevention and mediation as well as cultural diplomacy.

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Is the new Syrian administration reflective of society and is it able to build a country free of political authoritarianism? A member of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement joins us to discuss this and more.

We are now three months on from the fall of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria ending 54-years of his family's rule. The ending of his dictatorship has left the Mediterranean country facing a new reality and taking on new tasks; how to build a new country free of political authoritarianism and injustice. The Levetine nation lies in ruins after a 13-year civil war and now so much of the responsibility falls onto the shoulders of Syrian society and its new rulers. The new interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and members of the now disbanded Hay'at Tharir Al-Sham (HTS) now find themselves in government, while Al-Sharaa promises to rebuild a new Syria that in reflective of the society, concerns about his Islamist background and appointments to the interim government have been raised. Does the new administration have what it takes to build a new Syria? Helping us make sense of all of this is Sarah Hunaidi.

Hunaidi is a Syrian writer and member of the Syrian Women’s Political Movement. She writes in English and Arabic, and her work has been published by Foreign Policy, the Independent, Chatham House, Buzzfeed, the New Arab among other publications. She provides political analysis and expert commentary on refugee and gender issues and has appeared regularly on channels like NPR, BBC and Al Jazeera. She holds a Master's degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s in International Studies at DePaul University. After her exile from Syria in 2014 due to her opposition to the Syrian regime, she started working on her first book project about the missing activist Samira Al-Khalil, exploring exile, siege and survival.

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People in Lebanon are angry at the level of state corruption and dysfunction, and Salafist movements are offering them an alternative.

Nationalist populism has been sweeping the world in the last decade overturning traditional politics in countries ranging from the US, Hungary, India, Italy, Britain and others. But populism is not only something nationalists engage in, religious populism has also seen a rise in popularity in Lebanon. The decline in political and economic power of the Sunni community in the country, the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Harari and the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005 unleashed a new political Salafism, especially in the Mediterranean country's northern city of Tripoli. People are angry, very angry, Lebanon's general corruption and state dysfunction means the Levantine nation moves from crisis to crisis. Salafi movements are channeling people's frustration and embody anti-elite and anti-establishment politics that we see elsewhere. Israel's war on Gaza, Lebanon and the fall of the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria has created a new opening for these movements - but who are they and what do they want? Joining us to discuss this is Giulia Gozzini.

Gozzini is a PhD Candidate in Islamic Studies at Lund University. She holds a Master’s degree in Middle East and North Africa Politics from the University of Turin and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Florence. As part of her Master’s program, Giulia completed an Erasmus exchange at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut. She has also worked as a Junior Research Fellow in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Africa and Italian Foreign Policy programs at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and is a member of the editorial board of Maydan. Her research investigates the concept of Islamic populism and focuses on the study of Sunni Islamist movements in Lebanon, with a specific emphasis on the ideological and political evolution of contemporary Salafism, particularly in the context of the city of Tripoli. In her work, she proposes to adopt the concept of populism, considering the overlooked nexus between populism and religion, to investigate how religio-political populism relates to the ideological and social formation of Salafism.
Her current research builds on her Master’s thesis where she explored the multiple crises affecting Lebanese Sunnism and the subsequent appeal of Sunni populism and Salafism within the context of Lebanese sectarian politics.

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Accusations of anti-Semitism have shaped the way governments and institutions respond to Israel’s actions over the past 15 months, but this not only limits open discussion, but also hurts the Jewish community, the journalist and author says.

In this episode of MEMO in Conversation, Rachel Shabi joins us to discuss her latest book 'Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism' . Shabi, a British journalist and commentator, examines how anti-Semitism has been politically weaponised, often used to silence criticism of Israel and suppress Palestinian advocacy. She explains why discussions about anti-Semitism have become so divisive, making it harder to confront real threats against Jews while allowing bad-faith actors to manipulate the issue.

With the war in Gaza ongoing, Shabi reflects on how accusations of anti-Semitism have shaped the way governments and institutions respond to Israel’s actions. She also draws on her own experience as an Iraqi Jew, discussing the erasure of Arab Jewish identity and how Zionism placed Jewish identity within a Western framework, often sidelining Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.
The conversation also explores how Jewish communities in Europe and North America were “absorbed into whiteness” after the Holocaust, affecting both Jewish identity and the way anti-Semitism is understood today. Shabi explains why the fight against anti-Semitism is now more closely linked to right-wing politics, while progressive movements, traditionally the vanguard in the fight against racism, face accusations of anti-Semitism. She also critiques the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and the “new anti-Semitism” narrative, questioning how these frameworks limit open discussion, particularly on Israel-Palestine.

Finally, we discuss the contradictory relationship between the far-right and Zionism, where nationalist movements that have long promoted anti-Semitic ideas now claim to be pro-Israel. Shabi looks at how the idea of a Judeo-Christian civilisation is used to include Jews in Western identity while excluding Muslims and other minorities. .

Shabi is also the author of 'Not the Enemy – Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands' and writes for the Guardian newspaper.

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Joe Biden was said to be the most pro-Israel US president in decades, with Donald Trump taking over the White House, we ask what will Washington do next?

Israel's 15-month genocidal assault on the besieged Gaza Strip was aided by the United States of America. While in his outgoing address, President Joe Biden cited obtaining a ceasefire as among his administration's crowning achievements. However, contrary to the image he wished to portray, Biden offered total support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and took the unusual step of stating there were 'no red lines' as far as Washington was concerned as Israel's war on the Palestinians began. The lack of restraints on Israel has some commentators arguing that Biden was the most pro-Israel US president in decades. Previous US presidents, while offering Israel total backing, would place limits on how far Israel could go, but with Biden, Israel faced no such pressure. As the Trump administration takes the reins of power, we are asking what will Biden's legacy be and what will Trump do next? Joining us to answer these questions is Khaled Elgindy.

Elgindy is a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies. He is the author of the 2019 book, 'Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump'. Elgindy previously served as director of the Middle East Institute’s Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs. From 2010 through 2018, he served as a resident scholar in the Foreign Policy programme at the Brookings Institution. Prior to arriving at Brookings, he served as an advisor to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08.

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How will the new year shape the ever changing Middle East? And will US President-elect Donald Trump give in to pressure from Israel and take military steps against Iran and widen the unrest in the region?

2025 is finally here and as ever Middle East Monitor is keeping an eye out on trends, developments and issues impacting the MENA region. The year opens with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and expanding war in the occupied West Bank and with a ceasefire deal on the horizon - what can we expect for Palestinians going forward? As Donald Trump takes office as US president and Israel pushes for a tougher stance on Iran, will Trump get the US into a military confrontation with Tehran? Since December 2024 Syria has been free of the rule of the Assad family, but with the new Islamist government talking about forming committees to develop a new government, will the new Syria be inclusive of the country's diverse population? Lastly, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman is five-years away from the completion of his 2030 social and economic reform vision, how will this impact Riyadh's politics this year? Joining us to help identify the trends and issues in the MENA region in 2025 is Professor Nader Hashemi.

Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Global Institute. Hashemi was previously the founding Director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

His intellectual and research interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and political theory, in particular debates on the global rise of authoritarianism, religion and democracy, secularism and its discontents, Middle East and Islamic politics, democratic and human rights struggles in non-Western societies and Islam-West relations. He is the author of 'Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies' and co-editor of 'The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future', 'The Syria Dilemma' , 'Sectarianisation: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East'and a four-volume study on 'Islam and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies' . His next book project is called 'The Global Divide Over Israel and Palestine'. He is frequently interviewed by PBS, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, Pacifica Radio and the BBC and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, the Nation, Al Jazeera Online and CNN among other media outlets. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

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The 'international division of humanity' is central to imperialist logic and explains the reasons behind the treatment of Palestinians by the Global North, but this very concept is leading to the West's waning power on the world stage, journalist and historian Prashad tells MEMO.

In this episode of MEMO in Conversations we sit down with Vijay Prashad, one of the world’s leading Marxist thinkers and the author of around 40 books. Prashad offers his insights on the Gaza ceasefire deal and its broader implications, unpacking its timing, its connection to President Joe Biden’s presidency and legacy, and whether it can be seen as a Palestinian victory given Israel’s inability to achieve its declared aim of eradicating Hamas.
The conversation also revisits some of Prashad’s key theoretical frameworks, such as the “international division of humanity.” This concept, which Prashad identifies as central to imperialist logic, serves as a lens to examine the treatment of Palestinians and the global reactions to the genocide in Gaza. He reflects on how these dynamics expose the moral contradictions of the Global North and its waning ability to lead on the world stage.

Prashad explores the concept of hyper-imperialism and provides a wider geopolitical context for the Gaza crisis. He connects the events in Gaza to broader global trends of authoritarianism and resistance, delving into how these forces intersect and shape contemporary world order, while highlighting the lessons Gaza holds for the Global South. Prashad emphasises how the events in Gaza offer an opportunity to rethink global power structures and build solidarity among nations striving for justice and self-determination.

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In its recent report, War Child revealed that 96% of children in Gaza believe death is imminent, while 49% expressed a wish to die due to Israel's relentless bombing campaign, making Gaza 'the most horrifying places in the world to be a child'. King unpacks the report and speaks of his first hand experience after returning from Gaza.

Over the past 15 months, the world has witnessed heartbreaking scenes from Gaza, where children have borne the brunt of relentless military aggression. With conservative estimates putting the number of children killed by Israeli occupation forces at nearly 18,000, the devastating toll on Gaza’s youngest and most vulnerable residents is clear. Yet, the psychological scars inflicted by this violence often remain unseen.
In this week’s MEMO in Conversation, we speak to Kieran King, head of humanitarian at War Child, who has just returned from Gaza. He shares his firsthand experience of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. Our discussion centres on War Child’s recent report - the first of its kind - exploring the psychological impact of Israel’s genocide on Gaza’s most vulnerable children. The report provides a stark reminder that Gaza has become one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child.
Kieran sheds light on his experiences in Gaza, painting a vivid picture of the human suffering he encountered and the immense challenges faced by children living in such harrowing conditions. The report’s findings are staggering: 96 per cent of children feel death is imminent, nearly half wish to die and 87 per cent display severe fear.

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Israel has deep historical ties with oppressive regimes, arming many that have been accused of genocide. But how is Tel Aviv using expertise it is gaining during its war on Gaza to make a profit?

Israel has transformed its occupation of Palestine into a lucrative global enterprise, exporting methods of control and surveillance worldwide. Joining MEMO in Conversation to discuss Israel’s role in the global arms and surveillance technology trade is Antony Loewenstein, author of groundbreaking new book 'The Palestine Laboratory'.

Loewenstein, an investigative journalist, examines Israel's deep historical ties with oppressive regimes, from its support of South African apartheid to its current relationships with far-right governments. Loewenstein shares insights from his 17-year journey investigating Israel’s arms industry, drawing parallels between his earlier work on disaster capitalism and the commodification of Palestinian suffering. He explores Israel’s willingness to arm regimes accused of genocide, from Rwanda to Myanmar, and its cultivation of relationships with openly anti-Semitic far-right leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orban.

Loewenstein argues that Israel’s military actions in Gaza reflect long-established patterns of weaponising its expertise in occupation for profit.
Loewenstein is an independent journalist, best-selling author, filmmaker and co-founder of Declassified Australia. He's written for the Guardian, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books and many others. His books include 'Pills, Powder and Smoke', 'Disaster Capitalism', 'The Palestine Laboratory' and 'My Israel Question'. His documentary films include 'Disaster Capitalism' and Al Jazeera English films 'West Africa's Opioid Crisis' and 'Under the Cover of Covid'.

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Pamphlets were the social media of their time, they helped spread dissent and were pivotal to the polarisation of politics during the Ottoman Empire, Nir Shafir guides us through the communications revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Ottoman Empire banned the printing press and stifled intellectual and economic development in the Middle East due to religious objections. At least this has been the popular narrative about the Ottomans for decades, despite the fact there is no evidence of a ban and throughout the empire's history, different printing presses emerged. However, the print press would not take off in a major way until the 18th century, but that does not mean a communication revolution did not occur in the Islamic world. Indeed the pamphlet took off across the empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, leading a radical transformation in ideas, identities, politics and to the creation of a public square. Pamphlets were the social media of their day and, much like today, they were pivotal to the polarisation of politics in the Empire. The Kadizadeli, a new religious movement, emerged through the pamphlet, fermenting dissent and discord. A new book 'The Order and Disorder of Communication: Pamphlets and Polemics in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire' takes us into the world of Ottoman polarisation. To discuss the book and the communication revolution during the Ottoman Empire MEMO in Conversation is joined by author Nir Shafir.
Shafir is an associate professor of history at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) whose work focuses on the Ottoman Empire/Middle East from 1200 to 1800. At UCSD, he teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on the history of the early modern and medieval Middle East, the history of science, global history and historical approaches to disinformation, misinformation and propaganda. He is an occasional contributor and editorial board member of the Ottoman History Podcast and served as its editor in 2018. Future projects include a social history of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire and an investigation into the cultural role of antiquity and antiquarianism in the early modern Middle East.

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The war on Gaza is raging on, with Israel looking set to impose a permanent security zone in the Strip. With less than one month before US President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House, what should Europe do to bring peace to the region and justice for the Palestinians?

In this week’s MEMO in Conversation we examine a timely new report from the European Council on Foreign Relations that assesses Gaza's future as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House. Our guest Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow with ECFR's Middle East and North Africa programme, brings his expertise as both a researcher and Gazan to unpack this critical analysis.
The discussion reveals the realities on the ground in Gaza, moving beyond official narratives to explore how Israel’s targeting of civilians, mass starvation and decimation of basic governance structures has fundamentally altered daily life in the territory. Shehada provides fresh insights into Hamas’s current position and the widespread breakdown of social order.
One of the most striking elements of the conversation focuses on Israel’s plans for Gaza’s future administration, including the controversial prospect of working with local clans. Shehada explains how Netanyahu’s government appears set on transforming Gaza into a permanent security zone rather than pursuing meaningful negotiations.
Drawing from his deep understanding of Gaza and extensive research, Shehada maps out practical steps for the international community, particularly European states, to avoid the nightmare scenario Israel is presenting. His analysis offers valuable perspective on navigating these challenges as Trump’s return threatens to dramatically reshape regional dynamics.

A researcher, writer and human rights advocate from Gaza, Muhammad Shehada's work focuses on investigating human rights violations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and more broadly in the Middle East and Europe, with an emphasis on the treatment of migrants, refugees and civilians in conflict zones.
He is currently serving as the chief of communications and programmes at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. He has contributed to a wide range of international publications such as the Forward, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, the Nation and the New Arab.

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When Daesh was defeated in 2017, many thought their crimes would be forgotten and their victims would have the terrors they experienced swept under the carpet, but a new online museum has been launched to preserve and educate people about the group's atrocities.

Over a decade ago, the world was fixated on the emergence of Daesh or so-called Islamic State, the terror group that took control of vast swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq. Daesh governed the lives of millions of people and ran a vast police state, their defeat in 2017, led to concerns that their crimes would soon be forgotten and what people endured would be swept under the carpet. A new online digital archive aims to preserve and educate people about some of the atrocities committed by the group. The ISIS Prisons Museum is a virtual museum space that uses state-of-the-art technology to forensically investigate the group's crimes and to tell stories that promote awareness of what happened in Daesh custody. Joining us to speak about the project is its English Editor Robin Yassin-Kassab.

Yassin-Kassab is the author of the novel 'The Road From Damascus', and co-author of 'Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War'. He is deputy editor of, and contributor of essays to, the Critical Muslim.

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Germany has repeatedly stressed its unwavering support for Israel and its actions in Gaza over the past 14 months, but what is underpinning this position and will it ever shift?

Against the backdrop of Israel's devastating assault on Gaza, Germany has emerged alongside the US as one of Israel’s most ardent defenders. While US support has been crucial in allowing Israel to carry out its genocide, Germany's backing is rooted in complex historical and political factors, including its concept of 'Staatsraison' - the commitment to Israel's security as a reason of the German state. Joining us to discuss how Germany’s past continues to shape its present policies is Professor Jurgen Mackert.

A distinguished sociologist from the University of Potsdam, author of 'On Social Closure' and an expert on political sociology, Mackert offers unique insights into Germany's support for Israel and its deeper historical underpinnings. He explores the controversial relationship between Germany's historical obligation stemming from the Holocaust and its current position on Gaza and examines how this affects Berlin's stance on international law, its response to ICC arrest warrants, and its reaction to ICJ rulings. Most provocatively, he discusses his recent work arguing that the same settler-colonial logic that drove the Holocaust continues to animate German politics today.

This timely conversation delves into whether Germany's unwavering support for Israel truly reflects public opinion and what might cause this position to shift in the future.

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For many, the civil war in Syria has been a distant memory, but that all changed when in a sudden turn of events, rebel groups captured the country's second largest city, Aleppo, and began to move towards other northern cities. But why is all this happening now? Syrian journalist Hussam Hammoud joins us to explain.

What a difference a few days make. Up until the end of November 2024, Syria's second largest city Aleppo was firmly under the control of President Bashar Al-Assad and to many outsiders the Mediterranean country's civil war was a distant memory. Many assumed the war was either over or at least frozen and then in the space of a few days Syrian rebels, who are opposed to the rule of Al-Assad, launched a lightning offensive and captured Syria's second city. Fighting is now taking place in different parts of the Levantine country, but what is actually happening? Why is it happening now? And who are those involved? In this MEMO in Conversation special we are joined by Hussam Hammoud to delve into events in Syria.

Hammoud is a Syrian journalist who specialises in the Syrian conflict and beyond. He is known for his field reporting and focus on human rights, highlighting stories from war zones and displacement crises in both Syria and Ukraine. His work has mostly appeared on the European Cultural Chanal ARTE.

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Many have wondered how states have allowed the massacres in Gaza to continue for over a year and what can be gained from them. Investigative journalist Kennard exposes corporate power and state intervention to highlight why the genocide in Gaza has been allowed to continue.

In this episode, MEMO is in Conversation with investigative journalist and author Matt Kennard who joins us to delve into Western complicity in the Gaza genocide and examine how deeply this complicity runs. Known for his groundbreaking books 'The Racket' and 'Silent Coup', Kennard brings his expertise in exposing corporate power and state intervention to shed light on the forces driving the genocide in Gaza.

Kennard explores how Israel's actions fit into a broader pattern of Western imperial power and examines the evolving US-Israel relationship, the surprising alliance between far-right groups and Israel, and how these developments are reshaping international dynamics.

The conversation takes a critical look at the media landscape, exploring how the stark contrast between social media coverage and mainstream narratives of Gaza has contributed to a collapse in public trust in traditional media outlets. Kennard provides unique insights into how global perception of Western support for Israel is shifting in the wake of genocide charges at the ICJ and ICC arrest warrants.
As co-founder of Declassified UK and a former Financial Times journalist, Kennard offers a seasoned perspective on how the Gaza crisis represents a potential turning point in public understanding of Western complicity in state violence.

Kennard has previously written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, OpenDemocracy and the Intercept. He is the author of 'Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror', 'The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. the Masters of the Universe' and co-author of 'Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy'.

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From raising a family to a nation, how debates around modernisation, democracy and capitalism gave birth to a new Arab woman.

In the 1850s the Arab world underwent a gendered revolution brought about by western missionaries, integration into the global capitalist economy, the print press and reform efforts. Life in the eastern Mediterranean within a few decades after the 1850s was unrecognisable from a few years prior. Women, gender and childrearing were at the centre of tension and changes taking place. Tarbiya, or cultivation, took on a new urgency in Arabic thought, before the 1850s Tarbiya was often used in the context of teachers or sheikh cultivating their students’ intellectual development, but after the 19th century it referred more specifically to women and the raising of children. Raising a child became a political act and the failure to instil ‘good’ ethical and moral norms could bring down nations, it was feared. The notion of women’s work and a good mother being at home became a feature of political debates and tensions. Gendered notions like Tarbiya sit at the cross section of modernisation, democratisation and nation building ideas. Joining us is Susanna Ferguson who is the author of a new book called Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought, a review to her book can be found here: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241023-labors-of-love-gender-capitalism-and-democracy-in-modern-arab-thought/

Susanna Ferguson is a historian of women, gender, and intellectual life in the Eastern Mediterranean and Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Smith College. Her research focuses on how questions about gender, sex, and science shaped political imaginaries in the 19th- and 20-century Arab world. Her work has appeared in various scholarly journals, including Modern Intellectual History, the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and the Arab Studies Journal. She is a longtime host, former editor-in-chief and now associate producer at the Ottoman History Podcast, where she also co-curates the series on “Women, Gender, and Sex in the Ottoman World.” Ferguson's first book, Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought, was published by Stanford University Press in September 2024.

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The 16 and 17 centuries saw an eruption in espionage, spying and covert operations, with a growing network of Christian clergymen, traders, slaves, travellers, nobles and others who were also intelligence operatives for Istanbul. We speak to the author of the book 'Spies for the Sultan' to find out more.

The Bishop of Heraclea, an Orthodox clergyman, approached the Habsburg royal family with a devious plot, the Austro-Spanish dynasty could form a secret alliance with the Persian Shah to take control of the Ottoman Empire. Together they could back the son of Sultan Suleiman I, Prince Selim, to seize power away from his brother Prince Mustafa. Little did the Habsburgs know, the cleric was also an Ottoman spy and part of a growing network of Christian clergymen, traders, slaves, travellers, nobles and others who were also intelligence operatives for Istanbul. The 16 and 17 centuries saw an eruption in espionage, spying and covert operations. A book recently translated from Turkish into English 'Spies for the Sultan' delves into the murky world of surveillance. Joining us for MEMO in Conversation is the book's author Emrah Safa Gurkan.

Professor Gurkan teaches at the Istanbul 29 Mayis University’s department of political science and international relations. In 2012, he was awarded a doctorate in history from Georgetown University. He was the recipient of the Promising Scientist of the Year award at the 14th Kadir Has Awards in 2018. He received the the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the same institution. He has written a number of articles in English, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and German as well as two scientific monographs, the first of which received the Scientific Monograph of the Year Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA).

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As an anti-apartheid activist, Stavit Sinai has repeatedly taken action against the occupation state of Israel, but she made headlines when, in 2022, she was one of two Israelis arrested for storming the site of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems in the UK, she speaks to MEMO about why it's important not to stay silent.

Elbit Systems is Israel's premier arms and military technology company, which claims that its drones are the backbone of the Israeli occupation forces. With 18,000 employees and sites across the world, its weaponry boasts being field tested i.e. used on Palestinians in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. Israeli military officials and politicians serve on its board and sell weapons worldwide. On 15 May 2022, a group of activists with Palestine Action UK, stormed the Elbit Systems site in Bristol, aiming to disrupt its operations while highlighting what the company does. The direct action protest led to the seven activists being arrested, charged and convicted in the British court. Two of the seven were Israeli dissidents with a track record of Palestinian rights activism. In this second of a two-part conversation, we are joined by Stavit Sinai, one of the two Israeli activists involved in the protest.

Dr. Stavit Sinai is a philosophy lecturer and Israeli anti-apartheid activist based in Berlin. She was formally imprisoned for taking direct action against Elbit Systems in the UK.

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CAPTION: On Nakba Day in 2022, 7 activists stormed the site of Israel's largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in an effort to disrupt its operations and highlight the atrocities its 'field tested' weapons have caused against Palestinians. Two of the activists were Israeli and they spoke to MEMO to discuss why they continue to protest.Elbit Systems is Israel's premier arms and military technology company, which claims that its drones are the backbone of the Israeli occupation forces. With 18,000 employees and sites across the world, its weaponry boasts being field tested i.e. used on Palestinians in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. Israeli military officials and politicians serve on its board and sell weapons worldwide. On 15 May 2022, a group of activists with Palestine Action UK, stormed the Elbit Systems site in Bristol, aiming to disrupt its operations while highlighting what the company does. The direct action protest led to the seven activists being arrested, charged and convicted in the British court. Two of the seven were Israeli dissidents with a track record of Palestinian rights activism. In the first of a two-part episode we speak to Ronnie Barkan, one of the two activists.

Barkan is co-founder of Boycott from Within and member of Palestine Action. Most recently Barkan was harassed by the German secret police following his Munich talk at Professor-Huber-Platz, where he connected the legacy of the White Rose who opposed Nazism with direct action in opposition to Zionism. He is also considering taking on the UK legal system in international forums for violating his rights by forcing him to pay a fine to an arms company involved with Israel's genocide.

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The anti-Zionist Jewish movement has led numerous anti-war protests calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, but what’s the history of Jewish opposition to Zionism?

Israel claims to be working to protect world Jewry, but as it continues its bombing of Gaza and expands its military operation into southern Lebanon, the anti-Zionist Jewish movement continues to declare the state’s actions are ‘not in our name’. But where does Jewish opposition to Zionism stem from? What are its ideological foundations and real life implications of a political ideology that seeks to create a Jewish supremacy in Historic Palestine. Joining us to discuss the root of anti-Zionist Jewish ideology is historian Zachary Foster.

Foster, a Princeton University graduate and active social media commentator, brings his wealth of knowledge to challenge common misconceptions about Zionism. Including debunking simplistic definitions such as those which claim Zionism is a national movement for Jewish self-determination and examining the theological opposition from within Jewish communities. Foster also runs a course called ‘Zionism 101’.

The discussion also looks into the historical relationship between Christian and Jewish Zionism, the changing attitudes among younger generations of Jews towards Israel, and the ongoing debates surrounding Jewish identity and nationalism.

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Algeria won its War on Independence because it won a media war against the French following help from Yugoslavia. But what did the images coming out of Algiers show and how did they frame its battle for a new beginning?

France lost the Algerian War (1954-1962) diplomatically because it lost the media war and this forced it to end its 132-year rule of the North African country. The fight for independence was led by the Algerian National Liberation Front or FLN, who had help from abroad. One country that assisted them was Yugoslavia led by Marshal Josip Tito, who was looking for a way to expand Yugoslavia's reach in the world following its isolation from the Soviet Union. Helping Algeria was part of a new and alternative politics Belgrade was fashioning for countries who did not want to fall into either the American or Soviet orbit, called the non-alignment movement.

Based around 'third world' solidarity, decolonisation, development and independence, the movement today has 120 members. Tito aided the FLN by helping them win the information war, he sent his favourite cameraman Stevan Labudovic, who snuck into Algeria and filmed many hours of footage of FLN raids and helped give rise to Algerian media independent of France. His reels are the subject of a new film 'Cine-Guerrillas/Non-Aligned: Scene from the Labudovic Reels', which shows not only Algeria's fight for independence, but the development of an idea, the non-alignment movement. Joining us on MEMO Conversation is filmmaker Mila Turajlic.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Turajlic is an award-winning filmmaker and archive ‘artivist’ whose works include 'Cinema Komunisto' and IDFA-winner 'The Other Side of Everything'. She is the founder of the Non-Aligned Newsreels research project, an artistic exploration of the ‘orphaned’ status of film archives made by Yugoslavia in a gesture of ‘ciné-solidarity’ with the non-aligned world. Performative and video iterations of the project were curated for IDFA on Stage, international exhibitions and biennials (Berlin’22, Belgrade’22, Sharjah’25). In 2020 Mila was invited to join the AMPAS (Oscars) Documentary Branch. She was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2022.

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Looking back at Israel's conduct over the past year, Baroud highlights Tel Aviv's use of African mercenaries in the execution of its onslaught on Gaza and how the West is enabling the continuation of this aggression.

In this week’s MEMO in Conversation prominent Palestinian journalist and author Dr Ramzy Baroud shares his unique perspective on the events leading up to 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military offensive. Baroud, a descendant of Palestinian refugees and son of a freedom fighter, analysis of Israel's objectives in Gaza, the place of his birth, and explores whether Tel Aviv's actions constitute ethnic cleansing, genocide, or a deliberate attempt to render Gaza uninhabitable. Baroud provides his analysis of Israel's conduct over the past year and beyond, touching on lesser-known aspects such as the recruitment of African mercenaries by Israel to carry out its military onslaught. He also examines the crucial role of Western support, particularly from the US, in enabling Israel's aggression.

Globally, the events of 7 October have recalibrated the Palestinian cause as a pressing global issue, he explains, providing an assessment of Israel's strategic defeats, despite apparent tactical victories, and examines the material foundations of Zionism and how they have been weakened over the past year.

Baroud is the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle and author of five books; his latest is 'Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out'. Baroud is a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC).

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Craig Mokhiber resigned from the UN over its inaction with regards the 'textbook case of genocide' taking place in Gaza. One year on, little has changed. He joins MEMO in Conversation to discuss the events of the past 12 months.

It has been almost a year since Craig Mokhiber resigned from the UN over the world body's inaction with regards the genocide unfolding in Gaza. The former senior UN human rights official joined MEMO in Conversation to address the UN's failure to act decisively in the face of Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza and the occupied West Bank and highlight the systematic atrocities committed against Palestinians. Mokhiber also reflects on the growing legal and civil movements that challenge Israel’s impunity, raising important questions about the future of international accountability and justice for Palestinians.

Mokhiber is a seasoned human rights lawyer who served over three decades at the United Nations, where he held senior positions, including Director of the New York Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Known for his outspoken advocacy for justice, Mokhiber resigned from his post in 2023, condemning what he called a "textbook case of genocide" in Palestine.

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Palestinians aren't suffering post traumatic stress disorder, there's been no 'post' for them as they continue to live under occupation and colonialism. 'Ongoing stress disorder' is what they experience daily, says the executive producer of Where the Olive Trees Weep.

In this week's MEMO in Conversation we speak to Ashira Darwish, one of the producers of 'Where the Olive Trees Weep', a powerful documentary offering a searing look into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation. The film has captivated audiences worldwide, winning awards at seven film festivals and inspiring viewers to contribute to the planting of 1,000 olive trees in the occupied West Bank, a project headed by Treedom for Palestine.

Darwish, a motivational speaker and creator of Active Meditation, brings a unique perspective to the film, having personally experienced and overcome severe trauma, including full-body paralysis from a severed spinal cord in 2012. Our conversation explores the depths of Palestinian trauma and resistance depicted in the documentary, which weaves together the stories of Palestinian activists, journalists and survivors of torture in Israeli prisons.

We delved into the concept of 'ongoing stress disorder', a term used in the film to describe the constant state of trauma experienced by Palestinians, and discuss how this continuous stress shapes the collective Palestinian experience. The conversation also touches on the importance of non-violent resistance, the role of journalism in revealing truths about the occupation, and the film's significance in portraying not just individual stories, but the broader narrative of a people striving to maintain their culture and identity in the face of erasure.

Darwish worked for 15 years as a TV and radio journalist and researcher in Palestine for the BBC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW). She is the founder of Catharsis Holistic Healing, a trauma therapy project pioneering a type of Sufi active meditation which draws its roots from ancestral and indigenous knowledge

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The occupation's reliance on swift, decisive wars have left it unprepared for the current genocide it is carrying out in Gaza. Military, economic and political spheres are showing signs of decline as a result. Can Israel survive after the war on Gaza?

Is Israel in a death spiral? That’s the question we will be discussing with our guest, Sharmine Narwani, a Beirut- and UK-based geopolitical analyst.

Narwani recently delivered a presentation at the American University of Beirut (AUB), entitled 'Asymmetrical Warfare: How to boil the Israeli frog', and gives us further insights into talk. Narwani utilises the 'boiling frog' analogy to shed light on Israel's ongoing challenges. She contends that, like the frog in the parable, Israel is gradually being overwhelmed by a range of pressures, edging towards collapse without fully recognising the severity of the situation. Our conversation examines how Israel’s historical reliance on swift, decisive wars has left it unprepared for the drawn-out nature of the current genocidal campaign in Gaza, with signs of decline evident in its military, economic, political and societal spheres.
We also discuss the impact of Israel's changing global image, the phenomenon of 'reverse aliyah' - the movement of Jews out of Israel, and the impact of shifting geopolitical dynamics on Israel's strategic options. Narwani's incisive analysis, backed by economic indicators and military data, paints a stark picture of a nation potentially trapped in an irreversible downward trajectory and to its own demise.

Narwani is a writer and analyst of West Asian geopolitics and a columnist at the Cradle. Her work has been published in a broad array of media outlets, including the American Conservative, Russia Today, the New York Times, USA Today, the Guardian, Al-Akhbar English, Assafir, Huffington Post, BRICS Post, Salon.com, Al Jazeera and others.

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Millions of Muslims in the US have said Gaza is the most important election issue for them, but with the frontrunners in the presidential election being Israel supporters Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, how will they vote?

On 5 November, Americans will take to the polls to pick the 47th president of the United States. The choice before them will be incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. For large sections of the American public the choice is clear, for Harris supporters, a Trump presidency represents an existential threat to democracy and an attack on women and minority rights. For Trump supporters, a Harris presidency represents a liberal establishment that is both out of touch with ordinary working Americans and is actively hostile to them. However, for the rest of American society the election is less clear cut. For Arab and Muslim Americans there are concerns about both candidates, while Trumpian politics is seen as antagonistic towards Muslims, Harris's stance on Israel/Palestine has made many feel they cannot vote for her. The majority of Muslim American voters polled say Gaza is the most important election issue for them and the Muslim vote could play a key role in swing states. So how do Arab and Muslim Americans see the upcoming election? This week, MEMO is in Conversation with Saher Selod of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding to help us delve into what's at stake both for the candidates and the electorate.

Saher Selod is Director of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and Associate Professor and previous Chair of the Department of Sociology at Simmons University in Boston, MA. Her research expertise centres on the experiences of Muslims with surveillance. Her first book, 'Forever Suspect: Racialised Surveillance of Muslim Americans in the War on Terror',examines how Muslim men and women experience gendered forms of racialisation through their hyper surveillance because of the War on Terror. Her co-authored second book, 'A Global Racial Enemy: Muslims and Twenty-First Century Racism', assesses how the global War on Terror has justified the detention, imprisonment and hyper surveillance of Muslims in the US, UK, India and China.

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Israeli occupation authorities have uprooted more than 800,000 Palestinians olive trees since 1967, Treedom for Palestine is working to replant them and protect Palestinian farmers' deep ties to their land.

This week on MEMO in Conversation we have a truly inspiring story that beautifully illustrates the power of art, activism and agriculture in creating tangible change. Our guest, Cyrus Copeland, Executive Director of Treedom for Palestine, shares the remarkable journey of an initiative that has recently made headlines following the release of a powerful documentary 'Where Olive Trees Weep' and its mission to plant olive trees in the occupied West Bank.

Cyrus takes us through the genesis of Treedom for Palestine, from his personal connection to tree planting to witnessing the deep relationship between Palestinians and their olive trees. He discusses the collaboration with the Palestinian Farmers' Union and the impact of planting 1,000 olive trees on the lives of Palestinian farmers. The conversation touches on the challenges faced, including the need for steel fencing to protect the Freedom Farms from settler violence and the staggering statistic that since 1967, Israeli occupation authorities have uprooted more than 800,000 Palestinian olive trees.
As we explore the international reception of the documentary and its influence on the project's growth, Cyrus shares insights into the future of Treedom for Palestine. He discusses how growing awareness of settler violence has affected support for the project and outlines the long-term goals for this initiative.

Cyrus is a writer, nonprofit pioneer and speaker who was born in Washington DC. At the age of 10 his family moved to Iran, just before the 1979 revolution. His experiences, including his father's imprisonment during the Islamic Revolution, have deeply influenced his work. A critically acclaimed author, Cyrus's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate and the Boston Globe.

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There are manyparallels between Canada and Israel as settler-colonial states, including the erasure of indigenous populations. But how do Canada's own historic and present policies shape its stance on Israel's actions in Gaza and its foreign policy with regards Palestine?

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Palestinians who have been released from Israeli detention since October 2023 have reported systematic abuse, torture and sexual assault, join us as we discuss the implications of Israel's degrading treatment of Palestinians and why it has intensified such measures over the past few months.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem published a harrowing new report, "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps", which provides testimonies from 55 Palestinian prisoners and exposes the shocking reality of systematic abuse, torture and dehumanisation within Israeli detention facilities since 7 October 2023. Joining us to discuss the report and how life has changed for Palestinians living under occupation since October is B'Tselem's spokesperson, Shai Parnes.

Parnes provides a stark overview of the dramatic increase in Palestinian prisoners, including men, women and children, many held without charge or trial. We look into the horrific conditions Palestinian detainees face, from severe overcrowding and denial of basic necessities to physical and sexual violence. The conversation also explores how this mass incarceration system fits into Israel's broader apartheid regime and its devastating impact on Palestinian society.
Parnes sheds light on the disturbing accounts of organised tours for the Israeli public showcasing prisoner abuse and the chilling role of special forces units within the prisons and the legal implications of these practices under international law.

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What do Turkiye's Justice and Development Party (AKP), Tunisia's Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood have in common and are their ties shaping policy in the Middle East and Turkiye? Turkiye's youngest editor joins us to discuss what drives their relationship.

In 2013, at the height of the Gezi Park protests, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a decision that surprised many Turks. He boarded a flight for Tunisia and held a meeting with the Ennahda Party. Many Turkish journalists and observers struggled to understand why, during a time of upheaval, Erdogan would head for North Africa. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has deep ties to Tunisia's Ennahda Party and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, but what exactly did these ties consist of and what was the relationship between them? A new book 'The New Spirit of Islamism: Interactions between the AKP, Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood' delves into how the 3 movements came to be associated with one another, what they share and, more importantly, where they differ. What drives the relationship is not ideology, but pragmatism the book argues. But what exactly does all of that mean? Joining us on MEMO in Conversation is the book's author Ezgi Basaran.

Basaran is a journalist and political scientist from Istanbul who currently lives in Oxford,UK. Her journalistic career began as a reporter, covering various conflict zones and significant global events. Her skill in journalism led to her roles as a columnist and later editor-in-chief of Turkyie’s then largest and most prestigious liberal left daily, making her the youngest editor and the first woman in this position. She wrote extensively on critical issues, including the Kurdish conflict, Middle Eastern politics, human rights violations and freedom of speech. Her investigative work earned her several accolades.

Her first English book, 'Frontline Turkey: The Crisis at the Heart of the Middle East', delves into Turkiye’s Kurdish issue and its regional ramifications. Combining over two decades of experience in journalism with her recent path in academia, Ezgi is committed to unravelling the complexities of Turkish and Middle Eastern politics.

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We have all watched the genocide unfold in Gaza and seen imges of the victims, but what are their stories, how have they lived their lives and what is the importance of Gaza in the larger struggle or a free Palestine? Join our MEMO in Conversation as we talk to the men behind 'Day break in Gaza' a book which provides insight through the stories of Palestinians Gaza.

Tune in to MEMO’s latest podcast featuring an exclusive interview with Matthew Teller and Mahmoud Muna, editors of the powerful new book 'Day Break in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture'. This timely collection brings together some 50 diverse voices to shed light on the humanitarian crisis, historical context and themes of resistance and resilience in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

We discuss the many challenges Teller and Muna faced in compiling such a significant work amidst Israel’s ongoing military aggression, and explore some of the most poignant stories from the book. We talk about the symbolism of Gaza in the Palestinian struggle, the unique perspectives of Christian families in the region, and the remarkable ability of contributors to reason through trauma and pain.The editors share insights on powerful essays from the volume and offer a rare glimpse into the rich cultural identity and daily lives of Gazans. We explore the psychological impact of conflict, economic hardships and the international response to the crisis. Join us as we uncover the stories behind 'Day Break in Gaza' and discuss the editors' hopes for the book's impact on readers worldwide.Matthew Teller is an author, journalist and documentary-maker. He writes for the BBC, CNN, the Times, Financial Times, Independent and Guardian and presents and produces documentaries for Radio 4 and BBC World Service. He is the author of 'Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City'.His co-editor, Mahmoud Muna, is a writer, publisher and bookseller from Jerusalem, Palestine. He runs Jerusalem’s celebrated Educational Bookshop and the bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, both centres of the city’s literary scene. Muna has degrees in Media and Communication from the University of Sussex and King’s College London. He is active in many cultural initiatives across Palestine and writes regularly on culture and politics, with bylines in the London Review of Books and Jerusalem Quarterly, among others.

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When Greene agreed to be interviewed on Talk TV he was told that conversation would be open and he was welcome to put his points across to viewers and the hosts, however when the show started, presenter James Whale shut him down for wearing a keffiyeh and refused to speak to him. Greene tells MEMO why he continues to remain active in spite of such attacks.

American students are rebelling. The campus protests across the US against Israel's genocide in Gaza and Washington's support for Tel Aviv's actions have alarmed Israel and its supporters. US President Joe Biden has condemned them and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused them of being 'Iran's useful idiots' during his speech to the US congress last week. This panic is also reflected in sections of the media, when Bryce Greene was invited onto Talk TV, he found his mere presence was triggering for the hosts. What upset them? Greene turned up wearing a keffiyeh, a scarf worn by Palestinians and pro-Palestine advocates, which led to the hosts cutting him off and ending the interview. Greene is involved with organising student protests and was invited on to discuss why people should not support Israel's genocide. What is it about these young protests that Zionists fear so much? Bryce Greene joins us on MEMO Conversation.

Bryce Greene is US Gaza student encampment organiser.

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The founders of IJAN speak to MEMO about attacks on anti-Zionist Jews, the far-right's alliance with the Zionist movement and whether the genocide in Gaza is the beginning of the end of the Zionist movement

In this week’s MEMO in Conversation we are discussing opposition to Zionism from the Jewish community. We are pleased to have on the podcast the founders of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Michael Kalmanovitz and Sam Weinstein, who discuss the organisation's history, core values and current challenges. Established in 2008, IJAN is committed to the liberation of Palestinian people and land, differentiating itself from Zionist ideologies whilst maintaining a strong Jewish identity.

Michael and Sam discuss the weekly protests they’ve been holding since October 2023 against Israeli leaders. highlighting the challenges faced by protesters, including harassment and intimidation from counter-protesters, and instances of arrests based on what they describe as spurious allegations. Expressing concern about the growing alliance between global far-right movements and Zionism, they outline how this is affecting the anti-Zionism movement.

Beyond protesting, IJAN is working to hold Israeli figures like Tzipi Hotovely accountable for genocide and are concerned by efforts to silence anti-Zionist Jews.

With the rights abuses we see in Gaza, Michael and Sam share their views on whether the genocide in the Strip represents the beginning of the end of Zionism.
Michael Kalmanovitz is a founding member of IJAN and a member of Payday, an antiracist and anti-imperialist network of men working with the Global Women’s Strike.
Sam Weinstein, born in the United States, is a long-standing member of IJAN and a founding member of Payday. Sam spent most of his working life as a fulltime union organiser who came up through the ranks as a gas fitter.

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Israel's unsubstantiated rape claims against Palestinian resistance fighters have made headlines across the world, while similar claims by Palestinians against Israeli occupation forces have received minimal attention. This, argues Arun Gupta, is a return to the Jim Crow-era racist tropes that depict brown and black people as inherent threats to white women.

In this week’s MEMO Conversation we talk to Arun Gupta, an investigative journalist about his latest article titled 'Israel has manufactured an industrial-scale version of Jim Crow rape hoaxes'. Gupta's article, heavily referenced and meticulously detailed, challenges the mainstream narrative surrounding the events of 7 October. Gupta speaks about the motivations and mechanisms behind the propagation of alleged mass rape by Hamas. He talks about the historical parallels that underscore these fabricated allegations, likening them to Jim Crow-era racist tropes that depict brown and black people as inherent threats to white women.

Describing the challenges he faced in publishing his findings, particularly in an environment where mainstream media often aligns with Israel's narrative without rigorous verification, Gupta highlights how Israel's Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes has played a central role in amplifying these unfounded rape allegations, despite a glaring lack of concrete evidence.

Furthermore, Gupta shed light on the broader implications of these rape hoaxes, including the weaponisation of feminist movements like #MeToo and accusations of anti-Semitism to stifle dissent and evade scrutiny. He also discussed the stark contrast in media coverage regarding the sexual abuse allegations against Palestinians by Israeli forces, which receive minimal attention compared to the widely circulated, yet unsubstantiated, claims against Hamas.

Arun Gupta is a investigate journalist. He has written for the Daily Beast, the Raw Story, the Guardian, the Washington Post and other publications including the Intercept. Gupta is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and the author of the upcoming book 'Apocalypse Chow'.

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Though many claim Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rolled back India's liberalism and secularism and turned it towards right-wing popularism, Hindu identity has always been a key aspect of India's governance since its independence and the road to Modi's India has been decades in the making, Dr Cesari tells MEMO.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a third-term in India's general election in June 2024. Modi and his BJP party have transformed the country over the last 10 years. Critics say Modi has rolled back India's liberalism and secularism and turned the country towards right-wing populism, hatred of minorities and imposing a brand of Hindu identity that is hostile to the south Asian country's plural landscape. Islamophobia is a key feature of Modi's style of government with different BJP politicians pushing ideas such as the foreignness of Muslims, conspiracy theories of Islam taking over and the security threat its followers pose. Despite India's constitutional secularism, Hindu identity has always been a key aspect of India's governance going back to the country's independence in 1947, contrary to what critics claim. The road to Modi's India was decades in the making. Discussing the changes Modi has made to India, Hindu identity and Islamophobia, MEMO in Conversation is joined by Dr Jocelyne Cesari.
Dr Cesari is Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham (UK) and is Senior Fellow at the Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University. Since 2018, she has held the position of T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School. In 2020 she was named Distinguished Scholar of the religion section of the International Studies Association and Distinguished Fellow of the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs and the Royal Society for Arts in the United Kingdom. Her new book: 'We God’s People: Political Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations' won the 2023 Book Award of the Scientific Society for the Study of Religion. Her other publications include 'What is Political Islam?'; 'Islam, Gender and Democracy in a Comparative Perspective' and 'The Awakening of Muslim Democracy: Religion, Modernity and the State'.

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In an effort to absolve Zionist militias of charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, a number of stories spread within Israeli society, they have been disproven but the denial of the horrors of the Nakba remains. Something Professor Pappe hopes to tackle through his new project the Nakba Memorial Foundation.

In 1948, just under one million Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Zionist militia groups that would go on to form Israel. 48 was the culmination of half a century of settler colonialism, a cornerstone of the project to establish a Jewish state in historic Palestine, was the idea that there were no people in the Holy Land or the people who were there were immigrants from elsewhere? The denial of the existence of Palestinians was a key feature of pre-1948 Zionism. After 1948, the denialism extended to the Nakba itself, myths such as Palestinians left because a radio broadcast from neighbouring Arab states told them to temporarily leave their homes and thus absolving Zionist forces of charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, became part of the Israeli imagination. While ideas like these have been disproven through work of diligent historians and testimonies from Palestinians, attempts to discuss or study the Nakba have at times been suppressed in the West. But resistance from activists, students and scholars challenged and continues to challenge attempts to shut this down. MEMO conversations sits down with Professor Ilan Pappe to discuss the history of Nakba denialism, how it functions today, his new project the Nakba Memorial Foundation and his new book Lobbying for Zionism.

Professor Pappe is the director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. He received his D. Phil from the University of Oxford. From 1984 to 2006, Pappe taught at the University of Haifa, Israel ,from which he resigned in 2006 after various failed attempts to expel him due to his ideological positions. He moved to the University of Exeter in 2007. Pappe has written 22 books to date, among them the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and On Palestine. His most recent books are the Ten Myths of Israel , the Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Israeli Occupation, A Historical Dictionary of Palestine and Our Vision for Liberation with Dr Ramzy Baroud.

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In 1860, 15% of Damascus' Christian population were wiped out in 8-days of a murderous rampage. Despite widespread anti-Christian violence, roughly 85% of Damascus' Christian population were saved by their Muslim neighbours.

In 1860, Syria's ancient and thriving Christian community nearly came to an end. A civil war raged in Mount Lebanon, which saw widespread massacres of Christians by Druze militias, and on 23 May 1860, the violence taking place in present-day Lebanon spread to Damascus. Local Muslims, spurred on by fear and rumours, hit the streets and began attacking Christian businesses, shops and properties. An 8-day riot ensued and the majority of the city's Christians were left displaced, however, this moment did not turn into a genocide thanks to the actions of different Muslim notables and the Algerian exile Emir Abdelkadir, who managed to save the lives of 85% of the Christian population. The week-long lawlessness was severely punished by the Ottomans, but beyond punishment, Istanbul rebuilt Damascus and its communities by bringing them together and integrating them. They were so successful that 30-years later, the idea a similar event could happen again was unthinkable. But what actually happened in 1860? What caused it? What lessons does it have for us today? Joining MEMO Conversation to answer these questions is Oxford historian Eugene Rogan.

Eugene Rogan is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University, where he has taught since 1991, a Fellow of St Antony’s College and Director of the Middle East Centre. He took his B.A. in economics from Columbia, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. In 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He is author of The Arabs: A History (2009, 2017), named a best book of 2009 by The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. His new book, The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East (2015), was named a best book of 2015 by The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. His earlier works include Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 1999), for which he received the Albert Hourani Book Award of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the Fuad Köprülü Prize of the Turkish Studies Association; and The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge University Press, 2001, second edition 2007, with Avi Shlaim). His works are translated into 18 languages.

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Since Israel launched its genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza in October 2023, it has released numerous allegations to justify its actions and the killing of civilians, including that Hamas baked Israeli babies in ovens, or that it is operating from hospitals throughout the Strip. To date, most of its claims have been found to be unfounded, fabrications to justify its crimes. In view of these lies, and many other claims Tel Aviv has made, a new initiative is working to fact-check Israel's propaganda in order to allow people to learn the truth.

Did you hear about Hamas beheading 40 babies? How about a Hamas base underneath Al-Shifa Hospital? Or that Zionists came to Palestine because it was an empty land and they made the desert blossom, then Arabs from neighbouring countries emigrated and tried to seize the land from Israel? Well, if you have, you've been hit with hasbara. A Hebrew word meaning the 'explanation' - hasbara is propaganda pushed out by the Israeli state designed to explain, justify and enable Israeli atrocities, promote Israel and attack Palestinians and their supporters. Tel Aviv spends millions of dollars and uses key parts of its diplomatic and foreign relations departments to try and shape the global conversation around Palestine. Since Israel began its genocidal assault on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli hasbara has gone into overdrive to confront an increasingly sceptical world. A new initiative, the Hasbara Tracker, has been setup to research, debunk and fact-check Israeli propaganda. Joining us today is the the initiative's founder, Jennine Khalik.

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Businesses that supply Israel with jet fuel are helping to maintain its bombing campaign in Gaza, but what are the legal implications to such support?

In this week's MEMO in Conversation, we speak to the authors of a damning new report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) that uncovers the extensive support provided by Israel's allies, enabling its devastating military onslaught on Gaza.

Join us as we discuss the findings with SOMO experts Lydia de Leeuw and Misa Norigami who shed light on the crucial role imported jet fuel plays in sustaining Israel's relentless air strikes. The guests highlight the staggering amount of US-supplied military jet fuel (JP-8) that has fuelled Israel's attacks since 7 October 2023. Leeuw and Norigami reveal the names of specific companies implicated in this deadly supply chain, demonstrating how, without this support, Israel would be unable to maintain its current level of bombing.

We also explore the legal implications of corporate complicity in war crimes, examining the criteria that must be met under international law and the precedents supporting the argument for holding these companies to account. The report's call for an embargo on jet fuel and crude oil sales to Israel, based on the International Court of Justice's determinations, is a crucial point of discussion. Tune in to hear the specific actions recommended by SOMO for states and companies to ensure compliance with international law and prevent further atrocities in Gaza.
Lydia de Leeuw leads SOMO’s strategic litigation work. Together with colleagues and partners, Lydia helps build coalitions around specific human rights issues and develop multi-jurisdiction, multi-procedure litigation strategies to advance shared objectives. Before joining SOMO in 2015, she conducted legal and field research for a variety of human rights organisations in the Middle East and South Africa.

Lydia holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminology from VU University in Amsterdam. In 2015, she was awarded an LL.M. in International Crime and Justice, with a focus on international crimes and state-corporate crime. Misa Norigami is a corporate researcher at SOMO. She investigates companies' finances, ownership, investors, corporate and capital structures, subsidiaries and supply chains through the Counter. The Counter is SOMO's pro bono corporate research helpdesk for activists working to hold companies that cause social harm and environmental destruction to account.Misa holds a Master of Laws in public international law and a Bachelor of Laws from Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan), as well as an advanced Master of Laws in European and International Human Rights Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

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The prolonged nature of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land has meant women have to make life altering decisions from a very early age, the country director for Women for Women International in Palestine tells MEMO, their struggle is unique but women have been instrumental in rebuilding and healing their communities.

A rights organisation that supports women affected by Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands and its numerous wars on civilians, Women for Women International (WFWI) in Palestine constantly adapted its programmes in response to Israel's violence in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian women face unique challenges living under occupation and bombardment, and many of the decisions they are forced to make are life changing. To discuss what some of these hardships are, MEMO in Conversation is joined by WFWI Country Director Amani Mustafa.

Mustafa grew up in the West Bank where she experienced first hand the challenges faced by ordinary civilians trying to get on with everyday life. The situation is particularly difficult for women in Hebron's H2 area, where some of the most extreme settlers live, and so the organsiation has set up specific integrating protective measures for women and girls in that area. The harsh living conditions mean their families are often forced to marry their daughters off at a younger age to protect them from the illegal settlers and occupation forces. But all this comes at a cost.

Mustafa was educated at Bethlehem University and holds degrees in English Literature and International Cooperation and Development. She has long advocated for the rights of Palestinian women on both national and international platforms.
She has over 16 years of experience leading programmes aimed at bolstering Palestinian women’s social power and economic autonomy across the West Bank and Gaza.

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The history of Serbia remain poorly understood and is not discussed enough, but how did it transition from a narrative of being an oppressed people to perpetrator of a genocide? Join us as we discuss this and more with the author of 'Serbia: A Modern History'.

In the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke down and a brutal war unfolded, culminating in a genocide being prepatrated against Bosniaks and Kosovan Albanians. The war brought to surface questions of ethnicity and belonging with 'Serbianess' being at the forefront. But what is Serbia and what does it mean to be a Serb? How did we get from a narrative of being an oppressed people to perpetrating genocides? The history of Serbia remains poorly understood, the current trajectory of both Serbia and Republika Srpska underappreciated, and the future of the Balkans not widely discussed enough. MEMO Conversations catches up with Dr Marko Attila Hoare who has just published a complete history of the Serbs.

Hoare is an Associate Professor and Head of Research for the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology. He was born in London and received his BA (Hons) in History for the University of Cambridge in 1994 and his PhD in History from Yale University in 2000. He is the author of four published books on the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina, of which 'Genocide and Resistance in Hitler’s Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, 1941-1943' won the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Monograph Competition in 2004. His work has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Standpoint, Open Democracy and New Lines Magazine, among others. He has featured in programmes by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Sky History Channel, and made appearances on many TV and radio stations including BBC TV and Sky News. His latest book is 'Serbia: A Modern History'.

His new book can be found here: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/serbia/

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Conflict and violence in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and occupied Palestine drove the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world to 75.9 million at the end of 2023. This is a new record, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The body's global monitoring manager explains the driving forces behind internal displacement and discusses both wars and conflicts and the natural disasters forcing people away from their homes.

In this week's conversation with MEMO we talk to Ivana Hajzmanova, a representative of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), to discuss the body's latest report. Hajzmanova provides a comprehensive global overview of the main hotspots where internal displacement is occurring, with a special focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She delves into the countries most affected by this crisis and highlights the nations that are coping better than others.

Throughout the conversation, we uncover the driving forces behind internal displacements, examining the complex interplay between natural disasters and man-made causes such as wars and conflicts. Hajzmanova sheds light on the role of state violence and armed groups in exacerbating displacements. The conversation also highlights the dire situation in Gaza, where an astonishing 83 per cent of the population is internally displaced, creating a humanitarian catastrophe.
Hajzmanova is the Global Monitoring Manager at IDMC, coordinating the production of internal displacement estimates, development of data mining and data analysis methodologies and external data diplomacy. She joined IDMC in 2016 as a Monitoring Expert and she coordinated the MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa team since 2020. Ivana has a background in humanitarian and human rights law and she previously worked on humanitarian needs analysis and assessment, and human rights advocacy with national and international NGOs.

She holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action from Sciences Po Paris and spent one semester studying international law and history of violence at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

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Peoples, communities and faith groups are being utilised to kill one another, but while different communities can clash this is not the only possibility, we can learn a lot about religious and cultural harmony from the Islamic rule of Spain, the leading conflict mediation expert says.

The world is riddled with conflict, warfare and discord between nations, people and communities. Whether it's the killing fields of Gaza, civil war in Sudan, fighting in Ukraine or elsewhere. Peoples, communities and faith groups are being utilised to kill one another, but while different communities can clash this is not the only possibility. There is also a rich tradition of coexistence between religions, communities and nationalities, drawing up the history of La Convivencia (religious tolerance) that was the norm in Spain during Islamic rule, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together in harmony, we can learn to live together again without conflict. MEMO is joined by Dr Amineh Hoti who runs a project that adapts La Convivencia to current conflicts, peace building and community projects.
Hoti, from University of Cambridge, has over 20 years of experience leading interfaith dialogue, conflict mediation and community engagement throughout the world. She has served as a peace studies director, professor and researcher for more than two decades and has extensive leadership experience on several continents. She was the Executive Director of the Centre for Dialogue and Action and co-founding Director of the first Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in Cambridge and of the Centre for Dialogue and Action at Lucy Cavendish College at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at Lucy and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham.

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Though internationally Israel uses the Bible to justify its colonisation of Palestine, for many Jews it is within Jewish ethical traditions that the seeds of anti-Zionism can be found.

Israel coats itself in Jewish identity and purports to speak on behalf of all Jewish people, while critics of Israeli policy or its treatment of Palestinians are often branded anti-Semitic. Before the Second World War, however, support for Zionism in Jewish communities was limited. Moreover, Zionism was a European Jewish movement. As a result, for the millions of Jews living in the Middle East and wider Muslim World, Zionism was a foreign movement formed outside their own historical reality. Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews in Israel today are culturally underprivileged and are expected to integrated into a European Jewish society. While internationally Israel uses the Bible to justify its colonisation of Palestine, the Israeli state is deeply secular and has acted as a secularising force in Israeli Jewish life, alienating many God-conscious people. For many Jewish people, the oppression and dispossession of Palestinians runs contrary to Jewish ethics and traditions. MEMO Conversation is joined by Hadar Cohen who says that it is within Jewish ethical traditions that the seeds of anti-Zionism can be found.

Cohen is an Arab Jewish scholar, mystic and artist whose work focuses on multi-religious spirituality, politics, social issues and community building. She is the founder of Malchut, a spiritual skill-building school teaching Jewish mysticism and direct experience of God. Her podcast, Hadar’s Web, features community conversations on spirituality, healing, justice and art. Hadar is a 10th-generation Jerusalemite with lineage roots also in Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq and Iran.

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Is Persian the bridge language of ancient Muslim societies? And are Central Asian countries seeing a revival of this ancient heritage?

When we think of the great cities of Islamic history, we tend to think of Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Isfahan and Istanbul. But for much of history Samarkand, Herat, Kashgar and Bukhara, to name a few, were at the epicentre of Muslim history. The modernisation of the region, Russian colonisation and later Soviet rule severed the historical connections between Central Asia to the rest of the world. However, since the 1990s, Central Asian countries increasingly celebrate and explore this heritage, but how much of the past survives and where is the region going? One way to think about these questions is through the prism of language and delving into the different languages spoken in Central Asia today can tell us a lot about this heritage and the direction societies are moving. Anglo-American academics have used the term the Persianate to describe the historical cultures present in Central Asia today, a term they argue ties Sarajevo to Hyderabad in-which the Persian language is a lingua franca of Islamic civilisation. But how relevant is this to Central Asia? Linguist Iskandar Ding joins MEMO Conversations today to deep dive and nerd out on this topic.

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Has Iran's direct retaliatory strike on Israel been a major blow to Israel's deterrence capacity or a blow to Tehran on a world stage? MEMO speaks to leading experts on US-Iran relations Dr Trita Parsi.

In this week’s MEMO in Conversation we speak to award winning author and expert on US-Iran relations, Dr Trita Parsi to discuss the latest escalation between Iran and Israel. Parsi offers his insights on the dangers of the current moment, drawing comparisons to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

US President Joe Biden is making moves to prevent an escalation in the region, but has he been effective? The conversation explores the reasons behind Iran's decision to retaliate this time, unlike in the past, and consider whether there was a major miscalculation on the part of Tel Aviv. Has Tehran's strike been a major blow to Israel's deterrence capacity?

Don't miss this timely and thought-provoking conversation with one of the world's leading experts on US-Iranian relations and the geopolitics of the Middle East.

Parsi is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. He was named by the Washingtonian magazine as one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington DC in both 2021 and 2022, and preeminent public intellectual Noam Chomsky calls Parsi 'one of the most distinguished scholars on Iran.'His first book, 'Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States', won the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His second book, 'A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran' , was selected by Foreign Affairs as the Best Book of 2012 on the Middle East.Parsi’s latest book, 'Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy', reveals the behind the scenes story to the nuclear deal with Iran.

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The Arab world of yesteryear had cities abuzz with sounds, schools, mosques and places to learn and improve. Now these cities have dropped in importance and become dirty and congested as Western ideas of metropolitan life took over, but is there a revival?

Urbanisation is deeply rooted in Arab history. The city has been the epicentre of Arab ideals and Islamic tradition. Muslim empires have long been noted for their emphasis on building great cities and encouraging urban dwelling. For the Mamluks, Cairo represented their vision for an Islamic city, with more mosques, religious schools, endowments and religious public spaces than any other metropolis of that time. Sound was a big feature of the Mamluk city, the call to prayer, Quranic recitations and the sounds of worship were audible throughout Cairo no matter the time or day. Other Arab cities implemented their own understanding of Islamic ethics by applying it to both function and aesthetics of the city. Hygiene played a big role, protecting the poor was important and creating spaces to enable spiritual wellbeing of residences, the pre-modern Arab city enabled life in its various forms.

However, the 1800s would see all of this change and modernisation would see traditional attitudes towards architecture, function and purpose of cities uprooted and supplanted by newer and more Westerner ideas. Today, Arab cities are much more marginalised by ruling authorities, dirter, run down and poorly persevered. While major cities of the pre-modern period have fallen from importance from Baghdad to Cairo, cities in the Gulf are thriving and changing the face of the region. We ask what happened to the Arab city. Joining us to answer this question is Nasser Rabbat.

Rabbat is the Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. His interests include Islamic architecture, urban history, heritage studies, Arab history, contemporary Islamic art and post-colonial criticism. He has published numerous articles and several books on topics ranging from Mamluk architecture to Antique Syria, 19th century Cairo, Orientalism, and urbicide. His most recent books are 'Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project'; 'Nasser Rabbat: Critical Encounters'; and ‘Imarat Al-Mudun Al-Mayyita' (The Architecture of the Dead Cities. His co-edited book, 'Reconstruction as Violence: The Case of Syria' will be published later thsi year. He is currently editing a book on the cultural history of Syria, tentatively entitled, 'Syria: The Land Where Cultures Met', and writing a history of Mamluk Cairo.

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Subhead: Will the UN reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to end Israel's years-long abuse of Palestinians? And will the World Court try the occupation state and bring an end to its abuses? Join us as we discuss what measures are being taken on a world stage to tackle Israel's aggressions.

In an unprecedented move, allegations of Israel practising apartheid are being examined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Join us for this week's MEMO in Conversation with Dr Victor Kattan as we discuss the groundbreaking developments surrounding the allegations of Israeli apartheid made before the ICJ and the potential impact of an authoritative apartheid finding by the World Court.
An Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham, Kattan highlights the possibility of the reactivation of UN mechanisms such as the Special Committee Against Apartheid, and the lessons learned from the international community's response to apartheid in South Africa during the Cold War.

Kattan provided insight into the distinction between proving the crimes of apartheid and genocide, as well as the role of ad hoc institutions in enforcing international law, while discussing the recent decision by the Appeals Court of The Hague in the Netherlands, which suspended F-35 parts shipments to Israel, as a potential precedent for restricting arms transfers. Kattan offered valuable perspectives on the critical steps needed to address the allegations of Israeli apartheid and ensure the protection of Palestinian rights under international law.

Victor is the author of one monograph, four edited books, and more than 30 single authored articles that have been published in peer reviewed journals. He has also published widely on social media, including scholarly blogs, and his scholarship has been cited by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), states in advisory proceedings before the ICJ, Special Rapporteurs to the UN Human Rights Council, the Congressional Research Service, and leading academics.

His recent publications include an edited book with Brian Cuddy, titled 'Making Endless War: The Vietnam and Arab-Israeli Conflicts in the History of International Law' and 'The Breakup of India and Palestine: The Causes and Legacies of Partition' which he edited with Amit Ranjan.

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This Palestinian Children's Day Israel is blocking the entry of lifesaving humanitarian aid into Gaza and starving minors to death. Charities are unable to access aid that is waiting on the other side of the border and parts of Gaza remain completely off limits to them because of the occupation forces' siege. Thousands face death, scores may have already died of malnutrition but we just don't know about them, Save the Children's tells MEMO.

As Israel's war on Gaza enters its seventh month, conditions in the besieged Strip have worsened. Palestinian children now face hunger and severe malnutrition as Israel deliberately prevents humanitarian access to Gaza, which means aid organisations are unable to reach those most in need. Tel Aviv's attacks on hospitals, homes, neighbourhoods and refugee camps means people are unable to reach health facilities to get the care they need. Most people are living below the radar and so the scale of the crisis is not being captured in officially released statistics. MEMO in Conversation is joined by Alexandra Saieh, head of Save the Children's humanitarian policy and advocacy, to discuss the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding and how the charity is trying to respond to it.

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Ever wondered about the origins of some of your favourite Middle Eastern dishes? Many recipes date back to medieval times but have been tweaked and amended to create the modern take and flavours we now know. Join us as Daniel Newman takes us on a journey of food through the ages.

During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, where believers abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk, food takes on a whole new significance and despite people not eating during the day, for Muslims across the world, the holy month is associated with all sorts of culinary delights. MEMO has decided to deep dive into the history of food in the Arab World. Along the way, we learn of interesting recipes, we hear of connections between food and home, we understand how health concerns influenced the way people used to eat. Did you know Arabs and Europeans used to eat similar dishes in medieval times? Did you know Arab food used to be renowned for being spicy, but went on became less and less spicy? Helping us to make sense of all of this is Daniel Newman of Durham University.

Newman holds the Chair of Arabic Studies at the University of Durham (UK). His research interests include Arabic travel literature, 19th-century Arab reform movements, Islamic medicine and medieval Arab culinary history. He is the author of the best-selling 'An Imam in Paris; Account of a stay in France by an Egyptian cleric (1826-1831)' and was the co-recipient of the World Award of the President of the Republic of Tunisia for Islamic Studies for the book entitled 'Muslim Women in Law and Society'. His book 'The Sultan’s Feast. A Fifteenth-century Cookbook' was longlisted for the Peter Mackenzie Smith Book Prize 2021 and received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2021. His most recent book is 'The Exile's Cookbook: Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from Al-Andalus and North Africa'. His research was showcased in a six-part Al Jazeera series on the history of medieval Arab food. He maintains a blog and Instagram account where he shares his passion for bringing medieval Arab dishes to life by recreating recipes.

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America is Israel's closest ally today. Every US administration since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War has closely embraced Tel Aviv. Washington's political elite's support for Israel goes beyond strategic interest and is treated as a fundamental moral issue. US President Joe Biden's reaction to 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war on Gaza by Israel follows the moral script set out by both previous US administrations and DC elites. Despite this, Israel's war on Gaza is not in America's strategic interests and is harmful to US foreign policy. We are joined by former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman who believes support for Israel's current war has wrecked American credibility, isolated the United States and will destabilise the Middle East. In this MEMO conversation, we delve into why Freeman believes Israel does not share American values and how Tel Aviv's racism has led to a genocidal war. We also speak to Freeman about his diplomatic career including working for US President Richard Nixon, going to China, dealing with King Fahd and his observations of Saudi society.

Freeman is the author of five books and numerous articles on statecraft and the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica article on “diplomacy”. He is a former US assistant secretary of defence, ambassador to Saudi Arabia, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, chargé d’affaires a.i. at Bangkok and Beijing, acting US commissioner for refugee affairs, and director of programme coordination and development at the US Information Agency. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon’s 1972 opening of US relations with China.

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In this week’s conversation, renowned historian and political theorist Professor Mahmood Mamdani joins us to discuss racism and the genocidal nature of nation-state building projects, focusing on the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Drawing upon his extensive research on colonialism, anti-colonialism, and decolonisation, Mamdani explains the deep-rooted historical and political forces that have shaped the current genocide in Gaza, exposing the inherent violence at the heart of nation-building endeavours.

We discuss the ideological genealogy of nationalism and its inextricable link to the execution of political programmes that perpetuate racism and genocide. Mamdani shares his insights on the concept of "de-Zionisation" as a prerequisite for peace in Palestine. By exploring alternative forms of social and political organisation, this conversation aims to shed light on potential paths towards a more inclusive and pluralistic future.

Mamdani is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. He was also professor and executive director of Makerere Institute of Social Research (2010-2022) in Kampala, where he established an inter-disciplinary doctoral programme in Social Studies. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1974 and specialises in the study of colonialism, anti-colonialism and decolonisation. His works explore the intersection between politics and culture, a comparative study of colonialism since 1452, the history of civil war and genocide in Africa, the Cold War and the War on Terror, the history and theory of human rights, and the politics of knowledge production. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty, Mamdani was a professor at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania (1973–1979), Makerere University in Uganda (1980–1993), and the University of Cape Town (1996–1999).

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The 13th century saw the Middle East invaded and occupied by both the Crusaders and the Mongols, but both invaders quickly built their own political systems and transformed the Middle East.

The 13th century ushered in a violent transformation of the Middle East. Crusader armies burst into the Levant and took large swaths of territory. Towards the east the Mongols crossed into the heartlands of Islam. While the initial sentiment to the invaders was one of terror, both the Crusaders and the Mongols came to be seen as part of the landscape, and societies under their rule came to see them as people they could do business with. The region was forever changed, but what were these changes and what was the legacy of this period? Dr Nicholas Morton joins MEMO to help answer these questions.

Dr Morton is the course leader for History at Nottingham Trent University and the author or editor of several books. His most recent publication is The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (2022) which offers a multi-perspective account of the Mongol invasions into the Middle East during the 13th century.

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In this week’s MEMO conversation we speak to Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, author of the acclaimed book An Army Like No Other, to discuss the outsized role of the military in Israeli nationhood. Professor Haim's research chronicles how the Israeli army has ascended beyond a military body to become the most revered institution in Israel - with profound implications on politics, society, national psychology and on the prospect of peace.

Professor Haim traces the roots of the primacy of the Israeli army within the apartheid state and explains how a deep-rooted sense of military dominance and mythic invincibility inculcated over decades has been shaken by the 7 October attack. We explore how the special status of the Israeli army makes peace based on justice and international law an impossibility and what that might mean for the future.

Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar, retired from the University of East London where he worked since early 2002. He now teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His books include the best-selling Introduction to the Holocaust, which he co-authored, and An Army Like No Other: How the IDF Made a Nation (2020).

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Canadian Professor of Law Mohammad Fadel joins us for a conversation on the ongoing crisis in Gaza, including Israel's military operations and blockade. With Professor Fadel's legal expertise, we analyse the implications of the International Court of Justice case alleging Israeli genocide against Palestinians. We also address the campaign against academic freedom unfolding in Canada, where pro-Israel groups seek to censor university lectures and events about Gaza. Professor Fadel outlines the threat this poses to free speech and peaceful opposition to state policies.

Mohammad Fadel is a professor at the faculty of law at the University of Toronto. He is the former Canada Research Chair for the Law and Economics of Islamic Law. His research areas include business corporations, economic analysis of law, Islamic law, and political philosophy and theory. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

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Israel's war on Gaza shows no sign of letting up with over 30,000 Palestinians dead and 70,000 wounded since 7 October 2023. With Israel seemingly preparing a full scale military operation in Rafah and reports the north of Gaza are heading for a famine, the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Strip is set to get worse. Hospitals and medics are key to Gaza's survival, but they are also targets for the Israeli military, with over 600 healthcare facilities, attacked according to the United Nations. Dr Amagad Elsherif went to Gaza with a team of doctors from Canada and the US, where he encountered a tired and overstretched medical system full of unpaid healthcare workers, children suffering from a variety of traumatic injuries and uncertainty over where Israel will attack next. He also saw a surprising sense of resilience, strength and ambition among Gaza's children to go on living. Dr Elsherif joins MEMO conversations to share his experiences.

Elsherif is a thoracic surgeon in Canada who has returned to Gaza since this interview was carried out.

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The Zionist movement and Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, sought to revive the biblical Book of Joshua and use it to give the state a new identity. Here Israel was Joshua and the Palestinians were the Canaanites, but who is Joshua and can better understanding of his story help dismantle Israel's narrative and its treatment of Palestinians?

In the late 1950s, gatherings would take place at Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's house. Scholars, generals and ministers would debate and study the Book of Joshua, which is the sixth book of the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament and follows the story of Joshua who led the Israelite conquest of the Canaanites. Largely reviled by Jews down the ages, the Zionist movement and David Ben-Gurion sought to revive the biblical text and use it to give Israel a new identity. Israel was Joshua and the Palestinians the Canaanites in this reinvention of the narrative and each Israeli prime minister since Ben-Gurion has cast themselves as the new Joshua. The Zionist and Israeli reading of Joshua provided the moral framework for the occupation of Palestine and Tel Aviv's excessive militarisation. Who is Joshua, how did Israel reinvent the narrative and what possibilities does the biblical text have for dismantling both Israel's Joshua narrative and treatment of the Palestinians? Joining us to explore this is Rachel Havrelock.

A Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Rachel Havrelock also directs the Freshwater Lab, focused on water protection as a means of political reconciliation and climate change adaptation. Rachel’s latest book, 'The Joshua Generation: Israeli Occupation and the Bible', tells the story of how the Bible became militarised yet still holds lessons for de-escalation and cohabitation. While writing 'River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line' , Rachel became involved in environmental peacebuilding with the Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian NGO Ecopeace Middle East. Rachel also researches and writes about oil pipelines and how to make the transition from fossil fuels.

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As The Soil and the Sea premiers in London this month, Rugo discusses the harrowing stories from the Lebanese Civil War which he unearthed in his new film and the generational impact of these life changing events.

In this week’s MEMO in Conversation we speak to acclaimed filmmaker Daniele Rugo about his new documentary The Soil and the Sea, which premiers in London this month. The documentary brings to light harrowing stories from the Lebanese Civil War that have long been hidden away, buried along with victims in undiscovered mass graves across the country.

Rugo's film grapples with the nation's collective trauma and concerns over the reopening of wartime wounds that still fester. But can Lebanon heal without truth and reconciliation? We ask Rugo about the importance of the film in helping Lebanon recover from the trauma of the civil war and get his thoughts on the lessons from the past in understanding the generational impact on Palestinians subjected to genocide in Gaza by Israel.
Rugo is an award-winning filmmaker and author. His previous film About a War explored social change through the stories of former militiamen from Lebanon’s civil war. He is Professor of Film at Brunel University London and has been a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE).

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Lebanon's history of civil unrest means its political landscape is based on sectarianism, which have repeatedly caused its governments to collapse and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. But how does its conservative Christian movement mould society? And how does it differ from other prominent traditional groups that have a firm grasp on the country's affairs?

Lebanon is famed for having 18 different religions, a multitude of different political parties and a large cultural and media output. However, the Mediterranean country is also characterised by a political system based on sectarianism, governments that constantly fall, terrible economic woes and the it seems to be in a permanent state of crisis. Lebanon is not isolated from the rest of the world, unlike some other states in the world in crisis, rather it is globalised and reflects wordily trends. Christian political conservatism is a key feature of the Middle Eastern country's political landscape and is both a local dynamic and heavily influenced by conservative movements across the world. But what does Christian conservatism mean and how does it compare to non-Christian traditionalism seen in groups like Hezbollah? Joining us to answer this question is Chloe Kattar.

Dr Chloe Kattar is an Early Career Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her project examines the links between Islamophobia and right-wing thought. Right-wing groups around the world have displayed strong anti-Islam sentiment in recent years, she seeks to rethink this connection as a global rather than a Western phenomena, by offering the first historical account of the ways in which Islamophobia became a tenet of global conservatism in past decades.

A historian by formation, Dr. Kattar obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge where she examined right-wing intellectual circles and production during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1982). Excerpts of this work have been published in academic journals such as the Historical Journal and the Arab Studies Journal and she has spoken at multiple conferences in Beirut, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. She was previously a lecturer in the History of the Middle East at Northumbria University.

In her spare time, she writes analysis and personal opinions on Lebanon and the Middle East on her instagram page leb.historian.

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It has been 13 years since Egyptians took to the street and changed their political landscape, but who was behind the protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak? And what happened to the movement that forced him out?

11 February marks the 13th anniversary of the ousting of long-term Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. A popular uprising, known as the Arab Spring, began a few weeks earlier and the pressure of the street protests forced Mubarak to leave power. 2011 looked set to be the year Egypt entered a new democratic era, however, the 2013 coup against the country's first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, soon shattered these hopes. The protests were lead by the Revolutionary Youth Council, but what was this movement and what happened to them? Joining us to answer this question is Rusha Latif. Rusha Latif is a researcher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A first-generation Egyptian American, she travelled to Cairo in 2011 to conduct ethnographic research on the uprising. Her interests include social movements and revolutions; the study of gender, class and race/ethnicity; Islamic studies; and Middle Eastern studies. She is the author of Tahrir's Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution.

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UNRWA isn't only an aid agency, it is vital for advocating for the rights of Palestine refugees on a global stage, is that why Israel seeks to shut it down? Join this week's MEMO in Conversation as we discuss why UNRWA is being targeted.

This week's special episode of MEMO in Conversation features an in-depth discussion with Dr Lex Takkenberg about the recent decision by Israel's western allies to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). This controversial move comes at a perilous time as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds in Gaza due to Israel's military aggression.
To analyse the context, consequences and complexities around this funding cut and discuss the history of UNRWA, we speak to Takkenberg who has extensive experience working in various roles within UNRWA. He helps unpack key issues related to the rights of Palestinian refugees under international law and why their plight remains unresolved more than 70 years after the formation of the UN agency set up to support them.

We explore the allegations prompting the funding cuts as well as the devastating impact the measures will have on desperately needed aid programmes. The discussion provides insight into Israel's decades- long hostility towards UNRWA and why the agency serves a vital symbolic purpose for advocating for the rights of Palestine refugees on the global stage. This timely interview sheds light on an unfolding crisis threatening stability in an already volatile region.
Dr Lex Tekkenberg is a Dutch national, who currently serves as senior adviser with Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) and is a non-resident professor at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs.

Dr Takkenberg worked with UNRWA from 1989 until late 2019, most recently as the first Chief of its Ethics Office. Prior to that, he held a range of other positions with the UN body, including as General Counsel, Director of Operations, and (Deputy) Field Director in Gaza and Syria. Before joining UNRWA, he was the Legal Officer of the Dutch Refugee Council for six years.

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Israel's sense of invincibility and security were shattered on 7 October 2023 and now its atrocities are playing out in full view of the world, but has it lost its international legitimacy?

On 6 October 2023, Israeli leaders were feeling confident of their international standing. Normalisation with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and talks in the air about impending normalisation with Saudi Arabia. The Palestinian issue seemed forgotten, the status quo allowed Tel Aviv to close Gaza off from the world, settlers to steal more land in the occupied West Bank and everyone seemed to have given up on the idea of a Palestinian state. On 7 October, Israel's sense of invincibility and security with the status quo came crashing down. But despite the political disaster of the Hamas attack, some within the Israeli government saw it as an opportunity to expel and ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians, believing they would have immunity. However, the ongoing atrocities playing out in full view of the world, with growing anger in the West, outrage in the international community and a genocide case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) indicate that Israel has lost a lot of its international legitimacy. Additionally, with talks of a ceasefire and the failure of the Israeli occupation army to crush Hamas, Israel has been left unable to achieve any of its stated goals in Gaza. Join us as we speak to former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy on what the current situation means for Israel and for Palestinians.

Daniel Levy is the president of the US/Middle East Project (USMEP), which strives to advance a dignified Israeli-Palestinian peace; an end to occupation, discrimination and refugeehood in which international legality is upheld, respecting the rights of all people.

From 2012 to 2016, Levy was director for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that he was a senior fellow and director of the New America Foundation’s Middle East Taskforce in Washington D.C. Levy was a senior adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and to Justice Minister Yossi Beilin during the Government of Ehud Barak (1999-2001). He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Israel/Palestine peace talks at Taba under Barak and at Oslo B under Yitzhak Rabin (1994-95).

Levy was born and educated in the UK where he now resides and where he graduated with an MA and BA from King's College, Cambridge. He has testified before the UN Security Council three times during 2020-2022.

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The United Nations Refugee and Work Agency (UNRWA) plays a critical role in the lives of millions of Palestinians. Setup in 1949 to support the 750,000 Palestinians expelled by Israel in the 1948 Nakba, the agency performs a number of functions from providing emergency aid and medical care, to running schools across the occupied Palestinian territories and the neighbouring Arab countries which host Palestine refugees. The decision by a number of western states to pull funding to UNRWA, citing an ongoing investigation by the agency into whether 12 former employees were involved in the 7 October attack on Israel, came just hours after the International Court of Justice released it preliminary verdict in South Africa's case against Israel for war crimes and potential genocide committed in Gaza. Many feel the decision was political and aimed at punishing the Palestinians. To assess the impact of the withdrawal of funding and the possible motivations behind it, we are joined by former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

An award winning journalist, Gunness was UNRWA spokesman between 2007 and 2020 and a BBC correspondant for 25 years. He is founder and director of the Myanmar Accountability Project, a legal initiative which brings criminal prosecutions against war criminals in the Myanmar junta.

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How does the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s ruling that Israel must prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide and prevent a genocide taking place affect its manoeuvres in Gaza and will its main supporters and funders have to change tack?

What does the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s almost unanimous voted to call on Israel to ensure no acts of genocide are carried out against Palestinians in Gaza mean for Israel's supporters? Join us for MEMO in Conversation with legal expert from Law for Palestine, Kathryn Ravey, as we explore the anticipated ramifications on third-state responsibility, prevention and complicity.

Ravey reveals details of the work of Lawyers for Palestine and the actions it will be taking following the ICJ judgment. We also look at the global fallout, probing whether the ICJ's credibility is at stake amid Gaza's symbolic significance in the global narrative between the Global North and the Global South.

Dedicated to international human rights, Ravey focuses on corporate accountability and justice for marginalised communities. Her background centres on advancing human rights through evidence-based research, strategic communication and meaningful stakeholder engagement to work for a more equitable world. She completed a master's degree in Human Rights at London's UCL, focusing her dissertation on "Equity within Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Unpacking the Standard of 'Maximum Available Resources'."

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More and more young American Jews are disillussioned with Israel and believe in the protection of Palestinian lives in the occupied territories and have been at the forefront of protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But what's made distance themselves from Tel Aviv?

'Israel is at the core of Jewish identity worldwide and its existence provides security for Jews everywhere.' This often repeated narrative, which aside from ignoring the diversity of belief, opinion and politics of world Jewry, is one we hear wheeled out to supress and oppress Palestinians. Israel has constructed it's legitimacy on its Jewish identity and things like its war on Gaza are justified as being necessary for protecting the identity of the state and therefore Judaism. While the Zionist movement and Israel have a long history of being rejected by large swaths of the Jewish community, Westerners, particularly Americans, strongly associate the two together and thus hold the belief that to oppose Israel is to oppose Judaism and therefore it is anti-Semitic.

During the Cold War, Jews in America were encouraged to see Israel as part of their identity and this was reinforced through institutions, charities, education, media and other avenues. While dissent existed, by the 2000s Israel enjoyed wide support among American Jewry. However, over the last decade a new generation of American Jews openly questioned the idea of Israel and opposed its treatment of Palestinians. The ongoing war on Gaza has seen opposition to Israel's actions rise up among Jews under the age of 40, leading many to wonder whether a generational chasm has opened up between older and younger American Jews and Israel? Helping us to understand this generational shift is Simone Zimmerman.
Simone is the co-founder of IfNotNow, a grassroots organisation mobilising the American-Jewish community against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and calling for a ceasefire in the enclave. Simone was also featured in a film 'Israelism' in 2023, which is currently touring, and follows her and an American veteran of the Israeli military Eitan, as they turn against Israel’s occupation of Palestinians and question the support for Israel among US Jews.

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In times of genocide what responsibility does a teacher and a historian have? Israel's onslaught on Gaza has left more than 23,000 Palestinian civilians dead, many more injured and shows no sign of slowing down. While pro-Israel supporters frame all Israeli actions through the prism of 7 October 2023, the latest Israeli invasion of Gaza was decades in the making. With dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestine dating back to 1948, how has the decades of occupation shaped what we are now seeing? How does Israel's assault on Gaza compare to previous wars and Israeli violence against Palestinians? MEMO in Conversations is joined by Rashid Khalidi.

Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1970 and a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1974, and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut and the University of Chicago. He was president of the Middle East Studies Association, and is co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. He served as an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993.

Khalidi is author of eight books, including the best-selling The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, has co-edited three others and has published over 100 academic articles. He has written op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post and many other newspapers and has appeared widely on TV and radio in the US and abroad.

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Does Israel have a right to use the Holocaust to justify its bombing of Gaza? And how is the global silence towards its crimes hindering the establishment of a Palestinian state and halting Tel Aviv's plan to annex the occupied territories? Join us as we discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza ahead of the ICJ hearing.

In this week's MEMO in Conversation we speak to renowned historian Professor Omer Bartov, the author of Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis, Professor Bartov offers invaluable insights into the ongoing genocide, challenging perspectives on Israel's actions. We explore pressing questions including the impact of South Africa's genocide proceedings at the ICJ. Professor Bartov delves into the exploitation of the Holocaust in justifying policies, the role of international pressure for a just resolution and the potential future for Palestinians amidst annexation and forced displacement. Don't miss this eye-opening conversation on accountability, power dynamics and the path to ending Israel's illegal occupation.

Born in Israel and educated at Tel Aviv University and St. Antony's College, Oxford, Omer Bartov's early research concerned the Nazi indoctrination of the Wehrmacht and the crimes it committed in World War II. He is Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University in the US and has been published numerous times, including Israel-Palestine: Lands and Peoples.

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20 years ago, CAGE UK was set up to advocate for detainees held unjustly in Guantanamo Bay. Now, the rights group is expanding and becoming global at a time when systemic injustices are prevalent, seen especially in the repression of pro-Palestine activism.

In this week's conversation, MEMO speaks with CAGE about the organisation's 20-year long journey from advocating for Guantanamo Bay detainees to tackling systemic injustices like the criminalisation of pro-Palestine solidarity. We discuss trends of repression via counter-terrorism laws, how inflated terrorism rhetoric compounds discrimination, the thinking behind CAGE International and its latest report on the crackdown on pro-Palestine solidarity in light of events in Gaza.

Anas Mustapha is the head of Public Advocacy at CAGE UK, guiding media strategy and pioneering high-impact research and reports. He is a speaker and advocate against the abuse of state power, specialising across the breadth of UK Counter Terrorism. Anas holds a degree in English language, is a native Arabic speaker and a student of Islamic sciences.

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In an effort to beat the Abbasid Caliph Al-Nasir, the shah of the Khwarezmian Empire turned to magician Siraj Al-Din Al-Sakaki to create a magical statue that would help win the battle. But things took an unexpected turn. Join MEMO's conversation to find out more about the importance of magic in Middle Eastern history.

Siraj Al-Din Al-Sakaki (1160-1229) is best known for his work on Arabic grammar, which students of the language throughout the world use until this day, but very few know he worked as a magician in both the Khwarazmian and Mongol courts. The author of grimoire, a how-to guide for budding magicians, Al-Sakaki offers instructions to students on how to conjure Jinns, how to draw up contracts with the devil, how to cast love spells and how to inflict a humiliating defeat on your enemies as well as a deep dive into the world of magical donkeys. Al-Sakaki was taken very seriously by the rulers of his day, he even managed to survive a talisman gone-wrong, where he was asked by the shah of the Khwarezmian Empire to create a magical statue that would enable them to beat the Abbasid Caliph Al-Nasir in battle and take Baghdad. Al-Sakaki created the talismanic statue and buried it - however the statue magically changed direction while underground causing the shah to lose the battle. Al-Sakaki takes us into the fascinating world of medieval sorcery popular in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies. MEMO in Conversation is joined by Emily Selove, who is translating Al-Sakaki's works into English, to help us understand the man and his magic.

Dr Emily Selove is an associate professor in Medieval Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Exeter. She is also the convener of the University of Exeter’s Centre for Magic and Esotericism. Her most recent publication is a short monograph for the Cambridge Elements Series: The Donkey King: Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic. She was the PI of a Leverhulme-funded research project, "A Sorcerer's Handbook," (2019-2022) which will create an edition and translation of Siraj Al-Din Al-Sakkaki's magic handbook, Kitab Al-Shamil wa-baḥr Al-kamil (The Book of the Complete). Her early research focused on the figure of the uninvited guest (or "party-crasher") in medieval Arabic literature. Her translation of another 11th-century book of party-crashing is titled Selections from the Art of Party-Crashing in Medieval Iraq. She also co-authored a textbook to introduce beginning students to the city of medieval Baghdad, Baghdad at the Centre of a World: 8th-13th Century, and has created a collection of cartoons titled Popeye and Curly: 120 Days in Medieval Baghdad to accompany this textbook.

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Omar Said surprised Antebellum America when he was discovered to be an educated slave from Senegal. Used as a poster child for the benevolence of slavery, Said's writings were distorted and failed to show his discontent at being a slave in America, that is at least, until now when a new translation of his work has been published.

"I cannot write my life," Omar Said says in an extraordinary autobiography written in 19th century Antebellum America. 12 million Africans were enslaved in the Americas and the impact of it is still felt today. Among the 12 million was Omar Said who was taken from West Africa and brought to North Carolina. Said fled his cruel master and was eventually sold to James Owen, a politician and businessman. The Owen's family were impressed by Said's education, which would later surprise American society as they tended to view Africans as uneducated. Despite being in servitude in America, Said was an Islamic scholar in Senegal and very highly educated. He converted to Christianity while in enslavement, or at least his owners believed he had, and Said became a spectacle in pre-civil war America.

Pro-slavery factions in the US turned Said into a poster child in support of the so-called benevolance of slavery. He was encouraged to write about his life, which he did in Arabic. However, far from being happy about his enslavement despite accepting his fate, Said showed his resilience and resistance to the experience. Pro-slavery factions began issuing their own translations of Said's writings, which they distorted to support their cause. In the last 40 years there have been attempts to correct this and in 2023 a book was published which correctly translates Said's writing and provides much needed historical context for his works. MEMO conversations is joined by the authors of I Cannot Write my Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America Mbaye Lo and Carl Ernst.

Mbaye Lo is associate professor of the practice of Asian and Middle Eastern studies and international comparative studies at Duke University. Originally from Senegal, Lo completed his undergraduate and graduate training in classical Arabic language and literature at the International University of Africa, Khartoum, and Khartoum International Institute for Arabic Language, Sudan. He also received an MA in American history from Cleveland State University where he also earned his PhD from from the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs with a dissertation on Re-inventing Civil Society-Based Governance in Africa: Theories and Practices.

Carl W. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of three areas: general and critical issues of Islamic studies, premodern and contemporary Sufism and Indo-Muslim culture. He has received research fellowships from the Fulbright programme, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent books include Breathtaking Revelations: The Science of Breath, from the Fifty Kamarupa Verses to Hazrat Inayat Khan.

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Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser is a divisive figure, to some he is the North African state's saviour to others he betrayed its people and destabilised the region, but could he have been both?

The Arab World with its different authoritarian leaders still lives under the shadow of 1 man - Gamal Abdel Nasser. President of Egypt from 1954 to 1970, Nasser was not only part of the first wave of post-colonial Arab leaders, he was the trendsetter for everyone from Muammar Gaddafi to Saddam Hussein. A magnetic personality, powerful orator and a brutal dictator. His legacy divides opinion in Egypt today, did he save Egypt or betray it? Did he do what was necessary or did he do what was necessary for him? While discussions about Nasser tend to focus on his role as leader of Egypt, his interference in other Arab countries is less discussed; from directing assassinations in Lebanon, backing rebels in Yemen and attempting to destablise Iraq and Jordan. The 1950s was a time of great democratic experimentation in the Arab World, which Nasser played a leading role in crushing. A new book We Are Your Soldiers: How Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World takes a deep dive into Nasser, Nasserism and foreign intervention. Joining us is the book's author Alex Rowell
Rowell is an editor at New Lines magazine and the author of Vintage Humour: The Islamic Wine Poetry of Abu Nuwas. His articles have been published by the BBC, the Economist and the Washington Post, among others.

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Does Israel have a right to bomb hospitals in Gaza? And what are the implications of its actions in the besieged enclave? Should the international be doing more to protect Palestinians? These are just some of the questions international law specialist Toby Cadmans will help untangle.

While Israel's war on Gaza enters its third month, Palestinians in the besieged enclave have witnessed some of the worst atrocities in living memory. With over 15,000 Palestinians dead - the majority of whom are women and children - the question of will Israel be held to account is on everyone's lips. The legal dimensions of Israeli aggression, which include possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and more are legal intricacies many of us don't understand, join us as we speak to London-based barrister and renowned international law expert Toby Cadman who will help unpack these complex principles.

Toby sheds light on pressing issues from deciphering the threshold of evidence required for allegations of genocide to questioning the legitimacy of hospitals as military targets, our conversation navigates the complex web of international law. We explore the role of foreign governments in protecting civilians, Israel's ICC status, potential barriers to ICC investigations and the broader legal avenues for holding perpetrators accountable.
As we confront the legal battles intertwined with the Gaza conflict, Toby Cadman provides insights into the enforcement actions the International Criminal Court could take and the concept of universal jurisdiction.

Toby Cadman is an international law specialist in the field of international criminal and humanitarian law, international human rights law, extradition and mutual legal assistance, anti-corruption, whistleblower protection, business and human rights, international commercial law, arbitration and international climate justice law. Co-founder of the Guernica Group and Joint Head of Chambers at Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, Toby also serves as Associate Counsel to the Guernica for International Justice.

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Did you know that the Ottomans use a number of different calendars to take into account the lives of their diverse communities? But how did this affect its operations? And what role did astrologers and advancements by neighbouring countries play in the Empire?

What was the actual difference between western Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy and the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period? Did they learn from each other and exchange scientific knowledge? The Ottoman Empire had a diverse range of communities within it, how did they mark time and what holidays did they celebrate? How important was astrology in everyday life? Join us as Maryam Patton takes us on a deep dive into these questions and along the way we meet court astrologers, run into time-pieces and learn about the multiple calendars the Ottomans used.

Maryam Patton is a PhD candidate in the joint History and Middle Eastern Studies programme at Harvard University. She focuses on the late medieval and early modern period and is especially interested in cross-cultural transmission across the Mediterranean, especially in the fields of book history and the history of science. Her dissertation examines the historical understanding of time and temporality in the Ottoman Empire from approximately 1330 to 1600. She received her MPhil in European History from the University of Oxford where she was an Ertegun Scholar. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, where she majored in History with a minor in Arabic. She is also a frequent host and editor at the Ottoman History Podcast.

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In spite of Israel's protests of the contrary, accusations of genocide do not exaggerate the situation in Gaza, but this was part of Israel's long term strategy.

Israel has entered its annihilation phase in Gaza and transitioning from slow-motion to high speed genocide of the Palestinian population in the besieged enclave, argues law Professor Penny Green. Tel Aviv's destruction of historic Palestine and the Palestinian people has been state policy since 1948 and the siege on Gaza was part of this long term strategy. The latest war might be about to change that. MEMO speaks to Professor Green who explains what factors demonstrate an active genocide, why Gaza has reached this catastrophic stage and how civil society can respond. She addresses head-on the accusations that the use of the term genocide is exaggerating the situation.

Green was one of over 50 leading scholars in criminology and state violence who signed a hard-hitting condemnation of Israel.

Green is Professor of Law and Globalisation at Queen Mary University of London, and was Head of the Law Department from September 2018-September 2022. She joined Queen Mary University of London in September 2014 following seven years as Professor of Law and Criminology at King’s College London. She studied Psychology, Anthropology and Sociology at the Australian National University before undertaking graduate studies and a doctorate in Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

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With Western governments questioning every Palestinian statistic coming out of Gaza but accepting Israel's version of events even when no evidence is provided, the Palestinian diaspora has been left feeling unable to express its grief without being criminalised

Pro-ceasefire demonstrations are 'hate marches', chanting from the river to the sea is 'terrorism' and Palestinian death toll numbers 'can't be trusted'. Since 7 October 2023, Arab and Palestinian communities in Europe and the US have felt like they are under siege. Reports of Palestinians and Muslims being killed in the US, reports of Arab reporters being fired and governments throughout the world questioning the loyalty of their citizens. Additionally, horrific images showing Israel brutalising Palestinians and wiping out Gaza have left a psychological scar on many both inside and outside Palestine. The Palestinian diaspora feels helpless, afraid and worried and also like they can't express their grief without being criminalised. Most are already dealing with intergenerational trauma with the latest Israeli war assault on Gaza adding another layer to that. Joining us to discuss this feeling of being unsafe, mental health in Arab communities and why the war on Gaza feels different this time is Layla Maghribi.

Layla Maghribi is a British Arab journalist, currently based in the UK after several years in the Middle East working for international media outlets including Reuters and CNN International. Raised in England, Layla has lived in Italy, Syria, Lebanon and the UAE, and has a special interest in social issues affecting Arabic-speaking communities, particularly in relation to culture, immigration and mental health. She is currently the host of Third Culture Therapy, a podcast that explores mental wellbeing from a cultural perspective, and is writing her first non-fiction book.

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The first to determine that Israel's operation in Gaza amounted to genocide, Prof Segal says the mass murder, forcible displacement of Palestinians and the official rhetoric of the Israeli government all provide a 'textbook case of genocide'

"You must remember what Amalek has done to you," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to the nation. "Our hero troops, they have one main goal, to completely defeat the murderous enemy." Referring to Palesitnians in Gaza as being like the Amalekites, who were an ancient people wiped out by the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible, Netanyahu's statement was the latest in a line of both official and unofficial statements by Israeli politicians and media calling for the destruction of Gaza. But how do Israeli actions and rhetoric constitute a potential genocide? MEMO speak to Professor Raz Segal who believes Israel's ongoing war on Gaza could lead to a genocide of Palestinians in the besieged enclave. Segal was the first to determine that Israel's operation in Gaza amounted to genocide. In his conversation with MEMO, Raz explains why Israel's actions in Gaza meet the UN definition of genocide and provides compelling evidence to make the case that what is unfolding in Gaza is "a textbook case of genocide".

Raz Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide.

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Imagining the future of Palestine isn't a fictional dream, but rather a radical attempt to rediscover and resistance

"Palestine is alive and well in the Palestinian psyche, but where is Palestine today?" Since 1948, Palestinians have been exiled, displaced and uprooted from their homeland. Additionally, those who expelled them deny the history of the Palestinian presence on the land and have their own historical narrative. For Palestinian writers, intellectuals and artists resisting the settler colonial project, attaining justice for what was done to them is a central concern. But what is Palestine and how to keep it alive? Memories of the land are part of defining what Palestine is, but Palestine can not only be a record of the past, it has a present and a future. It is to imagination that Palestinian thinkers turned, as Mourid Barghouti writes, "but, I tell myself, no reality cancels out imagination." Imagination here does not mean a fictional dream but rather a radical attempt at rediscovery and resistance. Palestine is not a single place or memory, but a place with multiple beginnings, places and peoples.

Exploring this question in her book Imagining Palestine: Culture of Exile and National Identity, Tahrir Hamdi talks to MEMO about how Palestinians came to make sense of themselves. Imagining Palestine is a nominee for Middle East Monitor's Palestine Book Awards 2023. Hamdi is a professor of anti-colonial and resistance literature and currently Rector at Arab Open University/Jordan. She is co-editing a book with Louis Brehony on Ghassan Kanafani’s revolutionary political and theoretical essays, which will be published in 2024.
She won the prestigious Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Prize in 2020 for the best researcher in the Arab world in the humanities.
Her research revolves around resistance literature, anti-colonial theory and the importance of place and space in literature, and she has published articles on Edward Said, William Butler Yeats, Mahmoud Darwish, Mourid Barghouti, Saadi Yousef, Ghassan Kanafani, Naji Al Ali, Palestine, Ireland and Iraq.

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Jerusalemite historian Wasif Jawhariyyeh photographed a changing Palestine over many decades, under Ottoman, British and Israeli rule. A new book about his work highlights Palestinian life and identity across eras

Join us for an illuminating discussion with the authors of Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine as they vividly bring to life Jerusalemite historian Wasif Jawhariyyeh and his remarkable seven photography albums chronicling Palestinian life and identity across eras. Learn how this visual record challenges colonial narratives and provides unparalleled insights into the Ottoman heritage and cultural evolution of Palestine from 1904 to 1972.

Jawhariyyeh's albums provide unmatched windows into Ottoman roots and cultural transformations that powerful forces have sought to obscure. Through his photography spanning many decades, the erased heritage and evolving identity of Palestine is recovered and illuminated. Join us for a conversation with Prof Issam Nassar, Dr Stephen Sheehi, Prof Salim Tamari who discuss Jawhariyyeh's life work documenting a rapidly transforming Palestinian society under Ottoman, British and Israeli rule.

Professor Issam Nassar is a Palestinian historian of photography in Palestine and the Middle East. He is professor of History at Illinois State University and a research fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley in 2006; Bradley University in 2003–2006 and Al-Quds University in 1998–2003.

Winner of the MEMO Palestine Book Award 2022, Dr Stephen Sheehi is the Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies. He holds a joint appointment as Professor of Arabic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Program of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) as well as a core member of the Asian and Pacific-Islander American Studies Program (APIA). He is also the Faculty Director of the Decolonising Humanities Project.

Prof Salim Tamari is Institute of Palestine Studies senior fellow and the former director of the IPS-affiliated Institute of Jerusalem Studies. He is editor of Jerusalem Quarterly and Hawliyyat Al Quds. He is professor of sociology at Birzeit University and an adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palestine Book Awards in 2018.

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Having served as the US envoy to a number of key Middle Eastern nations, Ford watched events in the region change the area's dynamic over the past two decades and how local leaders were reacting to the Arab Spring and the West's response to it.

The United States's role in the Middle East has shifted over the last 20 years from invading Iraq to a more hands off approach post the Arab Spring. While the 2003 Iraq War chipped away at American credibility, the Syrian war forced Washington to reassess its role as the 'global policeman', meanwhile Algeria has become North and West Africa's most important player. How does all of this look from Washington? MEMO in Conversation is joined by former US Ambassador Robert Ford whose diplomatic career took him to Iraq, Algeria and Syria.

Ford is a fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School for Global Affairs where, since 2016, he has taught about U. foreign policy, and he has been a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington since 2014.
A career diplomat until 2014, Ford was the US Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, directly advising the top levels of the American government about responses to the expanding civil war there. Prior to his work on Syria he was the senior political adviser at the American Embassy in Baghdad 2004-2006 and then Deputy Ambassador at the US Embassy in Baghdad 2008-2010 where he helped the transition from American occupation government to Iraqi sovereign rule and wider Iraqi responsibility for governance. In between assignments in Iraq, he was the US Ambassador in Algeria 2006-2008 where he expanded bilateral cooperation in the fields of education and rule of law. Ford also served in Bahrain, Cameroon, Egypt, Turkiye and Washington.

Before joining the diplomatic service, he was a teacher with the Peace Corps in Morocco 1980-1982. He received the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2013 and in 2014 the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s highest honour.
Ford speaks English, Arabic and French and appears regularly in US, European and Arabic media. He has published articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic and Foreign Affairs magazine among others and has given guest lectures at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, UCLA, Tufts, Johns Hopkins and other schools in the US and Canada.

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Two weeks into Israel's relentless campaign of bombing the Gaza Strip have left Eman Basher no longer able to convince her son that the lights and sounds in the sky are just fireworks and there is no reason for him to be scared.

As Israel's military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip continues, leaving in its wake thousands of deaths and millions of displaced Palestinians, MEMO in conversation speak to Eman Basher. Eman is an evacuee from Beit Hanoun who is seeking shelter in southern Gaza. A teacher and a mother, Eman speaks to us about the harrowing situation she and many Gazans find themselves in.
Her son has asthma which is worsening due to the smoky air filled with sulphur that's engulfed Gaza as a result of the senseless Israeli bombing. She talks about no longer being able to getting away with telling her son the sounds and lights are just fireworks and how she cannot tell her children that the bombs raining down around them could kill them any time and that he needs to be brave and be a fighter.
She rejects all claims made by Israeli officials in the media that buildings are being used as shelters for the resistance's fighters or equipment in Gaza, highlighting that it is exactly this rhetoric that has meant there is nowhere to seek safety and shelter in Gaza as Israel continues to bomb schools, hospitals and cemeteries and target roads that those being told to leave their homes are forced to use to escape.

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As Israel continues bombing the besieged Gaza Strip, killing an average of one child every 15 minutes, medical teams are struggling to cope. Supplies of vital medicines have now completely depleted and no water, fuel or other essentials have entered the Strip for almost 10 days, but medical crews continue to operate in an effort to reduce the death toll.

Please note this conversation was recorded before the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital bombing

With Gaza under Israeli bombardment, MEMO speaks to one of the world's foremost experts on the besieged enclave, Dr Mads Gilbert.

Mads Gilbert, is a Norwegian physician, humanitarian, activist and politician and a Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø.
Gilbert has a broad range of experience from international humanitarian work. Since the 1970s, he has been actively involved with solidarity work concerning Palestinians, and he has served as a doctor for several periods in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon. He has volunteered at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during Israel's previous bombing campaigns and saw first hand the difficulties of providing health care not only while under siege, but also while bombs are raining down around you. He has since been banned from returning to Gaza by Israel as a result of his ongoing humanitarian work.

His efforts have been central to leading the city of Tromsø, since 2001 a twin town of Gaza, and one which claims to be the city that has sent more health workers to the Palestinian territories than any other in the world.

He has several books on Gaza, including, Eyes on Gaza, which has been translated into several languages. Gilbert has been lauded as a "hero" in Norwegian media for his work in Gaza.

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As we watch events unfold in Gaza on social media and on our television screens, we are only getting one per cent of the information from the ground, Palestinian student Aseel Safi says. Now with electricity being cut, less information will be getting out, and Palestinians will be unable to find out what is happening either.

The Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip enters its sixth day and reports of intense bombings of apartments buildings, schools, hospitals and business continue to roll in. The majority of Gazans have little to no electricity, water supplies have been cut and supplies are not getting through. Entire neighbourhoods have been decimated and the remains of those killed are scattered in the streets, according to eyewitnesses. MEMO in conversation is joined by Gazan-based activist, poet and writer Aseel Safi.

Aseel Safi is an English literature student at Al-Aqsa University.

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As Israel continues to bomb Gaza indiscriminately and an Israeli army spokesperson saying 'the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy', MEMO speaks to a Palestinian journalist from Gaza about the situation on the ground for her family and loved ones and what they are experiencing.

Israel is bombarding the Gaza Strip and within 4 days almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of thousands displaced and thousands injured. 2.3 million Palestinians live in the besieged enclave, which is no bigger than 365 square kilometres. As a result, the occupied territory is densely populated and Israeli air strikes on the Strip mean high civilian death tolls. So far schools, hospitals, commercial buildings, markets and people's homes have been destroyed by Israeli warplanes and missiles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the residents of Gaza to leave the enclave, but his government also ordered the Strip to be completely sealed off. Tel Aviv also bombed Gaza's only crossing into Egypt and cut off water and electricity. While the latest Israeli onslaught of Gaza was triggered by an offensive by the Palestinian resistance into Israeli settlements, Israel has routinely bombed and bombarded Gaza since Tel Aviv ordered a siege on it in 2007. MEMO in Conversation is joined by Palestinians journalist Yara Eid.

Yara Eid is a 23-year-old war journalist from Gaza who currently resides in London after growing up in the besieged Gaza Strip. A human rights activist, Yara is a Global Youth Ambassador and is a member of Amnesty International's Youth Advisory Board.

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Disclaimer Alert-- This conversation on Libya was recorded before the recent floods struck the country and so we do not discuss it in this episode.

Some 20 per cent of Libyans have had a family member kidnapped or go missing since the 2011 protests that ousted long term dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with officials who have been implicated in atrocities against their people vying for power, will Libyans ever get justice?

In 2011 Libyans took to the streets demanding justice, freedom and dignity, there was hope for a new Libya. The fall of Muammar Gaddafi seemed to present Libyans with a new opportunity. However, militia warfare, political infighting, corruption, violence and economic dysfunction have left the North African country in a fragile state since the Arab Spring. The pursuit of justice still remains a key endeavour for Libyans and holding different factions accountable is essential for the country's political future. Libyan diaspora activists and lawyers aim to help Libyans realise this dream. We are joined by Elham Saudi, co-founder and director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya (LFJL).

Elham is an international lawyer specialising in international human rights law and international humanitarian law. She is the co-founder and director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya, a non-governmental organisation working on promoting human rights and rule of law in Libya, including through advocacy, research and seeking accountability for human rights violations and international crimes. Elham is one of the experts who drafted Libya’s first comprehensive law on the protection of women, which is due for consideration by the country’s House of Representatives.

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Since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, the regime has oppressed minorities and tried to drive a wedge between communities, the Circassians have not been saved from this.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad frames himself as the 'protector of minorities' and has depicted all opposition to him as being both sectarian and jihadi. However, many have challenged the official narrative by pointing out the broad based opposition to Assad's rule, the regime's record of oppressing minorities and Damascus' own policies of trying to drive a wedge between communities. August and September 2023 saw large-scale anti-regime demonstrations in Suwayda led-by the religious minority; the Druze. As a result, the regime's record on its treatment of minorities as well as its general misrule has been brought back to the forefront. With this in mind, join us as we speak to Celine Kasem on the situation of another minority group, the Circassians.

Originally from the Caucasus, the Circassians community in Syria is large and culturally vibrant. Expelled by the Russian Empire in the 19th century, Syria has been a refuge for Circassians. However, like so many other fellow Syrians, a large number have been displaced, killed or exiled since 2011. What has the situation in Syria been like for Circassians? These are just some of the questions Syrian-Circassian-Canadian activist and Media Executive of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Kassem, will answer.

Kasem is a human rights activist and public speaker and holds a Bachelor's in Political Science.

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For the co-author of Tamimi's autobiography, meeting the outspoken Palestinian was an emotional rollercoaster

When she was just 16 years old, Palestinian Ahed Tamimi became a household name when footage of her slapping an Israeli soldier went viral. She was later arrested and jailed by occupation forces. She has since detailed her experience and the trauma that followed in her tell all book They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom. MEMO speaks to co-author and Palestinian-American journalist Dena Takruri about meeting the lady she calls 'a once in a generation voice'.

Dena Takruri is a senior presenter at AJ+ and one of the channel’s founding members. She hosts 'Direct From with Dena Takruri', which has been honoured with many awards, including the prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award.

Dena has reported internationally from the occupied West Bank, the North Korean border, South Africa and in Europe covering the refugee crisis. Domestically, she’s covered presidential elections, immigration and a wide array of social justice and civil liberties

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Saleh established the Palestine Museum US after noticing there were no Palestinian museums in the Americas but there were over 70 Israeli galleries

In this week’s conversation we speak with the visionary businessman Faisal Saleh, who is behind the Palestine Museum US, as he embarks on a tour to bring the Nakba and history of Israel’s expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians from their land to the world.

The Palestine Museum opened its doors in Connecticut in 2018 after Saleh decided to focus on creating an institution to tell the story of the Nakba. Saleh’s roots are in the Palestinian village Salama, five miles east of Jaffa.

The exhibition is billed as the boldest presentation of the ethnic cleansing and dispossession of the Palestinian people ever seen in the West.

Born in 1951, Saleh is the youngest of 11 children. His mother gave birth to him in the family’s crowded, rented room in El Bireh - a stark contrast to the comfortable home the family had enjoyed in Salama.

In Salama, Saleh’s father, Ahmad Saleh, was a well-established landowner and farmer, with flourishing orange groves and banana trees. But in 1948, the Saleh family fled Salama following months of fighting between Zionist forces and village defenders. As a teenager, Saleh grew up against the backdrop of continuing Palestinian resistance to encroaching Israeli domination.

He later moved to the US to continue his studies and received a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1974, also completing an MBA at the University of Connecticut.

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Ever wondered why certain words cross borders and are used the world over? Fadi BouKaram has made it his business to find out why

Did you know the Arabic word for Austria - An-Namsa - comes from Proto-Slavic language and means 'mute' or someone who doesn't speak and this was applied to anyone who could not speak a Slavic language? Why is the loquat fruit in Turkish called yeni dunya or 'new world' while in Arabic it's called akideneh and iskidenya derived from the Turkish word eski dunya or the 'old world'? Why do foreign learners of a language have a hard time understanding certain sounds in the language they are learning? Fadi BouKaram, better known as Cedrusk on Instagram, set out to explore the roots of different languages and the human stories behind them.

A former professional photographer turned tax transparency lawyer by day and Instagram language nerd with a loyal following by night, BouKaram has popularised the study of etymology, or the origin of words, which takes him across different languages. Having grown up in Lebanon, lived in the United States and Ireland, different cultures, habits and customs have always interested him. His photography allowed him to explore the world and led him on the path to investigate languages.

BouKaram grew up in Lebanon and earned a degree in engineering and business. However, by his thirties, he decided he needed a career change and went into the world of photography. In 2013, he was part of a collective of photographers who set up Observers Collective, a group dedicated to capturing the diverse humanity around them.

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MEMO in Conversations is on hiatus this week and will be back next week. During the later quarter of August 2023, the southern Syrian city of As-Suwayda was gripped by anti-government protests led by a religious minority, the Druze. In this throwback episode from 2020, we discussed the politics of Druze in Syria with Syrian feminist and human rights activist Sarah Hunaidi.

The Druze in Syria have recently risen up against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad, in this 2020 MEMO in Conversation Syrian feminist and human rights activist Sarah Hunaidi refutes claims Al-Assad is the only hope for minorities in the war torn country.

A good case study to understand how the Assad regime is harmful to minorities is its relationship with the Druze in southern Syria, she says. A religious minority that split away from Islam hundreds of years ago, the Druze in Syria are a majority in As-Suwayda governorate and they have a long history of rebelling against tyrannical rule stretching back centuries.

Hunaidi also explains how Syrian voices abroad are being silenced and how political debate about Syria has little to do with what was actually happening in the country. Moreover, she points out that Syria’s economic hardship cannot be blamed solely on US sanctions; Assad’s destruction of the country over the years is a key factor.

Hunaidi is a Syrian writer, feminist and human rights activist. She writes and publishes both in English and Arabic in prominent media outlets like Foreign Policy, the Independent, Buzzfeed, among others. She appears regularly on the BBC, Al Jazeera English and NPR to comment on political and cultural events in the Middle East. Her work has been reported by NPR, Al Jazeera, Al-Hurra and various other Arabic and International media platforms. Sarah is a member of the Syrian Women Political Movement, the first women-led political movement dedicated to advancing women’s rights and political participation in a free and democratic Syria.

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The internet has always been the place for free expression in Arabic and Arabs eagerly embraced the possibilities offered by the online world. However, since the Arab Spring, MENA governments have ruthlessly clamped down on the internet and used spyware, fake profiles and disinformation on social media.

In 2011, people took to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria to demand change and for an end to corrupt rule. They did so aided with technology created in the West but the protestors innovated the digital platforms and showed the world what could be done with online content. It's often been argued social media revolutionised the Middle East, but what if it was the other way around? Join us as we speak to Laila Shereen Sakr, who is more commonly known aby her moniker VJ Um Amel, as we discuss how or if the Middle East revolutionised social media.

The internet has always been the place for free expression in Arabic and Arabs eagerly embraced the possibilities offered by the online world. However, since the Arab Spring, MENA governments have ruthlessly clamped down on the internet and have utilised spyware, fake profiles and disinformation on social media. Sakr writes, develops software and produces multimodal art to theorise technology, language and the body. Author of 'Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives' (Stanford University Press, 2023), Sakr is Associate Professor of Media Theory & Practice at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At UCSB, she co-founded Wireframe, a studio promoting collaborative theoretical and creative media practice with investments in global social and environmental justice.

She is Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Feminist Studies, Department of Media Arts and Technology, Centre for Responsible Machine Learning, Centre for Middle East Studies and the Centre for Information Technology and Society. Over the last two decades, she has been a leading voice in the open-source movement, particularly for Arabic localisation. In 2009, she launched the R-Shief media system that went on to archive over 70 billion social media posts in 72 languages and developed software to analyse multi-dimensional data. She is Co-Editor for the open-access journal Media Theory, and for After Video published by Open Humanities Press. She is also an editorial board member of Punctum Books.

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Much of the Middle East's archaeological treasures are battling man-made climate change, over-development, wars and receding coastlines, but there are those who are working to save them.

Gaza's heritage is being lost to the sea. Oman's ancient cities are taking a beating from cyclones. Archaeological treasures across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are battling man-made climate change, over-development, wars and receding coastlines. The preservation of heritage sites needs urgent support from local communities and working with the people of the region is what archaeologists are seeking to do. Join us as we speak to UK-based Cypriot marine archaeologist Dr Georgia Andreou about working on the Gaza Maritime Project, which aims to monitor the deterioration of Gaza's heritage sites and find solutions, and the impact cyclones are having on Oman's ancient sites.

Georgia is an associate lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at UCL. She is also a senior researcher at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. Her research combines archaeology with data science to examine the impact of natural and cultural processes on coastal archaeological sites in the Middle East. Her book project titled 'Critical Heritage Under Water' explores the potential, but also the ethical challenges of big dataset analyses in the context of maritime archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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The international humanitarian body UNRWA was created to support Palestine refugees functioned as a surrogate state, however Palestinian refugees have continued to demand their political rights while resisting the UN’s categorisation of their plight as an apolitical humanitarian issue. Join us as we speak to Dr Anne Irfan about her book 'Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the international refugee system' to discover how engagement with world politics was driven as much by the refugee grassroots as by the upper echelons of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), making refugee groups important actors in global politics, not simply aid recipients.

Dr Irfan is a historian of the modern Middle East, specialising in migration and socio-political history in Palestine and the Levant. She has a BA (Hons) from Oxford University and a Dual MA/MSc in International History from Columbia University and the LSE.

Irfan won the 2017 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Best Essay on Jerusalem for her work, 'Is Jerusalem international or Palestinian? Rethinking UNGA Resolution 181'. She has also spoken in the UK Parliament and at the UN Headquarters in New York about the situation of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

She was awarded a PhD in International History in January 2019 and taught in the department as a Graduate Teaching Assistant until June 2019.

She is currently a Departmental Lecturer at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University.

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Ali Pasha revolutionised nineteenth century Egypt, but was a violent and controversial figure

In 1805, an illiterate Turkish-speaking Greek-born military officer, Muhammad Ali Pasha, became governor of Egypt. He reigned for 43-years and by the time of his death in 1848 Egypt was a profoundly different place. Hospitals, schools, law courts, factories and many new institutions sprang up. Muhammad Ali Pasha, who often likened himself to Napoleon and Alexander the Great, was also brutal. In 1811, he invited the heads of Egypt's military aristocratic elite, the Mamluks, to celebrations at the Cairo Citadel, where Ali's troops gunned them down. MEMO speaks to historian Khaled Fahmy to help us understand this violent, controversial and enigmatic man and his impact on Egypt.

Fahmy is Edward Keller Professor of North Africa and the Middle East at Tufts University. Educated at the American University in Cairo and the University of Oxford, and having taught at Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Harvard and Cambridge Universities, he is a historian of the modern Middle East with specific emphasis on nineteenth century Egypt. His books and articles deal with the history of the Egyptian army in the first half of the nineteenth century, as well as the history of medicine, law and urban planning.

Through working on such topics as conscription, vaccination, quarantines, forensic medicine and legal torture, he charts the specific ways in which a modern state was established in Egypt and the manner in which Egyptians accommodated, subverted or resisted the institutions of this modern state.In addition to his academic publications, which have appeared in both English and Arabic, Fahmy uses his social media platforms to share ideas about his new academic project: a military, social and cultural history of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict.

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The Middle East and North Africa are facing rising temperatures almost twice as quickly as the rest of the world, but how is climate changing impacting policy in the region?

Dr Mohammed Mahmoud

Director of the Climate and Water Program, Middle East Institute

Join us for a conversation with climate change expert Dr Mohammed Mahmoud as we discuss the impact of water shortages on the Middle East and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)'s effect on Egypt's water supply and COP28 being hosted in the UAE.

Mohammed is the Director of the Climate and Water Program and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. His areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, water policy analysis and scenario planning.
He has conducted water management research and work for the Middle East and North Africa region; most extensively on the Nile River Basin. His research on the Nile River Basin focused on the development of water resources in the Basin, analysis of Nile water- sharing agreements and solutions for current and future challenges in the Nile River Basin.
Mohammed has held a number of leadership positions, most recently as Chair of the Water Utility Climate Alliance; a coalition of 12 of the nation’s largest water utilities that collectively provide water to over 50 million people in the United States, with the purpose of providing leadership and collaboration on climate change issues that affect water agencies. Prior to that Mohammed was President of the North American Weather Modification Council; an organization dedicated to advancing research and development activities that increase the scientific knowledge and proper use of weather modification applications.

He has provided numerous subject matter interviews in press, radio and video media on climate-associated topics such as regional climate change impacts, water resources management, extreme heat, droughts and the food-water-energy nexus.

Mohammed holds a BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and a PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona.

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Shlaim recalls a time when indigenous Jews resided in Muslim-majority lands harmoniously alongside their Muslim and Christian neighbours and how Israel worked to destabilise their ties

Born in Iraq, Avi Shlaim spoke Arabic at home and says he had more in common with his Arab compatriots than his coreligionists from Eastern Europe, but Israel won't allow people to believe Arab Jews lived safely in the Middle East, he says. Join us as we speak to Professor Shlaim about his new book 'Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew' and how he uncovered proof that Israel was behind bombings in Baghdad that led to the mass exodus of Jews from Iraq.

Avi Shlaim is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. His main research interest is the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has authored numerous books, including 'The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World', 'The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948' and 'The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences'.

Professor Shlaim is a frequent contributor to newspapers and commentator on radio and television on Middle Eastern affairs.

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here is a drive to have the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism used by all political parties and civil society groups, but its use is silencing debate on human rights abuses committed by Israel against Palestinians.

Join us for a conversation with Giovanni Fassina as we discuss how the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is increasingly being used to suppress advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Fassina serves as Programme Director of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and oversees the legal team and the strategic litigation cases at the ELSC. Previously, he trained as a lawyer in Italy, specialising in cases related to mass torts litigation, Business and Human Rights and civil liability before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights.

Giovanni graduated in International Law from the University of Trento and worked for many years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the development sector.

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Using Afghanistan, Palestine-Israel and Kashmir as case studies we'll discuss how Islamic law is often misconstrued and mis-represented in the media

Join us for a conversation with Kaleem Hussein as we discuss his book 'Peace and Reconciliation in International and Islamic Law' and how the sources of international law and Islamic Law help or hinder the pathway towards peace and reconciliation in selected conflicts.

Focusing on Afghanistan, Palestine-Israel and Kashmir, we will discuss how the depiction, interpretation and understanding of Islamic law is often misconstrued and mis-represented across many mainstream media platforms. While also looking at the role of religion and faith in the process of conflict resolution, de-escalation of violence, conflict transformation, as well as creative non-violent contributions that can be inculcated through the prism of interfaith and intra-faith dialogue in the peacebuilding process.

Hussain is a British writer, multi-disciplinary change management consultant and geo-political observer with an interest in the intersection of religion in public life, politics and international relations as well as programmes and initiatives fostering peaceful coexistence and reconciliation at a national and international level.
He is an Honorary Fellow at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham, and at the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (Muslim Heritage). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Global Diplomatic Forum Alumnus, and a Risk Assistance Network Exchange (RANE) Analyst. He completed his LLB Law (Honours), LLM in International Economic Law at the University of Warwick and a PDLGM at Warwick Business School.

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While Rumi is an internationally renowned poet, his ties to Islam are often forgotten or ignored, one man is working to change that

The 13th century Islamic jurist and mystic Jalal Al-Din Muhammad Rumi is frequently dubbed 'America's best selling poet' and 800 years after his death he has acquired a large following among wellness influencers and spirituality shoppers in the West. However, translations into English of Rumi's work often obscure or erase his Islamic background and Muslim beliefs, instead depicting him as an anti-religion and pro-spiritual figure. These erroneous depictions have sparked a conversation about who the real Rumi was and what his poetry really says.

Join us as we speak to Muhammad Ali Mojaradi, founder of the Instagram and Twitter page Persian Poetics, which aims to provide authentic translations of Persian poetry into English, introducing new audiences to Persian-language literary tradition and heritage. We discuss the difficulty of translation, what Rumi means to different people and how living in the diaspora can lead to a loss of connection to the country of origins.

Mojaradi graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 and founded the #rumiwasmuslim campaign to challenge fake quotes attributed to Rumi.

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Join us for a conversation with Professor Khairudin Aljunied as we discuss his latest book 'Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia', which attempts to capture the progressive and pluralistic nature of Islamic conformism in Southeast Asia from the mid-20th century onwards, as well as the impact of the Middle East on Malaysian scholars and vice versa.

Prof Aljunied is a Senior Fellow at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He's the author of several books including 'Colonialism, Violence and Muslims in Southeast Asia', 'Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Comparative Perspective', and 'Hamka and Islam: Cosmopolitan Reform in the Malay World'.

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Lebanon is experiencing what the World Bank has said is one of the worst financial crises seen globally since the mid-nineteenth century, it was also the scene of the devastating port blast which destroyed much of its capital, with high levels of corruption and a currency that has lost almost all its value, will Lebanon's cities survive the constant attacks?

Nothing symbolises corruption, greed, sectarianism, foreign intervention and neoliberal transformation quite like Beirut. And nothing symbolises resistance, resilience, communal solidarity and a thirst for change quite like Beirut. Join us as we talk to Mona Harb about urban politics in the Lebanese capital.

Mona Harb is tenured professor of urban studies and politics at the American University of Beirut (AUB) where she is also co-founder and research lead at the Beirut Urban Lab. Her researchinvestigates urban governance and city-making in contexts of dysfunctional states and disasters, and the role of urban activists in collective action and oppositional politics. She is the author of Le Hezbollah à Beirut: de la banlieue à la ville, co-author of Leisurely Islam: Negotiating Geography and Morality in Shi’i South Beirut, co-editor of Local Governments and Public Goods: Assessing Decentralization in the Arab World and co-editor of Refugees as City-Makers, and of more than 80 journal articles, book chapters and other publications.

Harb is the coordinator of the AUB graduate programs in Urban Planning, Policy and Design, and was previously Associate Dean of her faculty, and Chairperson of the department of Architecture and Design. She provides professional advice on urban development issues for several international organisations (ESCWA, WB, EU, UNDP).

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Has Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad been victorious after he was allowed back into the Arab League in spite of spending over a decade of killing and torturing his citizens?

On 19 May 2023 Syria's leader Bashar Al-Assad arrived in Jeddah for the Arab League summit. It was the first time Damascus attended the summit since being expelled from the league in 2011. Despite hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions displaced, thousands incarcerated, a ruined economy and a country battered and bruised, Riyadh has welcomed Syria back into the fold of Arab Nations. Many see this as a victory for Bashar Al-Assad but are they right? Join us for a conversation with Dr Lina Khatib

Khatib is the Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute and MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies as well as Professor of Practice at the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS University of London. Prior to this, she served as director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House and before that was director of the Carnegie Middle East Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She also co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and was a Senior Associate at the Arab Reform Initiative. She has published several books and is a frequent writer and commentator on current affairs in the Middle East.

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Subhead: As support for the Palestinian cause increases, so too do efforts by the Friends of Israel to quash it, but who are the key factors in the British Zionist movement?

Join us in conversation with Dr Hil Aked as we discuss how Israel's friends in the West are helping maintain its apartheid regime and reverse widening support for the Palestinian cause in Britain.

Dr Aked is a writer and author of '

Friends of Israel: The backlash against Palestine solidarity' which traces the history and changing fortunes of key actors within the British Zionist movement in the context of the Israeli government's contemporary efforts to repress a rising tide of solidarity with Palestinians expressed through the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

An investigative researcher with a background in political sociology, Aked holds a PhD from the University of Bath and an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Aked has conducted research on the ‘Israel lobby’, Islamophobia, neoconservative think tanks and the media, the far right, and civil society activism in the struggle for AIDS treatment in South Africa. Aked's work has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Sky News and Al Jazeera, as well as volumes from Pluto Press and Zed Books/Bloomsbury.

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Can poetry give a voice to the oppressed in Australia and Palestine?

Much like with Palestinians, Australia's First Nation people otherwise known as the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander peoples, have suffered dispossession, violence and colonialism from the European settlers. Pro Palestine and Pro First Nation activism are connected in their fight for justice against settler colonialism. Helping us connect the dots is poet and human rights lawyer Sara Saleh. Join us as we explore how poetry and art enable activism.

Sara Saleh is a writer, human rights lawyer, organiser, and daughter of Lebanese-Palestinian-Egyptian migrants based on Bidjigal land (Sydney, Australia). Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published nationally and internationally in English and Arabic. She is co-editor of the groundbreaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity. Sara made history as the first poet to win both the coveted Peter Porter and Judith Wright Poetry Prizes. Her debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living and poetry collection, The Flirtation of Girls, are both out this year.

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George Washington University recently cleared Sheehi of allegations of anti-Semitism, with the probe once again highlighting that criticism of Israel is being conflated with anti-Semitism

Dr Lara Sheehi was recently cleared of allegations of anti-Semitism brought against her by the notorious anti-Palestinian lobby group StandWithUs. Join us as we discuss concerns over the conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel and its effect on education.

Lara Sheehi, PsyD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University's Professional Psychology Program. She teaches decolonial, liberatory and anti-oppressive theories and approaches to clinical treatment, case conceptualisation and community consultation.

She is the president-elect of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA Division 39), and the chair of the Teachers' Academy of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

She is co-editor of Studies in Gender and Sexuality and co-editor of CounterSpace in Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society.

Lara is on the advisory board to the USA–Palestine Mental Health Network and Psychoanalysis for Pride. She is co-author with Stephen Sheehi of the book, 'Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine' which won the Academic Awards in the 2022 Palestine Book Awards.

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Ebeid and Zawahry's new children's film raises tackles the issues around Palestinian identity when living in the diaspora, especially when faced with its erasure

Join us as we speak to the filmmakers behind 'I am from Palestine', a new animated children's film following the story of Saamidah, a young Palestinian-American girl, as she deals with questions about where she comes from and where Palestine is on a map.

Iman Zawahry and Rifk Ebeid discuss the ups and downs of making a short feature and telling Palestinian stories through film.

Zawahry is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 150 venues worldwide. She’s an Emmy award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, a Lincoln Center Artist Academy Fellow, and Sundance Momentum Fellow and Sundance Universal Fellow. She is also the co-creator of the first American Muslim film grant with Islamic Scholarship Fund where she currently serves as Director of Film Programs. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice and frequently consults and speaks across the nation on the topic of Muslims in Film. Her debut film, Americanish, has won 26 awards, including best director and best film and has been acquired by Sony Pictures.

Ebeid is a Palestinian-American Muslim writer, attorney and pediatric speech language pathologist. She is the author of two children's picture books about Palestine, including 'You Are The Color', and 'Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine', which was nominated for the Palestine Book Awards 2020 and came in highly recommended by our panel of judges. She has a JD from George Mason University, an MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, an MA in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Northern Colorado and a BA in Political Science and Near Eastern Language and Cultures from the University of Florida.

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As Israel continues to restrict Christian access to holy sites and processions during religious holidays, Christians are finding it harder to complete their religious rites in Jerusalem

Israeli occupation forces blocked the route for the Holy Saturday procession through Jerusalem and attacked the Christian worshippers who were taking part. Such events have previously been highlighted as some of the reasons why Christians are leaving the occupied territories. With these attacks on the increase, MEMO speaks to John and Samuel Munayer, Palestinian theologians about the situation of Christians in Jerusalem and what the future holds for them.

John S. Munayer is a Palestinian theologian from Jerusalem who holds degrees from King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, and VU University Amsterdam. John is currently a lecturer at the Bethlehem Bible College and editor of the Journal of Palestinian Christianity. John is also active in several Palestinian Christian initiatives in Palestine.

Samuel S. Munayer is a Palestinian theologian from Jerusalem. After completing a BA in Theology and Philosophy at Durham University, he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Politics at Exeter University under the supervision of Professor Ilan Pappe. Samuel. Samuel has recently co-authored an article with John on Palestinian Liberation Theology titled: Decolonising Palestinian Liberation Theology: New Methods, Sources and Voices.

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Foreign governments are evacuating their staff from Sudan as fighting intensifies, but what options do the Sudanese people have and what prospects are there for peace?

Since 15 April, major clashes have erupted in a number of Sudanese states between the army, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo 'Hemedti'. Hundreds have been killed and wounded, most of whom are civilians. Thousands have fled and the country sits at the precipice of a civil war. Join us as we talk to Ola Ibrahim, a member of the Khartoum Resistance Committee.

The Khartoum Resistance Committee was formed as an informal, grassroots network of Sudanese residents that started organising civil disobedience campaigns against the government of Omar Al-Bashir in 2013 and became part of a major organised network playing a key role during the Sudanese Revolution which ousted him in 2019.

The network gave youth "the momentum and inspiration to be part of the revolution and to own their own fate and future."

Part of the Sudanese Resistance Committees, it's members have been targeted by the RSF and the General Intelligence Service during protests.

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MEMO was in conversation with Hisham Al-Omeisy to discuss the Yemen peace talks currently underway. The Yemeni conflict analyst and consultant is not surprised the Saudis are sitting down for peace talks with the Houthis, but is under no illusions that the talks will resolve the conflict.

Currently based in Washington DC, Al-Omeisy has worked with the UN and other international bodies in Yemen. Hisham has been working to promote a peace process that is bottom-up and puts ordinary Yemenis first, and has discussed this plan with government officials in the UK and elsewhere. Since the start of the conflict, Hisham has been an outspoken critic of both sides. He was arrested by the Houthis in 2017 and detained for five months.

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Lebanon, a failed state: MEMO in conversation with Mohammed Kozbar

Join us for a conversation with Mohammed Kozbar as we discuss the economic and political collapse in Lebanon and what's next in the country's future.

A Lebanese national, Kozbar is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque, one of the most prominent Islamic centres in the UK, and a member of the National Council of MCB. He holds a master's degree in Charity Management at St. Mary’s University.

Kozbar is also a member of the Islington Faiths Forum representing the Muslim Community in North London and was a regular IB Times UK and MEE columnist. He sits at the diversity panel of the ITV London news and is a member of the Police Islington Advisory Group (IAG) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) London Scrutiny and Involvement Panel in hate crimes.

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Join us for a conversation with Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University Kali Rubaii.

Dr Rubaii has studied the environmental and health impacts of the US occupation of Iraq including birth defects, rapid climate change, soil degradation and the outbreak of disease.

We discuss how the US occupation still impacts Iraq's health and environmental sectors with disastrous consequences.

Kali Rubaii is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University. She is currently conducting two research projects: Taking toxicity as an analytic for material politics, she is working with a team of doctors, epidemiologists, and environmental activists to document the links between the epidemic of birth defects in Fallujah and military environmental damage. She is also researching the corporate-military enterprise of concrete production in post-invasion Iraq and how it enforces global regimes of class and citizenship.

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Dr Melis Hafez

Author, Inventing Laziness: The Culture of Productivity in Late Ottoman Society

Is laziness a new phenomenon? MEMO in conversation with Melis Hafez

Join us for a conversation with Dr Melis Hafez on how the concept of laziness and productivity took off in the 19th century Ottoman Empire.

Hafez is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received a PhD in History from UCLA. Her research is focused on the cultural history of the Ottomans during its last century when the empire experienced land losses, social and economic upheavals, wars and violence, along with extensive, transformative reforms. Her book 'Inventing Laziness: The Culture of Productivity in Late Ottoman Society' was published in 2021 and traces the development of a binary between work and laziness during the last century of the Ottoman Empire.

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Join us for a conversation with Executive Director of EuroMed Rights Rasmus Alenius Boserup as we discuss how the EU and European member states have reacted to the far-right Israeli government and how the bloc could act.

Boserup previously worked as senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies focusing on power and politics in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to this, he served as Executive Director of the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo.

He holds a doctoral degree in culture and civilisation from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a PhD in Arabic Studies from the University of Copenhagen.

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Join us for a discussion with Kevin Jones on Iraqi poetry, British colonialisation, national building and resistance.

Kevin Jones is an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the History Department at the University of Georgia. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Michigan in 2013 and served as Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Middle East Studies in 2013-2014 before accepting his current position at the University of Georgia. He has published two articles about Iraqi cultural history and Middle Eastern labor history in Social History. His first book, The Dangers of Poetry: Culture, Politics, and Modernity in Iraq, was published by Stanford University Press in September 2020. The book demonstrates the unique contribution of nationalist and communist poets to the cultural politics of anticolonialism and national liberation in twentieth-century Iraq.

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Join us this International Women's Day as we talk to Bayan Abu Salameh who is working on building and launching Palestine's first satellite and talking about the challenges she has faced and barriers she has broken as a female Palestinian engineer.

A mechanical engineer graduate from Birzeit University, Abu Salameh - who is from a small village near Jenin called Faqua - was awarded the Chevening Scholarship, funded by the British government, to study at Queen Mary University, where she successfully designed and analysed what she hopes will be the first Palestinian cube satellite and named it Palestine_1. She is now completing her postgraduate studies at Imperial College London and undertaking further research on her space project which will study urban growth and water resources in the MENA region.

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Join us in our discussion with Professor Philip Wood on medieval Arab Christian political thought and his book the Imam of the Christians.

Philip Wood is Tejpar Professor of Inter-religious studies at Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. He is also Head of Education for the MA programme in Muslim cultures.

He is a historian of the Middle East, and focuses on the experience of Christians in the early Middle ages (roughly 500-900). His most recent monograph, The Imam of the Christians. The World of Dionysius of Tel-Mahre (750-850) (Princeton, 2021) considers the experience of Christians under the Abbasid caliphate. He is also interested in contemporary discussions of social integration and religious education, and he has recently published an edited volume on theory and method with Leif Stenberg, entitled What is Islamic Studies?: European and North American Approaches to a Contested Field (Edinburgh, 2022).

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Join us for a conversation with Justin Stearns as he tells us about his work on 17th century Morocco, the history of the natural sciences and medicine before colonisation and the state of archives in the Arab World.

Justin Stearns received his BA in English and History from Dartmouth College in 1998, and his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 2007. He is Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research interests focus on the intersection of law, science, and theology in the pre-modern Muslim Middle East. His first book was a comparative intellectual history of Muslim and Christian understanding of contagion, especially in the context of the plague, entitled Infectious Ideas: Contagion in Pre-Modern Islamic and Christian Thought in the Western Mediterranean (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). His book on the social status of the natural sciences in early modern Morocco entitled Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Early Modern Morocco (Cambridge University Press) was published in 2021, andthe first volume of his edition and translation of al-Yusi’s (d. 1102/1691) Discourses appeared with the Library of Arabic Literature in 2020. He is currently working on the second volume of The Discourses and together with a group of students is engaged in a long-term project to establish a searchable database of all catalogued Moroccan manuscripts.

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MEMO spoke to the Executive Director of Muslim Aid Sweden, Mehmet Kaplan, about the relief efforts on the ground in Turkiye following the deadly earthquakes that rocked the country and neighbouring Syria on 6 February 2023

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Join us for a conversation with Hassan Al Kontar, a Syrian refugee who became a Canadian citizen after making headlines around the world in 2018 when he was stranded in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport for seven months. Hassan will discuss his experiences in navigating his unique challenges and provide an insight into the common Syrian refugee experience over a decade on from the start of the Syria war.

Hasan is the author of 'Man@the_Airport: How Social Media Saved My Life—One Syrian's Story'.

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MEMO speaks to Ross Caputi about the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the siege of Fallujah and building an oral history archive made up of Iraqi voices and stories.

Caputi served in the US marine corps and was stationed in Iraq, but grew disillusioned with the war and became an anti-war activist.

He is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of History in the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is also helping to build an archive made up of Iraqi testimonies and memories and is the author of The Sacking of Fallujah: A People's History.

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Sufi movements in Iran:

MEMO speaks to Seema Golestaneh who is an assistant professor at Cornell University in the department of Near East Studies.

We discuss Dr Golestaneh's new book 'Unknowing and the Everyday: Sufism and Knowledge in Iran' which looks at the social and material life of gnosis (ma'arifat) for disparate Sufi communities in Iran. We also discuss the situation of Sufis in Iran today and the politics around different movements.

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In December 2022, the United Nations' general assembly passed a resolution asking the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. MEMO speaks to Hugh Lovatt about whether this is a major milestone and what we can expect from this.

Hugh Lovatt is a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Lovatt has focussed extensively on regional geopolitics and advised European policymakers on the conflicts in Israel-Palestine and Western Sahara. He is regularly interviewed and quoted in international media, including by the New York Times, BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, AFP, Le Monde, France24, and Al Jazeera.

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MEMO talks to Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank Nida Ibrahim about her journey into journalism, covering Palestine and the killing of her colleague Shireen Abu Akleh.

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MEMO caught up with Israeli comedian and activist Noam Shuster Eliassi to discuss the new Israeli government, doing comedy in Arabic, English and Hebrew and going viral on Arabic-language social media.

Born to an Iranian-Jewish mother and Romanian Jewish father and raised in Neve Shalom/Wahat As-Salam or the 'Oasis of Peace', a community in Jerusalem where Jews and Palestinians live together by choice, Noam grew up speaking Arabic. She attended the New York Film Academy, Brandies and Harvard School of Divinity. An activist who has worked in Rwanda and Palestine, Noam was the co-founder of Interpeace. She toured the United States with her own 1-woman comedy show and was the subject of an Al Jazeera documentary.

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MEMO met up with Dr Suja Sawafta to discuss granting Palestinians permission to narrate their history through popular culture and Nexflix's recent offering Farha.

Sawafta is an Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She is currently working on her first book project which examines the impact of exile, intellectual commitment and political dissent in the works of the formative Saudi-Iraqi novelist Abdulrahman Munif. She teaches interdisciplinary content courses on literature and cinema as well as Arabic and French language.

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Christiana Parreira is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her research focuses on the role of local political institutions and actors in governance, looking primarily at post-conflict contexts in the Middle East and North Africa. Her forthcoming book project examines how local governments and elections facilitated predatory state-building practices in Lebanon. In other research, she examines determinants of governance quality and distributive outcomes in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere in the Global South. She received her PhD from Stanford University in 2020. Before joining the Graduate Institute, she served as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and a pre-doctoral associate at the Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative.

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Join us for a conversation with Ayse Zarakol as we discuss her latest book on politics and world order before the rise of the West, the Mongol Empire and how Turkey adjusted to the International political system in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Emmanuel College. Her research is at the intersection of IR and historical sociology, focusing on East-West relations in the international system, history and future of world order(s), conceptualisations of modernity and sovereignty, rising and declining powers, and Turkish politics in a comparative perspective. She is the author of After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West (Cambridge University Press, 2011), which deals with international stigmatisation and the integration of defeated non-Western powers (Turkey after WWI, Japan after WWII and Russia after the Cold War) into the international system, and the editor of the prize winning Hierarchies in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Her articles have appeared in journals such as International Organization, International Theory, International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, among others. Her new book, Before the West: the Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders, which advances an alternative global history of world orders for IR, was published in March 2022 by Cambridge University Press.

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MEMO's conversation with senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an assistant research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary, Dr Shadi Hamid to discuss democracy in the Middle East and the US' policy in the region. Hamid has authored a number of books including The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East and the Rise and Fall of an Idea and Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World which was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize for best book on foreign affairs. Hamid is also a contributing writer at the Atlantic, where he writes a monthly essay on culture and politics. In 2019, he was named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by Prospect magazine.

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MEMO speaks with history instructor and cultural heritage consultant Charles Al Hayek to discuss Lebanese history and culture and the ways he has been working to reconnect citizens to it.

Al Hayek was a resident writer at the Centre of Arts and Humanities, American University of Beirut (AUB) (2020-2021) where he worked on writing and producing a series of short documentaries, Lebanon's centennial: a hundred years of fact and fiction. Al Hayek is currently completing an MA in Arab and Middle Eastern History at the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, AUB.

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MEMO speaks with British Palestinian academic and political activist Dr Azzam Tamimi on the life and legacy of Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi who died at the age of 96 on 26 September 2022. Tamimi is currently the Chairman of Alhiwar TV and is its Editor-in-Chief. He is also the author of Hamas: Unwritten Chapters and Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat Within Islamism.

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MEMO speaks with international human rights lawyer Yasmin Omar as we discuss the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference due to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November and Egypt's human rights obligations.

Yasmin Omar is the UN and Regional Communication Manager at the Geneva-based Committee for Justice. Omar specialises in international law, UN mechanisms and global sanctions. She holds an LLM from Syracuse University College of Law, focusing on international Refugee and Asylum Law and Counterterrorism. Her work is focused on action-oriented legal advocacy towards accountability and utilising UN and other regional legal mechanisms to further protect and promote human rights in the MENA region. She was the former Legal Associate at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and a member of the Steering Committee of the US Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt.

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MEMO speaks with Vice-Chair of the Institute of Race Relations Frances Webber about her new report on racism within the UK citizenship system which has reduced Muslims to 'second-class' status.

Webber is a former barrister who specialised in immigration, refugee and human rights law until her retirement in 2008. She is an honorary vice-president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. She speaks on migration and human rights issues and has written extensively on the subjects.

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MEMO speaks with Giovanni Fassina, Programme Director of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), about the dismissal of Palestinian journalist Farah Maraqa by German newspaper Deutsche Welle (DW) on charges of anti-Semitism and her subsequent legal victory, in the context of a world-wide crackdown on pro-Palestine activism.

As Programme Director, Fassina oversees the legal team and the strategic litigation cases at the ELSC. Previously, he trained as a lawyer in Italy, specialising in cases related to mass torts litigation, Business & Human Rights and civil liability before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. He also worked for many years in the development sector in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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MEMO speaks with political analyst Sami Hamdi about the possibility of Turkish reconciliation with Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and the consequences of such a move.

Hamdi is the managing director of the global risk and intelligence company International Interest. He is a geopolitical risk consultant who advises governments on the geopolitical dynamics of Europe and the MENA region, as well as advising companies on commercial issues and aspects.

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MEMO speaks with British anti-Semitism specialist Antony Lerman about his latest book Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?: Redefinition and the Myth of the 'Collective Jew'.

Lerman is the former founding director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) and has written widely on anti-Semitism, Middle East politics and multiculturalism for such periodicals as the Guardian, London Review of Books, Prospect, the New York Times, the Nation, Haaretz and the Jewish Chronicle.

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MEMO speaks with counterterrorism expert Dr Rizwaan Sabir about the global war on terror, the rise of the security state in execution of that war and its impact on the, mainly Muslim, victims.

Dr Sabir is the author of the recently published book The Suspect: Counterterrorism, Islam and the Security State in which he speaks of his own experiences of wrongful arrest, detention and subsequent surveillance. The academic is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Justice Studies at the UK's Liverpool John Moores University.

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MEMO speaks with the Vice President of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Dr Michael Bueckert to discuss his latest book Advocating for Palestine in Canada.

Bueckert has a PhD in Sociology with a specialisation in Political Economy from Carleton University in Ottawa. His dissertation explored the Canadian opposition to boycott movements, and this research involved travel to Palestine and South Africa. He is co-editor of Advocating for Palestine in Canada (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) and has published in Radical History Review and Studies in Political Economy. He has written for publications including Africa Is A Country, Jacobin, and Briarpatch and his research has been cited by the Washington Post, CBC Ottawa among many others.

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MEMO speaks with prominent British journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne as we discuss his new book 'The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong About Islam'.

Oborne is the former chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph.

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MEMO speaks with Palestinian-Brazilian journalist and writer Eman Abusidu about Palestinians in Latin America and the region's long track record of supporting the Palestinian cause. The discussion will also look at the way in which Palestinians have influenced culture, society and politics in Latin America.

Born and raised in Gaza, Eman Abusidu is a member of the Syndicate of Brazilian Journalists (FENAJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). She has written extensively on the Palestinian community in Brazil and Palestinian-Brazilian relations.

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MEMO speaks with Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, Dr Gregory H Stanton, as we discuss major flashpoints in the world today from India to Ukraine, Israel and China and his thoughts on whether any of these run risks of genocide.

Stanton is the founding president and chairman of Genocide Watch. From 2010 to 2019, he was a research professor in genocide studies and prevention at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. Prior to that, he was the James Farmer Professor in Human Rights at the University of Mary Washington.

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MEMO speaks with Professor Ashok Swain as we discuss what is fueling the rise in ethno-nationalist sentiments and authoritarian governments around the world and the slide in democracy in places like India where Muslim minorities are being targeted by Hindutva extremists.

Swain is a Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. In 2017, he was appointed as the UNESCO Chair on International Water Cooperation and became the first UNESCO Chair of Uppsala University.

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MEMO speaks with award-winning Australian author and activist Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah as we discuss her latest chapter in Prof. Ilan Pappe's and Dr Ramzy Baroud's recently published book 'Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Intellectuals and Leaders Speak Out'.

Dr Abdel-Fattah, who has Palestinian and Egyptian roots, is a postgraduate research fellow at the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University. Her research includes the generational impact of the war on terror on post-9/11 youth. Her debut novel 'Does My Head Look Big in This?' was published in 2005 and she has since published over 11 novels.

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MEMO speaks with Prof. Michael Lynk, the 7th Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories (2016-2022), as we discuss his final report which declared Israel an apartheid state.

The Canadian legal academic is currently an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches labour law, constitutional law and human rights law.

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MEMO speaks with Hebron-based Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro as we discuss his many decades of resisting Israeli Apartheid.

Amro is the co-founder of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements. He has spent many years advocating the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to fight the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. In 2010, he was declared 'human rights defender of the year in Palestine' by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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MEMO speaks with Walaa Quisay on theodicy and popular religious politics in Egypt. Quisay is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester researching non-violent civil disobedience in contemporary Islamic thought. She completed her first book to be published with Edinburgh University Press on Neo-Traditionalism in the West. She received her DPhil from the University of Oxford at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. Her research interests include Muslim political subjectivities, popular political theology, theodicy, spirituality and traditionalism and modernism in contemporary
Islamic thought.

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MEMO speaks with with Scottish-Palestinian actor, singer and writer Amira Al-Shanti about identity and Palestine in the context of her most recent short film 'Said the Dove to the Olive Tree'.

The 12-minute film, created by Amira Al-Shanti and produced by Interbang Productions in 2021, is a piece of digital spoken word which explores the complex feelings and identity of a Palestinian Diaspora in Scotland. It captures the intricate balance between the nostalgic romanticism of a homeland she cannot return to, and the bleak and dangerous reality of the oppression of Palestinians.

Al-Shanti had her West End debut in the world premiere of Rumi at the London Coliseum. She provided Arabic voiceover work in the National Theatre of Scotland's screenplay adaptation of Adam (BBC Scotland) and has a wealth of other theatre work. Previous pieces of her writing have been published by the Herald, including "Letters to JK Rowling" and "Being BROWN GIRL".

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MEMO speaks with national security reporter Murtaza Hussain about Iran, the Middle East and national security in a changing world.

Murtaza Hussain is a reporter at the Intercept who focuses on national security and foreign policy. He has appeared on CNN, BBC, MSNBC and other news outlets.

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MEMO speaks with Eric Maddox and Dalia Shurrab to discuss the Palestine Podcast Academy initiative. The project connects Palestinians across Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank for training in podcast production and an extended mentorship programme.

Eric Maddox is the founder and director of the Palestine Podcast Academy, and host and lead producer of Latitude Adjustment Podcast.

Dalia Shurrab is a Gaza-based entrepreneur and a content marketing expert.

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MEMO speaks with Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh to discuss the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's 14th annual report on Islamophobia.

Ambassador Sheikh is a career diplomat from Pakistan with over two and a half decades of experience. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC (August 2015 – November 2019).

Before joining the embassy in Washington DC, Ambassador Sheikh served as Joint Secretary at the National Security Division, Islamabad where he was primarily engaged in drafting Pakistan's first National Security Policy.

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MEMO speaks with Assistant Professor of History at University of Virginia Chris Gratien to discuss his new book 'The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier', which explores the social and environmental transformation of the Adana region of Southern Turkey during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Gratien teaches classes on global environmental history and the Middle East and is also co-creator of the Ottoman History Podcast, which since 2011 has featured hundreds of scholars specialising in the history of the Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East and the Islamic world.

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MEMO speaks to journalist and author Ramzy Baroud on Palestine after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Baroud is the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle and author of five books; his latest is "Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out". Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC).

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MEMO speaks with French legal jurist and researcher Rayan Freschi to discuss state-sponsored persecution of Muslims in France, the global rise of Islamophobia and how to combat this menace. Freschi is the author of a new report by CAGE on the persecution of Muslims in France.

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MEMO speaks with Dr Suja Sawafta to discuss orientalism and selective solidarity in light of the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Sawafta is an Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She is currently working on her first book project which examines the impact of exile, intellectual commitment, and political dissent in the works of the formative Saudi-Iraqi novelist Abdulrahman Munif. She teaches interdisciplinary content courses on literature and cinema as well as Arabic and French language.

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MEMO speaks to Dr Rob Faure Walker to discuss the crackdown on free speech on Palestine in UK schools and understanding why the country's anti-extremism programme is flawed and racist. Faure Walker is a lecturer at UCL and author of 'The Emergence of ‘Extremism’ Exposing the Violent Discourse and Language of ‘Radicalization’'. He also runs PREVENT digest, an independent not-for-profit organisation that has been gathering evidence on the impact of the UK's counter radicalisation programme.

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MEMO speaks to Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian writer and researcher based in Ramallah, discussing the relevance of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the global order. Barghouti worked as a journalist and reporter with a focus on the Levant, and published various sociopolitical commentaries from Palestine.

She has undertaken monitoring and evaluation missions of humanitarian and development aid in Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon for various governmental and non-governmental organisations. Her reporting and analysis have been featured in Al Jazeera English, the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC and Middle East Eye, amongst others.

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MEMO speaks to Professor of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Osaka Jogakuin University Saul Takahashi, when we will discuss the rise of nationalism and its threat to human rights. A former UN civil servant, Takahashi lived in Palestine for five years as deputy head of the Office of the UN Human Rights Agency. He has authored several books, including 'I found myself in Palestine'.

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MEMO speaks to Iraqi-American comedian and award-winning writer Reem Edan, discussing her career of doing comedy in America and the Arab world and how her background influenced the topics of her performances.

Reem is known for her unique brand of 'Muslim-ennial' humour. She has performed at venues and colleges worldwide and opened for comics including Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno. She was previously invited to attend a programme at MIT for influencers using their platforms for social change, named one of Bustle's '5 Muslim Women Comedians to Get You Through Social Distancing' she can be seen performing in Arabic on the 'Stand Up Sketch Show'. Recently, Reem has worked as a synopsis writer/editor for Netflix and is the comedic voice of Tom & Jerry's Twitter page.

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MEMO speaks with Professor and Director of foreign policy research Murat Yesiltas where we discuss Turkiye's manoeuvres in the region and further afield and how this will improve its global standing.

Author of 'Non-State Military Actors in the Middle East: Geopolitics, Strategy and Ideology', Yesiltas completed his BA and MA at the Department of International Relations of Sakarya University, while his PhD thesis was titled 'Locating Turkey: Geopolitical Mentality and the Army in Turkey'.

Yesiltas is current carrying out research on international security, terrorism, military studies ethnic and religious radicalisation, non-state conflicts, and Kurdish affairs.

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MEMO speaks with Austrian political scientist Dr Farid Hafez to discuss the latest European Islamophobia Report, of which he is a co-editor.

Dr Hafez is a visiting professor of International Studies at Williams College and a non-resident senior researcher at Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative at the School of Foreign Service. Hafez published widely on Islamophobia. In 2010, he founded the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook before he created the European Islamophobia Report in 2015.

Middle East Monitor Conversations: Recent Episodes

Middle East Monitor