Al Jazeera World: Recent Episodes
Al Jazeera
Turkish artist Esref Armagan is one of the few blind commercial painters in the world.
Blind from birth, he learned to draw by touching and copying carved shapes. As he grew older, Armagan adapted techniques which allowed him to add perspective to his work.
A few critics suggested that his art was not his own, a claim refuted by those who witnessed him paint.
Today, Armagan’s artwork is in demand internationally. He also mentors young visually impaired children, demonstrating how they can achieve their artistic dreams.
The story of Mohamed "Med" Hondo, from his humble beginnings in Mauritania, to smuggling himself on board a ship to France, to finding recognition as a modern African cinema director and actor.
Hondo’s films challenged racism in Europe and historic colonialism in Africa. He also found great success dubbing the voices of famous Hollywood actors into French, including Eddie Murphy and Morgan Freeman.
French children recognise Hondo as the voice of Donkey in Shrek. But to a generation of cinema-goers, Hondo was a radical filmmaker who used his creativity as a tool to fight injustice, wherever he saw it.
Morgan and Perry are two young American students looking to expand their horizons through a college placement programme. They left the United States to spend time living with local families in Morocco.
Morgan is in Rabat, hoping to improve her Arabic and learn the local culture. Perry is in a remote mountain village 230km away, staying with a family and their small children.
For both of them, this immersion is a rich and lasting experience, in which they learn the language and culture of Morocco. For one, it becomes life-changing when she falls in love.
Racist slurs, satire, an ancient Islamic "advert" and World Cup football pride are the inspirations for these four song stories from the Arabian Gulf.
In Kuwait, the Haydoo song was born as an expression of pride in the face of unpleasant slurs in the 1981 World Cup; in Oman, a satirical song about a cat and mouse is really about the political situation in the 1970s; an old Qatari phrase, "shoomelah", meaning "rise to him", became the lyrics of the country’s main football anthem; and in Iraq, an ancient poem about the virtues of black veils became what is considered the oldest "advertisement" in Islamic history.
Away from politics and war, this musical mini-tour sheds light and offers insights into a region often poorly represented in the media.
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The minibus service operates even when temperatures drop to minus 35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite the treacherous roads, regular passengers journey to the nearest town, Senkaya. This trip allows a tight-knit group of friends to banter, bond and discuss their challenging lives.
This remote bus service also reveals local environmental change. There has been a reduction in snowfall which used to help keep the soil fertile, but now the frozen-solid ground has become harder to farm, threatening livelihoods here.
In Turkey’s Senkaya Bus, we get an insight into communities, cultures and environmental change in eastern Turkey.
Soly, an Egyptian filmmaker, rescues Layaly, a stray dog in Cairo, with help from a group of animal welfare volunteers before travelling with her to a new home abroad.
However, just hours before the dog is due to face life-saving throat surgery, she escapes into the hills. Soly joins a 10-day search with support from local media and volunteers.
This tale of animal welfare and international rescue concludes in the snows of Canada, where the dog who cheated death embarks on her new life.
Ahmad Abumraighi is an artist with a dream.
He wants to create a striking artwork that connects the suffering of Black Americans, Native Americans and Palestinians.
However, the mural is just one part of his dream. He wants to display it in the open air in the very heart of the American capital, Washington, DC.
It is an ambitious project so Ahmad sets out on a road trip along the East Coast of the United States, seeking inspiration from other artists.
Correspondence between writers can sometimes reveal insights into their characters and ideas, beyond their published work.
In this film, two cross-cultural stories explore unusual connections through the exchange of letters.
The first is a little known link between the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the Grand Mufti of Egypt. Muhammad Abduh was the country’s spiritual leader and one of the most influential Muslim theologians of the early 20th century.
The second story is about the connection between the French surrealist writer André Breton and the Egyptian author, poet and critic Georges Henein. It is a tale of shared artistic vision across continents, but one which eventually led to a falling out between the two men.
“A land without a people, and a people without a land” is how the relationship between Palestine and the Jewish people was described by Christian writers in the 1800s. And the 20th-century history of the Middle East has largely been written through these eyes.
But this film from Al Jazeera Arabic looks at Palestine from a different angle. It hears from historians and witness accounts, and features archive documents that show Palestine as a thriving province of Greater Syria and the Ottoman Empire at the dawn of the 20th century.
The evidence suggests that its cities had a developing trade and commercial sector, growing infrastructure, and embryonic culture that would enable it to meet the challenges of the decades ahead.
However, the political ramifications of the Balfour Declaration, San Remo Conference and British Mandate set in motion a series of events that profoundly affected this vibrant, fledgeling society and led to the events of 1948 and beyond.
This film is the other side of the Palestinian story.
This award-winning documentary from Ivory Coast follows a group of young men who undergo an ancient coming-of-age ceremony in a remote West African forest.
Their spiritual tutor is struggling to preserve the tradition of the Generation Festival at a time when young local men are increasingly indifferent to these ancestral rituals.
Thanks to his efforts, ancient custom prevails and many young men in their early twenties take part in a gruelling three-week endurance test of physical and mental prowess.
Millions of people from the Arab world have migrated or taken refuge in other countries over the decades, to escape war and persecution or for economic, educational and family reasons.
Arabs Abroad meets those who have built successful lives in countries outside the Middle East, focusing not on their journey but on their destination.
This episode meets two women who have overcome great odds to find success in their new lives abroad - one a politician and social activist in Iceland, the other an award-winning Moroccan-Dutch businesswoman who has created a multimillion-dollar business but still finds time to help disadvantaged young people in the Netherlands.
Experienced consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician Dr Zouhair Lahna devotes most of his time to working as a volunteer in general and maternity medicine in places where there is little or no medical care.
In this film, he travels to Syria, Yemen and southern Turkey to perform surgeries, deliver babies and pass on his knowledge and expertise to the next generation of doctors, midwives and nurses.
Lahna’s voluntary work is inspiring as well as appreciated by everyone he meets, as he delivers a powerful, personal message of humanity and hope wherever he goes.
There is a dark underworld of Palestinian crime syndicates operating within Israel.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s Tamer Almisshal examines this rarely reported but growing phenomenon.
He meets victims, gangsters and those attempting to keep a lid on a spiralling trend of lawlessness directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel.
He asks how the organised crime gangs work, who protects them, where they source their weapons, why murder rates are increasing and, importantly, what the Israeli police are doing to protect the Palestinian citizens of Israel?
Some accuse Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye, or worse, colluding with and infiltrating the gangs for political reasons, while Benjamin Netanyahu announced a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat these crimes.
But until little has changed and Palestinian victims add this problem to their already challenging lives in Israel.
Twenty-five years ago, a new era in television news in the Middle East began when Al Jazeera Arabic started broadcasting from its headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Today, its news, current affairs and documentaries are seen and trusted by millions worldwide.
Al Jazeera began broadcasting in Arabic to an audience starved of free and independent news. It shook the Arabic-speaking world, tackling subjects previously thought too controversial or taboo.
The channel’s presence on the ground and its regional knowledge gave it an advantage over rival networks, as it produced bold journalism, reporting both sides of the story and often drawing harsh criticism from governments accustomed to a more compliant media.
In the past 25 years, Al Jazeera has won many awards for its fearless pursuit of the truth in an increasingly authoritarian world, continuing to hold power to account, while at the same time telling the human story - both on-air and online.
This documentary, made to mark the network’s 25th anniversary, tells the story of the Arabic channel's launch through the global events it reported in its first 10 years.
The Pink Lake in Senegal attracts tourists and is a vital local resource, but there are certain environmental issues that could threaten its existence.
Lake Retba, or Lac Rose, near the capital, Dakar, is the only pink lake in Africa. It is a top tourist attraction and the salt dug from its bed also underpins the local economy on which thousands of people in Senegal and West Africa depend.
But it is also right next to the Atlantic Ocean and a strip of constantly moving dunes - so blowing sand can cause siltation and disturb the lake’s ecosystem. Seashell mining also used to disrupt the flow of underground water to the lake and local rainfall has fallen due to climate change.
Some local experts are worried that the lake’s salt may be being overexploited. Although action has been taken to protect it – the government has banned seashell mining and the lake is now given an annual biological rest – there is still a risk that if the environmental situation were to deteriorate, the effects could be quite serious. Continued, unregulated urbanisation of the area, for example, could expose the lake to the nearby sand dunes and prevent rainfall from reaching its waters.
Such ecological changes would affect many people’s lives. Some scientists also believe the lake’s value is not only in its salt - its unusual ecology, they say, might provide valuable insights into the science of climate change.
The Pink Lake has been on UNESCO’s tentative heritage list since 2005, but this has still not materialised. However, if environmental protection is not maintained, significant harm could be done to the lake.
The Samaritans are a tiny ethnic-religious community dating back almost 3,000 years – and they are a population in crisis. But perhaps not for long. Marriage agencies in Ukraine have arranged for more than a dozen women to marry into the Samaritan community in Palestine.
Many Samaritans live in a mountain village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank and face a worrying numbers problem. There are only 800 surviving Samaritans, where once they were counted in their thousands. Men outnumber women by three to one. Their custom is that a young Samaritan man can only marry a woman from within the community if he has a sister who he can offer as a bride in return.
Faced with a fight for survival, a Samaritan religious leader changed the rules to allow Samaritan men to marry women from abroad. While some traditional Samaritans initially resisted the arrival of several Ukrainian brides into this close-knit community, the women are adapting to their new surroundings and providing a population lifeline to this small community.
Family, feuds and the future: the Tormsi family, struggling to make ends meet, reflects on the lack of opportunities in Tunisia today - and the older children especially weigh up their options.
There is little money for the family of six that is heavily dependent on their ageing father and the eldest son. Some hard choices need to be made. The two teenage boys consider whether to complete their education in Tunisia or risk everything by taking an illegal boat trip to Europe. They think they stand a better chance of getting European residency if they land in Europe as minors – but their agonising choice has no certain outcome.
The parents balance the reality of trying to feed their family against the aspirations of the younger generation. They want different opportunities, careers, experiences, and modern consumer goods - all of which are unattainable on a brick labourer’s wage in a struggling economy.
Like many around them, the Tormsi family have largely given up on Tunisian politics and are disillusioned about the near future. The 2011 revolution offered high hopes for the nation, but many people remain poor and this optimism has faded. Despite the difficulties, the family retain a degree of positivity and believe there are many other Tunisians worse off than the
In May 2021, missiles from Israeli jets struck and completely demolished four towers in Gaza – that is a fact. What was not clear was the reason for the attacks. Why were these buildings selected for destruction?
Israel claimed the towers were used by Hamas, whose military wing was launching rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities at the time. Local Palestinians in Gaza, as well as international media and political leaders, disputed this and maintained that the towers housed only businesses, residential apartments and media organisations, including Al Jazeera Media Network and American news agency The Associated Press.
This film charts the story of the attacks - from the 60-minute evacuation warning to the question of the cost of rebuilding - and seeks to establish why these towers were singled out, bombed and destroyed.
While writing is normally a solitary profession, occasionally literary connections between great authors spark fiery, creative tension and sometimes storytelling brilliance.
This film is the tale of two such connections, both in North Africa in the mid-twentieth century.
The first is about the French writer, Jean Genet, and the Moroccan novelist, Mohamed Choukri.
Both were brought up in dysfunctional circumstances, devoid of life’s advantages, but managed to overcome their troubled early lives.
They met in Tangier where both rose to become leading, modern literary figures and lifelong friends.
The second tells the compelling story of the conflicting lives of Nobel laureate Albert Camus and author Kateb Yacine, set against the violent backdrop of the Algerian War of Independence.
Meteorites may be the only truly extra-terrestrial items it is possible to find, buy or own on Earth.
Their rarity has created a global trade, fed by a fascination with these dark rocks from outer space. Most meteorites on the market come from Morocco, where the inky-black rocks are easier to spot in the arid mountain landscape.
Nomads welcome these "gifts from the sky" and sell them to dealers and researchers.
However, the prices obtained by Moroccan nomads in the High Atlas Mountains are a fraction of those in the fashionable rock and crystal shops in Europe.
An action movie with global stars, fast cars and an exotic location is nothing new.
But the politics behind the scenes of The Misfits, a recent high-octane movie release, reveals its own story - one of producer power struggles, money, influence, politics, and an apparent attempt to tarnish the reputation of a country.
Production on the film began while Qatar was under a blockade by four of its Arab neighbours, including the UAE. When a new Abu Dhabi-based producer took over financing The Misfits, the story, location and focus shifted from a Caribbean crime caper to one involving Qatar and a "terror" plot. Then real political events overtook the fiction, so a watered-down version of the movie was hastily made and released - still with some lingering Qatar references.
This investigation explores the lengths taken to try and alter the public perception of Qatar through the production of an adventure movie. It asks: Why was so much money and effort spent on this project? Who was really behind it? And how much damage can a film like this - even in its revised version - inflict?
Four stories: a Sinai Bedouin who lived through the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; a retired Jordanian spy who worked undercover in the occupied West Bank; the granddaughter of the leader of a bid for independence in a small town in Egypt in 1919; and one man’s recollection of the protests in Tunisia on January 17, 1961, sparked by the filming of the Hollywood movie, The Thief of Baghdad.
In this film, we present witnesses' accounts of these historical stories - each told through a unique and subjective perspective by those who witnessed the events first-hand, or who have had the narrative handed down to them orally.
Each storyteller recounts key moments in history, as they saw it, upfront and personally.
Courage, corruption, culture and competition – all major factors in the life and times of the first women’s football team in Somalia and its inspirational young coach, Shaima Sellal. The government gave the go-ahead for a women’s team in 1994, but it did not take off because of the continuing civil war. Football can be a casualty of the conflict in a "failed state".
But when an enthusiastic, 19-year-old player-coach arrived from Kenya in 2015, she kick-started the team and adopted the name the "Golden Girls". The team grew, and it applied to FIFA for funding to go to South Africa to play in a tournament in 2018 – but the local authorities siphoned off the cash. When Shaima questioned them, she received threats and had to flee back to Kenya.
Now Shaima arrives back in Somalia, firing on all cylinders. In this film, she and her players tell their personal stories of having to fight the prejudices of a traditional, conservative Muslim culture and for recognition by their families and society as a whole. But when they get the backing of the Somali National Women’s Organisation, they finally take off to compete in a tournament abroad. They might lose the final but they gain a lot of kudos and self-belief.
"We’re back again," says Shaima. "The Golden Girls are back again."
Between 2006 and 2011, a high-stakes negotiated prisoner exchange took place between Israel and Hamas, the group that governs the Gaza Strip. During that time, the two sides did not have any direct contact, so mediators from Egypt, Germany and Ireland were involved. At stake were the terms of exchange between one captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, and a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
This film goes behind the scenes of that remarkable five-year operation. Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Tamer Almisshal and his team secured access to those at the centre of the complex negotiations, including a rare interview with senior Hamas leader Marwan Issa as well as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
It is a story of deadlines, brinksmanship, intelligence and ultimately of deal-making: in exchange for the release of Shalit, Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. In early 2021, Hamas claimed to hold a further four Israeli prisoners, captured in the 2014 war. While Israel disputed their full claim, it raised the question of whether a new round of prisoner exchange negotiations may be on the cards for these two sworn enemies.
Arabs Abroad: The Designer & the Atomic Scientist profiles two people who have built highly successful, yet quite different, lives in countries beyond their Arab homelands.
The film meets an Iraqi graphic designer living in Germany - a man whose work is seen by millions - and a Palestinian-American atomic scientist whose research with the smallest of particles brings life-changing benefits to people around the world.
Decades after they moved, both remain connected to their roots, each - in their own way - giving something back their region of origin. While stories about migrants and refugees from the Middle East are often simply about their journeys, Arabs Abroad explores what happens after these people arrive at their destination.
Football is hugely popular in Chad but results on the pitch have been disappointing. It has never qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations or the World Cup.
In 2016, the national team was suspended after facing financial problems. That ban was lifted in 2019, the starting point of this film.
Players, coaches, politicians and fans all have conflicting views on how the national football team will find success. The weight of that responsibility now rests on a handful of players, each filled with footballing passion but without the resources they need.
In one of the poorest countries in the world, can the squad find success at last? What will it take to rebuild a team recovering from a ban from the Africa Cup of Nations, largely caused by financial problems? And how will it overcome these economic woes to deliver the wins they need?
Pirate radio: A force for change or a transient subversive movement?
The Voice of Peace and Radio Caroline were pirate radio stations that launched in the 1960s and 1970s, broadcasting from ships anchored outside national territorial waters, in an attempt to challenge the societies around them.
Radio Caroline, moored off the east coast of England, was "The Boat that Rocked" and was hugely popular with young 1960s music fans. Along with other pirate stations of the time, it helped bring about a cultural change in British broadcasting that is still felt today.
The Voice of Peace, based in the eastern Mediterranean, expressed an alternative, pacifist, political viewpoint outside of 1970s Israeli mainstream politics.
This documentary intercuts the stories of these two stations, through a mix of archive, presenter anecdotes, journalistic analysis and historical context. In so doing, it sheds light on both 1960s European pop culture and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Music offers insights into the songwriter, the performers, the audience and their cultures. In this film, we delve into the stories of four songs from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Sudan.
From Morocco comes an expression of mourning and loss - Younes Megri is a renowned regional name whose most famous song was picked up by a western pop group. The Algerian song is from the legendary Hamid Cheriet, aka ‘Idir’, who sang in the Amazigh language and achieved a global fan base. The patriotic Tunisian anthem was written by Mohamed Jamoussi, who was close to the country’s first Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba. And from Sudan is a people's song about heroism that dates back to a major flood on the Nile in 1946. All are part of the long North African tradition of songwriting and performance.
We speak with a range of musicians, historians and commentators who explain these songs' fascinating contexts and histories.
A Palestinian boy who was rescued from danger in 1967 grew up to become a major global figure in the Red Crescent and Red Cross, while a Jordanian woman who struggled to get into American medical schools now leads cutting-edge research into rheumatic treatments.
Dr Hossam Elsharkawi was rescued from Gaza during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; decades later, he has been responsible for rescuing thousands of people from war zones. Jordanian Dr Nadera Sweiss is now also a highly regarded physician based in Chicago. Both doctors not only achieved their goals but have also selflessly improved the lives of thousands of patients and those suffering in conflicts and crises around the world.
We follow both their stories in the latest episode of Arabs Abroad, a series about men and women who have left the Middle East to lead successful careers in other countries.
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"Less is more," so the saying goes.
While many people aspire to earn more, buy more and own more, some are challenging material values and looking to seriously declutter their lives.
The "simple living" movement, also known as minimalism, is about being satisfied with what you have rather than constantly craving more.
In this documentary, a social media consultant in Istanbul persuades his family to follow him on a quest for a less materialistic lifestyle. They visit a self-sufficient rural commune and meet others who have already rejected consumer values - including a former automotive engineer who gave up all his credit cards and an architect-turned-shepherd in the Anatolia Mountains.
As the global pandemic forces us all to adjust to a "life on hold", this film taps into the zeitgeist and asks if we really need so much stuff.
Volcanic eruptions, large-scale destruction, seismic movements and emergency evacuation - are all constant threats to the three million people who live near the world's most dangerous active volcano, Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, Italy.
The 800,000 who live in the "red zone" in the immediate vicinity of the volcano are at even greater risk.
Mount Vesuvius has not erupted since 1944, but many volcanologists say a new explosion is due.
In this documentary, we meet local people who, far from living in fear, embrace life in the red zone and would not live anywhere else. While some are understandably nervous, farmers and gardeners love the rich soil and the quality produce, while winemakers make a good living. Others are so attached to the volcano that they miss it when they go away, and a supportive community has formed in the high-risk area.
This film reveals the human side of volcanic seismology and captures the contradictions and complexities of living in the shadow of what some locals call "a monster".
Cafés and thickly brewed Arabic coffee have often been at the heart of literary, artistic and political change in the Arab world practically from the beginning.
Arab cafés are meeting places, watering holes, smoking dens, board game venues, hubs of conversation, political chatrooms - or simply somewhere to pass the time.
Some attract business people, others attract journalists, traders, actors or artists - but each has its own character and feel.
This programme visits iconic cafés in four major Arab cities - Marrakesh, Cairo, Algiers and Hebron - and listens to the stories of the wide array of customers that frequent them.
Ismael El Ouali is a barber and fan of Moroccan film star Rachid El Ouali, no relation. Ismael not only adopted his hero’s name but also made it his mission to go and meet him.
Palestinians Mahmoud Afana and Mohammed Qassim are childhood friends who performed in school plays and now run a sweets shop to subsidise their passion for filmmaking.
Youssef Benkaddour is a security guard so in love with Bollywood that he watches at least three films a day.
Azizz Oubiye was a clerk and actor in 2013 when his young son, Yazid, was diagnosed with leukaemia. The boy suggested his dad should make a film and so My Bird in Heaven is the touching story of the life and death of his young child.
These five characters would all like to make it in the filmmaking world - but equally important is their desire to repay the faith others have shown in them. They all share a hope that any modest rewards they gain might be just around the corner, inshallah.
When Spanish director Paula Palacios embarks on a road trip across Spain to uncover her roots, she discovers her own Muslim past and a very different version of history to the one she learned at school. Her journey pieces together a centuries-old jigsaw and the largely untold story of Christian Spaniards of Muslim origin.
In 1502, shortly after the fall of the last Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula, Muslims in Spain faced a stark choice: convert to Christianity or be exiled to northwest Africa. Those who stayed formed a new social class, Christians of Muslim origin, known as the Moriscos. In 1609, however, a royal decree demanded that the Moriscos be expelled completely.
Palacios' trip takes her across Spain where she talks to archaeologists, historians, architects and anthropologists, as well as descendants of the Moriscos. She discovers solid clues that suggest that thousands of Moriscos had indeed remained in Spain, backed up by modern historians who contend that many had lived quietly under the radar. She also gathers compelling circumstantial evidence that her own family are direct descendants of the Moriscos.
Palacios' story is an informative modern-day odyssey with deep historical roots which casts a surprising light on ancient history.
In mid-2020, a mobile phone belonging to an Al Jazeera Arabic investigative team was hacked. Over the next few months, reporter Tamer Almisshal and the Canadian research group Citizen Lab investigated Pegasus, the sophisticated spyware used.
Pegasus is manufactured by an Israeli technology company called the NSO Group and is among the most advanced spyware in the world. It can access and infiltrate a smartphone without the owner clicking a link, opening an email or even answering their phone - meaning it can go undetected.
This investigation exposes how Pegasus works, how governments like Saudi Arabia and the UAE have bought the hugely expensive spyware and how it has been used beyond the stated intentions of the NSO Group of “developing technology to prevent and investigate terror and crime” - including to target journalists.
In European cities, young people of Arab descent often see themselves as socially, economically and culturally excluded from their immediate environment. In some cases, they are also vulnerable to radicalisation.
In Belgium, the densely populated Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is home to 100,000 residents, many of them first and second-generation immigrants. It gained notoriety in 2015 as the home of some of the Bataclan attackers in Paris. In Sweden, Muslims in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby say that authorities have abandoned them, leaving them vulnerable to far-right racist attacks, while police dismiss suggestions that they have failed to protect immigrants. And in Denmark, in the Copenhagen suburb of Norrebro, communities speak of a social hierarchy that places Danes at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and Arabs at the bottom.
In The Other Face Of Europe, we visit these three cities to get an insight into the issues and to hear directly from those living with it every day: radicalised young people, criminal gang members, fighters returning from Syria and their families, as well as politicians, experts, psychologists, social workers and security officers. What is at the root of youth radicalisation in these communities? And how do significant influences at play - such as right-wing anti-immigrant politics, negative media coverage and social deprivation in the poor suburbs of relatively prosperous cities - deepen these tensions?
Samir Kassir, a Lebanese journalist, academic and political activist, paid the ultimate price for his work when he was killed by a car bomb outside his Beirut home in 2005.
While accusations, speculation and denials followed his death, it was clear that Kassir's critical voice had drawn the ire of big power players in Lebanon. This documentary tells the story of the infamous murder while also exposing some of the politics that define Lebanon, both then and now.
Lebanon saw a particularly bloody year in 2005. On February 14, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an opponent of Syria’s 30-year presence in Lebanon, was assassinated in a car bomb in Beirut. His death triggered huge public protest, which led to Syria withdrawing all its troops in April 2005. Among the many who were outraged at the assassination was Kassir.
Just months later, after a regular phone call with a French reporter, Kassir got into his car to go about his work. Seconds after he started the engine of his silver Alfa Romeo, explosives detonated. He was killed instantly.
Nobody has ever been charged or convicted for Kassir’s murder. Rumours and speculation are plentiful but hard facts are in short supply.
We are what we eat.
In this film, we embark on a culinary journey and dig into the hidden history of four favourite foods - from Andalusia to the Levant. Travelling through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, we seek out their true origins and discover what they tell us about the cultures that created them.
Paella dates back to the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain - from 661 to 750 CE - and derives its name from the Arabic word "ba-iya" meaning "leftovers". While the rulers enjoyed the finest seafood banquets, the servants took whatever remained, mixed it with rice in a large metal pan and shared it around the town.
Zgougou assidat is a 19th-century Tunisian dessert created during a time of famine.
Jordan’s national dish Mansaf, meaning "large platter", has its roots in Bedouin culture.
Fattoush is a well-known salad made with toasted Arabic flatbread, tomatoes and radishes, claimed by the Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. But its likely origins can be traced to a single family in one place: Zahle in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
In October 1973, Israel and Egypt were on the brink of war. Egypt wanted to regain territory in Sinai lost in 1967 and thought that surprise might give them the edge. But somehow, Israel knew an attack was imminent. Egyptian businessman Ashraf Marwan was already feeding Israel valuable intelligence. He told the Israelis when Egypt would attack: at sunset on October 6, the Jewish Day of Atonement. As it happened, he was off by a few hours. Egypt did take Israel by surprise in what became a 19-day war that saw Sinai regained, along with a large amount of national pride. What part did Ashraf Marwan really play in this Arab-Israeli drama? Was he a spy, a double agent - or just an untrustworthy opportunist? And why did he die in mysterious circumstances in London 34 years later?
Ashraf Marwan was well connected and married to the daughter of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was reported to have amassed his fortune brokering arms deals and is described as a diplomat, businessman, government minister, adviser and spy. He was thought to have originally offered his services to the Israeli embassy in London in 1970. Then, after a series of secret meetings and phone calls involving pre-arranged code words, came his alleged tip-off to the Israelis before the October War.
Double agent or not, Marwan’s complicated life came to an end on a summer afternoon in June 2007 when his body was found in the rose garden of the London apartment block where he lived. His death remains a mystery and his wife and two sons are still seeking answers. This documentary shares his story.
The political sands are shifting in the Middle East. New alliances are being formed that until recently would have been unimaginable. But as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and, potentially, Sudan forge closer relationships with Israel, where does this leave the Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza? How is Hamas - the elected government of Gaza - and its paramilitary wing, the Qassam Brigades, adjusting to the new regional political climate? In this film, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Tamer Almisshal meets Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniya and discovers dramatic and surprising military preparations that may seriously concern Israel and its allies.
Today, the Gaza Strip is blockaded by the two countries bordering Gaza, Israel and Egypt, but it somehow continues to obtain rocket technology, some of it homemade, some smuggled in. Tamer Almisshal has obtained video of rockets being manufactured in Gaza. Iran is cited as a likely supplier but the source of some of this weaponry is unexpected. While clearing damage from the 2014 Gaza War, the Qassam Brigades came across unexploded Israeli missiles and say they have repurposed them into a source of arms. Hamas explains how another arms supply was sourced by a specialist unit of Palestinian divers, who were tasked with searching the seabed for weaponry and who claim to have recovered projectiles from the hold of century-old sunken ships.
This is the story of a much-loved Palestinian singer-songwriter whose life encompasses creativity, artistic success, political activism and personal tragedy.
Rim Banna was born into a creative family in Nazareth in 1966. Her mother was the Palestinian poet Zouhaira Sabbagh and she was raised listening to famous artists like Fairuz. At 16, she was deeply affected by the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, something that would later heavily influence her music. She studied at a conservatory in Moscow and her own compositions often put Palestinian poems, including her mother’s, to music.
Banna began her career recording Palestinian children’s songs, but her powerful and emotional music ultimately reached an international audience. In 2003, she sang on the Lullabies from the Axis of Evil album, through which female singers from the Middle East, Norway, North Korea, Cuba and Afghanistan sent an anti-war message to a world embroiled in the Iraq War.
Banna’s music is poetic and emotional; her political message uncompromising. She often performed in colourful embroidered gowns and her songs focused on Palestinian suffering, especially in the West Bank.
She was a genuine artistic talent, but her life was tragically cut short. In 2009, Banna was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a nine-year battle with a terminal illness, she died on March 24, 2018. Thousands attended her funeral in Nazareth where she was born 51 years before.
The Swedish city of Malmo, positioned at the eastern end of the Oresund Bridge with Denmark, and the Austrian town of Nickelsdorf, located near the borders of Hungary and Slovakia, have been on the route for refugees fleeing conflict and hardship for years.
In this film, we follow the stories of people who have left their native countries, each for different reasons, to build a new life in Western Europe.
Imad Tamimi teaches Swedish as a foreign language at an institute in Malmo. He left Nablus for Sweden nearly 10 years ago, and although his application for asylum was initially denied, he was determined to settle there. His big break came in 2018 when he covered for an absent language teacher and was hired full-time, enabling him to get Swedish residency.
By contrast, Moataz Kanaan, a Palestinian raised in Libya, is now homeless in Malmo. He fled Libya's revolution in a small raft from Benghazi, was rescued and sent to Sardinia, and then headed north to Scandinavia, only to have his asylum application rejected.
Meanwhile in Nickelsdorf, a town with fewer than 2,000 people, Ismael Saleh works as a barman for a local Austrian. Saleh was a geology student in Syria who escaped to Turkey in 2014 before travelling to Western Europe.
No two journeys of migration are the same. In this film, we follow four people who left their native countries, each for different reasons, to build new lives in Spain.
Mae Azango is a journalist who fled Liberia in 2006 but eventually returned home six years later. A teenager in the Liberian Civil War of the 1990s, she was eight months pregnant when her father was beaten to death. Since returning, she has written in vehement opposition to female genital mutilation. While editors initially ignored her work, her persistence has now attracted several international awards.
In 2016, journalist Milthon Robles fled his native Honduras where dozens of reporters have been killed covering the widespread gang violence. “They kidnapped me and tried to kill me several times,” he says, “specifically for my work as an investigative journalist.” He and his wife sought refuge in Spain, where he has received support from a global network that helps writers-in-exile.
David Laurent is an actor from Cameroon who has lived in Spain for the past six years. He arrived after a perilous dinghy journey from Morocco that he still finds hard to talk about. Today in Barcelona, David works with Theatre Without Papers, performing original plays with an African influence.
Hamid Karim is an established Algerian actor who has lived in Spain for 30 years. He loves his work and shares his passion for drama with a new generation – but is frustrated by being constantly typecast as a terrorist.
Beyond their individual journeys, all four have a common desire to give something back to their communities, by mentoring young people and trying to inspire others along the way.
There are many heroes and heroines of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, but among the celebrated names of Mandela, Sisulu, Tutu and Biko is one less familiar - Abdullah Haron.
This Muslim leader from Cape Town led a quiet but significant defiance against racist government policies in the 1960s. He was especially politicised by the infamous massacre of 69 Black African protesters at Sharpeville in 1960.
His anti-apartheid activities took him around the world and he established close ties with renowned anti-apartheid figure Canon John Collins, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
His work in defiance of apartheid also put him in great danger. He was detained without charge and tortured when he returned to Cape Town. He died while in police custody in 1969 under still-unexplained circumstances; claims by police that he "fell down stairs" - a stock explanation at the time for deaths of political prisoners in police detention - are today countered with overwhelming evidence of his death at the hands of security police.
In this film, Haron's family and others relay the story of the man who became known as "the imam who fought apartheid".
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled conflict, poverty and human rights abuses at home, arriving on the shores of the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Despite the difficulties they face, many have built successful new lives.
Now in Italy, Olumide Bobola fled Nigeria over fears for his safety in 2016. He crossed the Sahara, surviving for three days on nothing but glucose drops, and after a perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing, arrived in Sicily. Today he is a singer in Rome, performing a repertoire of Italian songs. He was "adopted" by established traditional Italian musician, Stefano Saletti, and the two now share musical influences and the same creative musical journey.
"I call Italy my house," says Bobola, "but Nigeria is my home."
Nosakhare Ekhator, also from Nigeria, fell into the hands of people traffickers in Libya where he was held in a room with 120 others. One in five of those detainees perished. Now also in Rome, the young clothing designer has learned Italian and staged his first fashion show in the shadow of the famous Colosseum.
In the Netherlands, singer Samira Dainan was born in Amsterdam to a Moroccan father and a Dutch mother. After her father's sudden death, she chose to take his remains back to Morocco for a large family funeral. She now believes that sharing grief in her home country gave her the support she needed to carry on living in the Netherlands.
Journalist Linda Bilal grew up in Aleppo, Syria where she reported extensively on the Syrian conflict. She arrived in the Netherlands in 2015 and now writes for news outlets and is a regular Amnesty International magazine columnist.
The challenge for each of them has been how to integrate into a new home, while at the same time staying in touch with their roots, culture and religion.
What do you do if your bank account suddenly gets closed and you and your business can no longer function - and you have no idea why?
You discover it is because you are on a database that you did not even know existed, saying that you have links with "terrorism" and therefore few banks will deal with you.
This happened to two organisations in London which were listed on a database used by the banking system to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
They both resorted to legal action, their cases were settled out of court and they were paid damages - but they still suffered disruption and reputational damage.
This film examines these databases - how they gather information, how it is used and what human impact they can have.
What do you do if your bank account suddenly gets closed and you and your business can no longer function - and you have no idea why?
You discover it is because you are on a database that you did not even know existed, saying that you have links with "terrorism" and therefore few banks will deal with you.
This happened to two organisations in London which were listed on a database used by the banking system to combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
They both resorted to legal action, their cases were settled out of court and they were paid damages - but they still suffered disruption and reputational damage.
This film examines these databases - how they gather information, how it is used and what human impact they can have.
In one of the most audacious individual espionage operations ever, Eli Cohen, an Egyptian-born Jewish accounting clerk, was recruited by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, trained intensively as a field agent for six months and given a new identity as an Arab businessman in South America.
In 1962, he was deployed as a spy to Damascus where he successfully ingratiated himself in the higher echelons of Syrian society.
He fed intelligence to Mossad for three years and is credited by some for enabling the Israeli military to take the Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Cohen was eventually found out, however, and publicly executed in 1965.
In this documentary, a Syrian politician and writer discusses the events that led to the arrest, trial and death sentence of Mossad Agent 88.
This is a story of a financial scandal, of fortunes won and lost and political collusion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that goes right to the heart of Emirati business and politics.
At the centre of it is a self-made Indian billionaire - Dr BR Shetty.
As founder of New Medical Centre Health (NMC), Shetty built relationships with the UAE's all-powerful sheikhs that appeared to open doors. Business was booming and, in 2012, NMC was the first Abu Dhabi company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) raised $186m and raised NMC's market value to more than $8bn.
The first rumblings of financial trouble, however, came in December 2019 when an American investment firm published a damning report on NMC's finances. NMC's shares plummeted by 48 percent, wiping $1.5bn off the Shetty family fortune.
In April 2020, NMC Health went into administration in the United Kingdom for insolvency. Later that month, the UAE Central Bank ordered the seizure of all of Shetty and his family's assets and Shetty left the country. He now sees himself as the victim, claiming alleged fraud and misconduct within NMC - and has promised to clear his name and restore his business reputation.
From Cairo's narrow downtown streets and alleys to the affluent residential areas in the outer reaches of the city, nothing escapes the attention of the ever-vigilant doormen.
Sitting at the entrances of apartment blocks in Cairo and Alexandria - and often mindful of the chance to make a quick buck - the "bawabs" have been an integral part of the social fabric of Egypt's big cities for decades.
This Al Jazeera World documentary celebrates the men, their history, their job and their influence.
Of course, the bawabs are often much more than doormen. They are the all-seeing eyes and ears of the buildings they live and work in, observers of residents' "moral practices", as well as plumbers, electricians, security guards and keepers of personal secrets.
But today's doormen are disappearing. As a new wave of construction takes place in Cairo, Egyptian society is undergoing profound change. Many of today's doormen have become security guards, with smart blue uniforms replacing traditional galabeyas in what many see as the sad loss of a unique social group from Egypt's 20th century.
In July 1995, an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys - sons, husbands and brothers - were dragged away never to be seen again.
The Srebrenica massacre marks a particularly inhumane and brutal act within the tragedy and bloodshed of the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War.
This film follows four survivors of the massacre as they look to the future despite the pain of their loss and the angst of trying to make sense of the past.
*This film, first broadcast in 2012, was updated in July 2020, 25 years after the Srebrenica genocide.
Stretching from Mozambique in south-east Africa to Syria in the Middle East, the Great Rift Valley is home to the world's lowest city, Jericho, which was established over 10,000 years ago.
Farmers and shepherds have tended flocks and lived off the land in the Jordan Valley for thousands of years. But Israel's continued occupation of the region since 1967 is threatening people's traditional way of life, restricting Palestinian development on the land - and Bedouin homes in the area have repeatedly been razed.
Some 56,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank, many of who are Bedouin living in temporary communities, always moving with the herds.
Their determination to remain on the land is becoming ever more difficult in the face of constant attempts by the Israeli military and settlers to drive them off their land.
With water resources and agricultural potential, the valley would be the breadbasket and water source of any future Palestinian state.
The Jordan Valley has some of the most fertile land in all of the occupied territories. Arable farming is a lifeline for many rural Palestinian communities, yet Israel controls most water resources in the area.
While making life difficult for local communities, Israel has also encouraged the spread of settlements - regarded illegal under international law - across the occupied West Bank for over five decades. The number of Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley has nearly doubled from 2011 to 2018.
Israeli settlers already use the vast majority of the area's water resources and an increased influx would further threaten the living conditions of Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley, limiting their opportunities for economic growth and pushing the people living there into greater poverty.
"The Israeli policy is to drive us away, not to aid our survival here," says Abu Saqr, one of the Jordan Valley residents struggling to stay on in the face of Israeli policies of home demolitions and arrest. His home has been destroyed three times.
Between 2011 and 2018, 458 housing units were demolished by the Israeli Army in the Jordan Valley districts of Tubas and Jericho.
During that same period, three of Abu Saqr's eight sons and Abu Saqr himself spent time in Israeli prisons. Since then, Israel's policy on settlements has also hardened and in 2018, it announced plans to expand 14 of the 20 existing illegal settlements and build three new ones, effectively doubling the Israeli settler population.
Local campaigners like Sirene Khudairi, have consistently protested against Israel's human rights violations in the Jordan Valley; and her activities led to her detention for nine months. "I get so upset when I see this well nearly empty and the settlement draining our water to turn their areas into a Garden of Eden," says Sirene, during one of her visits to Abu Saqr. Since this film was originally made in 2011, Sirene has got married and moved to Bethlehem to start a family.
Those like Abu Saqr and Sirene are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There's Israel on one hand, and the Palestinian Authority - whom they constantly have to pressure to support their cause – on the other.
The PA does its best to protect Palestinian farming communities in the valley and considers itself the last line of defence for any future, self-sufficient Palestinian state. But unfortunately, the Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C (under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords), which falls under full Israeli military control.
This film documents the struggle of Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley as they try to cling on to an age-old way of life.
After Yugoslavia fell apart in the early 1990s and descended into a bitter regional conflict, Alija Izetbegovic fought for the survival of his country and people.
The first president of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Izetbegovic was no stranger to controversy and had served five years of a 14-year prison sentence in the 1980s.
This two-part documentary series uses interviews with members of his family and major regional figures as well as archive footage and reconstruction to tell the chequered history of this part of the Balkans through Izetbegovic's eyes.
After Yugoslavia fell apart in the early 1990s and descended into a bitter regional conflict, Alija Izetbegovic fought for the survival of his country and people.
The first president of the independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Izetbegovic was no stranger to controversy and had served five years of a 14-year prison sentence in the 1980s.
This two-part documentary series uses interviews with members of his family and major regional figures as well as archive footage and reconstruction to tell the chequered history of this part of the Balkans through Izetbegovic's eyes.
Just how free are women in Saudi Arabia today? The Saudi government has said it supports the empowerment of women and young people. While there have been reforms, including lifting the ban on women driving in June 2018, the arrest and detention of women speaking out against the government appear to have continued.
Al Jazeera World looks at the individual cases of five Saudi women currently in detention, or who have fled the country following apparent harassment for their political views. It asks whether Saudi Arabia is publicly championing the rights of women while privately punishing those who challenge the status quo.
In this film, the family of one detainee makes serious allegations of torture during her imprisonment, while others give testimonies about random arrests and arbitrary detention at Dhahban prison near Jeddah. According to Human Rights Watch, and following international pressure, the Saudi Human Rights Commission carried out an investigation into conditions at Dhahban and found no evidence of torture.
This film examines the consequences of activism in Saudi Arabia, hearing from women detainees and international human rights organisations, as well as seeking responses from those at the heart of decision-making within the country.
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Asked to pick a country where people are passionate about Indian cinema, few might choose the North African Kingdom of Morocco. Bollywood came to the country in the 1950s, where it was embraced for its glamour, dance, romance and pure escapism.
There is no obvious explanation for the connection, although it may have started when Ibrahim al-Sayeh began dubbing films - including Indian cinema - into the local Arabic dialect, Darija.
Now, the most devoted fans have decorated their homes with Bollywood paraphernalia and perform Hindi songs at themed events - and there is sometimes an Indian section at the annual Marrakech International Film Festival attended by well-known actors and directors.
Others have gone even further, like Imane Karouach who left Morocco for India when she was 16. She has worked hard to become a jobbing Bollywood actress and, although not a mega-star, she has had several high-profile roles; she also runs a pizzeria in Mumbai.
This quirky documentary, filled with a wide variety of characters, voices and movie clips, is a fascinating snapshot of a world few outside Morocco knew existed. It also includes a contribution from legendary Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor who passed away in April 2020.
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