The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel. For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities have barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and, as of June 17, have killed 185 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including at least 17 who were targeted for their work.

CPJ has documented at least eight separate incidents on June 14 and 15 involving the harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, and, in some cases, forced removal by Israeli police, of at least 14 journalists. Most of the journalists work for Arabic-language outlets and were reporting from sites impacted by Iranian or Israeli strikes. Despite their press credentials and lawful access, journalists were repeatedly blocked from entering sites, assaulted by civilians, and in several cases expelled from reporting sites by police or border guard forces.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling pattern of targeting Palestinian journalists working inside Israel. On June 14 and June 15, at least 14 journalists were obstructed, incited against, or physically assaulted for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israeli authorities must immediately investigate these violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and stop treating Palestinian journalists covering the war as threats.”

Physical attacks:

On June 14, police in Rishon LeZion prevented Sameer Abdel Hadi, a correspondent for Turkish news agency Anadolu, and Arej Hakroush, a correspondent for privately owned, London-based online news channel Al-Ghad TV, from returning to reporting sites they had legally entered and confiscated their equipment. Before police forcibly expelled them from the street where they were broadcasting, unidentified individuals called Hakroush and her camera operator, Alaa Al-Heeh, racial slurs and physically attacked them while police refused to intervene, according to Abdel Hadi and Hakroush, who spoke with CPJ. The individuals beat the journalists with their equipment and pulled Hakroush by the hair.

On June 15, in Bat Yam, Al-Ghad TV correspondent Razi Tattour and camera operator Eyad Abu Shalbak were pushed and harassed by border police officers after speaking Arabic at the site of a rocket strike. The officers forcibly cut their live transmission, confiscated their camera, and accused them of being “terrorists,” Tattour told CPJ. The camera was later returned, and Tattour filed a police complaint.

Separately that day in Bat Yam, journalists Marwan Othmanah and Mohamed Al-Sharif of Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya were targeted by a group of unidentified individuals, who shouted, “Get out Arabs!” and threw objects at them, injuring Othmanah in the thigh. Police did not make any arrests or protect the journalists, Othmanah told CPJ.

Incitement and threats on social media:

On June 15, in Haifa, several journalists — including Abdel Hadi of Turkish-based Anadolu; freelancers Ward Qarara and Kareen Al-Bash; reporters Saeed Khair El-Din, Israa Al-Zeer, and Abd Khader of Al-Arabiya; and Ahmed Jaradat, a reporter for independent regional broadcaster Al-Araby TV — were filming a segment on the aftermath of rocket strikes when unidentified individuals began filming them and circulating their images in posts in Israeli social media groups, accusing all them of working for “the enemy,” according to Qarara and CPJ’s review of those posts. Police were present at the scene but did not intervene or offer protection to the journalists, he told CPJ.

Censorship:

On June 14, the Israeli military censor instructed local and international media not to publish details about rocket strikes or internal security. A Fox News reporter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said they were banned from entering a reporting site after they were accused of violating the instructions.

Additionally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that he had asked Israel’s General Security Services, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate foreign media broadcasters over claims they were “giving information to the enemy.”

CPJ emailed the Israeli Defense Forces’ North America Media Deskto ask about these actions against journalists but did not immediately receive a response.

Editor’s note: The fifth paragraph was updated to include the equipment confiscation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program.

Starvation, dizziness, brain fog, and sickness all directly affect the daily reports produced by Gaza’s dismantled, exhausted press corps, most of whom are already living and working in tents, amid indiscriminate bombing, and often without electricity or internet access.

While what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterrez described as a “teaspoon of aid” has trickled in to southern and central Gaza since May 19, the strip’s entire population of 2.1 million people remain acutely food insecure, with the prospect of famine looming amid an intense military offensive.

“Due to hunger, I lose focus and forget information during my live TV reports. On two occasions, I collapsed after finishing a report, and it turned out I had food poisoning,” Saleh Al-Natoor, Gaza correspondent for Al Araby TV, told CPJ from southern Khan Yunis, where he fled with his family to escape bombing in Gaza City in October 2023.

“We suffer from continuous hunger attacks, extreme fatigue, loss of balance, and an inability to think or perform any tasks. Sometimes I am too exhausted to search for food in the nearby street markets,” he said.

Assault on press freedom

The tiny, densely populated Gaza Strip was heavily reliant on food imports before October 7, 2023, with more than 500 trucks entering each day. Last year, journalists told CPJ they were on near-starvation rations, drinking unclean water, and foraging for scraps. CPJ has repeatedly called on the international community to urgently pressure Israel to allow food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, protect journalists, and lift the ban on media access.

Despite the images of emaciated babies on Western news channels following Israel’s March 2 blockade, international pressure has only produced what one U.N. spokesperson described as “a token that appears more like cynical optics than any real attempt to tackle the soaring hunger crisis.”

“What we are witnessing is not only a humanitarian catastrophe, but a direct, unprecedented assault on press freedom, while the world watches,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Journalists cannot carry out their work — let alone survive — while being deliberately starved and denied life-saving aid. Israel must allow humanitarians, international media, and human rights investigators into Gaza at once.”

Firsthand testimonies from journalists in Gaza offer some insight into the daily horrors that millions of Palestinians are living through.

“It feels as though your stomach walls are collapsing into each other, and you taste bitterness in your throat, as if the digestive fluids have reached your mouth,” Al-Natoor wrote on Facebook, detailing what it feels like to experience a “hunger attack.”

“A sharp headache strikes the top of your head or a sense of emptiness surrounds your brain. When you try to stand, you feel dizzy and off-balance. You quickly try to support yourself on something and close your eyes for a while, hoping the blood will return to your brain.

“Our bodies have started to digest themselves, muscle mass is vanishing, and we suffer from extreme emaciation. Hunger is not just a metaphor —  it is truly a murder weapon we face every hour,” he posted.

Canned food, exorbitant prices

The journalists who spoke to CPJ said their diet was mainly tinned goods, sometimes supplemented with sporadic supplies of foul-smelling flour, and occasional rotting vegetables. Even these minimal supplies have become increasingly scarce and unaffordable due to an exorbitant increase in prices.

“We rely solely on canned food from aid packages — beans, cheese, processed meats that lack sufficient nutritional value. They merely help us break our hunger — not more,” Al-Natoor told CPJ. 

“Even simple necessities, including canned goods, have become unavailable,” said Akram Dalloul, a correspondent for the Lebanon-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, whose weight has fallen from 95 to under 80 kilograms during the war.

“We are talking about a reality that is difficult to describe in words. Often, we cannot stand on our feet because there is no milk or eggs,” said Dalloul, who posted a video on Facebook of himself and his son sharing one raw eggplant as a meal.

Mohammad Al-Hajjar, a freelancer contributing to the Associated Press news agency and London-based site Middle East Eye, said journalists suffer like everyone else in Gaza.

“There are no basic food supplies — no flour, sugar, cooking oil, ghee, rice, or legumes. We only have a few canned goods and some locally grown vegetables in the southern part of the Strip,” Al-Hajjar told CPJ from Gaza City. “My eight-year-old son Majd suffered from malnutrition and dehydration during the first wave of famine at the start of the war.”

Money exchangers take 30% cut

Al-Hajjar is not the only journalist juggling work with finding food for his family.

“Fruits are non-existent, and some vegetables are available in very limited quantities and are far too expensive,” said Shrouq Al Alia, director of Ain Media production company, a correspondent for France 24 television network, and the sole parent to a toddler. “My daughter often complains of abdominal pain.”

Their poor diet has also caused stomach and colon problems for the 30-year-old, who received CPJ’s 2024 International Press Freedom Award in recognition of her courage in taking over Ain Media after her husband Roshdi Sarraj was killed on October 22, 2023.

“We face several battles: first, to find flour that is not spoiled and safe for human consumption; second, to afford the soaring prices; and third, to access cash because banks are closed,” Al Alia said, adding that the cost of a 25-kilogram sack of flour has risen from 25 to 1,500 shekels (US$7 to $418) or more — an increase of 6,900% — since the war began.

“This forces us to turn to money exchangers who take a 30% cut on any cash we withdraw,” said Al Alia, describing the system by which Palestinians transfer their money digitally to middlemen who provide them with cash since banks stopped operating.

And Israel’s blockade on cooking gas remained in place. “We rely on wood fire for cooking, which is inefficient and exhausting,” added Al Aila, whose weight has fallen from 59 to 50 kilograms during the war.

‘We work while hungry’

With the import of water purification supplies still prohibited, chronic water scarcity, and no way to manage sewage, diarrhea, scabies, and skin rashes have proliferated.

“We’ve been affected by hepatitis as a result of no food, hygiene kits, or clean water,” Majdi Esleem, a 40-year-old Palestinian reporter for the pro-Fatah Al Kofiya TV, told CPJ from Gaza City. “Most days we [journalists] work while hungry,” said the father of five.

“During work and daily life, I frequently suffer from health problems, including dizziness, difficulty seeing, constant headaches, and weakness,” said freelance photographer Abd Elhakeem Abu Riash, who contributes to Al Jazeera.

“It is extremely difficult to obtain food or even a single meal … The calories I burn during field journalism are not compensated for due to the scarcity of food.”

The Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk in New York referred CPJ to the Israeli military unit overseeing humanitarian aid, COGAT, which said via email, “The IDF, through COGAT, is working to allow and facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, and is also actively supporting these efforts, including by conducting regular monitoring of food stocks within the Strip.”

CPJ emailed the ministry of communications and ministry of defense requesting comment but did not receive any responses.

CPJ calls on EU, others to ensure access and aid to Gaza

As famine tightens its grip on Gaza, CPJ calls on the international community — particularly the European Union, itself currently reviewing the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and the 50 countries that make up the Media Freedom Coalition — to support the following calls to action:

● Israel and Egypt must allow immediate, unhindered media access to Gaza, so that they may directly cover the hostilities on the ground and related news stories, including starvation and the wider humanitarian toll.

● Israel should immediately facilitate access to humanitarian aid to journalists in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Journalists, like all civilians in Gaza, are struggling to obtain the essentials — such as food, water, and sanitary supplies — necessary to live, let alone to report on the reality facing Gazans.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Doja Daoud.

The letter raised concerns over Egypt’s worsening human rights situation, where authorities continue to suppress dissent, restrict civil society, and arbitrarily arrest thousands, including journalists. The letter highlighted Egyptian-British blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has still not been released, even after completing his unjust five-year prison sentence in September 2024.

The signatories emphasized that a U.K.-led joint statement would send a strong message to Egyptian authorities about the urgency of Alaa’s release and the broader need to address Egypt’s deepening repression.

Read the full letter in English and العربية.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Jonathan Cook.

We discuss the cases of two of Egypt’s most prominent political activists, Hossam Bahgat and Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who have both been persecuted by the Egyptian government for exposing its human rights abuses. Bahgat is facing a new round of harassment from Egyptian security forces, while El-Fattah remains in prison past his expected release. El-Fattah’s mother, the Cairo University professor Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike for nearly four months in the U.K., where both she and her son have dual citizenship, demanding that the British government pressure Egypt for El-Fattah’s freedom. “Her collapse is imminent. She’s probably going to be hospitalized soon,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who recently spoke to Soueif’s family.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The prominent British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah remains imprisoned in Cairo even after he completed his five-year sentence last September. Fattah came to prominence during the Egyptian revolution as a blogger and political activist, and he has been jailed multiple times by the authoritarian government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for his advocacy. His family and supporters continue to demand his freedom and have pressed the U.K. government to pressure Egypt into releasing him. Fattah’s mother Laila Soueif is now on her 117th day on hunger strike, standing on Downing Street for at least an hour every workday until her son is released. Now Australian journalist Peter Greste has launched his own hunger strike to pressure the British government, saying he owes his life to the Egyptian activist, who helped him survive when he was imprisoned in Egypt in 2013. “I quite literally owe Alaa my life,” says Greste. “He is the most popular, the most recognized political prisoner in the system, and I think they fear his capacity to mobilize people. They fear his capacity to inspire.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Egyptian authorities have refused to release Abd el-Fattah until January 2027, in violation of articles 482 and 484 of the country’s Criminal Procedure Law.

Abd el-Fattah was first arrested in September 2019, amidst a crackdown on protests calling for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s resignation, and was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of anti-state and false news. In September 2024, CPJ separately called on the Egyptian government to release Abd el-Fattah, drop all remaining charges, and cease manipulating legal statutes to unjustly detain him.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

However, this seemingly great opportunity to restart the ‘new revolution’ in Iran did not last long. On the morning of 7 October 2024, the American aspiration of a feminist and democratic revolution or regime change in Iran, which was also shared by its Western allies and West Asian client regimes, was transformed into a nightmare when a few hundred Palestinians carried out the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation in the occupied Palestine. The political landscape of West Asia has been altered by this military operation in such a way that American political projects, such as the Iranian regime change and the Abraham Accords, have faded away. To the surprise of the United States and its Western allies, such as Norway, and thanks to the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, 8 October 2023 became the day of the revival of the ideals of the 1979 revolution, such as freedom and independence from Western Imperialism. The liberation of Palestine from occupation was one of the particular ideals of the Iranian revolution and the political system it generated. As the Iranian revolutionaries of 1979 comprehended Palestine until its liberation in a state of revolution, they coined the slogan “Wake up people, Iran has become Palestine” which became one of the most popular slogans of the revolution. Several days before the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation,  Western media outlet were reporting on the latest developments of the Abraham Accord and the excitement of the leaders of the slave-states of the Persian Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, for signing the Accord. However, the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, cautioned the leaders of these Arab regimes about the futility of their efforts to normalize relations with the apartheid regime of Israel. He described their efforts as “betting on a losing horse” because, in his opinion, the Palestinians were more capable than ever in their struggle for liberation from occupation.

In preparation for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to give the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi, a political activist with zero political influence in Iran, Norway organized a large gathering of Norwegian academics/imperialist agents and Iranian academics in diaspora who functioned as native informers. The Norwegian hosts were evidently interested in evaluating the degree to which the American regime change project coincided with the ‘new revolution’ in Iran. The conference persuaded the Norwegian Nobel Committee that Narges Mohammadi would be an ideal candidate for the Nobel Prize, as it would position her as a potential leader of the “new feminist and democratic” revolution in Iran. Because she is prone to repeating statements from Western masters about almost everything and remaining silent when they want her to be silent. The fact that she did not speak out regarding the Israeli genocide in Palestine explains, to a certain extent, why she was selected by the Nobel Committee as the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize. Norway’s desire to play a role in the American regime change project in Iran was not a thoughtless decision, but a continuation of its effort in enhancing its own position in the American foreign policy strategy in the West Asia formulated in its foreign policy strategy document published in 2008. The document reveals that Norway’s foreign policy is merely an adjunct to the American foreign policy in West Asia and elsewhere. In accordance with the Norwegian foreign policy document and in the name of humanitarian intervention, Norway took an active role in the bombing of Libya in 2011. Many years later, as late as 2018, the Head of the Middle East Studies at the University of Oslo, who has been so dedicated to this foreign policy document, signs an open letter to the UN asking for humanitarian intervention in Syria. The letter to the United Nations states that Syrian sovereignty should not be viewed as a hindrance to protecting the Syrian people, as Kofi Anan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, stated in one of his reports. According to Kofi Anan, “no legal principles — even sovereignty — can ever shield crimes against humanity.”

The Norwegian political elite was under the impression that by giving the Nobel Prize to a nobody of Iranian politics, they could either contribute to a regime change in accordance with the American plan or transform Iran into a new Syria and a target for humanitarian intervention. However, I doubt that any European academic would have the courage to ask the United Nations for humanitarian intervention in Palestine after the Israeli genocidal response to the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. The unconditional support of the United States and other Western governments for the Israeli genocide against the defenseless Palestinian civilians for a year and now against Lebanese civilians has led people in the Global South to realize that the real meaning of democracy, human rights, and women’s rights that Westerners have been trying to bring them was genocide. After the 7th of October 2023, people from the Global South became aware that Israel, the state that Westerners have attempted to portray as the sole democracy in West Asia, is in fact a genocidal, racist and apartheid regime. They have discovered that the sole democracy in West Asia is a remnant of the colonial settler regimes of the past. This is the reason why its conduct cannot be distinguished from the avaricious and ruthless colonial powers of the past, and its survival and future depend on the persistence of American global dominance. The al-Aqsa Flood Operation not only succeeded in bringing to the attention of global public opinion the appeal of the oppressed and ethnically cleansed Palestinians, but also in defeating the American regime change project in Iran. Furthermore, the al-Aqsa Flood Operation revealed that Iran and the Axis of Resistance were the only forces that supported the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation, as part of their own struggle against Western imperialism and in defense of their national sovereignty and independence in the region. The question is: How have Iran and its allies, in the Axis of Resistance, been able to liberate or protect themselves from the ideological deceptions and political traps, introduced and created by Western imperialism and their native informers, which would divide them and put them against each other?

Divide to Conquer and Rule

The methods Western governments use to promote their political and economic interests in the West Asia region are rarely examined by scholars and journalists who are specialized in the region. The scholars and journalists who work in the region are interested in the ethnic, religious, social and political dividing lines, cleavages or fault lines within the states and societies to enable Western governments led by the United States to exploit these dividing lines, cleavages and fault lines to their advantage. Recently, the Middle East Eye published a critical article on the preoccupation of Western governments, media, and academia with such dividing lines, whereas this publication has been preoccupied with such fault lines since its inception. While Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the United States and Britain, was bombing noncombatant population and civilian infrastructure in Yemen for many years, the Middle East Eye was saying that the Iranian-backed Shia Houthi positions were the targets of the bombings. This publication would happily report that the Palestinian Hamas movement issued a statement supporting the ‘constitutional legitimacy’ of the Saudi collaborator, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. According to the Middle East Eye: “This statement is considered Hamas’s first tacit message of support for an ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen, even as the Palestinian group did not clearly mention the campaign in its statement.” The Middle East Eye and outlets similar to it are the culmination of the American-Western declared plans for promoting democracy, human rights, stability and peace in West Asia. They are specialized in causing internal divisions and conflicts in the region. These media outlets typically exhibit empathy for the suffering of Palestinians and advocate for justice in the face of Israeli brutality. However, they hold Iran and the Axis of Resistance as the primary causes of instability in the region. This is why its editors, correspondents, and contributors hold an anti-Iranian position, while Iran has demonstrated that it is the only state in the entire world that sincerely supports the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation. They downplay, dismiss, or criticize the Iranian position on the Palestinian issue. To create division within the Axis of Resistance, Middle East Eye spread lies about the Iranian Commander of the Qods Force’s role in the assassination of Seyed Hassan Nasrollah, the leader of Hezbollah. Qods Force is, in fact, the principal architect of the Axis of Resistance against Western imperialism and Israel in West Asia.

There are thousands of educated individuals from the West Asia region who have been working as native informers or imperialist propagandists for the United States and its Western allies since the early 1990s. These native informers and imperialist propagandists have been recruited as academics, NGOs, or political activists. While native informers have been elaborating on social, religious, ethnic, political, and cultural divisions within the region, imperialist propagandists have been attempting to turn these divisions into actual conflicts. However, the fact that a highly respected scholar of the West Asia region told the world that the 2023 fascist riots in Iran were a revolution against internal colonization demonstrated that native informers can easily turn into imperialist propagandists when the imperialist employer says so. “Woman, Life, Freedom is a movement of liberation from this internal colonization. It is a movement to reclaim life. Its language is secular, wholly devoid of religion. Its peculiarity lies in its feminist facet.”  A decade ago, this scholar argued that the security and economic interests of Western imperialism in West Asia were compatible with the political democratization of the region and considered the so-called Arab Spring to be the expression of the union between Western governments and Arab, Iranian and Turkish democrats under the leadership of Turkey. But since he has not learned anything from the failure of the Arab Spring, he has turned from being a native informer into an imperialist propagandist who refuses to learn from his logical inconsistencies and experiences. This is the reason why, years after the failure of the “Arab Spring” and months after the morally and politically justifiable suppression of the fascist riots in Iran, this native informer-imperialist propagandist cautions those he believes to be the genuine agents of the revolutionary movement that if they are unwilling or unable to assume power, others will. In his view, it was the unwillingness of the revolutionaries or those who had initiated and carried the uprisings forward in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen to assume power that allowed the free-riders, counterrevolutionaries, and others to assume power in the “Arab Spring”.

Before addressing the question of who are the protagonists and free riders of the “Arab Spring” in these countries, it is worth noting that the Bahraini Uprising, which was by far the most genuine uprising among the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings, has been omitted from the narratives about the uprisings. Almost simultaneously with the brutal suppression of the Bahraini uprising by the Saudi Arabian and Emirati military, the terrorist campaigns against the Syrian government commenced. While Saudi Arabia and Qatar provided funding for the terrorist campaigns in Syria, Turkey provided logistical support for the terrorist campaign, and Western governments provided political cover by tying it to the Arab Spring. Western governments, their academia, and media, which were totally uncaring about the bloody suppression and murdering of Bahraini political activists, stood firm behind the terrorist organizations active in Syria as the only advocates of democracy and human rights. Contrary to the claims of this native informer and imperialist propagandist, almost nothing happened in Iraq and Lebanon during the ‘Arab Spring.’ After the anti-corruption demonstrations in these countries in 2019-2020 were hijacked by pro-Western and anti-Iran and anti-Hezbollah forces with the active support of American embassies, these two countries were added to the ‘Arab Spring.’

The Arab Spring 2 was an attempt to weaken and marginalize the Axis of Resistance, which included Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization forces, and the Yemeni Ansarullah. In fact, the same political forces and states that supported the Israeli war against Hezbollah in 2006, the ISIS and the Saudi-Emirati war against Yemen lauded the Arab Spring 2. Arab Spring failed because the United States and its Western allies did not recognize the sovereignty of the very nations whose democratic aspiration they claimed to support. By the term “democracy,” the United States and its allies refer to political regimes in the region that adhere to their directives and follow their advice irrespective of their national interests or deliberations. The political regimes that follow the American order in the region share one thing in common: their opposition to and animosity toward the Axis of Resistance. This has paralyzed them to express their opinion of their people and condemn the Israeli genocide in the region. Since the stability of these regimes depends on how useful they are for the Axis of Western Domination led by the United States in the region, they cannot do otherwise. Nevertheless, a significant fracture has emerged among the educated Arabs, Iranians, and Turks who have come to the realization that the true essence of the entire Western discourse on democracy, human rights, and women’s rights is genocide. The fact that Israel has been committing genocide against the Palestinian people with the direct assistance of Western governments and their media, in violation of the Genocide Convention, makes the latter an accomplice in the Israeli genocide. As per article III of the Genocide Convention, both the act of committing and complicity in genocide are punishable offenses. According to article IV: “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

With Israeli genocide and the unconditional support of all the members of the Axis of Western Domination led by the United States in West Asia, this Axis has been turned into an Axis of Genocide. It is noteworthy that all members of this supported the ‘new revolution’ in Iran. Israel was the most prominent sponsor of the fascist riots, with which Norway had the illusion of competing through the 2023 Nobel Prize. From 2001 to 2011, the Axis of Western Domination bombed any state or nation that hesitated to accept their submission peacefully, provided they were defenseless. They bombed and invaded Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya because they realized that these states and nations were defenseless. Due to the failure of the Axis of Western Domination in the region to subjugate Hezbollah, Syria, and Ansarullah through the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, the terrorist campaigns against Syria since 2011, and the Saudi-Emirati war against Yemen since 2015, the Axis of the Resistance has been formed. The Iraqi Popular Mobilization, whose main components emerged as a response to the American occupation of Iraq in 2003, joined the Axis of Resistance to fight the Western-Israeli phenomenon known as ISIS in Iraq and Syria. ISIS succeeded in controlling large parts of these two countries in 2014 through acts of genocide against all those they deemed to be unbelievers, especially Shia Muslims. Western governments and Israel hoped that an ISIS Khalifat in Syria and Iraq would end Iranian political influence in these two countries, which they viewed as a bridge to Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is the same story with Ansarullah, who were ruling the 80% of the Yemeni population. Saudi Arabia and its Western and regional backers accused Ansarullah of being an Iranian proxy but failed to defeat it after a decade. The Western backed Saudi-Emirati war against the Ansarullah movement made the movement stronger and its ties with Iran friendlier because Iran was the only state that supported them against foreign powers politically, economically and militarily. Hamas and Islamic Jihad joined the Axis of Resistance because they realized that the Axis was the only political and military force they could rely on to free Palestine from Israeli occupation. What is common between the Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi and Syrian and Yemeni and Palestinian experience is that they had to defend their sovereignty against states and terrorist organizations that were supported by the United States, other Western governments and Israel. The Axis of Resistance is not a result of the decisions made by governments, but rather a result of the convergence of states and movements that have been fighting for their sovereignty and independence from the former Axis of Western Domination and the current Axis of Genocide in the region for several decades. Iran learned from its experience fighting alone against an enemy who had the support of Western powers in the 1980s that it was important to form an alliance against Western intervention in the West Asia region. This is why, while trapped in a devastating war, Iran helped the formation of Hezbollah, which has become the most effective resistance organization against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon since the 1980s. Iran went on to support Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which started their Armed Struggle in the 1980s and 1990s, and at the same time supported Islamic and anti-imperialist forces in Iraq and Yemen, which are now known as the Yemeni Ansarullah and Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

Each member of the Axis of Resistance has experienced the impacts of the Axis of Western Domination in their own country and in the region, and their actual resistance against such impacts has qualified them as constituting components of the Axis of Resistance. This is why each member of the Resistance raises the universalizing character of the Axis. If the slogan “one for all and all for one” has any meaning, it can be found in the practice and experiences of solidarity of the Axis of Resistance. While the Axis of Resistance was forming against the forces of Western Domination in the region, including Israel, not only Arab autocracies and Turkey, but also an army of native informers posing as academics and journalists argued that the people of the region could escape from the suffering of imperialist injustice if they are accustomed to it and contributed to its continuity. The terms of acceptance of imperialist injustice in the region and of contributing to its continuity were democracy, human rights, and women’s rights or moderation.

While Turkey represented democracy, human rights, and women’s rights for a while, especially during the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia represented moderation. Therefore, the entire discourse regarding the politics of West Asia oscillated between moderation and democracy.

Although numerous scholars promoted Turkey while advocating for the objective of ‘Making Islam Democratic,’ the responsibility of promoting Saudi Arabia was delegated to Thomas Friedman and his like-minded people. The result was a fierce competition between the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Turkey for the consolidation of American hegemony in the region and for the normalization of Israeli apartheid in occupied Palestine. These leaders believed that their contribution to the imperialist injustice in the region and their collaboration with the Axis of Western Domination would safeguard them from harsh treatment in the ongoing injustice.

The efforts to make themselves a darling of the imperialist dominance in the region might explain the animosity of the imperialist clients against Iran and the Axis of Resistance expressed in their countless English and Arabic media outlets. A glance at the seemingly progressive and reliable outlets such as Aljazeera and Jadaliyya, Middle East Eye, and TRT will reveal the extent of their anti-resistance and anti-Iranian posture, not to mention the media owned by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The majority of regional analysts appearing in these media outlets appear to be pro-Palestinian. Convinced of the enduring nature of the dominance of Western imperialism, led by the United States in the region, they refer to the members of the Axis of Resistance as the “proxies of the Iranian regime” to remind their audience of the temporary nature of the Iranian state. It appears that these analysts are unaware of the fact that all small and large Western governments constitute the primary obstacle to Palestinian liberation in any meaningful manner. These outlets do not mention that Iran has been subject to murderous economic sanctions for several decades because of its loyalty to its allies in the Axis of Resistance. While the Saudi-Emirati war against Ansarullah was supported by all Western governments, Iran was the only state to support the Ansarullah movement. Iran has provided support to the Yemeni Ansarullah, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force, the Palestinian freedom fighters such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Syrian government, as they all represent forces of sovereignty who defend their independence and freedom from Western dominance.

The United States and its Western allies have imposed economic sanctions on Iran due to their assertion that it has committed three unforgivable sins. They claim that Iran interferes with the affairs of other countries in the region, which implies that Iran does not accept the rulers imposed by the United States on the region. Thus, it supports forces that resist American interference in the region. According to American rules in the region, Palestinians must be prevented from fighting for their rights and for their liberation from Israeli bondage, and that Israel must preserve its military and technological supremacy regardless of the costs for other states and nations in the region. Iran not only regards Israel as an illegal state in the region that needs to be dismantled, but it also seeks to end American omnipotence and tyrannical power in the region, since it is the United States and its allies that allow Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinian and Lebanese people with impunity. According to American rule, Saudi Arabia on behalf of the United States should determine who should govern in Yemen, something Iran rejects and says that every state and nation must be the master of its own destiny. The second reason Iran is the target of American and Western sanctions is its advancing military technology, especially its advanced missile program, which the United States and other Western powers want to be dismantled. The real meaning of this Western demand is that Iran ceases its missile program and disarms itself so that it would not be able to reach enemy targets beyond its borders. This makes it easier for the United States and its allies to wage war against it. Iran not only succeeded in developing its military technology and accomplishing advanced missile and drone programs to secure its territorial integrity and national sovereignty against American threats, but it also succeeded in boosting the military technology of its allies in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestinians to be more effective against the Axis of Western Domination and Genocide in the region. Ultimately, Iran has been subjected to demonization and economic sanctions and has become a target of Israeli terrorism due to its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. The United States wants Iran to prove that it is not seeking nuclear weapons in return for easing economic sanctions against it. According to this American logic, it is not the accuser who must demonstrate through the presentation of evidence that the accused has committed a wrong, but rather the accused who must demonstrate against evidence that is not present that he or she has not committed the wrong. To satisfy the American demand and demonstrate that Iran has no intention of making nuclear weapons, Iran must dismantle its entire nuclear program and refrain from developing nuclear technology. Iran does not accept this because it is a violation of its national sovereignty. Furthermore, Iran does not wish to be deprived of all options whenever it encounters an existential threat from either Israel or the United States. Therefore, it possesses all the necessary technology to produce nuclear weapons; however, it refrains from producing such weapons as it is not currently confronting an existential threat. Recently, Iranians are reminding Western powers that if they create a threatening condition for Iran, Iranians may reconsider their nuclear policy in a matter of days.

The rationale behind the economic sanctions, media war and regime change projects against Iran was that such measures would either install a Western friendly regime or convince Iran to change its behavior and give up its sovereignty. The United States and its allies were hoping that, even if all regime-change attempts and attempts to change Iran’s behavior fail, it would become so fragile that it could not hold the Axis of Resistance together and assist its allies in the region when they needed it most. Despite economic sanctions and technological embargo imposed by the Axis of Domination and Genocide in the region on Iran, Iran has proved to be more economically prosperous, technologically advanced, ideologically and politically influential, and militarily stronger than anticipated. Iran not only helped the Axis of Resistance economically and militarily, but also helped them achieve a high degree of technological sophistication and military self-sufficiency that no power could take from them, despite its own economic difficulties. Every member of the Axis was convinced by this that Iran believes in their talent and strength and wants them to be strong, self-sufficient, dignified, sovereign and equal members of the Axis. It suffices to compare the reverence of the Iranian leaders to that of Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, with the contemptuous treatment of Saad Hariri, the former Prime-Minister of Lebanon, by the leaders of Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia have treated these two Lebanese political leaders differently, demonstrating who is considered a sovereign ally and who is a dependent proxy.

Iran comprehends that in the event that the Axis of Domination and Genocide defeats the apparent weaker links within the Axis, it will not be content with anything less than Iran’s complete surrender. Imperial agents and their native informers interpreted almost every Western aggression or any Western political project as a means of regime change in Iran. This included the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israeli War on Lebanon, the Arab Spring, and finally the fascist riots in Iran. The fascist riots in Iran, entitled Woman, Life, Freedom, were the last misinformation and disinformation attempt by the imperialist agents and their native informers. They created the illusion for Western governments, as their employers, that Iran was on the brink of collapse and would be forced to submit to American conditions in the region. These imperialist agents and their native informers, who have been functioning as academics, journalists, political activists, and NGO activists, have failed miserably in their last attempt. All the efforts carried out by these imperialist agents and native informers who have constructed religious, political, ethnic, and gender divisions in West Asia have been guided by the principle of divide and rule. They explained that political and economic underdevelopment, conflicts, and wars in the region were related to these divisions. These epistemological assumptions serve as a guideline for Western media and pro-Western media in the West and the region, but they also serve as a point of departure for social scientists and historians in the region. What follows from the knowledge produced based on these epistemological assumptions requires the active intervention of Western governments in the region. Western governments thus finance, initiate, and establish organizations which call themselves non-governmental organizations as instruments of interference in the social and political affairs of various societies in the region. Without the financial support of their government, Western NGOs in the region will disappear. This indicates that non-governmental organizations serve to divert the local populace from the fact that Western imperialism and Western elite are the main responsible for the social, religious, and political divisions and conflicts in the region.

Since unity, solidarity, and fraternity in the region challenge American imperialism regionally and globally, movements that promise unity, solidarity, and fraternity in the region are designed as Iranian proxies that conspire against peace and stability in the region. The imperialist agents and native informers who accuse Iran of interfering in Iraqi affairs never mention the fact that the United States has taken Iraq’s entire oil revenue hostage to impose its will on the Iraqi state. The United States and its Western allies use every political means, terrorism, mass murder and even genocide to reshape the region according to their insatiable interests. Naturally, the imperialist agents and their native informers become preoccupied with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, expansion, and influence, as well as its proxies, as the main causes of political disputes and social conflicts in the region. The anti-government and anti-corruption demonstrations in Iraq and Lebanon during the period of 2019-2020 were referred to as the Arab Spring 2 by the imperialist agents and their native informers, as they turned anti-Iran and anti-Hezbollah.

The Struggle for Sovereignty

Iran managed to build and strengthen a regional front known as the Axis of Resistance against the alliance of the Axis of Domination and Genocide, while every regional analyst believed that the collective West and Israel were going to shape the West Asia region according to their own security and economic interests. In his last speech, Iran’s leader said that the only reason the U.S. and other Western powers support the Israeli apartheid regime is because it lets them control the natural resources of the region. He explained that by controlling the region’s resources, the West, led by the United States, would be more confident in their future conflicts with other world powers such as China and Russia. Western powers have become the accomplices of the Israeli genocide because not only their security and economic interests, but their supremacist attitude toward non-Westerners is indistinguishable from those of the Israeli regime, according to Iran’s leader. This is the reason why, rather than focusing on the racist and genocidal nature of the Israeli regime, the Western media places emphasis on its military might and portrays it as the most powerful entity in the region. According to the leader of Iran, the combination of Israel’s fictitious military might with the American aspiration of transforming this regime of apartheid and genocide into a hub for both energy export from the region to the West and for importing Western products and technology to the region prompted several regimes in the region to normalize their relations with this regime. But the Palestinians and other members of the Axis of Resistance are fighting for their freedom and independence from Israeli and American dominance in the region, which has turned this Western dream into a nightmare.

Iran was, in fact, the first member of this resistance and was able to anticipate its formation since the 1979 revolution. The Iranian revolution transformed the country from a client of American imperialism into a sovereign and self-governing state. According to the section on foreign policy of the constitution of this sovereign state specified in articles 152, 153, and 154, Iranian governments have a duty to reject any forms of imperialist domination or interference in Iranian internal politics. Moreover, it obligates the Iranian governments to demonstrate active solidarity with all nations that oppose imperialist dominance and interference in their internal affairs. Here, the key concept is the sovereign right of nations and states to shape their societies according to their own will, aspirations, ideas, deliberations, and decisions. According to Article 152 of the Iranian constitution, The Islamic Republic of Iran is mandated to reject any form of foreign dominance within its territory, to preserve its independence and territorial integrity, and to defend the rights of all Muslims and the oppressed peoples of the world against superpowers. Article 153 prohibits any agreements that give any form of foreign control over the Iranian natural resources, economy, army, or culture. Finally, according to the Article 154, “The ideal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is independence, justice, truth, and felicity among all people of the world. Accordingly, it[the Islamic Republic] supports the just struggles of the Mustad’afun (oppressed) against the Mustakbirun (oppressors) in every corner of the globe.” During the first year of the revolution in Iran, there was a universal consensus among all revolutionary tendencies on these ideals declared by the Iranian Constitution. These articles of the Iranian constitutions are the guiding lines of the Iranian struggle to defend its state sovereignty and to support other nations in their struggles for sovereignty and independence from imperialist powers. Iran has supported the Palestinian struggle for liberation from Israeli apartheid for the same reason it supported South African struggles against apartheid. Iran stands in solidarity with Hezbollah, the Syrian government, Yemeni Ansarullah, and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces as they fight for the same independence and sovereignty that it enjoys itself. Iranian independence and sovereignty prevent it from joining the Axis of Western Domination and Genocide in the region. Iran is aware that without aiding and defending the sovereignty of others, it is unable to safeguard its own sovereignty. For a long time, the imperialist agents and their native informers have argued that the Iranian nation does not endorse Iran’s interventions in Western imperialist affairs in the region. However, recent opinion polls conducted by imperialist agents and their native informers indicate that, the majority of Iranians “are invested in the idea of providing military support to Iran’s proxy groups in the Middle East, the so-called “Axis of Resistance” (Jebhe Moqavemat). Sixty percent are in favor of this policy and 31 percent are against it.”  Western governments’ academic and media mouthpieces accuse Iran for two contradictory reasons. They blame Iran for using its financial resources to assist and empower its proxies who cause instability in the region instead of using those resources to elevate the prosperity of its own people or accuse it of using other members of the Axis of Resistance for its own interests. While the first claim assumes Iran to be a nefarious but a rational and pragmatic player in the region, the latter claim assumes Iran to be an ideological, fanatic and dogmatic actor. Iran must be contained, moderated, or subject to constant demonization, economic sanctions, terrorism, and regime change since it is the cause of instability in both cases. However, despite the numerous criminal plots against the Iranian state and nation since the revolution, Iran has steadfastly upheld the revolutionary principles of sovereignty and independence against Western imperialism and demonstrated genuine solidarity with the oppressed people who fight for their own sovereignty and independence.

Even though the Soviet Union collapsed, which made the United States the global sovereign or consolidated its global hegemony, supported and facilitated by its various Western allies and regional clients, and to which Russia and other members of the former socialist block in Europe and Central Asia surrendered, Iran did not relinquish its sovereignty and independence. Iran faced two choices: either surrender to American global hegemony and its “new world order” or face American wrath in the form of regime change or land invasion, as it happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya and Syria. Iran realized that it was impossible to protect its own sovereignty without promoting the principle of sovereignty and practicing a genuine practice of solidarity with all forces that resisted American domination and Israeli aggression in West Asia.

This is how the Axis of Resistance as we know it today came into being.  Iranians had to resist not only the military, economic, and political consequences of American global dominance in the region, but also the circulation of its ideology by contemporary political philosophers, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, who theorize, justify, and normalize the American order. The Aristotelian theory of rulership and governance is at the heart of the new world order. According to this theory, the soul, composed of the rational and expedient components of the world, is destined to reign over the physical, passionate, and natural components of the world. The American world order ideology assumes that the West, led by the U.S., represents the former and the rest of the world represents the latter in the contemporary world. This theory argues that the United States and its allies represent the human elements that must rule the animal elements of the world because both men and animals are better off when animals are tamed and ruled by men. This theory assumes that, since it is always the superior who discovers this principle of ruling, he must make sure that the inferiors understand this principle. This theory makes the inferior believe that he is a slave who must obey the superior as his master and execute his orders unquestionably. According to this principle of rulership, while the task of the slave is the administration of things and production of the necessities of life, the task of the master is the administration of the slaves. Russia, which consented to being administered by the West, led by the United States, attempted to fulfill the duties of a slave and fulfill the master’s demands, however, it was unsuccessful. However, China, which has achieved great success in the administration of things and production of necessities of life, has come to the realization that as a nation, they have high expectations and desire to safeguard their sovereignty and independence. At the same time, Russia realized that their success in the administration of things and the production of the necessities of life depended on them protecting their sovereignty and independence from Western interventions in the affairs of their nation. Aristotle advised superior men to do philosophy and politics because they were the kind of science that enable the superior to command the slave who produces the necessities of life. Modern imperialism, from an Aristotelian perspective, would not be possible without modern philosophy, social sciences and humanities that have persuaded the rest of the world of their inferiority. As Aristotle argued that plants exist for the sake of animals, and animals exist for the sake of men, and the slave exist for the sake of the master, modern human and social sciences argue that non-Westerners exist for the sake of Westerners. Imperial agents and their native informers are practitioners of the social and human sciences, whose failure to convince the inferior people of their inferiority could result in the inferior people refusing to be governed by their superiors. When this occurs, the Americans and their Western allies attempt to coerce the inferior populace into submission by means of economic sanctions, intimidation, and threats. Whenever these measures fail, and the superior Westerners find the inferior people defenseless, they turn into wild beasts by indiscriminate killing of civilians, murdering babies, women, and elderly people, and destroying their homes. The Israeli Genocide of Palestinian and Lebanese people is the last example of such crimes.  While the United States, with the help of its Western allies, attempts to dominate the world by demonstrating Western superiority and the inferiority of the rest of the world, Israel fails to dominate West Asia despite all the political, economic and military help it receives from America and Europe. In 2006, Israel attempted to replicate what the United States and its Western allies accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, but it fell short. Since the so-called Arab Spring, the United States and Israel have worked together to kill as many Libyan, Syrian, Yemeni people as they can and destroy as much of their infrastructure as they can because according to the imperialist principle, the superiors can either subjugate the inferiors or destroy them. However, Iranian revolutionary foreign policy has rejected this Western superiority complex and has tried to minimize its political consequences in the region. Iran has been trying to convince the people of the region that their struggle for sovereignty and independence from imperialist domination is impossible without the formation of a united front to resist American and Western intervention in the region. From an Iranian perspective, the resistance against the imperialist dominance in the region is intrinsically linked to the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation. Iran supports the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty and independence, as an unfree Palestine would make the future of its own sovereignty and independence uncertain. Because an unfree Palestine means supremacy of the Western Axis of Domination and Genocide in the region. This may explain the moral high ground held by Iran when it comes to the Israeli genocide and its Western and regional accomplices.

According to Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII, it is with friends that men are more able to think and to act because the impacts of friendship are so significant that it can hold states together. Whereas men with friends do not have a need for justice, just men need friendship because justice has a friendly quality. But true friendship is about reciprocal goodwill, since friends wish what is good for one another for their own sake. It is the mutual recognition of goodwill between people that makes them friends. According to Aristotle, there are people who love each other for their utility and in virtue of some good which they get from each other. There are also those who love for the sake of pleasure because they find each other pleasant. Hence, those who love others for the purpose of their utility, do so for the sake of their own well-being, whereas those who love for the sake of pleasure do so for the sake of their own pleasure. If the parties don’t stay what they are to each other, their friendship will be easily broken up. For instance, when an individual ceases to be pleasant or useful to the other, the latter ceases to love them. Friendship is perfect when men are good and equal because they wish well for their friends for their own sake. Such friendships last as long as the parties remain good, and goodness is a lasting thing. Friendships such as these are not instrumental because they are not based on how useful friends are to each other. Since true friendship is rare and infrequent, it requires time and familiarity. The imperialist agents and their native informers fail to understand that Iran and the Axis of Resistance are the only true friends in Asia because they founded their friendship on mutual recognition of their sovereignty, equality, and struggle for justice. The familiarity with such virtues in each other took time, but the time was not wasted. The time was used to discover what is good in each other.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Yadullah Shahibzadeh.

A delegation from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Yemen's capital Sana'a alongside Omani negotiators with the aim of reaching a resolution to the protracted war in Yemen. This marks a major turning point in a conflict that began more than eight years ago and has been characterized as a stalemate between Yemen's Houthis and a coalition of anti-Houthi forces backed and led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This arguably unexpected turn of events—surprising given Saudi Arabia's yearslong war against a group they characterize as "Iran-allied rebels"—is the result of talks that began in early 2022 between the Saudi Arabian government and Yemen's government in Sanaa, led by Ansar Allah—also known as the Houthis. The Houthis have in effect been ruling much of northern Yemen for the past eight years.

This is "the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace," Hans Grundberg, the United Nations envoy to Yemen, remarked.

This is "the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace," Hans Grundberg, the United Nations envoy to Yemen, remarked to the Associated Press earlier this month. Grundberg urged both parties to "start an inclusive political process under U.N.auspices to sustainably end the conflict."

While the terms of any settlement have yet to be made public, this moment signals the seriousness of the talks and the likelihood of a lasting political agreement among warring parties following years of asymmetrical warfare in which hundreds of thousands of Yemenis were killed, millions more were starved, and Yemen was virtually left in ruins.

War and Famine

In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring, peaceful countrywide protests began in Yemen that eventually ended with Yemen's longtime dictator, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, transferring power to his then-Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2011.

In the following years, Hadi clinged to power after failing to address the demands of all of the country's various factions. Meanwhile, Ansar Allah rose to power following protests against the government's curbing of fuel subsidies, and eventually seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, and forced Hadi into house arrest.

Despite these tumultuous events, a U.N.-negotiated settlement was reached between Hadi, the Houthis, and other factions, but this settlement was derailed. Soon after the new Saudi king appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince and defense minister in early 2015, Saudi Arabia amassed a coalition of several neighboring countries and, together with Western support—primarily from the Obama administration—launched airstrikes against the Houthis and imposed a naval blockade targeting food, medicine, fuel, and other essential supplies in an effort to reinstate Hadi as the main head of the government. This was ratified in U.N. resolution 2216, which provided cover for these attacks and the imposition of the blockade under the guise of an "arms embargo."

Meanwhile, Hadi fled to Riyadh and continued to enjoy Saudi support for years to come, while the UAE trained and funded the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group whose stated goals are to secede from the Yemeni union.

Despite full military support from the United States and other allies, including weapon sales, intelligence, logistics, training, targeting support, and, until late 2018, mid-air refueling, the Saudi-led coalition failed to capture Yemen's most populous region from the Houthis. The Houthis, on the other hand, joined forces with their longtime enemy, former president Saleh, and formed a government and armed resistance to the Saudi-led coalition.

With more than 17 million people facing food insecurity in 2022, the U.N. warned that "catastrophic" and "famine-like" conditions were projected to increase fivefold for those most vulnerable.

Even after their fallout and subsequent killing of Saleh in December 2017 after he switched to the Saudi coalition's side, the Houthis continued to control much of the pre-1990 unity north Yemen, where 70% to 80% of the population resides. However, the Houthis' attempts to capture Marib, a key oil- and gas-rich province, failed.

As the fighting continued and the blockade on Yemen was tightened, the Yemeni population faced a crumbling economy and destruction of its healthcare systems. This led to outbreaks such as cholera and diphtheria, reduced functional healthcare facilities to 50%, and left more than 80% of Yemenis in need of food, water, and medicine. With more than 17 million people facing food insecurity in 2022, the U.N. warned that "catastrophic" and "famine-like" conditions were projected to increase fivefold for those most vulnerable.

Previous Talks

In early 2022, after a series of Saudi-led attacks that killed at least 80 civilians and shut down Yemen's internet for four days, and Houthi attacks that reached an oil facility in Jeddah and a storage facility in Abu Dhabi, warring parties began ceasefire talks in Oman.

Though far from being the first peace—a ceasefire agreement was reached in April 2022, and extended twice until October of that year—they brought a halt to U.S.-supported airstrikes for the first time since March 2015.

Despite the U.S. and Saudi's insistence that this war was waged on behalf of Hadi—Yemen's "legitimate" head of government—he was virtually powerless and remained in Riyadh since leaving Yemen in 2015. This facade came down when the Saudi and UAE governments set aside Hadi and replaced him with a council of eight men, all of whom were backed by Saudi Arabia or the UAE. While the council was formed to unify anti-Houthi groups given that most had already waged battles against the Houthis, their conflicting interests soon led to in-fighting, especially in Shabwa where UAE-backed STC forces fought Saudi-backed Islah forces.

Peace Now?

In the year since the first ceasefire was achieved in 2022, fighting on the ground continued in key southern areas including Shabwa and al-Mahra. And when Houthi demands to pay government workers their long overdue salaries using oil and gas revenues were not met, they responded by attacking oil facilities to prevent the export of oil and gas.

Now, this key condition seems to have been met in a draft deal last month, and reports of a roadmap toward peace include issuing payments to government employees using gas and oil revenues in exchange for the Houthis allowing exports to take place.

But to achieve a lasting peace deal, Yemen's sovereignty must be restored and the blockade must be fully lifted.

But to achieve a lasting peace deal, Yemen's sovereignty must be restored and the blockade must be fully lifted. While talks with Saudi Arabia are a major first step toward alleviating Yemenis' suffering, the UAE must also give up control over strategic areas such as Bab al-Mandab strait and the island of Socotra, which they occupied and recently militarized.

The coalition's failure to consolidate power among warring groups in southern Yemen, which they have controlled since 2015, underscores the importance of ceasing all foreign intervention and financial backing of warring factions. This includes the U.S.'s role, which has been instrumental in furthering the war over the past eight years despite legislative efforts to end this unconstitutional involvement.

While the meetings in Sanaa between Saudi and Houthi officials hold promise for peace with the Saudi-led coalition, a meaningful end to the war can only take place when all Yemenis who fought on either side of the war—the Houthis, Saleh, and Hadi's General People's Congress, the Islah party, the STC, and others—face one another in direct talks and draft a way forward without the financial and military backing of foreign governments. When overt and covert foreign interventions cease, Yemen will finally have a chance to chart its own course.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Shireen Al-Adeimi.

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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Susie Day.

There are dictators in the world who wield absolute power, and then there are U.S. Senators. Very few understand the power these 100 individuals hold in the world's most powerful country. A single senator can effectively block any legislation. They don't need to give a reason, and often do it entirely in secret. President Joe Biden, who was a senator for decades, knows this and also knows he needs the vote of every Democratic senator to pass critical appropriations during Congress' current lame duck session.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, as one of his proud last acts in office, along with other Senators, should block further Egyptian military aid until Alaa is free.

Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving senator currently in office, is retiring on January 2nd after 48 years. He's been a champion of human rights, authoring the "Leahy Law" that denies U.S. aid to human rights abusing regimes. Senator Leahy or one of his colleagues could make a vital difference, and save lives, by blocking any bill in this session that shores up human rights abusing governments.

Take Egypt.

The U.S.-backed Egyptian dictator President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi rose to power after a military coup in 2013. His image is omnipresent in this sprawling capital city of 20 million, on buildings, lamp posts, and across the mass media, which is effectively controlled by the state. More than 60,000 political prisoners are locked up here; the true number is unknown. The most prominent is Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a writer, technologist and leading activist in the 2011 Arab Spring revolution that overthrew Egypt's previous, long-standing, U.S.-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

Yet Alaa, a dual Egyptian and British citizen, has been in prison for most of the last decade. His case received global attention when Egypt hosted COP27, the UN climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh. Alaa had been on hunger strike for more than 200 days. As COP27 began on November 6th, he escalated his protest, refusing to drink water altogether. Last week, Alaa told family members, in their first prison visit in a month, that he suffered a near-death experience that week. The German Chancellor, the French President, the British Prime Minister, and President Biden had all raised his case directly with Sisi. Prison authorities medically intervened secretly, to avoid the crisis his death during COP27 would have provoked.

The Sisi regime survives largely thanks to massive support from the United States. Egypt receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid, with an additional $125 million-plus in economic aid. Egypt has long been the second-highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, after Israel. Its support is delivered through annual Congressional appropriations, subject to verifiable compliance with human rights standards. The U.S. State Department oversees this massive aid package with the Pentagon.

As part of the process, the State Department is required to produce a human rights report on Egypt. Its most recent 72-page litany of horrors includes extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman treatment; life-threatening prison conditions and arbitrary detention. The list goes on. While any rational reading of the report would result in the denial of aid, the State Department routinely invokes a "national security" waiver, authorizing the aid despite the rampant abuses.

"You train their police officers, their army officers," Laila Soueif, Alaa's mother, a math professor and renowned activist in her own right, told the Democracy Now! news hour during an interview in their family apartment in Cairo. "This is a U.S. operation. The helicopters they use to track people in the desert, this is the U.S. This whole Sisi thing is a U.S. security operation. Really, the U.S. can decide, if they want to, that they want the regime to do this or not do that."

Alaa's family has been tirelessly advocating for his release, at great risk. His youngest sister, Sanaa, 28, has already been imprisoned for three years for her activism. "The U.S. has stakes in that regime, stakes in that oppression, and so has responsibility," Sanaa said on Democracy Now!, sitting next to her mother. "It's not leverage. Leverage is as if you're not a stakeholder in this. You are a big part of this. You send $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt every year."

President Biden was photographed with Sisi at COP27, laughing with the dictator. Sisi has also been invited to next month's U.S.- Africa Leaders Summit at the White House. Like any Western-aligned autocrat seeking legitimacy, Sisi is reportedly seeking a one-on-one meeting with Biden.

President Biden should work for the immediate release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and many more Egyptian political prisoners before granting Sisi a plum White House meeting. Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, as one of his proud last acts in office, along with other Senators, should block further Egyptian military aid until Alaa is free.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan.

In a wide-ranging interview recorded in Cairo, we speak with Laila Soueif and Sanaa Seif, the mother and sister of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, about his health, his case, his family and his hopes for freedom. After visiting him in prison, they describe how El-Fattah started a water strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country’s human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment. He paused after collapsing and suffering a “near-death experience” when prison officials appeared reluctant to record his full water and hunger strike. Seif says they set a date to restart his hunger strike, once he regains physical and mental strength. Laila Soueif discusses how El-Fattah helped her raise his two younger sisters when her now-deceased husband was in jail for his own activism. They also describe his relationship with his son, Khaled, who is nonverbal and diagnosed with autism, calling El-Fattah a “patient, kind father.” Recalling his most recent trial, they lay out how he was sentenced to five years in prison last December, and explain how El-Fattah’s lawyers never had access to the case trial or were allowed to argue his case. “There is clearly a vendetta” against El-Fattah, notes Seif, who adds “it’s pointless to talk about the legal procedures [since] each step of it is a sham.” Seif also speaks about the mass imprisonment of other political prisoners and the major influence and responsibility the U.S. has in freeing El-Fattah and others. “This whole operation [in Egypt] is a U.S. operation,” says Soueif, who says she wants El-Fattah freed and deported to the U.K. to keep him safe.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The family of imprisoned British Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah visited him on Thursday for the first time since he ended his full hunger and water strike, which they say occurred after he collapsed inside his prison shower last week. El-Fattah had intensified his strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country’s human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment. We go to Cairo to speak with his aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, who was among the visitors and says El-Fattah may resume his hunger strike if the British government does not more aggressively demand his release. “It really breaks my heart to think of him going back on hunger strike when he is so thin and so weak,” but the campaign so far “has left no one in any doubt that Alaa should be free,” she says.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Relatives of Alaa Abd El Fattah said Monday that they've received proof in the form of a letter that the jailed, hunger-striking Egyptian-British dissident is alive.

"I'm so relieved. We just got a note from prison to my mother, Alaa is alive, he says he's drinking water again."

"How are you, Mama? I'm sure you're really worried about me," El Fattah's letter, which is dated November 12, begins. "From today I'm drinking water again so you can stop worrying until you see me yourself. Vital signs today are OK. I'm measuring regularly and receiving medical attention."

The 40-year-old father—who according to Egyptian authorities received a "medical intervention" last week—promises to write again and asks his mother to bring him an MP3 player and vitamins when she is able to visit.

Sanaa Seif, El Fattah's sister, tweeted: "I'm so relieved. We just got a note from prison to my mother, Alaa is alive, he says he's drinking water again... He says he'll say more as soon as he can. It's definitely his handwriting. Proof of life, at last."

"Today is the first day I've been able to take a proper breath in eight days," Seif told the BBC. "Now we know he's alive. I'd know his handwriting anywhere. But when I read [the letter] again and again it leaves me with more questions. Why have they been refusing his lawyer access to him, even with a permit?  Why did they hold this letter back from us for two days? Is it just cruelty to punish the family for speaking up?"

Khaled Ali, an attorney representing El Fattah's family, said on Facebook Monday that Alaa also wrote in the letter that he was "fine and under medical supervision."

El Fattah has been imprisoned for most of the past decade for his activism. He played a prominent role in the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East in the early 2010s and is currently serving a five-year sentence for allegedly disseminating "false news undermining national security," a common charge used to silence activists in the Middle Eastern country run by authoritarian President Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Subjected to torture by beating, solitary confinement, and other methods, El Fattah began his hunger strike 206 days ago on April 2. Earlier this month—with his health already dangerously deteriorated—he stopped drinking water as world leaders, activists, and others gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27.

World leaders, human rights groups, Nobel laureates, climate activists, and others have called for the release of El Fattah and the tens of thousands of other political prisoners jailed in Egypt. Demonstrations in Egypt, Britain, the United States, and elsewhere have demanded the dissident's immediate release.

In a Monday interview with Times Radio, U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he was keeping "a very, very close eye on this case."

"What we will do," he said, "is we will keep working to secure consular access because he is British dual national and that is what we expect and we'll keep pushing to get resolution on this long standing and very difficult case."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

United Nations delegates have gathered for two weeks in the exclusive Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, seeking consensus on tackling catastrophic climate change. Unfortunately, this crucial summit, known as COP27 for the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention, is being hosted by Egypt, one of the world’s most repressive governments. Its autocratic ruler, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, was a general when the Egyptian army refused to suppress the January, 2011 Arab Spring mass uprising centered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. After the Egyptian people overthrew the long-standing, U.S.-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak, they held elections and formed a popular government. That didn’t last long. A 2013 military coup followed by a sham election put al-Sisi in power. He enjoys full support from the U.S. government despite being more repressive than Mubarak.

An example of al-Sisi’s brutality is the imprisonment of 40-year-old writer and organizer Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Alaa, who holds joint Egyptian/British citizenship, has been imprisoned for most of the last ten years, targeted for eloquently advocating for democracy and liberation. Alaa was key during the Arab Spring, inspiring people with his words and creating free speech tools on the internet. In the violent Egyptian police state with pervasive surveillance and omnipresent secret police, though, advocating for freedom is a crime. Desperate after a decade of arbitrary and abusive detention, Alaa Abd El-Fattah began a hunger strike over 220 days ago. On November 6th, as COP27 opened and world leaders descended on Sharm el-Sheikh, Alaa escalated his fast, refusing water as well. Without immediate international intervention, Alaa will likely die before the final gavel drops on COP27.

Alaa’s mother, Laila Soueif, has been waiting every day outside the prison where her son is locked up, demanding proof he is still alive. A mathematics professor, she is a renowned human rights activist herself. On Thursday, she was told that her son had received an unexplained “medical intervention.” Human Rights Watch has warned Egypt against “imposing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” and that “hunger striking is a political act.”

Alaa’s lawyer was informed that he could visit Alaa, but, upon arriving at the prison gate, was denied entry.

Alaa’s two sisters, Mona and Sanaa, staged a sit-in at the British Foreign Office in London, calling on the government of newly-installed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to intervene on Alaa’s behalf, and to bring him to the UK. Sunak, who is attending COP27, wrote to the family, “I will continue to stress to President Sisi the importance that we attach to the swift resolution of Alaa’s case, and an end to his unacceptable treatment.” Sanaa, 28, is now at COP27, and has helped bring human rights front and center onto the climate justice agenda. Sanaa, who has spent three years in prison herself, has been threatened with arrest.

President Biden has enormous leverage over the Egyptian government, and is attending COP27. Fifty-six Congressmembers have urged him to demand Alaa’s release. While campaigning in 2020, Biden actually tweeted in support of other imprisoned Egyptian dissidents, writing, “Arresting, torturing, and exiling activists…or threatening their families is unacceptable. No more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator.’”

Instead of fist-bumping the US-backed dictator al-Sisi, the way he did with the autocratic head of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, Biden should demand the immediate release of Alaa and all other political prisoners. Laila Soueif wrote to Biden and other world leaders attending COP27, “If Alaa dies you too will have blood on your hands.”

In 2019, Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last remaining independent news organizations, published a piece by Alaa, addressing the climate. It also appears in Alaa’s book, “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”:

“The crisis, for certain, is not a crisis of awareness, but of surrendering to the inevitability of inequality. If the only thing that unites us is the threat, then every person or group will move to defend their interests. But if we meet around a hope in a better future, a future where we put an end to all forms of inequality, this global awareness will be transformed into positive energy. Hope here is a necessary action. Our rosy dreams will probably not come to pass. But if we leave ourselves to our nightmares we’ll be killed by fear before the Floods arrive.”

Alaa Abd El-Fattah should be attending COP27, addressing world leaders—not on the edge of death in an Egyptian prison.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg on Tuesday joined the growing chorus of calls demanding that United Nations Climate Change Conference host Egypt release hunger-striking political prisoner Alaa Abd El Fattah.

"Human rights and climate movements are stronger when we stand in solidarity together."

El Fattah, who is Egyptian-British, has been jailed almost continuously for the past decade for his activism, especially his prominent role in the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East in the early 2010s. He is currently serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of spreading "false news undermining national security," a common charge against activists in Egypt.

El Fattah's health has dangerously deteriorated as a result of the hunger strike he's been on since April 2 to protest the torture—including brutal beatings and solitary confinement—and other abuses he says he's endured at the hands of authoritarian President Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's forces. 

"It is depressing to see that human life is at risk," Scholz told reporters in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Tuesday. "A decision needs to be taken, a release has to be made possible so that it doesn't come to it that the hunger striker dies."

Referring to the U.N. climate conference, Thunberg wrote on Twitter that "during COP27, we urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those held simply for peacefully exercising their human rights, implementing criteria set by local NGOs for these releases: fairness, transparency, inclusiveness, and urgency. One of these prisoners is Alaa Abd El Fattah."

"A system that doesn't address the needs for climate justice and securing human rights is a system that has failed everyone—we need to keep both in mind," the 19-year-old Fridays for Future founder added. "Human rights and climate movements are stronger when we stand in solidarity together. There is no climate justice without social justice and human rights."

On Tuesday, Amr Darwish, an Egyptian lawmaker with close ties to el-Sisi, confronted El Fattah's sister, Sanaa Seif, as she spoke at a press briefing, accusing her of "inciting foreign countries to put pressure on Egypt" before being escorted away by security.

Human rights groups have sounded the alarm in recent months over the Egyptian government's persecution of climate activists, as well as voicing concerns that the official app being used at COP27 could be exploited to spy on environmentalists and other dissidents.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

The family of the imprisoned Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El-Fattah says they no longer know if he is still alive or if he is being force-fed, more than 50 hours after he stopped drinking water in an intensification of a six-month hunger strike. We feature an address by Alaa’s sister Sanaa Seif at the U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. “The symbolic battle has been won by your show of support,” says Seif. “I just hope his body and he is not sacrificed for it.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Photograph Source: Lilian Wagdy – CC BY 2.0

For the last weeks I have been frantically immersed in the works of this iconic blogger, technologist, philosopher and activist who is probably the most cause célèbre, throughout Egypt and the entire Arab World. For almost a decade now, he is held in prisons in Egypt predominately because of his intellect that is seen as an ultimate threat to a draconian dictatorship after a traumatic people’s revolution of 2011.

Abd el-Fattah’s book “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated,” brings forth personal essays, theories on technology, notes, poems and deeply heartfelt reflections on prison life, all combined to give an essence of urgency, defiance and an air of resistance that refuses to budge in-spite of all the incredible injustices. His ideas and his utter veracity make him a symbol of hope in an Egypt that has suffered incredible misery and political shenanigans after a disheartening militaristic takeover following the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and his 30 years dictatorship. Alaa is the not only a symbol of hope but also the symbol of change for Egypt itself and the evolution of civil society in the larger Arab world.

Since most of his texts were smuggled out during his numerous detentions in Egyptian prisons, the collection gives us a sense of an awakening to the militarism, torturous barbarity of a post-Arab Spring Egypt. They are no delusions of grandeur. The work brings together the fraught conditions he and many are dealing with. The sequence of events and experiences are dizzying to say the least. Abd El-Fattah supported initiatives that advanced citizen’s awareness, citizen’s participation, real investigative journalism on social media against the political apathy that was and is so dire across Egypt.

First arrested for his blog, which he and his wife Manal Bahey El-Din Hassan were actively instrumental in cementing mass participation and resistance on a mass scale. The blogs called Manalaa and Omraneya are basically the first Arab blogs to gather workers, students and youth and paved the way for the eventual confrontation that actually took place against the Mubarak dictatorship in 2011. Manalaa even won the Deutsch Welle’s Best blog and The Reporters Without Borders prize, six years before Arab Spring itself.

One moment he is the voice on al Jazeera live informing the world how thousands of demonstrators are in-front of the Egyptian Parliament demanding freedom, reform and revolution. The next moment he is in Silicon Valley at RightsCon delivering the keynote address on the perils of digital monopolisation regarding modality of communication and human rights. Not long after that he is thrown into a prison cell and denied any significant contact to the outside world.

In a letter to his family, he wrote:

“If one wished for death hunger strike would not be a struggle. If one was holding on to life out of instinct then what’s the point of a strike. If you are postponing death only out of shame at your mothers tears, then you are decreasing the chances of victory. I have taken a decision to escalate at a time I see as fitting for my struggle for my freedom and the freedom prisoner of a conflict they have no part in or they are trying to exist from. For a victims of a regime that is unable to handle its crises except with oppression, unable to re-produce itself except for incarceration. The decision was taken while I am flooded with your love and longing for your company. Much love, until we meet soon. Alaa”

How can we seriously talk about environmental shifts when Egypt, once the intellectual light of the Arab world, continues to rest on the lowest level of human index of global development, on human equity, on education, on intellectual property, on scientific achievements, on patents, on gender equality, on human rights. Seriously?  As Naomi Klein so aptly put it “This COP is more than just green washing a polluting state, its green washing a police state.”

What kind of country are we really talking about here, when a society is not even able to critically look at itself? When a State actually does not make any attempt or even think about reversing its own control mechanisms and will stop incarcerating those who wish to change to core of that given society for the better? How can we even attempt to find solutions when one of the brightest and most critical minds in Egypt is languishing in prison for no apparent reason but simply because he actually questions the status-quo where it needs to be dismantled on all levels? Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has been on a hunger-strike for over six months and is on the verge of death. He represents thousands of prisoners of conscious in Egyptian cells today. We cannot go on with hope against hope or even hope abandoned, phrases I am reminded by the words of Nadezhda Mandelstam who wrote her poignant texts regarding Stalin’s terror throughout the 1930s.

Honestly speaking, if there is going to be any shift in our dealing with the environmental catastrophes that are facing us, then naturally there must be a conscious shift in dealing with the humans who inhabit this planet. If we even attempt to count the amount of people imprisoned across the globe just for being conscious, the numbers are shockingly high. It is safe to say that human rights seem to be an expandable issue these days. The 21st century is cynically bored, where unlike the bygone days of 1970s when the Helsinki Accord, a détente between East & West was constructed. The declaration on human rights that was signed there, gave at least hope and a tinkling of consciousness. Thirty-five countries upheld, on paper at-least, the right of choice, of free political thought and the right of individual conscious. Today, almost 48 years on, our world seems so drastically changed that really one wonders how we even can start to address issues of environmental catastrophes, when so many are languishing in horrific conditions. And in most cases, these are the very people who can bring intelligent, necessary and needed solutions to the table.

In looking at the current state of affairs, there is absolutely no serious organism for self-empowerment in the current Egyptian socio-political model. The political debates, if one can call Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s mode of governance that, in the Egyptian context lacks a theoretical frame that incorporates any critical assessment and evaluation of the post Arab spring experience. How to restructure the relations between the State, the market and other organised sectors of society for its citizenry? An open and actually critically informed study on what could be a possibility of a potentially post-capitalist potentialities are simply non-existent and even specially non-discussible. After the debacle of Mohamed Morsi, the central logic of the Egyptian State was its refusal to recognise the inherent need for a thorough process of transformation. Instead, the structural apparatus of the State continued to be dependent of foreign aid to massively bolster the Egyptian military and or fund wasteful outdated and hideous mega-projects to further bolster the State Apparatus by ensuring spending on a new capital for example and building the largest military governance administrative complex in the entire world, larger even than the Pentagon in USA or Nicolae Ceaușescu gross “Peoples Palace” in Bucharest.

Where is the moment to apply the same international standard on human rights and where is the desire to expand on something parallel to the Helsinki Accords? It often appears as though on all levels standards applied globally vary if one is dealing with the Northern hemisphere and when it comes to the Southern, like all norm of economic abuse and manipulation but the value of individuals is still up for grabs in the Global South.

The so-called notion of transition here is obviously framed in the context that the “old” State will never die, and that the new structural State can never appear regardless of any revolutionary actions. Now I ask the question, how can an old establish dictatorial system, that systematically oppresses thousands upon thousands (if not millions) can offer any fresher new environmental solutions when the very mindset is deadly against the likes of women and men who are actually informed about the way reality should shift for the betterment of not only their own citizenry but humanity at large. Yes, I know I sound naive, yes, but the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, is simple and yet so obviously unjust. I mean to arrest a guy because he wants his society to be freer, more open, more just and to develop further in the 21st century. Really?

The contempt of democracy, the relationship of the State to religion and justice – the so- called liberal mainstays of our liberal democracy – have been reformulated in the draconian Egyptian context – to fit the militaristic paradigm. Thus, since democracy is the rule of majority, this means our State must serve as an instrument of promoting the interest of the majority, that in the al-Sissi promotional manifesto means the use of pseudo democratic tools (facade) to encourage sub-psychological promotion of fear and paranoia against those very factions that question the legitimacy of his dictatorial rule. It also means that the liberal state doctrine of Mosque and State is hypocritical, since it the State that supposedly protects the rights of religious minorities (like Copts, Shia, & Jews) then it must be somehow abandoned and the Egyptian State must serve the religious majority. Hence any or all protests that deviate any norms of militarism are labelled either anti-Egyptian.

Achieving justice in the context of al-Sissi, is formulated specifically to the masses as though Egypt is somehow rectifying the historical injustices done to the Sunni majority by the Coptic’s, Shia, Jews and all those so-called alien invaders, intruders and conspiracy mongers who continue to enjoy privileges of being protected by the State. Many reformed activists who had opposed the former regime felt themselves tied to sectional demands as the majority of the revolutionaries concentrated on the actual struggle in Tahir Square.

In the UK multiple political organisations are demanding the release of political prisoners. Fifteen Nobel laureates are demanding the immediate release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah for the COP27 “….to devote part of your agenda to the many thousands of political prisoners held in Egypt’s prisons.” Fifty-six US law makers have asked President Biden to demand for his release.

“The last nine years of his life have been stolen from him.” Alaa Abd el-Fattah is indeed fighting with his only weapon: his body, his brain, his stance, his courage and through a hunger strike of over 60 days, he will not even take water as a form of demonstration. A dire protest on the opening of COP27 Global charade in Sharm El Sheikh for the world to finally wake-up and take a hard look at itself and at human realities in a real Egypt and not some delusional fantasy of imaginary pharaohs.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ibrahim Quraishi.

Egyptian authorities have arrested hundreds in a crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of COP27, the U.N. climate conference which starts Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh. Fifteen Nobel laureates have signed an open letter asking world leaders to pressure Egypt into releasing its many political prisoners, including human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who plans to intensify his six-month hunger strike by forgoing water on the opening day of the climate summit. “He’s organizing all of us from his prison cell,” says Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Fifteen Nobel Prize winners called on world leaders visiting Egypt next week for the United Nations’ COP27 climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh to demand freedom for political prisoners, “most urgently, the Egyptian-British writer and philosopher, Alaa Abd El Fattah, now six months into a hunger strike and at risk of death.”

In a letter sent on Wednesday to heads of state and climate envoys due to speak at the climate conference, the Nobel laureates urged them “to bring the voices of the unjustly imprisoned into the room,” by speaking their names and reading from Abd El Fattah’s writing.

Abd El Fattah, a jailed writer and activist whose calls for democratic change in Egypt have frightened four successive authoritarian governments into prosecuting him for just attending protests or posting critical comments online, has been on a “Gandhi-style” hunger strike since April, consuming only 100 calories a day. His activist sisters, Sanaa Seif and Mona Seif, revealed this week that he plans to stop drinking water on Sunday, when COP27 begins.

Alaa Abd El Fattah’s sisters, Mona Seif, left, and Sanaa Seif, right, with climate activists Greta Thunberg and Andreas Magnusson at sit-in outside the U.K. Foreign Office on Oct. 30, 2022, in London.

Photo: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Robert Mackey.

A growing global chorus of human rights organizations, Nobel Prize winners, and climate champions is calling on world leaders to pressure the Egyptian government to free dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah—who is currently on a months-long hunger strike—and other political prisoners ahead of the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, arguing that the fights for climate justice and democratic freedoms are inextricable.

In a letter to the head of the United Nations, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, and other key officials set to attend the climate talks starting Sunday, 15 Nobel Literature Prize winners demanded that the world leaders prioritize the "many thousands of political prisoners held in Egypt's prisons—most urgently, the Egyptian-British writer and philosopher, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, now six months into a hunger strike and at risk of death."

"Unless political freedoms are defended, there will be no meaningful climate action. Not in Egypt, nor anywhere else."

Last December, Abd el-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading "false news" after he shared a Facebook post highlighting the torture of another prisoner.

"We urge you to use the opportunity that is now in your hands to help those most vulnerable, not just to the rising seas, but those imprisoned and forgotten—specifically in the very country that has the privilege of hosting you," the Nobel laureates wrote in their letter. "A just transition cannot solely be concerned with bringing down emissions, but must seek a re-construction of the status quo away from exploitation and coercion."

"If the world's leaders gather in Egypt and leave without even a word about the most vulnerable, then what hope can they have?" they added. "If COP27 ends up a silent gathering, where no one risks speaking openly for fear of angering the COP presidency, then what future is it that will be being negotiated over?"

The letter was sent after Abd el-Fattah informed his family in a letter that he intends to stop drinking water beginning November 6, the first day of the climate summit in a country whose government is notorious for repressing dissent.

"I have decided to escalate, at the appropriate time, my struggle for my freedom and the freedom of all prisoners," he wrote, sparking increasingly urgent calls for his immediate release.

In a social media post on Tuesday, author and climate advocate Naomi Klein asked, "If international solidarity is too weak to save Alaa, what hope do we have of saving a habitable home?"

"With the lights flickering in so many democracies around the world," Klein wrote in a column for The Intercept last month, "the message activists should bring to the climate summit, whether they travel to Egypt or engage from afar, is simple: Unless political freedoms are defended, there will be no meaningful climate action. Not in Egypt, nor anywhere else. These issues are intertwined, as are our fates."

Renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben similarly warned that the continued imprisonment of Abd el-Fattah "will make a mockery of the climate talks."

U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister RishiSunak "have the power to stop this," McKibben wrote on Twitter. "Intervene NOW."

Rights groups have been sounding the alarm for weeks over Egypt's crackdown on peaceful demonstrations ahead of the closely watched COP27 summit, a critical opportunity for world leaders to commit to more ambitious climate action as the devastating impacts of runaway warming become clearer by the day.

In a statement on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that "Egypt is hosting COP27 following years of intensifying restrictions on human rights and environmental groups in the country, amounting to one of the harshest government clampdowns in decades."

Richard Pearshouse, HRW's environment director, lamented that "before delegations have set foot in Egypt, authorities have already shown their true colors by clamping down on any Egyptian who dares to call attention to the dire human rights situation in the country."

"In the days ahead, countries should make good on longstanding promises to prevent the most devastating impacts of climate change," said Pearshouse. "At the same time, they should reaffirm to Egypt's government and other authoritarian administrations that independent environmental activism is indispensable for the robust climate policies the world so urgently needs."

"Governments attending COP27 have a responsibility to call out Egypt's rhetoric around tolerance and openness as what it is, empty and meaningless, and to urge Egyptian authorities to end rights restrictions," he added.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

The family of imprisoned Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been staging a sit-in outside the British foreign office to demand the government help release him. El-Fattah, who was recently granted British citizenship, has been on hunger strike for over 200 days to protest being held in harsh conditions during his seemingly endless jail sentence in Egypt. “We’re not sure how much time is left. We’re not sure how much his body can take,” says his sister, Sanaa Seif.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The family of imprisoned Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been staging a sit-in outside the British foreign office to demand the government help release him. El-Fattah, who was recently granted British citizenship, has been on hunger strike for over 200 days to protest being held in harsh conditions during his seemingly endless jail sentence in Egypt. “We’re not sure how much time is left. We’re not sure how much his body can take,” says his sister, Sanaa Seif.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

We speak with climate author and activist Bill McKibben, who is pushing for the climate movement to demand the release of Egyptian prisoner and human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah ahead of the next U.N. climate conference, which will be hosted in Egypt. McKibben says releasing El-Fattah to the U.K., which has agreed to house him, would be “the easiest of gestures” by Egypt, whose authoritarian leader met Saturday with President Biden. “The spread of authoritarian governments around the world is one of the things that’s making it difficult to deal with the existential challenge that climate change [presents],” says McKibben.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“President Biden’s stated priorities of security and stability are nearly impossible without an informed citizenry,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Factual, independent reporting touches people’s daily lives, keeping disinformation from sowing chaos and extremism. Too many journalists in the region are imprisoned or killed for probing the root causes of instability and for applying a critical lens that holds leaders to account. This must end. There is no better way to champion free and independent media than for the president to demand accountability in places where it is under threat.”

During this trip Biden is expected to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who, according to U.S. intelligence, was implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden will also meet with Israeli authorities who refuse to launch a criminal investigation into the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, whose government routinely imprisons journalists. Egypt was the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 2021 prison census.

CPJ reiterates previous calls on the Biden administration to immediately take these basic actions to defend journalists and press freedom:

• Grant the family of slain Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, their request to meet with the president during his trip. 
  
• Call for the immediate release of the dozens of journalists in Egypt and in Saudi Arabia, including Alaa Abdelfattah (Egypt), who has surpassed 100 days on a hunger strike. 
  
• Call on Saudi authorities to lift travel bans on formerly imprisoned journalists and dissidents, including Raif Badawi, and on Egypt to cease its post-release harassment of journalists such as Egyptian photojournalist and CPJ International Press Freedom Award honoree Mahmoud Abou Zeid (Shawkan), who is still being forced to spend  nights in police custody in spite of being released from prison on March 4, 2019.

The United States is a founding member of the Media Freedom Coalition, a grouping of 52 countries that have pledged to advocate for media freedom domestically and internationally. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Robert Mackey.

Calls are growing for the release of imprisoned Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who launched a hunger strike on April 2 to protest the harsh conditions he is held under at Cairo’s Tora prison. Abd El-Fattah, who became a leading voice of the Arab Spring revolution, has been in and out of prison for nearly a decade for his human rights activism. His family recently obtained U.K. citizenship for him in the hopes of pressuring Egyptian authorities to release him, and they warn that his condition is rapidly deteriorating behind bars. We speak to his sister, Sanaa Seif, who was also imprisoned on similar charges of disseminating “false news” before being released in December. “Now is a critical time where it finally might be possible for Alaa to be free,” says Seif. “What keeps us going is that we as a family want to survive and want to unite in peace.” We also speak with Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is joining Seif on a U.S. tour with Alaa’s new book, “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.” As the pair advocate for Abd El-Fattah’s immediate release, they also discuss more recent government crackdowns on prominent Egyptian voices, such as TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam. “It seems that prison is the government’s answer to any problem with a citizen,” says Kouddous.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.