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Amro Ali

@_amroali

1 Nov

I had lunch with Robert Fisk as an MA student in 2005, Australia. I was awed by his bravery, resilience, writing style, and passion for the truth. Then came post-2011 Fisk who whitewashed Assad’s crimes. It saddened me. I could not reconcile the two Fisks irishtimes.com/news/world/vet…

Also during the same lunch in 2005, when Robert Fisk found out about my Egyptian background, he told me of a then recent incident: “I arrived at Cairo airport, I asked the taxi driver to take me to Al-Ahram (pyramids) newspaper, he took me instead to the actual pyramids.” 😂

As much as I cannot reconcile the two Fisks, I still need to give credit to the pre-2011 Fisk who did extraordinary work on Palestine and Lebanon.

Read 7 tweets

Amro Ali

@_amroali

8 Jan

@UNC

The “Middle East” has been an unstable western construction for over a century. The @UNC illustrated what the US, UK, int orgs, and scholarship designated as the Middle East, Near East, western Asia, eastern Med, Arab world, etc. Thread of maps (by categories & chronological):

US government usage

US government usage (part 2)

Read 11 tweets

Amro Ali

@_amroali

2 Nov 19

Dresden has been declared a ‘Nazi emergency’ "'Nazinotstand' means - similar to the climate emergency - that we have a serious problem. The open democratic society is threatened," local councillor Max Aschenbach, who tabled the motion, told the BBC. bbc.in/338lBeV

The far right complaining about censorship reminds me of this Nazi propaganda poster from 1928 of Hitler complaining that his voice was being “censored” and deprived of free speech.

https://twitter.com/_amroali/status/890263455990546433?s=21

What an anti-Nazi dissident had to say about stupidity

https://twitter.com/_amroali/status/890263455990546433?s=21

Read 4 tweets

Amro Ali

@_amroali

2 Jul 19

Hannah Arendt’s 'On Violence' (1970) can provide fundamental insights into a regime’s behavior, and why the rise of state violence is frequently connected to a decrease in substantive power. Violence cannot create power, it can only destroy power. [Thread]

1/ Regimes mistakenly believe they can retain real control through violent measures. Real & sustainable power arises when a concert of people get together in a space to exchange views. Thus, power arises through free choice. Violence sits outside the realm of legitimate politics.

2/ Violence is an expression of desperation. It renders speech, discussions and persuasion impossible, making support from the public harder to come by. Although Arendt argues against violence, she made qualified exceptions.

Read 18 tweets

Amro Ali

@_amroali

13 Feb 19

Since 2011, I’ve noticed anti-Semitic books, eg Protocols of the elders of Zion etc have greatly decreased in popularity among Cairo’s book sellers. This is not to mention anti-Jewish conspiracies significantly declining in everyday discourse. A big contrast with the 1990s/2000s.

A few reasons can shed light on this. Thread.

The Mubarak regime banked on keeping the population focussed on external matters (and imaginary threats), to distract them from internal failings. If it meant the conflation of Zionism with Judaism, then so be it.

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