Since my article in Der Spiegel on Gaza, I’ve received countless messages from Germans. I want to show you this angry email from a professor which is quintessential as it ticks almost all the boxes with the problematic German position. Let’s dissect this🧵





From the outset, I want to clarify that I understand there is a plurality of German views, but this one by far reflects the dominant worldview of the establishment that is impacting domestic and foreign policy.

Unlike other countries, there is a peculiar depression gripping many Egyptians that I know because of the Israeli war on Gaza. The subtextual cause of this? To be the only Arab country that borders Gaza and yet unable to collectively alter the reality for Gaza. 🧵 To be over 100 million, yet that numerical strength does not translate into anything beyond a few border humanitarian activities. To be called “Um Al Dunya” (cliche or not) and yet unable to meaningfully respond to the genocide in Gaza.

The "border" between Egypt & Palestine was once a mere sign (circa 1939). Before then and before the British mandate, there was no sign. You knew you were in Egypt or Palestine upon noticing a change in dialects, marketplaces, clothing, traditions, architecture & vegetation. What "normality" once looked like: A pre-1948 Palestine/Egypt bus service that operated regularly between Cairo and Jerusalem.

Flying high over the pyramids. Go Morocco! 🇪🇬❤️🇲🇦 #DimaMaghreb The above skydive is not recent, it was undertaken by Moroccan skydiver Anas Bekkali in November 2020.

Morocco celebrates their victory by raising the Palestinian flag 🇵🇸. Palestine has been the winner in this World Cup. Arab regimes can pursue normalisation, but the people of the Arab world will have the final say. Congratulations Morocco for your victory and principled stance 🇲🇦 It’s infectious 🇲🇦❤️🇵🇸

The trending hashtag in Egypt is “support Putin” and “we are with Russia”. As disheartening as this is, there are several, sometimes obvious, explanations for it. Here is my analysis 🧵 To start with the most obviously bleeding one. Many decades of the west’s double standards on Palestine and moral ambiguity to the Middle East will make the likes of Putin seem digestible.

Hello wonderful scholars in Morocco 🇲🇦, I’ll be in Casablanca & Rabat next week, and me and my colleagues are interested to meet PhD students & post-docs in the social sciences & humanities to discuss membership benefits with @AGYA_events. 1/2 If you can link me up with your university department in Morocco (it does not have to be in Casablanca or Rabat), it will be greatly appreciated. There is still space in the schedule to give talks or have meetings. Thank you Bezaf :) 2/2

European solidarity is not what is being criticised here. The worry is about the racist version of European solidarity that calls non-Europeans uncivilised and excludes black African students from crossing borders to safety.

https://twitter.com/bergaslak/status/1497857198608764933

Present and past ideologies like Pan-Arabism, Pan-Africanism, Third Worldism etc are direct reactions to a predatory form of European solidarity that once dismembered the global south and still keeps global structural inequalities in place.

This is a beautiful, honest, and must read long essay by @fuwolff on being a Jew in Germany. No wonder why this essay has been widely discussed by Germans and now translated into English. I’m going to do a thread of some of the many insightful quotes zeit.de/amp/kultur/202… “These Germans hope that their unconditional love for Israel, their stance against antisemitism, might somehow transcend their guilt. The declared aim of this authoritarian project is the protection of Jewish life.”

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.” 😂

A Nubian grandmother to her six-year-old granddaughter: “You’re going to see the sea for the first time! exited!?”

“Yes! I’m going to see the sea!!”

She runs, suddenly stops, and with a mix of entrancement and laughter, this becomes her first ever sight of the sea. #Alexandria *with some height adjustments, 191cm to 90cm :)

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

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.

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.

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.