GAZA FRONTLINE: Matt Kennard hosts Ahmed Alnaouq, Dr Shahd Abusalama, Saleem Lubbad & Dr Mohammed Seyam

Palestine Deep Dive and Double Down News host an emergency event, Gaza Frontline, hearing from four Palestinians from Gaza on Nov 8th at the Frontline Club, London.

The discussion is chaired by investigative journalist Matt Kennard, co-founder of Declassified UK.

For a month now, Israel, a nuclear-armed military superpower, has conducted its biggest and harshest bombardments against the captive population of the Gaza Strip, leaving nowhere safe. Now under “complete siege”, Palestinians are not only killed from direct bombardment, crushed under the rubble, but suffer an imposed starvation, dehydration and a collapsed medical system.

A considerable number of respected human rights organisations and experts have expressed concern that Palestinians are at grave risk of genocide by Israel. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardments, including over 4,000 children.

Since October 7th, Israel has also reportedly ramped up its oppression of Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, killing Palestinians daily and committing other human rights violations such as arresting and detaining Palestinians without trial and committing torture.

Despite Israel continuing to commit atrocities in front of our eyes, Western governments refuse to call for an immediate ceasefire and a lifting of the siege to restore electricity, fuel, water, food and to provide urgent humanitarian relief.

Right now, as their families remain under blockade and bombardment, it has never been more urgent to hear Palestinians in their own words present both the facts on the ground and what must be done to end this ongoing crisis once and for all.

Panel:

Matt Kennard (chair) is co-founder and chief investigator at Declassified UK, a news outlet investigating British foreign policy. He was a fellow and then director at the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) in London, UK. He has worked as a staff writer for the Financial Times in Washington, DC, New York, and London. He is the author of two acclaimed books: Irregular Army (2012) and The Racket (2015). His new book Silent Coup is out now.

Ahmed Alnaouq is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza and the co-founder of We Are Not Numbers, a collective which trains the next generation of Palestinian writers to publish their stories in English. Ahmed obtained a Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in international journalism from Leeds University before serving as advocacy and outreach officer for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. His writings have been published in many publications including The Washington Post, The New Arab and Arab News. He has appeared live in interviews across the Western media, speaking on channels such as Sky News, the BBC and MSNBC.

Dr. Shahd Abusalama is a Palestinian academic born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp, northern Gaza, currently based in London, UK. She recently got a Ph.D. from Sheffield Hallam University which explores the historical representations of Gaza and its refugees in documentary films, and is to be published by Bloomsbury next year, under the title, "Between Reality and Documentary". Dr. Abusalama is also an artist, activist, and the author of Palestine from My Eyes blog which was published as a book in ltaly in 2013. She is also a co-founder of Hawiyya Dance Company which showcases Palestine’s folkloric Dabke and music to UK audiences and beyond to amplify anti-colonial and anti-racist causes.

Dr. Mohammed Seyam is a medical doctor from Gaza, currently in London pursuing his MSc in Global Healthcare Management at UCL. He is a global diabetes advocate and educator, a Young Leader at the International Diabetes Federation, and the MENA chapter lead at T1International. Mohammed’s work focuses on access to health and health delivery, especially in Non-Communicable diseases.

Saleem Lubbad is a full-time physicist working on the development of Nuclear Fusion Energy He was Oxford University’s first Gaza scholar. Saleem is also an Arabic language poet, writer, voice-over artist and TV presenter. His interests span Arabic literature, modern science and technology, the history of science and Islamic architecture. Saleem has worked on various museum curation and media production projects, produced and presented a science show for Al-Araby TV, and often pens columns for several newspapers in the Middle East.