Middle East Monitor Conversations

MEMO speaks with British Palestinian academic and political activist Dr Azzam Tamimi on the life and legacy of Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi who died at the age of 96 on 26 September 2022. Tamimi is currently the Chairman of Alhiwar TV and is its Editor-in-Chief. He is also the author of Hamas: Unwritten Chapters and Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat Within Islamism.

MEMO speaks with international human rights lawyer Yasmin Omar as we discuss the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference due to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November and Egypt's human rights obligations.Yasmin Omar is the UN and Regional Communication Manager at the Geneva-based Committee for Justice. Omar specialises in international law, UN mechanisms and global sanctions. She holds an LLM from Syracuse University College of Law, focusing on international Refugee and Asylum Law and Counterterrorism. Her work is focused on action-oriented legal advocacy towards accountability and utilising UN and other regional legal mechanisms to further protect and promote human rights in the MENA region. She was the former Legal Associate at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and a member of the Steering Committee of the US Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt.

MEMO speaks with Vice-Chair of the Institute of Race Relations Frances Webber about her new report on racism within the UK citizenship system which has reduced Muslims to 'second-class' status.Webber is a former barrister who specialised in immigration, refugee and human rights law until her retirement in 2008. She is an honorary vice-president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. She speaks on migration and human rights issues and has written extensively on the subjects.

MEMO speaks with Giovanni Fassina, Programme Director of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), about the dismissal of Palestinian journalist Farah Maraqa by German newspaper Deutsche Welle (DW) on charges of anti-Semitism and her subsequent legal victory, in the context of a world-wide crackdown on pro-Palestine activism.As Programme Director, Fassina oversees the legal team and the strategic litigation cases at the ELSC. Previously, he trained as a lawyer in Italy, specialising in cases related to mass torts litigation, Business & Human Rights and civil liability before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. He also worked for many years in the development sector in the occupied Palestinian territories.

MEMO speaks with political analyst Sami Hamdi about the possibility of Turkish reconciliation with Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and the consequences of such a move.Hamdi is the managing director of the global risk and intelligence company International Interest. He is a geopolitical risk consultant who advises governments on the geopolitical dynamics of Europe and the MENA region, as well as advising companies on commercial issues and aspects.

MEMO speaks with British anti-Semitism specialist Antony Lerman about his latest book Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?: Redefinition and the Myth of the 'Collective Jew'.Lerman is the former founding director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) and has written widely on anti-Semitism, Middle East politics and multiculturalism for such periodicals as the Guardian, London Review of Books, Prospect, the New York Times, the Nation, Haaretz and the Jewish Chronicle.

MEMO speaks with counterterrorism expert Dr Rizwaan Sabir about the global war on terror, the rise of the security state in execution of that war and its impact on the, mainly Muslim, victims.Dr Sabir is the author of the recently published book The Suspect: Counterterrorism, Islam and the Security State in which he speaks of his own experiences of wrongful arrest, detention and subsequent surveillance. The academic is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Justice Studies at the UK's Liverpool John Moores University.

MEMO speaks with the Vice President of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Dr Michael Bueckert to discuss his latest book Advocating for Palestine in Canada.Bueckert has a PhD in Sociology with a specialisation in Political Economy from Carleton University in Ottawa. His dissertation explored the Canadian opposition to boycott movements, and this research involved travel to Palestine and South Africa. He is co-editor of Advocating for Palestine in Canada (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) and has published in Radical History Review and Studies in Political Economy. He has written for publications including Africa Is A Country, Jacobin, and Briarpatch and his research has been cited by the Washington Post, CBC Ottawa among many others.

MEMO speaks with prominent British journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne as we discuss his new book 'The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong About Islam'.Oborne is the former chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph.

MEMO speaks with Palestinian-Brazilian journalist and writer Eman Abusidu about Palestinians in Latin America and the region's long track record of supporting the Palestinian cause. The discussion will also look at the way in which Palestinians have influenced culture, society and politics in Latin America.Born and raised in Gaza, Eman Abusidu is a member of the Syndicate of Brazilian Journalists (FENAJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). She has written extensively on the Palestinian community in Brazil and Palestinian-Brazilian relations.