Viewpoints

Gaza Journalist Diaries| Living on a thin line

Alienation has trapped me between longing for both a recent past and an imagined future. Between the two, I balance on a wire. If it snaps, I fall into the abyss.

Salem Elrayyes_ 30-12-2025

Gaza Journalist Diaries| Living on a thin line

Latest stories

Al-Bawaba News sit-in: Silence is no longer an option

Viewpoints_

Al-Bawaba News journalists have spent a month sleeping on the newsroom floor, demanding the minimum wage and weighing worker-run management as pressure builds.

Hesham Fouad_ 25-12-2025

Al-Bawaba News sit-in: Silence is no longer an option

The ghost of Sadat in the Palestinian present

Viewpoints_

Gaza, Trump and the revival of Sadatism: how exhaustion, spectacle and vague “peace” plans are reshaping Palestine—and threatening the entire region.

Basel Ramsis_ 25-12-2025

The ghost of Sadat in the Palestinian present

The future of parliament on a “Snakes and Ladders” board

Viewpoints_

As debate swirls after turbulent elections, efforts emerge to move past the crisis without change, sidestepping deeper questions of representation and parliamentary purpose.

Mohamed Bassal_ 24-12-2025

The future of parliament on a “Snakes and Ladders” board

Egyptian Workarounds| The state too has its own tricks

Viewpoints_

Just as Egyptians have learned to maneuver around political authority when it issues unjust laws, the authority, in turn, has learned to maneuver around the people.

Ammar Ali Hassan_ 23-12-2025

Egyptian Workarounds| The state too has its own tricks

How the West dances around Gaza

Viewpoints_

The myth of the dancing child in Gaza soothes distant spectators while denying the reality of terror, grief and death.

Basel Ramsis_ 18-12-2025

How the West dances around Gaza

A parliament defined by invalidity

Viewpoints_

A parliament born in doubt cannot govern with legitimacy. How flawed elections, political money, and force have hollowed out representation in Egypt.

Ammar Ali Hassan_ 15-12-2025

A parliament defined by invalidity

The signposts to safety for a prudent autocrat

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s road to stability cannot be built on fear and one voice. A warning against false assurances of order and a call for genuine reform and real dialogue.

Tamer Abu Arab_ 4-12-2025

The signposts to safety for a prudent autocrat

Abdelaty not jailed for quacking like a duck

Viewpoints_

Abdelaty’s imprisonment reveals how fear—not morality—drives state censorship, silencing expression and pushing creators into exile.

Ahmed Naji_ 3-12-2025

Abdelaty not jailed for quacking like a duck

Bassem Youssef: The jester with neither illusions nor a cape

Viewpoints_

Yes, Bassem Youssef is an aragouz—one who opens his audience’s eyes to the crimes of other clowns: talentless, banal, and with blood on their hands.

Basel Ramsis_ 29-11-2025

Bassem Youssef: The jester with neither illusions nor a cape

It's time to free the judiciary from the shackles of election supervision

Viewpoints_

Judicial supervision was sold as the safeguard of Egypt’s elections. Today, it stands exposed as a scapegoat for deeper structural flaws, and a system long engineered for control.

Mohamed Bassal_ 25-11-2025

It's time to free the judiciary from the shackles of election supervision

Egyptian Workarounds| Outsmart, adapt, survive, repeat

Viewpoints_

Egyptians have long used clever workarounds to resist hardship and power—crafting quiet, everyday acts of defiance that stretch from ancient history to today.

Ammar Ali Hassan_ 19-11-2025

Egyptian Workarounds| Outsmart, adapt, survive, repeat

Reproducing Mubarak’s last parliament

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s new parliament vote revives Mubarak-era fusion of money and power, sidelining voters and opposition and risking another shock born of rigged politics.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 18-11-2025

Reproducing Mubarak’s last parliament

The pink card is gone, but so are the voters

Viewpoints_

Reform promised inclusion. Instead, Egypt’s elections became quieter, narrower, and emptier—proof that monopoly needs no “pink card” to endure.

Mohamed Bassal_ 11-11-2025

The pink card is gone, but so are the voters

Migration as an act of resistance

Viewpoints_

Migration is more than a problem it is an anti-colonial act that challenges global inequalities and reclaims justice for the peoples of the Global South.

Sherif Azer_ 6-11-2025

Migration as an act of resistance

The Nobel Prize for ‘Peace Through Force,’ the Western way

Viewpoints_

The Nobel Peace Prize now honors “peace through force,” reflecting Western power more than justice, with Machado’s win spotlighting this shift.

Cara Burdon_ 28-10-2025

The Nobel Prize for ‘Peace Through Force,’ the Western way

It is mismanagement that floods the Nile

Viewpoints_

Sudan treats the Nile flood as climate and dam-driven; Egypt frames it as politics. In both, farmers bear the cost of mismanaged waters.

Saker El Nour_ 23-10-2025

It is mismanagement that floods the Nile

Raouf Mosaad sets out on his final journey, Salam!

Viewpoints_

Remembering Raouf Mosaad — the Egyptian writer who turned exile, dissent, and desire into art, making literature his lifelong act of freedom.

Al Manassa_ 22-10-2025

Raouf Mosaad sets out on his final journey, Salam!

Sectarian zeal recycled: Branding Christians as Zionists

Viewpoints_

A rising wave of criticism paints Egyptian Christians as Zionists, but such claims echo sectarian logic and ignore a long history of Christian anti-Zionism.

Ishak Ibrahim_ 20-10-2025

Sectarian zeal recycled: Branding Christians as Zionists

Gaza Journalist Diaries| Questions without answers

Viewpoints_

As Gaza falls silent after war, a journalist walks through ruins and unanswered questions, searching for meaning in survival.

Salem Elrayyes_ 15-10-2025

Gaza Journalist Diaries| Questions without answers

Farewell, Mekkawy

Viewpoints_

Ahmed Mekkawy, a pioneering Egyptian tech and digital rights advocate, is remembered for his generosity, activism, and lasting impact on open knowledge and technology.

Al Manassa_ 14-10-2025

Farewell, Mekkawy

Remembering a Massacre| Maspero as I witnessed it

Viewpoints_

An eyewitness recalls the night of the Maspero massacre—texts, panic, and the chilling realization of what happens when the army turns its guns on citizens.

Mohamed Naeem_ 9-10-2025

Remembering a Massacre| Maspero as I witnessed it

Will Israel end the same way as Apartheid?

Viewpoints_

Israel’s war on Gaza is fueling growing global isolation, with rising calls for sanctions that echo South Africa’s apartheid-era experience.

Amr Adly_ 7-10-2025

Will Israel end the same way as Apartheid?

The autumn of Camp David

Viewpoints_

Camp David’s promises of peace and prosperity are fading as Sinai faces new threats and Israel asserts dominance. Egypt must prepare for what comes after.

Mohamed Naeem_ 30-9-2025

The autumn of Camp David

A belated awakening on the brink of disaster

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s belated recognition of Israel as an enduring threat sparks debate over peace, complacency, and national security.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 29-9-2025

A belated awakening on the brink of disaster

To Palestine| Sailing through fear, carried by hope

Viewpoints_

As the Sumud Flotilla nears Gaza, Basel Ramsis writes of fear, resolve, and a global movement sailing not just toward Palestine—but against silence, siege, and surrender.

Basel Ramsis_ 27-9-2025

To Palestine| Sailing through fear, carried by hope

To Palestine| From boats of death to boats against death

Viewpoints_

The Senegalese migrant Serigne Mbayé Diouf joins the Global Sumud Flotilla, risking his life in a boat again, this time to stand with Palestinians in Gaza.

Basel Ramsis_ 23-9-2025

To Palestine| From boats of death to boats against death

The summit that whispered while Gaza burns

Viewpoints_

As Netanyahu escalates and Washington shields him, the Doha Summit offers rhetoric but stalls on action. Can the Arab world afford another missed moment?

Mohamed Bassal_ 21-9-2025

The summit that whispered while Gaza burns

To Palestine| Fear, resistance, and a Catalana named Carol

Viewpoints_

It’s not my knowledge of the Arab-Israeli conflict, or of the Palestinian cause or even the latest news from Gaza that gives me a sense of purpose right now.

Basel Ramsis_ 17-9-2025

To Palestine| Fear, resistance, and a Catalana named Carol

Egypt must prepare for Israeli recklessness

Viewpoints_

Egypt must take seriously the risk of renewed Israeli aggression, avoid denial, and prepare for conflict that could prove long, bitter, and existential.

Mohamed Naeem_ 16-9-2025

Egypt must prepare for Israeli recklessness

Betrayed by the shepherd, who will the wolf devour after Doha?

Viewpoints_

The bombing of Doha exposes the collapse of the US security umbrella, revealing Israel as Washington’s true base and Gulf states as sheep guarded by the wolf.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 15-9-2025

Betrayed by the shepherd, who will the wolf devour after Doha?

To Palestine| How can we recover from loving Tunisia?

Viewpoints_

From Sidi Bou Said to Gaza, Basel Ramsis writes of love, blood, and solidarity. On board the Sumud Flotilla, the journey resumes. Tunisia behind, Palestine ahead.

Basel Ramsis_ 11-9-2025

To Palestine| How can we recover from loving Tunisia?

Property developers are the statelets ruling ‘Egypt’

Viewpoints_

Real estate firms act like mini-states, turning basic rights into costly privileges and deepening class segregation behind gated walls.

Shaher Ayad_ 10-9-2025

Property developers are the statelets ruling ‘Egypt’

From dates to oil, the Arab project of slavery

Viewpoints_

From the slave trade in dates and pearls to oil and the kafala system, the Gulf’s legacy of exploitation reveals a modern model of feudal power.

Ahmed Naji_ 10-9-2025

From dates to oil, the Arab project of slavery

Heard, not read: How Egypt silences its media

Viewpoints_

Presidential pledges of free expression clash with reality as the Transport Ministry targets Veto for exposing its reliance on costly advisers.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 8-9-2025

Heard, not read: How Egypt silences its media

Who will upstage Netanyahu at the New York showdown?

Viewpoints_

As Netanyahu plans to use the UN stage to pronounce the two-state solution dead, over 140 countries prepare for a historic diplomatic standoff. But where is the Arab world?

Mohamed Bassal_ 7-9-2025

Who will upstage Netanyahu at the New York showdown?

To Palestine| Paths of departure, routes of return

Viewpoints_

Yousef’s family fled Palestine on foot in 1948. Now, aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, he attempts his first symbolic return, by sea, towards a homeland he’s never seen.

Basel Ramsis_ 7-9-2025

To Palestine| Paths of departure, routes of return

To Palestine| Messages from the sea

Viewpoints_

No one should have to travel from the western Mediterranean to the east just because the fascist state is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Basel Ramsis_ 4-9-2025

To Palestine| Messages from the sea

To Palestine| We sail, and your hearts sail with us

Al Manassa’s writer Basel Ramsis joins the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing from Barcelona to Gaza, carrying with him the hearts of millions who cannot march or sail, but refuse to be silent.

09/01/2025 - 17:41

To Palestine| We sail, and your hearts sail with us

Sailing to Gaza, we wanted you with us Mr. Chaplin

Viewpoints_

As thousands gather to see us off at Barcelona’s docks, Chaplin’s spirit echoes. Marching or sailing for Palestine is defending life, children, humanity, and our future.

Basel Ramsis_ 31-8-2025

Sailing to Gaza, we wanted you with us Mr. Chaplin