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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Tales of the welfare state and our old house

Viewpoints_

What happens when housing, water, and education are no longer rights, but products? In Egypt’s march toward full commodification, survival itself has a price tag.

Mohamed Gad_ 24-8-2025

Tales of the welfare state and our old house

Lebensraum reimagined: The myth of ‘Greater Israel’

Viewpoints_

Netanyahu's symbolic nod to “Greater Israel” reveals a deeper strategy: expanding Israeli control and influence across the region, from Gaza to the wider Middle East.

Mohamed Bassal_ 21-8-2025

Lebensraum reimagined: The myth of ‘Greater Israel’

The road to sectarianism begins with the kuttab

Viewpoints_

When kindergartens move into mosques and kuttabs make a comeback, Egypt isn’t just reviving tradition. It is redrawing the boundaries of citizenship, one child at a time.

Ishak Ibrahim_ 18-8-2025

The road to sectarianism begins with the kuttab

Individualism and Violence| The myth of individual salvation

Viewpoints_

When individual resistance fails, only collective action can dismantle systemic injustice. This last piece calls for solidarity as the antidote to the myth of individual salvation.

Mohamed El-Agati_ 17-8-2025

Individualism and Violence| The myth of individual salvation

The danger behind moving bins

Viewpoints_

From the streets’ familiar cry for spare coins to the state’s relentless “change-fever,” Egypt’s New Republic has turned petty exactions into a governing principle.

Ezzat Elkamhawi_ 16-8-2025

The danger behind moving bins

Is Egypt hooked on Israeli gas?

Viewpoints_

Israel-Egypt gas deal could deepen Cairo’s reliance on Tel Aviv, raising political, security, and energy risks that critics say outweigh potential economic benefits.

Amr Adly_ 13-8-2025

Is Egypt hooked on Israeli gas?

Individualism and Violence| Who will side with the loser?

Viewpoints_

When solidarity gives way to spectacle and faith becomes a commodity, individualism reshapes justice, religion, and resistance—leaving the weakest unheard.

Mohamed El-Agati_ 11-8-2025

Individualism and Violence| Who will side with the loser?

Israel’s ‘boys’ from Bashir Gemayel to Al-Golani

Viewpoints_

From Bashir Gemayel to Al-Golani, Israel’s “boys” are reminded of their place, first with insults, then with airstrikes. A story of colonial contempt and regional submission.

Basel Ramsis_ 6-8-2025

Israel’s ‘boys’ from Bashir Gemayel to Al-Golani

Individualism and Violence| Constructing imagined identities

Viewpoints_

From social exclusion to imagined identities, this piece explores how modern individualism fractures community and fuels alienation under today’s capitalist order.

Mohamed El-Agati_ 22-7-2025

Individualism and Violence| Constructing imagined identities

Why a Muslim woman from New York supports Zohran Mamdani

Viewpoints_

For a Muslim woman from New York, backing Zohran Mamdani isn’t about identity or ideology—it’s about survival, solidarity, and the city she calls home.

Lina Gamal Eid_ 21-7-2025

Why a Muslim woman from New York supports Zohran Mamdani

Individualism and Violence| Capital does not trickle down

Viewpoints_

Despite promises of trickle-down wealth, capitalism entrenches inequality, fueling isolation, alienation, and class-driven violence from Cairo to Buenos Aires.

Mohamed El-Agati_ 17-7-2025

Individualism and Violence| Capital does not trickle down

The president is in the dark!

Viewpoints_

A rent law uproots millions as Parliament flips overnight. Is the president unaware, or orchestrating a final act to reclaim his “savior” image?

Basel Ramsis_ 16-7-2025

The president is in the dark!

Lapid's playbook: Arab allies for Israel's ‘dirty work’

Viewpoints_

Lapid's new plan offers Arabs incentives to suppress Palestinian resistance—outsourcing Israel’s “dirty work” while reshaping the region under Zionist terms.

Mohamed Bassal_ 10-7-2025

Lapid's playbook: Arab allies for Israel's ‘dirty work’

Egypt’s education was once a right, now a ransom

Viewpoints_

In Egypt, daughters die for an education once promised as free, while elites thrive. But history reminds us, it wasn't always this way. It doesn't have to be.

Nawwara Negm_ 9-7-2025

Egypt’s education was once a right, now a ransom

Walls between us| Possibilities for and with Palestinians

Viewpoints_

Palestinians in '48 territories are caught between Israeli occupation & Arab abandonment. Their struggle against erasure demands recognition.

Basel Ramsis_ 3-7-2025

Walls between us| Possibilities for and with Palestinians

The return of the baltagiya?

Viewpoints_

Thuggery in Egypt is neither new nor random — it’s a systematic, state-enabled tool of repression embedded in daily life, politics, and global security strategy.

Omnia Khalil_ 30-6-2025

The return of the baltagiya?

My crime: Managing a media website!

Viewpoints_

Nora Younis's testimony on her 2020 arrest reveals her ordeal & the ongoing fight for independent media in Egypt, where journalism persists despite arbitrary charges & censorship.

Nora Younis_ 24-6-2025

My crime: Managing a media website!

No happy ending after US strike on Iran

Viewpoints_

Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear sites may redraw the region’s map, but risks sparking a broader war that could engulf the entire Middle East.

Khaled Dawoud_ 23-6-2025

No happy ending after US strike on Iran

Individualism and Violence| Discrimination etched in childhood

Viewpoints_

Class divides, once bridged by education, are now entrenched by multi-tiered systems and fragmented media. This fuels individualism, isolation, and deep-seated inequality.

Mohamed El-Agati_ 15-6-2025

Individualism and Violence| Discrimination etched in childhood

New Nationality: Citizen of the Compound

Viewpoints_

The new cities are now old while ultra-new cities are becoming home for an ultra-elite class. But for those who live in /ˈkaɪ.roʊ/ and visit Al Qahira, are they still Egyptians?

Khaled Dawoud_ 12-6-2025

New Nationality: Citizen of the Compound

Mama Nawal and the bloody business of education

Viewpoints_

Billions amassed by education mogul, El Degwi, ignite a debate: is education a right or a business? The saga highlights the stark contrast between public need and private profit.

Nawwara Negm_ 11-6-2025

Mama Nawal and the bloody business of education

Walls Between Us| Their enemy within

Viewpoints_

Arabs racing to normalize ties with Israel give a false image of Arab public opinion, while anti-Zionist Israelis expose this to the world.

Basel Ramsis_ 10-6-2025

Walls Between Us| Their enemy within

El-Sisi, Alaa, and Laila: The media and the final act

Viewpoints_

As Laila Soueif nears death on hunger strike, Egypt’s press stays silent. Will they cover her fate—or a pardon for her son, Alaa Abdel Fattah?

Basel Ramsis_ 4-6-2025

El-Sisi, Alaa, and Laila: The media and the final act

Individualism and Violence| When society disappears

Viewpoints_

As inequality deepens, isolation grows. Has individualism fractured solidarity, turning communities into spectators and society into strangers?

Mohamed El-Agati_ 3-6-2025

Individualism and Violence| When society disappears

Electoral law and the danger of normalizing silence

Viewpoints_

With elections approaching, Egypt retains a closed-list system that critics say stifles pluralism. Why was there no real push for reform from political actors or parties?

Mohamed Bassal_ 28-5-2025

Electoral law and the danger of normalizing silence

Al-Sharaa’s calculus: Normalization at what cost?

Viewpoints_

Will Ahmed al-Sharaa agree to give up 15% of Syria’s territory to satisfy Donald Trump, who is eager to be photographed at a peace treaty signing between Tel Aviv and Damascus?

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 24-5-2025

Al-Sharaa’s calculus: Normalization at what cost?

A president alone

Viewpoints_

Hamstrung by reliance on US and Gulf handouts, El-Sisi's intervention on Palestine at the Baghdad summit will remain hollow without giving a voice to the Egyptian people

Basel Ramsis_ 23-5-2025

A president alone

The Damanhour wake-up call Egypt can’t ignore

Viewpoints_

Citizens, educators, lawyers and the state alike must draw lessons from this case of child sexual assault. Failure to heed them makes further sectarian eruptions likely.

Ishak Ibrahim_ 21-5-2025

The Damanhour wake-up call Egypt can’t ignore

Walls Between Us| The mind and conscience of the enemy

Viewpoints_

Is "No Other Land" director on the same path shaped by Pappé, Shohat and Sivan—a break with Zionism toward a shared struggle where not all Israelis are enemies. Some are partners.

Basel Ramsis_ 16-5-2025

Walls Between Us| The mind and conscience of the enemy

Who protects the poor in their fight for Palestine?

Viewpoints_

Nicaragua’s recent legal actions reveal the complexities of international support for Palestine and highlight who truly stands with the powerless in Palestine’s fight.

Mohamed Bassal_ 15-5-2025

Who protects the poor in their fight for Palestine?

Walls Between Us| Fame or victory for Palestinians

Viewpoints_

Side by side on the Oscars stage, a Palestinian and an Israeli achieved a historic win for the first time. Maybe fame isn’t the price of defeat. Maybe it’s how walls begin to fall.

Basel Ramsis_ 13-5-2025

Walls Between Us| Fame or victory for Palestinians

Against women’s work: Social media panders to fragile masculinity

Viewpoints_

Social media fuels a war on working women, masking fragile masculinity as morality while blaming women for economic collapse instead of confronting real power structures.

Ahmed Sayed Fathy_ 6-5-2025

Against women’s work: Social media panders to fragile masculinity

Editorial| Al Manassa in English: Claiming the Right to Be Heard

Viewpoints_

We do not promise you neutrality. We are not above the fray. We are in it, sleeves rolled, searching for clarity in the rubble of euphemism & spectacle. What we offer is integrity.

Al Manassa_ 3-5-2025

Editorial| Al Manassa in English: Claiming the Right to Be Heard

When the sea becomes a gated society

Viewpoints_

We gave up the city's spirit for a dreamlike beach, an elite space where the sea has become a class barrier that welcomes only the privileged few.

Alaa Khaled_ 3-5-2025

When the sea becomes a gated society

Reining in the UAE: A key to ending Sudan’s war

Viewpoints_

As Sudan’s war rages on, one foreign power fuels the fire. From gold smuggling to arms deals, the UAE’s role isn’t just strategic—it’s a central obstacle to peace.

Husam Osman Mahjoub_ 2-5-2025

Reining in the UAE: A key to ending Sudan’s war

When thought is no longer taught

Viewpoints_

Once a space to explore meaning, ethics, and they way of life, philosophy is now gone from Egypt’s schools. What are we losing when we stop asking the questions that shape us?

Chadi Gamal_ 2-5-2025

When thought is no longer taught

One breath of home in Gaza City; then back to exile

Viewpoints_

Climbing over the ruins of my home, I sought any trace of life. Amid the wreckage of 40 years, I found it—green seedlings breathing where everything else had died.

Salem Elrayyes_ 27-4-2025

One breath of home in Gaza City; then back to exile