On Gaza’s beach, a young girl kneels beside a sand turtle she shaped with her hands and decorated with seashells. All photographs by Shams Mazen Rajab. Every day, thousands of children wake in tents instead of homes, stand in lines for water instead of classrooms. Play has become a rare luxury, and . . .
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Photo: Islamic University of Gaza. “The science and library buildings.” Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, 2018. Each time I see another student from Gaza manage to leave to pursue their studies, I feel depressed. This is not jealousy. It is the pain of my multiple failed attempts to secure a scholarship and fulfill . . .
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A review of Rising for Palestine: Africans in Solidarity for Decolonisation and Liberation, edited by Raouf Farrah and Suraya Dadoo. Pluto Press, 2026. During a 2025 residency in Lagos, I met with some of the local LGBTQ organizers hosting me. I was wearing a Free Palestine bracelet when someone asked me a . . .
Read MoreOne day recently, I sat down to teach my little sister, Marah, who is six years old. The lesson was about colors in English. But on the pages before us, I found that despite their names all the colors were printed in black. How will children learn the difference between colors when . . .
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One morning, as I sat on the beach near the displacement camp where I live, I was scrolling through my phone when I came across a post about my city, Rafah. It was written in the past tense, as if the city no longer existed. I reached into my bag and touched . . .
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Photo credit: “2015 Dron DJI Phantom 3 Advanced,” from Wikimedia Commons. I have become an expert in distinguishing the sounds of Israeli death blasts. The roar of warplanes. The relentless thump of shelling. Each day in Gaza is a new battle to navigate the different cacophonies of Israel’s massacres. But it’s the . . .
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Since 2014, Ramadan in Gaza has repeatedly arrived under the shadow of war. From Israel’s attack in 2014, to the escalation in 2021, and the ongoing genocide that has cast its shadow over the holy months of 2024, 2025, and 2026, for more than a quarter of the past decade the sacred . . .
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Destruction in Khan Younis, Gaza. Gaza today appears like a place where crises are not managed but accumulated, where collapse is not accidental but deliberately engineered—in full view of the world. Between the warnings of yesterday and the realities of today, a more unsettling question emerges: are we witnessing the early stages . . .
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Photo by Hossein Zohrevand.“Attack on Gandhi Hospital,” (#15) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. What is unfolding across West Asia is a colonial project that, if allowed to continue, will ultimately pave the way for a Greater Israel and end any prospects for Palestinian freedom. In October 2003, the recently assassinated Ali Khamenei declared . . .
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Amna (left) and Alaa (right). Note: This is the second of two Public Affairs posts by twin sisters in Gaza, Alaa and Amna Dmeida. The first, by Amna Dmeida, Gaza in the New Year: Countdown to Death, Not Celebration, was published on February 13th. Today we bring you Alaa Dmeida’s powerful memories . . .
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