Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Outside interference, ostensibly on behalf of these 'revolutions', reduced Libya to anarchy and condemned Syria to a devastating proxy war now in its twelfth year. In Egypt, the Free Officers' state was re-booted in its most brutal ever form. The Americans and Europeans did not vainly try to help the Egyptians or anyone else escape from authoritarian rule. Instead, they contrived to seal them up in it. The long oppression of these societies, Kipling’s 'loved Egyptian night', is not going to be ended by the Western powers; these days it is guaranteed by them. Hugh Roberts 's new book political history of the risings in Egypt, Libya and Syria explains how the Western powers manipulated them all .

The junta belt Image via  Colonel Assima Goita  on X.

Indiscriminate airstrikes have been a U.S. hallmark from the “banana wars” to the forever wars. Related Legacy of Violence My Lai 1968 Source: britannica.com

Wagner Group's capabilities have been honed in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in Africa

It is like that ‘motto’ we heard a few times after 9/11 2001: “We have to fight them there, so they don’t come here.” Paying Africa’s brutal militias to lock up migrants

Deadly sea crossing to Europe

Sir John Saunders, the chair of the inquiry, said the mosque had displayed "weak leadership" in failing t  address what an expert witness to the inquiry described as a "very toxic political environment" fuelled by conflict and unrest in Libya. Tracey Pook, the Didsbury Mosque's community engagement coordinator, has been monitoring the number of threats the centre has received and said they had been growing by the hour.  "Having compiled the threats and attacks, I've seen people say the mosque should be demolished, that extremists live here, and that the centre is somehow responsible for the murder of children," Pook told Middle East Eye . Words like ‘extremism’, ‘radicalism’ and ‘terrorism’ apply only to describe violence committed by individuals or organisations. Those who monopolise definitions - when they exist – and concepts throughout history are crucial in manufacturing ‘public opinion’ and producing emotive reaction, and therefore, opinions

The emergence of a ruling class?

Enduring entanglements

This book [ Genocide in Libya ] is not meant to be conclusive, but to bring out Libya and Libya’s brutal, genocidal colonial history. And to get rid of that common and really absurd way of thinking that goes “I don’t know anything about Libya, so I’m going to talk about tribalism, I’m going to talk about [Muammar] al-Qaddafi, about regionalism or religion.” Who doesn’t have regions? Who doesn’t have these social complexities? An interview with Ali Abdullatif Ahmida Related There was no a Nuremberg trials for Italian fascists

Fuelling political violence across the continent

A very good piece. Unfortunately, access to the article requires subscription. The violence of the nation state

Arms, aid and counter-revolution

Scale of Russian mercenary mission

Does she believe Europe will want her, I ask, given that she arrived through illegal passage. "Let them say that I came in an illegal way," she replies "but if they ask me and hear my story, they will understand my pain." They will not understand your pain; they will apply “the law” in a hostile climate of a Europe that has seen a rise of the far-right and economic stagnation. They will look at you as the Other, the undesirable, and a threat to their standard of living, and their superior nation-state.  They have already forgotten what the immigrant workers have done during the pandemic.

  Who are the real anti-imperialists?

  Gaddafi’s Libya Has Never Existed

  At the crossroads?

The brothers who terrorised a Libyan town Related The Western powers that helped destroy Libya A 2013 paper by Alan Kuperman argued that NATO went beyond its remit of providing protection for civilians and instead supported the rebels by engaging in regime change. It argued that NATO's intervention likely extended the length (and thus damage) of the civil war, which Kuperman argued could have ended in less than two months without NATO intervention. The paper argued that the intervention was based on a misperception of the danger Gadaffi's forces posed to the civilian population, which Kuperman suggests was caused by existing bias against Gadaffi due to his past actions (such as support for terrorism), sloppy and sensationalistic journalism during the early stages of the war and propaganda from anti-government forces. Kuperman suggests that this demonization of Gadaffi, which was used to justify the intervention, ended up discouraging efforts to accept a ceasefire and negotiated

“We did all we could to rescue those onboard,” said the medical team of the NGO Italian Emergency, operating onboard the Open Arms. “All this took place just a few kilometres away from an indifferent Europe. Instead of preparing a structured search and rescue system, they instead continue to bury their heads in the sand, pretending not to see the cemetery that the Mediterranean sea has become.” Just more dark-skinned people have ‘died’. In fact, they were killed by indifference and negligence. They were killed because many walls have been erected to keep the Other away. They were killed because some rescue boats/organisations are underfunded or stopped from operating. They were killed because some Western states led by NATO helped make Libya lawless. They were killed because, like other human beings,  they sought a better life. They were killed because for decades local regimes working with international institutions have not been able to create decent jobs and improve the lives of the