Naksa at 59 : The Haaretz exposed what Egypt’s Akher Saa published from 59 years ago “The 1967 War Crimes That Israelis Do not Know About”

It is Naksa Day, and we are still living with its consequences.

Even in Egypt, despite the 1973 War and the return of Sinai, we continue to live with — and suffer from — its regional repercussions.

We have also failed to learn, or perhaps have forgotten, many of the lessons that we, as Egyptians and Arabs, should have drawn from that defeat — politically before militarily.

The same underlying causes not only still exist in Cairo, but across capitals throughout the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf.

This year, on the 59th anniversary of the Naksa, Haaretz published yet another bombshell for the Israeli public under the headline, "We Were Ordered to Kill": The 1967 Nakba That Israelis Don't Know About.

These testimonies expose a stark, unbridgeable gap between Israel’s carefully curated collective memory and the brutal reality of 1967.

In other words, they tear away the false narrative propagated by Israel’s military propaganda machine—a myth fed for decades to the Western world and the Israeli public to frame theirs as “the most moral army in the Middle East, if not the universe.”

The leftist-liberal Israeli newspaper revealed that newly uncovered documents indicate that 300,000 Arabs were expelled or forcibly displaced from the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights amid systemic violence, looting, and wholesale destruction.

Among the leaked files was a 1967 memorandum from Israel’s legal advisor famous judge Theodor Meron, explicitly warning senior Israeli officials that the forced expulsion of Palestinian civilians constituted "a serious violation of the Geneva Convention."

What the Israeli army perpetrated in the Sinai was mentioned only briefly in the Haaretz piece, primarily because those other captured territories remain under Israeli occupation today, unlike the Sinai, which Egypt successfully regained. (I will review the specific atrocities committed on the Egyptian front in a separate, upcoming post).

To be frank, nothing in Haaretz’s report about Israeli war crimes was new to me as an Egyptian, nor would it be new to most Arabs.

Egyptians and Palestinians have been shouting these truths to a deaf world—especially to the West—for nearly six decades.

Yet, despite a mountain of archival evidence and countless firsthand survivor and victim testimonies, much of the global community only began paying attention when an Israeli newspaper published the soldiers and victimizers’ letters.

A Note on Historical Context and Language

Before we dive into the archives, I must clarify an important linguistic choice in my translations. In translating the summer 1967 press reports detailing the tragic exodus from the West Bank, I have intentionally preserved the original text’s use of the terms "Arab refugees" and "Arab residents" rather than modernizing them to "Palestinians."

While a modern audience automatically views these events through a specific Palestinian national lens, the nationalized Egyptian press of 1967 was operating under a dual legacy. First was the linguistic residue of the British Mandate, which categorized the region strictly into "Arabs and Jews." Second was the ideological peak of Nasserite Pan-Arabism, which framed the defense of Palestine not as an isolated local conflict, but as a collective Arab responsibility.

Ironically, preserving this older vocabulary completely dismantles modern Zionist propaganda claiming that Egypt "invented" the Palestinian identity in the mid-1960s. The archival record demonstrates a deeply rooted population whose distinct connection to the land was so universally understood that reporters used the local and regional terms interchangeably.

I used both the AUC Rare Books and Collections Online library as well as the Torath Misr Official website, which is still in Beta phase

The Robin Dispatch from River Jordan

Happy Eid — If You Are Not Palestinian or Lebanese

It was supposed to be a happy Eid for the two girls — at last — after two hard years of survival and hunger that made them, like every other child in Gaza, older than their age and afraid of what tomorrow might bring.

It was supposed to be a happy Eid eve. Their mother took them to one of the remaining markets in Gaza to buy Eid outfits, to make them feel happy, to make them feel like children — but they are Palestinian kids living in Gaza, where the odds of happiness, like any other child's, are very few.

They went after the Day of Arafat Iftar to get the clothes, only to find the Israeli army bombing the market. Suddenly, everyone was scattered, everyone was searching for everyone else — and above all, for safety.

The two girls — the eldest stepped into the role of the adult, looking around in shock, while the younger one, in disbelief, shook her head and waved her arms in denial as their mother lay badly injured in the street.

Mo Salah ends Liverpool chapter: All Hail to the Egyptian King

In his final moment, in his final game as a forward for Liverpool at Anfield, Mohamed Salah — commonly known as the Egyptian King — prostrated himself, performing a Sujood to thank Allah, the Almighty, the King of Kings, before thousands inside the stadium and millions watching via television and platforms around the globe.

Sujood is the closest a Muslim can be to his Creator.

Prostrating to thank God at the peak of your success is a sign of extreme humility and gratitude — a declaration that you have not forgotten who helped you get there.

For me and other Egyptians  — we understood exactly what Salah felt in that moment: teary-eyed, with Anfield rocking around him.

It was a truly epic moment, a fitting close to a great chapter in Egyptian, British, and world football by any measure.

Needless to say, there were other unforgettable moments in a match that was, frankly, a welcome escape for me and many others from Trump's ongoing mad show in the Middle East.

Nakba at 78: Watch These Videos

Today marks Nakba Day, and although the Nakba is not just history but an ongoing reality — one that now seems to be expanding far beyond the land of Palestine — it remains important to remember the past and set the record straight.

For 78 years, one narrative was largely embraced and amplified across much of the Western world. That is why it is important — and our duty — to highlight the long-neglected Palestinian narrative.

This year, I urge you to watch these short clips.

1st May Labour Day : The Seven Factory Girls.

It is May Day — Labour Day, aka International Workers Day in Egypt — and I have to say that, despite all the official statements, I am a bit disappointed and angry.

Two weeks ago, Egypt had its own mini–Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and it did not stay in the news cycle for more than 72 hours — or, to be more accurate, the social media news cycle — before it disappeared. And that made me angry.

On 14 April, a tragic incident unfolded in the Ard El-Geneina area of Cairo's working-class Al-Zawiya Al-Hamra neighbourhood, after a massive fire broke out inside a sports trainers and sneakers factory on Mohamed Amin Street.

Preliminary investigations confirmed seven people dead, as civil defence forces continued to comb through the site to identify any additional casualties or injuries resulting from the blaze.

That was the initial official statement. Then, unofficially, the details of the tragedy began to emerge.

Seven young women died, and five others were injured after a fire broke out in an unlicensed shoe manufacturing workshop in a very narrow alley in Cairo's Zawiya Al-Hamra district, authorities said.

The blaze erupted inside a three-storey building of approximately 70 square metres per floor, operating without a license as a leather shoe production facility. The ground floor was used for storage, while the first and second floors served as production areas — a layout that accelerated the fire's spread due to the concentration of flammable materials on site.

The so-called factory after the fire

The victims were girls between 19 and 30 years old, earning roughly 100 Egyptian pounds per day.

An initial inspection found a complete absence of occupational safety measures and no emergency exits, which investigators say trapped the workers as the fire spread rapidly through the smoke-filled space over nearly four hours.

Eyewitnesses reported that the doors were locked and the windows were closed and secured, blocking any means of escape.

Residents called for a full investigation and accountability for all parties responsible, starting with the workshop owner, who denied any wrongdoing. Security forces arrested the workshop's owner following the incident.

The incident — a grim echo of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire — renewed scrutiny of unlicensed industrial operations and the enforcement of safety regulations in residential buildings across Cairo.

The Land of Abraham and Sons: Why Ramesses II can not be and can be “the pharaoh of exodus”- Islamic Edition

On Wednesday, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that an Egyptian archaeological mission had uncovered a massive ancient statue at the Tell El-Faraoun site in El-Husseiniya, Sharqia Governorate.

The statue is believed to depict King Ramesses II of Ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom.

Carved from pink granite, it was found missing its lower half, including the legs and base.

Despite its incomplete state, archaeologists say the surviving features clearly point to royal iconography associated with Ramesses II.

The remains of the statue found at the location 
"SCA"

According to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the discovery offers new insight into royal and religious life in the eastern Nile Delta. 

Initial studies suggest that the statue may not have originally stood at Tell El-Faraoun. Instead, it was likely transported in antiquity from Per-Ramesses—the royal capital during Ramesses II’s reign—to the site, known in ancient times as Imet, where it may have been reused within a religious complex.

The excavation site at Tell El-Faraoun in Sharkia governorate
 "SCA"

I hesitate to say it, but such archaeological announcements have become almost routine in Egypt these days, appearing every few days. 

What I did not expect, however, was for this particular discovery to attract widespread attention and go viral—until a report by the Daily Mail the following day reframed the narrative.

Free Ahmed Shihab El-Din , Journalism is not a crime "Updated : Ahmed is Acquitted and left Kuwait safely"

Updated on Thursday, 23 April  2026: a Kuwaiti court acquitted US-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on all charges following nearly two months of detention. He has not yet been released, though.

Updated on  Saturday, 25 April 2026: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin and left Kuwait safely.

The news came officially from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, an award-winning Kuwaiti-American journalist of Palestinian origins who posts prolifically on social media, especially on Twitter, where he is known as @ASE, was arrested in Kuwait on March 3, 2026.

"It is understood that authorities have charged him with spreading false information, harming national security, and misusing his mobile phone – vague and overly broad accusations that are routinely used to silence independent journalists," the CPJ statement said, calling on the Kuwaiti government to release him.

In the days before his detention, Shihab-Eldin — who was visiting his family in Kuwait — shared publicly available videos and images related to the US-Israel war on Iran and the Iranian retaliation on Gulf states, just as any respectable professional journalist would do in his place.

Ahmed Shihab El-Din in Doha Film Festival 

On March 2, he shared photos and videos of a US fighter jet that crashed in Kuwait on Substack. 

That video had been geolocated and verified by CNN. None of his posts were photos or videos he took himself.

What makes this case particularly absurd from a legal standpoint is the timing.

Kuwait enacted Law No. 13 of 2026, aimed at safeguarding and protecting the supreme interests of military authorities, on March 15— nearly two weeks after his arrest on March 3.

He was therefore arrested and charged under a law that did not yet exist at the time of his alleged offense.

The law carries prison terms of up to 10 years for spreading false rumours related to military entities with the intent of undermining confidence in them.

CPJ launched a campaign for his release under the hashtag #FreeAhmed with an online petition.

Several international organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch demanded his release.

The story was covered by several Western news outlets. Several US senators and members of Congress raised his case as an American citizen — but as of today, nothing has moved on the Kuwaiti side.

Updated: Most critically — as of yesterday, April 22: his international legal counsel issued an urgent statement saying they were "extremely concerned for Ahmed's safety and wellbeing" in Kuwaiti detention.