Azad Essa

Johannesburg

Journalist @MiddleEastEye; Author of Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel (Pluto Press); My newsletter: https://t.co/532Fyq3FUZ

Articles

'No war on Iran': New Yorkers rally against US and Israeli regime change plans

1 week ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa |Andreas Krieg

On a sweltering summer evening in New York City on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters assembled on the steps of the New York Public Library in Manhattan to convey what they said was a clear message to the city and country's elected officials: 'No War on Iran'. The emergency protest, organised by a coalition of advocacy groups in New York and in several cities across the country, came as rumours swirled of a possible announcement of direct US military intervention in Israel's attacks on Iran.
Meet The American Military Veterans Fasting For Gaza

1 week ago | popularresistance.org | Azad Essa

Above photo: Joy Metzler at the Air Force Academy graduation in 2023. Supplied/Joy Metzler. Hundreds of US veterans and allies have been fasting for weeks across the country. In protest against the ongoing war in Gaza. Joy Metzler was a second lieutenant in the US Air Force when Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in protest against the US’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza. The 23-year-old Metzler was so moved by Bushnell’s sacrifice in February 2024 that she began researching Palestine.
Meet the American military veterans fasting for Gaza

1 week ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa

Joy Metzler was a second lieutenant in the US Air Force when Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in protest against the US's role in Israel's war on Gaza. The 23-year-old Metzler was so moved by Bushnell's sacrifice in February 2024 that she began researching Palestine. Horrified by Israel's occupation and US backing for what human rights groups and scholars have described as acts of genocide in Gaza, she became a conscientious objector to the war, choosing to leave the air force in August 2024.
What activists hope to achieve with the 'Global March to Gaza'

3 weeks ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa

Activists around the world say they have had enough. With more than 54,000 Palestinians killed, thousands more buried under rubble and unaccounted for, tens of thousands of others injured, maimed, and orphaned, and with close to the entire population of the besieged strip being starved, activists say it's time to take matters into their own hands. Even if it means knocking on the gates around Gaza.
The quiet migration: Why Muslims are leaving India in staggering numbers

3 weeks ago | middleeasteye.net | Hanan Zaffar |Azad Essa

When *Taufeeq Ahmed boarded a flight from New Delhi to Canada in early 2020, he wasn’t chasing a promotion, a degree or the promise of a better paycheque. Instead, he was trying to leave something behind - a heavy sense of unease that had been quietly building for years, and a fear that had finally become impossible to ignore. “I lived close to Jamia Millia Islamia,” he said, referring to the prominent university in New Delhi where he used to study.
Has Israel manufactured a famine in Gaza?

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa

The markets are empty. The make-shift hospitals are bare. The water is contaminated. The aid trucks are nowhere in sight. Gaza is being starved, and rights groups say, deliberately. At least 57 children have starved to death since 2 March, and 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months.
Why claims of 'white genocide' in South Africa are cruelly ironic

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Marco Carnelos |Azad Essa

It was an afternoon of several cruel ironies. With the genocide in Gaza reaching barely fathomable levels of brutality over the past several days, including a UN warning about the imminent deaths of up to 14,000 infants, US President Donald Trump accused South Africa of conducting a “white genocide”. Trump, not known for his deference, flat out asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to explain the killings of white farmers in the country.
India's attack on Pakistan is a declaration of Israel-style expansionism

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian army launched a series of air raids on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The airstrikes hit mosques and madrassas as well as residential complexes, leaving 31 civilians dead, including several children, the Pakistani government said.
Lawyers lament treatment of detained Indian academic Badar Khan Suri

1 month ago | middleeasteye.net | Azad Essa

On 17 March, Badar Khan Suri, the Indian post-doctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was picked up by masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security outside his home in Virginia.
No introspection, only jingoism after Kashmir attack

2 months ago | azadessa.substack.com | Azad Essa

On 22 April, several gunmen opened fire on a group of visitors in the scenic Pahalgam area of Indian-occupied Kashmir. At least 25 people, the majority of whom were Indian tourists, were killed. One Kashmiri and one Nepali were also killed. Several others were also injured. According to the Indian media, the Resistance Front (TRF), a militant group banned by New Delhi, claimed responsibility for the attacks. No one has been able to independently verify this.