Sebastian Shehadi

London

Freelance journalist & contributing writer @NewStatesman. Formerly @FT Specialist and @InvestMonitorAI. Currently @Tesco eating reduced food. 🇱🇧🇬🇧 He/Him.

Featured in: Favicon

newstatesmanmedia.com Favicon

investmentmonitor.ai Favicon

bbc.co.uk

ft.com

metro.co.uk Favicon

yahoo.com (+2) Favicon

milenio.com Favicon

substack.com Favicon

newstatesman.com Favicon

middleeasteye.net + 46 more

Articles

In conversation with Munir Atalla from Watermelon Pictures

3 weeks ago | newarab.com | Sebastian Shehadi

“From the river to the screen, Palestine will be seen,” read the motto of US-based film distribution company Watermelon Pictures in its memorable launch video last year. Just 14 months later, the Palestinian-owned film label has ballooned in visibility and reputation thanks to a series of successful releases – including The Encampments, The Teacher and the Oscar-shortlisted From Ground Zero – as well as its consistently savvy Instagram account. Watermelon Pictures wears several hats.
Syrian women's long struggle in the military-security sectors

1 month ago | newarab.com | Laure Delacloche |Sebastian Shehadi

Despite the significant progress achieved by Syrian women over the years of struggle in education, medicine, and politics, they continue to be dismissed and marginalised in the military and security fields, due to deep-rooted political and cultural stereotypes around gender roles. For decades, Syrian women have been unable to climb anything beyond very junior roles in both the military and security sectors.
SNP’s Brendan O’Hara on the Gaza genocide and UK’s hypocrisy

1 month ago | newarab.com | Sebastian Shehadi

Brendan O'Hara is the Scottish National Party’s Middle East Spokesperson and MP for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber. He has been an MP continually since May 2015, making him one of the longest-serving parliamentarians for the Scottish National Party. Before his time in politics, O’Hara had a successful career as a TV producer with STV, Sky and the BBC.
Louis Theroux's The Settlers shows the violence at Israel's core

1 month ago | newarab.com | Sebastian Shehadi

Give someone enough rope, and they will hang themselves. Israeli settlers, however, hardly need any prompting at all, as expertly shown by Louis Theroux (the king of prompting) in his latest film, The Settlers. The result is one hour of unvarnished arrogance, racism and anti-Palestinian hate, as expressed through figures such as Daniella Weiss, the ‘Godmother’ of Israel’s settler movement.
Syrian Christians embrace Easter with caution

2 months ago | newarab.com | Laure Delacloche |Sebastian Shehadi

In Al Hamidiyah, Homs’s historic Christian-majority neighbourhood, 40-year-old Bashar Hors joined Palm Sunday celebrations with his wife and young daughter at the Um Al Zennar Cathedral — one of the world’s oldest churches. In a country with a complex patchwork of religious minorities, wary of new Islamist governance and sudden sectarian flare-ups, the atmosphere, Bashar said, felt almost normal.
The truth of Columbia’s Palestine protests in The Encampments

2 months ago | newarab.com | Sebastian Shehadi

The Encampments, a new documentary about the 2024 student protests against the war in Gaza, is off to a striking start. With a projected per-screen average of over $80,000 and sold-out screenings during its debut screening in New York, the Macklemore-produced film is shaping up to be one of the most successful documentary openings of the year, making a major milestone for indie distributor Watermelon Pictures. Directed by Michael T.
Racism in Israeli football did not kick off with Gaza genocide

Mar 27, 2025 | newarab.com | Sebastian Shehadi

Anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are a normalised part of Israeli football though over the last 16 months of the genocide in Gaza, it has only grown worse and spread to Western capitals, most recently Amsterdam. Racism in Israeli football, however, is nothing new. "Let the IDF win and f**k the Arabs. Why is school out [in Gaza]? There are no children left there,” goes a popular chant from one of Israel’s biggest football clubs, Maccabi Tel Aviv FC.
‘We’re Witnessing the Last Gasp of Israeli Violence’: In Conversation With Avi Shlaim

Mar 21, 2025 | novaramedia.com | Sebastian Shehadi

Few Israeli historians have held the state’s national myths to account like Avi Shlaim. Emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, Shlaim is among the most celebrated historians of modern Palestinian and Israeli history. Born into an Arab-Jewish family in 1945 Iraq and later moving to Israel, Shlaim’s academic journey is marked by his critical, nuanced and personal approach, shaped in no small part by his service in the Israeli army during the mid-1960s.
'Our Enemies Commit Genocide, Not Our Friends'

Mar 20, 2025 | znetwork.org | William Schabas |Sebastian Shehadi

As both an academic and legal practitioner, there are a few individuals who have studied genocide the way William Schabas has for over 35 years. At the start of his career, he was among the first Western voices to warn of an impending genocide in Rwanda back in 1993. Today, he is professor of international law at Middlesex University and professor of international human rights at Leiden University.
Our Enemies Commit Genocide, Not Our Friends

Mar 17, 2025 | transcend.org | Sebastian Shehadi

Sebastian Shehadi | The New Arab - TRANSCEND Media Service 11 Mar 2025 – Leading genocide scholar and lawyer William Schabas on why Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including its self-defense rhetoric, are unlikely to succeed in court; the double standards applied to Israel’s horrific crimes in Gaza. As both an academic and legal practitioner, there are a few individuals who have studied genocide the way William Schabas has for over 35 years.