Ben Ashraf
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
Editor, The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social
submissions: benjamin.ashraf@newarab.com
submissions: benjamin.ashraf@newarab.com
Pinned
Ben Ashraf
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
· Nov 19
Hello, brave new world — let's start this again.
I’m Ben Ashraf, editor at @thenewarab.bsky.social, stuck somewhere between London and Amman. I’ll be sharing MENA news, plus hidden histories from the Maghreb to Mashriq.
Got an idea or want to write for TNA? Drop a DM — we're all friends here now!
I’m Ben Ashraf, editor at @thenewarab.bsky.social, stuck somewhere between London and Amman. I’ll be sharing MENA news, plus hidden histories from the Maghreb to Mashriq.
Got an idea or want to write for TNA? Drop a DM — we're all friends here now!
GHF aid in Gaza, where bread is rationed in blood, is manned by US contractors wearing leather jackets, crusader crosses, and Infidel tattoos.
US empire doesn’t hide — it franchises out. Infidels MC is just Blackwater 2.0 in Gaza.
First op-ed in @mondoweiss.net
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
US empire doesn’t hide — it franchises out. Infidels MC is just Blackwater 2.0 in Gaza.
First op-ed in @mondoweiss.net
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
The Islamophobic biker gang running Gaza aid sites is just the U.S. empire in a leather jacket
Infidels MC, an “anti-Islamic” biker gang turned militia, now mans Gaza’s aid checkpoints. From Blackwater to the Pentagon, Islamophobia is no aberration, but the blueprint.
mondoweiss.net
September 21, 2025 at 8:46 AM
GHF aid in Gaza, where bread is rationed in blood, is manned by US contractors wearing leather jackets, crusader crosses, and Infidel tattoos.
US empire doesn’t hide — it franchises out. Infidels MC is just Blackwater 2.0 in Gaza.
First op-ed in @mondoweiss.net
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
US empire doesn’t hide — it franchises out. Infidels MC is just Blackwater 2.0 in Gaza.
First op-ed in @mondoweiss.net
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
Infidels MC, an "anti-Islamic" biker gang turned militia, now mans Gaza’s aid checkpoints. From Blackwater to the Pentagon, Islamophobia is no aberration, but the blueprint.
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
#Palestine #Israel
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
#Palestine #Israel
The Islamophobic biker gang running Gaza aid sites is just the U.S. empire in a leather jacket
Infidels MC, an “anti-Islamic” biker gang turned militia, now mans Gaza’s aid checkpoints. From Blackwater to the Pentagon, Islamophobia is no aberration, but the blueprint.
mondoweiss.net
September 19, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Infidels MC, an "anti-Islamic" biker gang turned militia, now mans Gaza’s aid checkpoints. From Blackwater to the Pentagon, Islamophobia is no aberration, but the blueprint.
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
#Palestine #Israel
mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-...
#Palestine #Israel
Israel sells bikinis and trance while Gaza starves. In my first Op-ed for @aljazeera.com I write on how Israel weaponises pleasure — its all-inclusive apartheid sells forgetting Palestinians as ‘fun’.
www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
Hasbara with glitter: Israel’s politics of pleasure
Leisure has long been a colonial cover for brutality; Israel refines it with festivals, pride and travel culture.
www.aljazeera.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Israel sells bikinis and trance while Gaza starves. In my first Op-ed for @aljazeera.com I write on how Israel weaponises pleasure — its all-inclusive apartheid sells forgetting Palestinians as ‘fun’.
www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
BBC clutched pearls over Bob Vylan saying “death to the IDF”.
Israeli artists have been singing about killing Palestinians for 50+ years, without a whisper of backlash.
Read Shahla Omar and my 2023 feature on Israel's military-pop complex. @thenewarab.bsky.social
www.newarab.com/features/sou...
Israeli artists have been singing about killing Palestinians for 50+ years, without a whisper of backlash.
Read Shahla Omar and my 2023 feature on Israel's military-pop complex. @thenewarab.bsky.social
www.newarab.com/features/sou...
Soundtrack to genocide: Inside Israel’s military-pop complex
Emboldened by far-right rhetoric, a new music genre has emerged in Israel, one that celebrates the death of Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza.
www.newarab.com
June 30, 2025 at 1:31 PM
BBC clutched pearls over Bob Vylan saying “death to the IDF”.
Israeli artists have been singing about killing Palestinians for 50+ years, without a whisper of backlash.
Read Shahla Omar and my 2023 feature on Israel's military-pop complex. @thenewarab.bsky.social
www.newarab.com/features/sou...
Israeli artists have been singing about killing Palestinians for 50+ years, without a whisper of backlash.
Read Shahla Omar and my 2023 feature on Israel's military-pop complex. @thenewarab.bsky.social
www.newarab.com/features/sou...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
India and Pakistan are heading toward war in Kashmir, driven by manufactured hatred, collective trauma, and an appetite for bloodlust, @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social writes ⬇
India, Pakistan, Kashmir: How religious nihilism can go nuclear
India and Pakistan are heading toward war in Kashmir, driven by manufactured hatred, collective trauma, and an appetite for bloodlust, says Benjamin Ashraf.
www.newarab.com
May 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
India and Pakistan are heading toward war in Kashmir, driven by manufactured hatred, collective trauma, and an appetite for bloodlust, @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social writes ⬇
Really excited to chair such an important discussion. Catch Ilan, Katy, Nadine and I at Reference Point on April 4.
Book Launch: Palestine in a World on Fire
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
March 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Really excited to chair such an important discussion. Catch Ilan, Katy, Nadine and I at Reference Point on April 4.
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
For The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social l wrote about Mahmoud Khalil and our collective complicity in genocide
www.newarab.com/opinion/ivy-...
Thanks to @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social for wonderful editing.
www.newarab.com/opinion/ivy-...
Thanks to @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social for wonderful editing.
Ivy League’s tenured complicity in deportation of Mahmoud Khalil
Failed by Columbia’s faculty, the responsibility of upholding Edward Said’s legacy now falls to students like Mahmoud Khalil, says Rebecca Ruth Gould.
www.newarab.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM
For The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social l wrote about Mahmoud Khalil and our collective complicity in genocide
www.newarab.com/opinion/ivy-...
Thanks to @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social for wonderful editing.
www.newarab.com/opinion/ivy-...
Thanks to @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social for wonderful editing.
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
Book Launch: Palestine in a World on Fire
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
March 20, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Book Launch: Palestine in a World on Fire
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
Join Ilan Pappé & Katherine Natanel for the launch of their powerful new book w @ashrafzeneca.bsky.social
📅 Fri, April 4
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Reference Point (London, UK)
A @haymarketbooks.org & The New Arab event
Reservations: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
"Here was an African American woman treated with compassion, receiving free housing & healthcare in a country Joe Biden once deemed 'one of the most dangerous in the world'."
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
Emily in Karachi: Why 'American woman in Pakistan' won my heart
Onijah Robinson flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment in Western media in this captivating yet chaotic TikTok saga, says Benjamin Ashraf.
www.newarab.com
February 13, 2025 at 3:23 PM
"Here was an African American woman treated with compassion, receiving free housing & healthcare in a country Joe Biden once deemed 'one of the most dangerous in the world'."
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
the headline lmao
"Here was an African American woman treated with compassion, receiving free housing & healthcare in a country Joe Biden once deemed 'one of the most dangerous in the world'."
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
@ashrafzeneca.bsky.social on how Onijah Robinson's TikTok saga flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment 👇
Emily in Karachi: Why 'American woman in Pakistan' won my heart
Onijah Robinson flipped the script on decades of anti-Pakistan sentiment in Western media in this captivating yet chaotic TikTok saga, says Benjamin Ashraf.
www.newarab.com
February 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM
the headline lmao
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
WSJ sub: “Indian Partition went smoothly enough, right? Will try to remember to check this before publishing.”
February 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM
WSJ sub: “Indian Partition went smoothly enough, right? Will try to remember to check this before publishing.”
Mouin Rabbani in The New Arab: "The challenge now is to impress upon Washington that its interests are better served by compelling Israel to fulfil its commitments under the ceasefire agreements it was forced to accept, rather than indulge its genocidal fantasies"
www.newarab.com/opinion/trum...
www.newarab.com/opinion/trum...
Is Trump's Gaza 'takeover' actually Jared Kushner's last hurrah?
Trump isn’t the first to propose the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Even if his plan fails, it still reinforces Israel's genocidal designs, writes Mouin Rabbani.
www.newarab.com
February 6, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Mouin Rabbani in The New Arab: "The challenge now is to impress upon Washington that its interests are better served by compelling Israel to fulfil its commitments under the ceasefire agreements it was forced to accept, rather than indulge its genocidal fantasies"
www.newarab.com/opinion/trum...
www.newarab.com/opinion/trum...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
If you haven't already, please read my opinion on the secular/Islamist binary (with regard to Syria in particular) and what should replace it.
Neither Secularism Nor Islamism…
I’m really happy to have published this with New Lines Magazine, an excellent initiative in long-form journalism organized by some of the very best people in the field. al-Sharaa enters the U…
qunfuz.com
January 28, 2025 at 9:50 PM
If you haven't already, please read my opinion on the secular/Islamist binary (with regard to Syria in particular) and what should replace it.
The New Arab’s 2024 retrospectives begin, as they should, with my dear friend Abubaker Abed’s reflections of one year of genocide in Gaza.
An intensely emotive piece, let this be another reminder of our apocalyptic failings.
www.newarab.com/opinion/im-b...
An intensely emotive piece, let this be another reminder of our apocalyptic failings.
www.newarab.com/opinion/im-b...
I'm barely alive. Let 2025 not be a third year of Gaza genocide
Gaza has lived and died through a year of Israeli genocide. With 2025 nearing, there isn't much left other than the faint hope of peace, says Abubaker Abed.
www.newarab.com
December 21, 2024 at 5:54 AM
The New Arab’s 2024 retrospectives begin, as they should, with my dear friend Abubaker Abed’s reflections of one year of genocide in Gaza.
An intensely emotive piece, let this be another reminder of our apocalyptic failings.
www.newarab.com/opinion/im-b...
An intensely emotive piece, let this be another reminder of our apocalyptic failings.
www.newarab.com/opinion/im-b...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
The red ropes seen in the video were used for daily executions in Sednaya Prison. They should stand as one of the symbols of the dark era Syria endured under the rule of the Assad family and their prisons.
December 9, 2024 at 8:48 AM
The red ropes seen in the video were used for daily executions in Sednaya Prison. They should stand as one of the symbols of the dark era Syria endured under the rule of the Assad family and their prisons.
"My eyes are on you, O Damascus, for it is from you that the morning flows"
A brilliant piece of writing from @kshaheen.bsky.social — Stand tall!
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...
A brilliant piece of writing from @kshaheen.bsky.social — Stand tall!
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...
Dawn in Damascus
In the end, Bashar al-Assad had nothing to say to the country he bludgeoned and bled, but what matters now is that his ‘forever’ rule is over
newlinesmag.com
December 9, 2024 at 9:14 AM
"My eyes are on you, O Damascus, for it is from you that the morning flows"
A brilliant piece of writing from @kshaheen.bsky.social — Stand tall!
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...
A brilliant piece of writing from @kshaheen.bsky.social — Stand tall!
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/da...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
I wrote this quickly on Syria's national liberation from fascism and imperialism.
Liberation
The Syrian Revolution: the most thoroughgoing, diverse, persistent and resilient revolution in all human history. The revolutionary Syrian people: a people that risked everything, lost everything, …
qunfuz.com
December 8, 2024 at 11:50 AM
I wrote this quickly on Syria's national liberation from fascism and imperialism.
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
These four men were going to be executed today by the Assad regime. “Our executions were going to be half an hour ago.”
December 8, 2024 at 10:21 AM
These four men were going to be executed today by the Assad regime. “Our executions were going to be half an hour ago.”
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
Moammar has been searching for his brother for 39 years, arrested by Syrian soldiers in Lebanon when he was 18. He hadn’t heard anything from him since.
Until Thursday, when his brother emerged from Hama prison as an old man, 39 years later.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
Until Thursday, when his brother emerged from Hama prison as an old man, 39 years later.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
‘He has come out an old man’: joy and grief as loved ones released from Assad prisons
Family members describe renewed hopes after decades-long searches for political detainees in ‘Kingdom of Silence’
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2024 at 11:31 AM
Moammar has been searching for his brother for 39 years, arrested by Syrian soldiers in Lebanon when he was 18. He hadn’t heard anything from him since.
Until Thursday, when his brother emerged from Hama prison as an old man, 39 years later.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
Until Thursday, when his brother emerged from Hama prison as an old man, 39 years later.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...
Mouin Rabbani makes his debut for The New Arab!
By refusing to enforce ICC warrants, the West has hardened its support for Israel's genocide, relying on absurd justifications to do so, he writes.
Israel and the ICC: A Catch-22 for the West's rules-based order.
www.newarab.com/opinion/isra...
By refusing to enforce ICC warrants, the West has hardened its support for Israel's genocide, relying on absurd justifications to do so, he writes.
Israel and the ICC: A Catch-22 for the West's rules-based order.
www.newarab.com/opinion/isra...
Israel and the ICC: A Catch-22 for the West's rules-based order
By refusing to enforce ICC warrants, the West has hardened its support for Israel's genocide, relying on absurd justifications to do so, says Mouin Rabbani.
www.newarab.com
December 3, 2024 at 6:59 PM
Mouin Rabbani makes his debut for The New Arab!
By refusing to enforce ICC warrants, the West has hardened its support for Israel's genocide, relying on absurd justifications to do so, he writes.
Israel and the ICC: A Catch-22 for the West's rules-based order.
www.newarab.com/opinion/isra...
By refusing to enforce ICC warrants, the West has hardened its support for Israel's genocide, relying on absurd justifications to do so, he writes.
Israel and the ICC: A Catch-22 for the West's rules-based order.
www.newarab.com/opinion/isra...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
Facsinating detail from Adam Hanieh’s new banger of a book on Lenin’s use of oil concessions as a ‘weapon’
December 3, 2024 at 12:41 PM
Facsinating detail from Adam Hanieh’s new banger of a book on Lenin’s use of oil concessions as a ‘weapon’
Published two great pieces in @thenewarab.bsky.social today.
1) Mona Fawaz: "To survive after ceasefire, rebuild Lebanon for all its citizens"
www.newarab.com/opinion/surv...
2) Leila al-Shami: "Our dream of an Assad-free Syria has returned with rebel advance"
www.newarab.com/opinion/our-...
1) Mona Fawaz: "To survive after ceasefire, rebuild Lebanon for all its citizens"
www.newarab.com/opinion/surv...
2) Leila al-Shami: "Our dream of an Assad-free Syria has returned with rebel advance"
www.newarab.com/opinion/our-...
To survive after ceasefire, rebuild Lebanon for all its citizens
Lebanon is bruised but not broken. Reconstruction efforts must focus on the public good and not fall prey to private interests once more, argues Mona Fawaz.
www.newarab.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:47 PM
Published two great pieces in @thenewarab.bsky.social today.
1) Mona Fawaz: "To survive after ceasefire, rebuild Lebanon for all its citizens"
www.newarab.com/opinion/surv...
2) Leila al-Shami: "Our dream of an Assad-free Syria has returned with rebel advance"
www.newarab.com/opinion/our-...
1) Mona Fawaz: "To survive after ceasefire, rebuild Lebanon for all its citizens"
www.newarab.com/opinion/surv...
2) Leila al-Shami: "Our dream of an Assad-free Syria has returned with rebel advance"
www.newarab.com/opinion/our-...
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
I've written a summary/ initial analysis of what's happening in Syria. qunfuz.com/2024/12/01/h...
History Made on the Ground
You know the multiverse theory, that there are many parallel universes, and that they may contain alternate versions of ourselves and our conditions in this universe…. Well, the last couple of days…
qunfuz.com
December 1, 2024 at 12:03 PM
I've written a summary/ initial analysis of what's happening in Syria. qunfuz.com/2024/12/01/h...
Bluesky feels like a throwback to the Twitter days of 2013, and now a Syrian rebel offensive — somehow it feels all too familiar.
December 1, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Bluesky feels like a throwback to the Twitter days of 2013, and now a Syrian rebel offensive — somehow it feels all too familiar.
Reposted by Ben Ashraf
So a lot is happening right now in Syria, but this didn't start yesterday. Here's a thread of resources to understand the Syrian context that centres Syrian revolutionary and liberatory voices. First up, humbly, I made a comic a couple years ago on this very thing!
unicornriot.ninja/2022/revolut...
unicornriot.ninja/2022/revolut...
Revolution in Every Country Comic Series: Episode 1 - Syria: Erasing an Inconvenient Revolution - UNICORN RIOT
Episode 1 takes a look at aspects of the Syrian Revolution that have been erased, from Omar Aziz and local councils to the Douma 4 and more.
unicornriot.ninja
November 30, 2024 at 9:33 AM
So a lot is happening right now in Syria, but this didn't start yesterday. Here's a thread of resources to understand the Syrian context that centres Syrian revolutionary and liberatory voices. First up, humbly, I made a comic a couple years ago on this very thing!
unicornriot.ninja/2022/revolut...
unicornriot.ninja/2022/revolut...