Justin Salhani
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justinsalhani.bsky.social
Justin Salhani
@justinsalhani.bsky.social
Ras Beiruti journalist & writer
Writing in Al Jazeera English
Non resident fellow, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
Journalist-in-residence, Orient-Institut Beirut
Occasional guest host for The Fire These Times Podcast
“We are abiding by UN Resolution 1701, which calls for a halt to hostilities,” an army source said. “We are committed from our side, but Israel is not.”

...

Since most of the army’s funding and training come from the U.S., Abi Raad said, Lebanon is restricted from acquiring advanced weapons.
“The Israelis are dangerously close,” Khodor Zahra said. “They shoot anyone who approaches. If we die today, no one will ask about us.”

🔗 Read the full story by Dana Hourany: thepublicsource.org/lebanon-bord...
November 11, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
“The Israelis are dangerously close,” Khodor Zahra said. “They shoot anyone who approaches. If we die today, no one will ask about us.”

🔗 Read the full story by Dana Hourany: thepublicsource.org/lebanon-bord...
November 11, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Trump: “We have peace now in the Middle East – the first time that anyone can remember that ever happening.”

An Israeli drone strike killed two people yesterday in Gaza including a child.

In Lebanon yesterday there were reports in the south of Israeli machine gun fire toward Kfarshuba
November 11, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
"The soldiers who agreed to talk confirmed the IDF’s routine use of human shields, contradicting official denials, and gave details of Israeli troops opening fire unprovoked on civilians racing to reach food handouts..." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians
IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:34 PM
if anyone ever writes a piece this intellectually biting about something I've written, believe me, that will be the last thing I write in public.
This is a banger. Read it. #journalism
Peter Coviello with another dynamite piece.

lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
November 9, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Adam Shatz on the transcendent life and music of Alice Coltrane
The Spiritual Jazz of Alice Coltrane | Adam Shatz
Alice Coltrane reinvented her adoptive Hinduism by interweaving it with the music of the Black church.
buff.ly
November 3, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
‘While younger generations might feel antipathy towards France’s continued neocolonial involvement in Niger, they were increasingly ignorant of the violent origins of that relationship.’

Rob Lemkin on the search for reparations in Niger, from the blog.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Rob Lemkin | What France owes to Niger
About ten years ago I visited Dioundiou, a village in Niger two hundred kilometres south-east of the capital Niamey, and...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
The Biden administration was fully complicit in genocide, and anyone who served in it should be held accountable.
November 8, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Biden knew that Israel was committing crimes against humanity in Gaza and then decided to keep US commitments to Israel, shortly before handing it over to Trump

www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-...
Biden Discussed Potential Israeli War Crimes In Gaza. He Kicked The Can To Trump.
New intelligence shocked officials in late 2024, spurring heightened fear of U.S. liability, HuffPost has learned. The period saw Secretary of State Antony Blinken ask if Israel’s actions constituted ...
www.huffpost.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
It is a bit funny that some people seem to have genuinely convinced themselves that the reason Palestinians, and Syrians, and Lebanese hate Israel is because of school textbooks and not because of Israeli occupation
November 7, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reading…
November 7, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
November 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
After Israel’s Arabic language spokesman threatened two villages in south Lebanon to evacuate before strikes, the drone is hovering loudly over Beirut.

We live in dystopia.
November 6, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Israel is using a 'no war, no peace' Lebanonisation model in Gaza, analysts say.

www.aljazeera.com/features/202...
How Israel is using ‘no war, no peace’ Lebanonisation model in Gaza
Since a 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israel has attacked Lebanon almost daily. Now, the pattern is repeating in Gaza.
www.aljazeera.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Looking at Gaza, Syria, Lebanon & Sudan, Editorial Director @michatobia.bsky.social moderated a panel featuring current & former fellows @monashtaya.bsky.social, @kassemmnejja.bsky.social & @justinsalhani.bsky.social on the fight over narrative amid conflict & what it means for actors on-the-ground.
November 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
spoke with Lubna via video call this morning. She and her family are real people. They’re not spam, and it would be wonderful if Bluesky would stop deleting her account and forcing her to start over.

Please help if you’re able. We’re powerful when we care for one another!
Does anyone still feel my children’s suffering?💔
Since our displacement, we lost all our clothes and everything we owned. Now we face the cold with nothing, in a house with no doors or windows.
I urgently need $300 to buy warm clothes and blankets to protect them 💔🙏
gofund.me/edd687b8
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
the time change was only one hour for DST but now when the clock hits 5pm my mind keeps asking me 'why are you working still its like 9pm'
November 5, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Zeina Khodr went to Baalbek, where locals say Israeli attacks (and the threats of intensification) are scaring locals and potential tourists

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wSo...
Lebanon’s ancient city of Baalbek on edge as Israel threatens escalation with Hezbollah
YouTube video by Al Jazeera English
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Nifty little data point here. Don’t chase the manosphere into hell. Give young men a positive masculinity to aspire to.
Republicans thought they had a permanent hold over young men. They didn't.

Spanberger wins men 18-29 by 14%, Sherrill by 10%, and Mamdani by a stunning 40%.
November 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM
In thinking of which third country to travel to, Abu Srour said:

“I don’t want a comfortable country,” he said. “I don’t want a country without questions or a country without a cause.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Torture in Israeli prisons rose sharply during war, says freed Palestinian author
Nasser Abu Srour says prisons became like ‘another front’ in Gaza conflict and tells of struggle to adjust to life outside
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
Syria desperately needs an economic reconstruction program. Yet nearly a year after al-Assad's fall, nobody is even talking of a comprehensive framework for planning and consultation, whether in Damascus or among international stakeholders.

My latest:

carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...
Syria Needs a Reconstruction Plan
Without clarity on the country’s economic framework, Assad-era cronyism may reappear.
carnegieendowment.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Mona was an old friend of my parents. May she rest in peace.

I sat with her to hear her stories last year before recording this podcast with @aymanmak.bsky.social for @thefirethesetimes.com where she recounted many of her memories from the period.
November 5, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
New article out now with @smokegatherer.bsky.social and Nasir Almasri on the Palestinian movement and demobilization. We look at the protests of 2021, the unity intifada, and their aftermath on the structure of the movement. Hopefully the 1st of a few articles on this topic

doi.org/10.3167/cont...
November 4, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Justin Salhani
this after a campaign of guilting the left and Arab voters that you always vote for the nominee no matter what. it's untenable.
November 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM