Thrilled that the English translation of my memoir, Upside-Down Love @blackstonepub.bsky.social, January 2026) is now on pre-order: blackstonepublishing.com/products/boo...). Critically acclaimed as a beacon of hope in an upside-down Middle East, this irreverent, honest love story is worth a read.

Honored for @blackstonepub.bsky.social to publish my memoir Upside-Down Love (Maqluba) in English in Nov. 2025. Can't wait to work with @danielehrenhaft.bsky.social to publish this searing, honest & hopeful story of love in the shadow of Israeli occupation. More info here: ummforat.com/en/the-book/

This is a clear statement of what int’l aid groups need from Israel to do their lifesaving work. When you push people to the brink, fixing the problem requires a huge influx of food, services & cooperation with the UN as if you want to stop the starvation. www.ochaopt.org/content/stat...

So much time & money wasted on this ill-fated plan to use aid as a tool for displacement, surveillance and consolidation of Israeli control over Gaza. Israel needs to open Gaza's crossings and let the humanitarian grown-ups do their lifesaving jobs. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Sign of our time: many things that should not need saying, now need to be said.

The US-backed group tapped by Israel to run aid in Gaza says it'll start this week, with sites in Gaza's south. Palestinians in Gaza will be pushed to choose between displacement and starvation. A thread w more details in my recent @nybooks.com piece: www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

“Given the choice, many people [in Gaza] will seek asylum elsewhere,” writes Sari Bashi. “International law requires Israel to let them do so. But they also have a right to come back.”

A missile over a playground. 9 children dead. A hotel turned to rubble. Aid workers nearly buried. This is not collateral damage. This is a pattern of unlawful attacks. 📢The world must demand accountability. 📄Full @hrw report: www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

“The plan to make Palestinians in Gaza accept further displacement as a condition of receiving food parcels is intertwined with another: to press them into leaving Palestine altogether.” —Sari Bashi

This week, guided by the excellent NGO Zochrot, I visited the ruins of al-Khalasa, a Bedouin village destroyed by Israeli forces in 1948 to prevent its residents from returning. A thread on the past, future and present of Palestinian refugees, Gaza's "day after" and Trump's Riviera plan.

'US policymakers have normalized [denying Palestinian refugees' right to return], to the point that Trump has been looking to Egypt or Jordan .. to absorb Palestinians rather than demand that Israeli authorities respect their right to live in Israel.' www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

The proposal does “not look like a plan for aid distribution so much as a tool for further pressure, to ensure that life is unlivable in Gaza,” says @taniahary.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/w...

"When women are involved in peace negotiations, those processes are more likely to lead to agreement ...and are more likely to be implemented." @heatherbarr.bsky.social reminds the 2nd Trump administration what the 1st Trump administration knew: Peace can't exclude women. www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

From my colleague and friend @eitandi.bsky.social on the bureaucratic cruelty that is blocking lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians struggling under apartheid and ethnic cleansing. www.justsecurity.org/109772/israe...

"Businesses should not enable, facilitate, or profit from serious violations of #internationallaw. The time has come for [Airbnb and Booking.com] to stop doing business in the occupied territories on stolen land." @saribashi.bsky.social @hrw.org www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Just some of the dozens of children killed in the recent Israeli airstrikes on Al-Shuja’iya Massacre, Eastern Gaza City Each one a universe. The light of their parents eyes.

My @knightcolumbia.org colleague @carriedecell.bsky.social will be arguing this case before the Ninth Circuit tomorrow on behalf of journalists from @elfaroenglish.bsky.social whose phones were hacked with NSO Group's spyware. 12:00 ET, link to audio below. www.newyorker.com/news/news-de...

U.S. Slashes Many of the Aid Programs It Had Promised to Keep The U.N. food program said the new cuts “could amount to a death sentence” for millions of desperate people. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/u...

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Shakespeare, Henry VI www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”

I remember seeing the viral footage of Shiri Bibas, terrified, holding her two boys, surrounded by gunmen, on the afternoon of Oct 7, 2023. It was a searing realization of the horrors that would follow. May their memory be a blessing & may these horrific abuses end. www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...

New @hrw.org report: The Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces, intentionally targeted civilians in a January attack on Tayba village, killing at least 26 people including a child. This constitutes war crimes. www.hrw.org/news/2025/02... 🧵

Last week negotiations began on the first-ever UN tax treaty. My piece on what happened & why this is an historic opportunity for human rights www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...

[email protected] is looking for a deputy program director to provide strategic oversight for five regional and thematic research divisions, play a leadership role in implementing our global strategy, and ensure the highest research quality. Working closely with me: job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightsw...

"No amount of public relation efforts by the Egyptian government will change the reality of the country’s dire human rights crisis." @hrw.org's @amrmagdi.bsky.social on the Egyptian government's brutal crackdown on bloggers, cartoonists, poets and political opponents. hrw.org/news/2025/01...

What's happening in Goma and surrounding towns is heartbreaking. Human Rights Watch is offering an opportunity to be part of the solution through rigorous research, advocacy & media work. Please repost our search for a senior DRC researcher based in Kinshasa: job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightsw...

Today Israel’s ban on UNRWA, Gaza’s main aid agency, comes into effect. Its impact will be catastrophic for pregnant women and newborns. Read @hrw.org latest report on the impact of Israel's blockade and attacks on Gaza's pregnant women and newborns www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

🚨 New Report by @hrw.org 🚨 Amid Israel’s assault on Gaza, women & girls have faced unimaginable conditions. Shaima's story is a testament to their struggle. Read full report to understand devastating impact of Israel's blockade, attacks on healthcare. www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

The #ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu. The US doesn't like that and is threatening to sanction court officials. Can the ICC Survive 2025? Tune in to @hrw.org's latest Rights & Wrong's podcast and find out. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Beautiful, bittersweet images of Palestinians in Gaza moving north, to homes from which they were forcibly displaced. Even for those who will camp in front of destroyed homes, the reunion with loved ones offer solace & a response to Trump's offer to exile them to Jordan or Egypt.

Today the US endorsed the #SafeSchoolsDeclaration joining 120 other countries who are promising to protect education during war. Here's why it matters: www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

European Court of Human Rights recognizes that Greek pushbacks - forcing asylum seekers back to Turkiye without hearing their asylum claims - are systematic. My @hrw.org colleague @billfrelick.bsky.social on what the EU and EU countries need to do about it. www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

UNRWA statement on the order by Israeli gov't to evict the aid agency helping Palestinian refugees from its Jerusalem offices. Follows a decision by the extreme right Israeli gov't to ban UNRWA from providing schools, health care and food to Palestinian families in need www.unrwa.org/newsroom/off...

NEW from #HRW on Trump immigration EOs: "All people, regardless of immigration status or criminal history, have the right to fair treatment before the law and a chance to argue for their liberty and rights when they are detained or face deportation." www.hrw.org/news/2025/01...

שחרור האסירים הפלסטינים הוא שפל חדש ביחס המשטרה לחופש העיתונות: - 4 עיתונאיות פלס' זומנו לחקירה והוזהרו שלא להמשיך ולתעד את שחרור האסירים. - צלמים נחסמו והורחקו בכוח מהמקומות בהם שוחררו אסירים ומבתי המשפחות. - המשפחות אויימו שלא לדבר ולא לפרסם שום דבר ברשתות החברתיות.

The road blocks in the West Bank, imposed since the Israeli gov't reportedly added "security in Judea and Samaria" to its war aims, are jamming up roads, blocking access to schools, health care & jobs--and heightening fears that attacks that devastated Gaza are heading our way, starting with Jenin.

Humanitarian aid should have flooded into Gaza, irrespective of a deal. Civilian hostages should have been released, irrespective of a deal. Hoping the Israeli gov't and Hamas leadership will, as part of this deal, uphold their duties to respect human rights and protect civilians.

Even the G20 now recognizes that inequality is a serious global problem, but efforts to address it are failing miserably. I team up w/ Gene Leon, ED of Development Bank for Resilient Prosperity, in a new oped to propose a development model that centers ppl & planet opiniojuris.org/2025/01/13/n...

"The damage Trump may do to the cause of human rights could create a temptation to look back on the Biden era with nostalgia. But those rose-colored glasses would obscure the real picture." Read HRW's Sarah Yager on how US President Joe Biden failed on human rights:

Israeli human rights groups protest new rules denying visas and registration to int'l humanitarian organizations providing desperately needed aid in Gaza and the West Bank - if the Israeli gov't decides they or their staff "delegitimized" the State of Israel. gisha.org/en/ngos-in-i...

This is a great opportunity to work with @hrw.org's Crisis, Conflict and Arms team, protecting the rights of civilians. Arabic speakers are especially encouraged to apply! job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightsw...

Providing services to Palestinians living under occupation for 6 decades is the Israeli gov't's responsibility. It outsourced that responsibility to foreign donors & now is trying to dismantle the UN agency that provides the health, education & relief services it refuses. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

What is the duty of the Israeli left in a time of genocide? - https://www.972mag.com/duty-of-the-israeli-left-in-genocide/

זה ראמי אבו שאפע, הוא עובד כמטפל באמצעות בעלי חיים, מרצה וכותב דוקטורט. בשנה האחרונה עבד בעיקר עם מפונים מהצפון. בשבת הוא נתן לילדים שלו צבעים והרשה להם לקשקש על הקירות בבית בסילוואן ("זו הייתה הזדמנות להגשים להם חלום"). ביום שני הגיעו הדחפורים. haaretz.co.il/news/politic... pic.x.com/tfWp50aeAH

On the leaked, unconfirmed list of hostages to be released as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas are 2 men with mental health conditions who wandered into Gaza and have been held for a decade, Avera Mangistu & Hisham al-Sayed. They would be in their late 30's now. www.hrw.org/news/2017/05...