Beyond the Headlines

France’s racial gap between the Olympics and reality

Olympic fanfare has swept across Paris in recent weeks, but there is an elephant in the room that’s difficult to ignore – the glaring disparity between France hosting one of the most multicultural events in the world, while at the same time cracking down on diversity.

Only weeks before the Games started, the far right gained huge momentum in a tense parliamentary election in France, reigniting xenophobic sentiment and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The country has been the subject of criticism over its hardline policies for some time. Last year, it introduced a contested immigration bill, parts of which were deemed unconstitutional. And now, even though it says it has hosted the “first gender-equal” Olympics in the history of the event, some of its own Muslim athletes were forced to remove their hijab merely to compete.

Researchers say these policies have bred a mainstream culture of racism, so much so that more ethnic minorities of North African origins and French Muslims are opting to emigrate.

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, against the backdrop of the Olympics host Fethi Benaissa looks at the contrast between France’s multi-ethnic fabric and rising xenophobia. He asks what the tipping point will be for those who want to leave their country amid a growing racial divide.

The weight of Israel and Hezbollah’s warfare on life in Lebanon

On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier in the skies over Lebanon, a stunt timed to coincide with Hassan Nasrallah’s speech amid a series of threats by Hezbollah towards Israel and vice versa.
In his address, Nasrallah mocked the intimidation attempt and said an uncomfortable wait for Hezbollah's retaliation is part of the punishment the group is inflicting on Israel for the assassinations of one of its senior commanders and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Meanwhile, foreign governments have issued travel warnings about Lebanon, and airlines have periodically paused flights to and from the country. The cost of flight tickets has soared as people rush to get out. Lebanon’s battered economy must prepare for more burdens as tensions rise, and people are trying to gauge just how serious the situation will become.

In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher assesses the impact on day-to-day life and politics in Lebanon as Hezbollah and Israel exchange threats that grow more serious each day.

She speaks to The National’s Beirut correspondent Nada Atallah and Michael Young, columnist for The National and senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.

What happens next after the Hamas and Hezbollah assassinations?

The anxiety in the Middle East has been palpable since Tuesday night. The killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran happened only hours after Israel struck a south Beirut suburb, claiming to have killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr.

Mr Haniyeh was on a trip to Iran for the inauguration of president Masoud Pezeshkian when he was killed, provoking vows of punishment against Israel by the country’s supreme leader, although Israel has yet to claim the attack. The strike in Lebanon came days after a rocket hit a football field in Majdal Shams in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 children, for which Israel and Hezbollah blamed each other.

In the aftermath of a deadly week, we look at what happens when two major players in the so-called “Axis of Resistance” are attacked and how these escalations will affect ceasefire talks in Gaza. In this episode, host Nada AlTaher speaks to MENA programme director at Crisis Group Joost Hiltermann and Palestinian analyst Taghreed El-Khodary.

Israel's first attack on Yemen – what happens next?

Residents in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah woke up last Sunday to plumes of black smoke filling the skies. Israel had just struck the port, a main artery for the city, killing nine people and injuring more than 80 others after hitting a fuel depot. The attack came a day after a Houthi drone hit Tel Aviv, killing one person.

For months the international community has been cautioning against further spillovers from the war in Gaza. The Houthis have been routinely launching drone strikes at southern Israel and attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. At the same time, Israel is engaged in cross-border attacks with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and has also locked its targets on Syria.

But this latest attack on Hodeidah is the first time Israel has hit Yemen directly, marking an unprecedented escalation between the two sides.

In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, Nada AlTaher hosts a discussion with Abdul Ghani Al-Iryani, senior researcher at the Sana'a Centre for Strategic Studies, and Kobi Michael, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and asks, will the latest attacks provoke a full-scale war in the region?

How Gazans cope with constant uprooting when 'nowhere is safe'

In the first weeks of July, the Israeli army ordered about 80,000 residents of Gaza city, in the north of the strip, to evacuate towards the south. At the same time, residents in large areas of Khan Younis were told to leave. But where to?

 

For nine months, Palestinians in Gaza have had to uproot and seek shelter in increasingly dangerous so-called safe zones, where conditions are dire, services are lacking, diseases are rampant and air strikes are always a risk.

 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, now estimates that nine out of 10 people are internally displaced in the strip. That’s 1.9 million people, including many who have been displaced multiple times.

 

Israel’s army makes the case that “evacuations” are designed to protect civilians from hostilities, but even in war evacuations must adhere to a very strict set of rules that observers on the ground say are not being followed.

 

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Dr Majed Jaber, who describes his harrowing evacuation experience from the European Gaza Hospital. We also hear from Hisham Mhanna, Gaza spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as former executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth.

What will ties between Assad and Erdogan mean for Syrian refugees?

Hundreds of rioters were arrested at the start of July after angry mobs in Turkey vandalised cars and shops belonging to Syrian refugees. Fuelled by reports that a Syrian man had assaulted a young girl, nationalist Turks violently protested about their government’s alleged inaction towards the Syrian refugee crisis in their country.

But it’s part of a much wider story. Earlier this week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the most direct statements yet that he’s willing to reinstate ties with Syria’s Bashar Al Assad. This shift in tone would mark a breakthrough since Ankara and Damuscus severed diplomatic ties following Syria’s 2011 uprisings and subsequent civil war.

Today more than 3 million Syrians who fled the violence and crackdowns at home reside in Turkey. But growing discontent and xenophobic sentiments toward them, alongside the possibility of normalised relations with Assad, have led to fears that refugees might have to return to a divided and dangerous Syria.

For insight into what’s going on and what may happen next, host Nada AlTaher speaks to The National’s Istanbul correspondent Lizzie Porter, Senior Researcher at TRENDS Research and Advisory Serhat Cubukcuoglu and Syria analyst Sam Heller.

Heatwave in the Arab region - How extreme heat impacted daily lives

The intense heatwaves sweeping across the Middle East this summer is taking a high toll on people. Temperatures have soared to unprecedented levels, causing widespread discomfort and significant challenges in many countries that might even be unequipped to face the impacts of climate change.

During this year's Hajj season, which took place in mid-June, temperatures soared sometimes to almost 52°C in Makkah, leading to over 1,300 deaths.

Many Arab countries are experiencing extreme heat this year. In Egypt, daily life has become uncomfortable and has also strained the country's power grid, leading to occasional blackouts. In Lebanon, many people are struggling to cope with limited access to electricity and cooling. And in Iraq, the government has taken an unprecedented step of cutting working hours to help citizens deal with the extreme temperatures.

In this episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Ismaeel Naar looks at how life in some Arab countries has been affected because of the heat crisis.

The complexities of delivering aid in Gaza

The eight-month war in Gaza has caused a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. Over 37 thousand Palestinians have been killed in this period, and over 80 thousand have been injured in the conflict. 

 

A robust coordination between government bodies, international institutions and NGOs is needed to provide relief to the Palestinian people left in Gaza. However, with around 60% of Gaza's buildings and 80% of commercial facilities damaged by the Israeli bombardment. So, there’s a lot to be done to provide shelter and it's been estimated it could take up to 20 years to rebuild.

 

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, Nada AlTaher hosts from Jordan, after attending an emergency humanitarian conference for Gaza on the shores of the Dead Sea. She speaks to the newly-appointed Palestinian minister of relief affairs, the head of advocacy and communications for the MENA region at the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Middle East regional director for Handicap International.

What will it take for Israel and Hamas to lay down arms?

Eight months into the war in Gaza, as two million people there struggle for survival and more than 36,600 have lost their lives, the fate of Israel and Hamas themselves also hangs in the balance.

Israel has said it will not stop the war until it eradicates Hamas, but it is also struggling internally as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fights for power – and what his army can realistically achieve on the ground as pressure mounts for him to stick to the rules of military combat and international humanitarian law.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden outlined a ceasefire plan to move from a limited exchange of hostages for detainees to broader discussions about a permanent end to the war. The plan includes ending hostilities, releasing hostages and reconstructing Gaza in the long term.

Mr Biden has acknowledged this transition will be challenging, as a point of contention is that Mr Netanyahu wants the hostages released first before a ceasefire begins and Hamas wants the opposite.

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks into the dynamics that influence the prospects of ending the war, why previous attempts at negotiation have failed and how much internal and external pressures can influence Israel.

Rafah under fire: global outcry and international repercussions

A series of deadly Israeli strikes launched on May 26 at a camp for displaced people in Rafah, targeting two senior Hamas members, caused a fire and killed 45 people.

It came only days after global leaders urged Israel to adhere to a ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering it to halt its military operations in the city.

This incident has prompted an international outcry and widespread condemnation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “tragic mishap” that would be investigated.

In related developments this week, three European countries - Spain, Norway and Ireland - formally recognised the state of Palestine, in a symbolic move meant to show a way out of the war in the Middle East.

In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at May 26, why Rafah has become the main focus of military operations in Gaza, and the reaction in Israel to the ICJ order and the moves to recognise Palestine.