DAWN

“The same people who did the killing and financed the killing and justified the killing and turned away from the killing will congratulate themselves on doing the right thing.”

- Omar El Akkad

open.substack.com/pub/hiddenci...

Gaza Still Breathes: Home Amid War, Exile, and Erasure When I decided to write about my personal experience in Gaza, words failed me. How could one describe a city that is both home and exile, both life and death? Ultimately, I set my pen aside, though I ...

"The story of my grandmother’s forced exile echoes painfully in my life. Just as she did not choose to leave her home, Palestinians in Gaza did not choose displacement after Oct. 7," writes Ola Madhoun.

Why the U.S. Judiciary Just Ruled in Favor of Pro-Palestine Speech On Sep. 30, a federal judge in Boston issued a remarkable, 161-page ruling in American Association of University Professors, et al. v. Rubio, et al., rebuking the Trump administration for its multifac...

In a major victory for pro-Palestine advocacy, a district court recently "deliver[ed] a sweeping condemnation of the administration’s policies, authoritatively concluding that the First Amendment forbids them," Jenin Younes explains.

Key Points and Prospects of the Israeli-Palestinian Agreement An examination of what it is and is not, and where things may be heading

To explore Mouin Rabbani's full analysis on the challenges and prospects of Israeli policymaking, the role of regional actors, and what’s next for Palestinian resistance, read his essay on Substack: mouinrabbani.substack.com/p/key-points...

"The reconstruction of the Palestinian national movement on a genuinely pluralistic, representative basis with credible leadership and a real strategy is the most urgent task...exceeded only by the need to end the genocide and tend to the immediate needs of survivors," writes MouinRabbani.

"Our responsibility" is "to end our own government's role in propping up and defending the brutal regimes in the region ... violating our own country’s laws,” said @sarahleah1.bsky.social, DAWN’s executive director, at DAWN’s Annual Gala & Awards Dinner in D.C.: dawnmena.org/alana-hadid-...

"No peace plan for Palestine and Israel has any hope of success unless it is a rights-based approach grounded in international law. The Trump plan—full of ambiguity, escape clauses and disappearing ink—is a recipe for more sorrow, more suffering, less justice.”
— Michael Lynk

“Trump’s willingness to strong-arm Netanyahu was the key to achieving this latest ceasefire. The U.S. president will need to sustain that pressure on Netanyahu to make sure he doesn’t blow up the ceasefire, as he did in March, and resume Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.”
— @mbazzi.bsky.social

“After years of unchecked violence, any path toward peace in Gaza must begin with accountability. For two years, Israel enjoyed near-total impunity in murdering and maiming. A peace process without justice would betray victims twice — the dead and the living.”
— @janinedigi.bsky.social

“Anything that stops Israel’s daily slaughter in Gaza is welcome. But without full Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian self-determination to decide their future, it remains occupation and colonial violence by another name,” Assal Rad, scholar of modern Middle Eastern history, told DAWN.

Why the U.S. Judiciary Just Ruled in Favor of Pro-Palestine Speech On Sep. 30, a federal judge in Boston issued a remarkable, 161-page ruling in American Association of University Professors, et al. v. Rubio, et al., rebuking the Trump administration for its multifac...

"The [Trump] administration’s policies have both the intent and effect of deterring plaintiffs from expressing pro-Palestine views for fear of retribution from the government defendants," writes Jenin Younes, detailing a new court ruling.

"I accept this award, not just as an honor, but as a responsibility, to keep fighting, keep pushing, and keep building the future for our people, and all people. The future that we deserve,” said Alana Hadid via Zoom, upon receiving DAWN’s Integrity Award.

Read more: dawnmena.org/alana-hadid-...

"Gaza is not just about the Palestinian people. Gaza is about our collective humanity. Every red line of international humanitarian law has been crossed, and that must stop," says @unrwa.org Communications Director Juliette Touma in a DAWN interview.

Read the interview: dawnmena.org/gaza-is-abou...

“What Alana represents so brilliantly, so importantly, so eloquently, is a bold new generation of Palestinian American voices who are unapologetic, defiant and forward-looking," @mehdirhasan.bsky.social introducing DAWN Integrity Award recipient Alana Hadid.

Learn more: dawnmena.org/alana-hadid-...

Gaza Still Breathes: Home Amid War, Exile, and Erasure When I decided to write about my personal experience in Gaza, words failed me. How could one describe a city that is both home and exile, both life and death? Ultimately, I set my pen aside, though I ...

"The exile of Palestinians from their homeland echoes in our present: a second erasure after October 7—different in form but similar in feeling—with home becoming exile across generations," writes Ola Madhoun.

“Let me say this. AIPAC is in the process of losing, and they will lose. The American sentiment is shifted,” said former U.S. Congressman @jamaalbowmanny.bsky.social at DAWN’s Washington, D.C. gala on October 1.

Read more: dawnmena.org/alana-hadid-...

Amed Khan, Alana Hadid Receive DAWN’s 2025 Integrity Awards at DAWN Gala in Memory of Jamal Khashoggi (Washington, D.C., October 3, 2025)  — DAWN hosted its 2025 Annual Gala & Awards Dinner on the evening of October 1, 2025, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where more than 220 journalis...

Read more about DAWN’s 2025 Annual Gala & Awards Dinner:

DAWN presented its Integrity Awards to Amed Khan, a humanitarian philanthropist, human rights advocate, and executive producer of The Voice of Hind Rajab; and to Alana Hadid, creative director of Watermelon Pictures, producer of The Encampments, and producer of The Voice of Hind Rajab.

Amed Khan, Alana Hadid Receive DAWN’s 2025 Integrity Awards at DAWN Gala in Memory of Jamal Khashoggi (Washington, D.C., October 3, 2025)  — DAWN hosted its 2025 Annual Gala & Awards Dinner on the evening of October 1, 2025, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where more than 220 journalis...

DAWN hosted its Annual Gala & Awards Dinner on October 1, 2025, at D.C.'s National Press Club, where 220+ journalists, activists, academics, policymakers, and concerned citizens gathered to honor Jamal Khashoggi's legacy and celebrate DAWN's work to reform U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Civilians Pay the Price as the Israel-Houthi War Expands As Israel has been hitting targets in Yemen for over a year, the damage and destruction of private property and public infrastructure in the country have drastically worsened, claiming the lives of hu...

I felt that [it] would be our last hour in life."

Karim al-Yemani writes that Israeli strikes in Yemen aim to immiserate civilians, describing it as a "collective punishment" campaign.

"They...aim to hurt and terrorize everyone."

DAWN Marks Seventh Anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder, Calls for Accountability for Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (Washington, DC – October 2, 2025) – Seven years after the murder of the organization’s founder, Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018, by Saudi agents of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, DAWN issues th...

See DAWN's complete statement:

"Exactly seven years since the murder of Khashoggi, it is shameful that international comedians and entertainers are flocking to Riyadh to perform," said Raed Jarrar. "Their jokes on Saudi stages are a failed attempt to normalize the murder of government critics."

"Khashoggi was not only a great journalist, but a seeker of freedom, a defender of democracy, and a courageous witness for those who have no voice. His brutal, horrific murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul must never be forgotten," said Nobel Laureate and DAWN board member Tawakkol Karman.

"Seven years later, our demands haven't changed: Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman must be held accountable for this gruesome murder," said Raed Jarrar. "Impunity for this heinous act of transnational repression is exactly why governments think they can target and kill any critic, wherever they want."

"Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is a murderer, and whatever billions he spends to grease the palms of politicians and businessmen around the world won't erase that," said @sarahleah1.bsky.social.

DAWN Marks Seventh Anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder, Calls for Accountability for Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (Washington, DC – October 2, 2025) – Seven years after the murder of the organization’s founder, Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018, by Saudi agents of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, DAWN issues th...

(Washington, D.C., October 2, 2025) – Seven years after the murder of the organization's founder, Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018, by Saudi agents of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, DAWN issues the following statement:

“The people most responsible for the catastrophe in Gaza are not the ones loudly and shamelessly supporting it. No. It’s the ones who see it all and stay silent... The ones who see it all and pretend it isn’t happening....Your silence is complicity.”
— @mehdirhasan.bsky.social, @zeteo.com

The U.S. Department of State’s Bahrain Human Rights Report is Woefully Inadequate Like other country entries, the Bahrain chapter of the 2024 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights Practices fails to provide an authoritative or realistic account of the human rights situation ...

"Despite comprehensive evidence and a variety of sources, the [Bahraini] government’s account is presented as authoritative, even in the absence of evidence."

Sayed Yusuf Almuhafdha and @drewerydyke.bsky.social write about the new U.S. human rights report on Bahrain.

‘Gaza Is About Our Collective Humanity.’ UNRWA’s Juliette Touma on the Toll of Israel’s War "Our humanity is not the same since this war started," says Juliette Touma, the director of communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, otherwise known as UNRW...

"Gaza is not just about the Palestinian people. Gaza is about our collective humanity. Every red line of international humanitarian law has been crossed, and that must stop," says @unrwa.org spokesperson Juliette Touma in a new DAWN interview.

Italy Should Lift its Block on EU Action to Stop the Genocide in Gaza After almost two years of genocide, famine, ethnic cleansing and unspeakable war crimes, European Union Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen proposed a partial suspension of EU-Israel ties and sa...

Italy can do more. It should immediately stop blocking EU action to suspend the trade clause of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, writes @kellyp90.bsky.social @ecfrmena.bsky.social in @dawnmenaorg.bsky.social
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