Simply Shada

Prominent Palestinian Protester in Brussels Dies in Custody Mahmoud Farajalah took his life after months in immigration detention, as human rights groups’ condemned the crackdown on Brussels protests.

theintercept.com/2025/10/07/m...

Mourning Gaza: two years of grief, anger, and shame As Israel's genocide enters its third year, we must confront our complicity, selective empathy, and the erosion of our shared humanity

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

Will Spain’s pro-Palestine stance shift EU policy on Israel? From arms embargoes to public condemnation, Spain has become one of the European Union’s most dissenting voices on Israel’s war on Gaza

www.newarab.com/analysis/wil...

Trump’s Gaza “Plan” is a Cruel Mirage The US President wants the Nobel Peace Prize. In a world gone mad, he may just get it.

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

We must begin with Gaza In Dublin, I realise how liberating and empowering it is when someone breaks the silence and talks clearly about Gaza

We must begin with Gaza
open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

France should have recognised Palestinian statehood years ago. The cynic in me asks: why now? | Rokhaya Diallo Weakened domestically, Emmanuel Macron wants an international legacy. Yet still, he does nothing to sanction Israel, says Guardian Europe columnist Rokhaya Diallo

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Simply Shada | Shada Islam | Substack My personal Substack. Click to read Simply Shada, by Shada Islam, a Substack publication. Launched 9 days ago.

Also mentioned on the show this week:

- The new excellent substack from our former guest @simplyshada.bsky.social: shadaislam.substack.com
- An interview with another former guest of ours, the President of Finland: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcJ3...

EU waiting for Germany on sanctions, in growing anti-Israel mood The EU is waiting for Berlin to give the green light for Israel trade sanctions, as German ambassador stayed silent in Brussels on Tuesday.

This could have been proposed 2 years ago and there could have been decisions by now by the slow-moving EU decision-making machine. Lives could have been saved, children could have lived. Too little, much too late. Shame. euobserver.com/EU%20&%20the...

There's a word for the EU's inaction over Gaza: racism | Shada Islam Europe frames the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice. There will be a moral reckoning, says Shada Islam, a commentator on EU affairs

'Any serious reckoning over the EU’s inaction in Gaza will remain incomplete without confronting the structural racism and lingering colonial hierarchies that still shape Europe’s worldview.

Gaza has stripped away the pretence.'

- @simplyshada.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israel eligible for EU science money, despite blowing up Gaza university The Israeli defence ministry can keep getting EU science grants despite blowing up Gaza's main university, but anti-Israel cultural boycotts were "antisemitism," the EU Commission said.

Seriously? euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

Germany holds the key to unlocking the European Commission's better-late-than-never proposal on suspending trade with Israel over its genocide in #Gaza. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic will block no matter what. But Germany & (Italy) must step up and stand on the right side of history.

What Can the UN General Assembly Do to End Israel's Occupation? - PassBlue What Can the UN General Assembly Do to End Israel's Occupation? - PassBlue

passblue.com/2025/09/14/w...

Two Years of Pain, Protest, and Europe’s Half Steps on Gaza Across campuses, protest camps, and city squares, Europe’s young people are angry about the EU’s failure to live by its own rules and international law.

Shade Islam examines the latest remarks on Palestine from Ursula von der Leyen. @simplyshada.bsky.social shadaislam.substack.com/p/two-years-...

Two Years of Pain, Protest, and Europe’s Half Steps on Gaza Across campuses, protest camps, and city squares, Europe’s young people are angry about the EU’s failure to live by its own rules and international law.

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

Ursula von der Leyen offers too little too late on Gaza Palestinians do not need Europe’s compassion. They need Europe to stop enabling their oppression

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

Introducing Simply Shada: More Personal, More Fearless Welcome to my first Substack

open.substack.com/pub/shadaisl...

Actors and directors pledge not to work with Israeli film groups ‘implicated in genocide’ Exclusive: Hundreds of film workers join new boycott initiative criticized by Israeli producers’ group as ‘misguided’

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

We ask these questions to:
@simplyshada.bsky.social - award-winning Brussels-based commentator
&
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff - former EU rep to Palestine (2020–23)
Listen here: www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes...

There's a word for the EU's inaction over Gaza: racism | Shada Islam Europe frames the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice. There will be a moral reckoning, says Shada Islam, a commentator on EU affairs

Very powerful from @simplyshada.bsky.social :
“Europe’s political & moral paralysis over Gaza is intimately linked to the structural racism & violence which so many black, brown & Muslim Europeans face every day”. There’s no other explanation why so many levers & sanctions remain shockingly unused👇

New versions of old Islamophobic tropes: laughable, but dangerous Some biases never die. They just mutate to take on toxic new forms.

euobserver.com/opinion/ar4a...

Gaza is teaching us painful lessons about Europe and the world The EU will never be able to live down the fact that, through its inaction, it has collectively offered blanket support to Israel for months. This collective moral abdication, refusal to suspend the E...

euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

There's a word for the EU's inaction over Gaza: racism | Shada Islam Europe frames the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice. There will be a moral reckoning, says Shada Islam, a commentator on EU affairs

There's a word for the EU's inaction over Gaza: racism | Shada Islam

There's a word for the EU's inaction over Gaza: racism | Shada Islam Europe frames the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice. There will be a moral reckoning, says Shada Islam, a commentator on EU affairs

There's a word for the #EU's inaction over #Gaza: racism | Shada Islam www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Junaid Ahmad on X: "From flag to flattery: Pakistan’s seventy-eight-year lease to foreign masters https://t.co/r5b5w0Cl1r" / X From flag to flattery: Pakistan’s seventy-eight-year lease to foreign masters https://t.co/r5b5w0Cl1r

So sad, so true👉🏼https://x.com/academicatarms/status/1956288624879919151?s=46&t=RE4QqvH5x6NzRq_1On4ZuA

My Take | Our bravest journalists today are all working and dying in Gaza Palestinian reporters are being murdered before their own cameras to expose true horrors to an indifferent or even pro-genocidal world.

Our bravest journalists today are all working and dying in Gaza
www.scmp.com/opinion/arti...

Anas al-Sharif, prominent Al Jazeera correspondent, among five journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital

I post this with profound grief anf anger👉🏼https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/10/prominent-al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-gaza?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Borrell speaks out on the EU's 'double standards' on Gaza, and US tariff failure In an interview with EUobserver in Madrid, former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reflects on the EU-US tariff deal ("it didn't work"), the Ukraine war ("it won't end soon"), his Moscow showdown...

Great insights here in @euobserver.com interview with Josep Borrell👉🏼 euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

Forced Starvation Is a Grotesque Inversion of Jewish Traditions I learned from a young age that you shouldn't let your neighbor go hungry. Benjamin Netanyahu would do well to revisit this tradition.

My Nation column. It was a hard piece to write, but I felt it was necessary to say. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

EU's Horizon-suspension sanction for Israel 'a bad joke', says Borrell Suspending Israel's access to the bloc’s Horizon research programme is a “bad joke” in the face of the atrocities unfolding in Gaza, the EU's former chief diplomat Josep Borrell told EUobserver during...

I think mostvof us can agree 👇🏼https://euobserver.com/eu-and-the-world/arbc4fc129