Books – War Watch

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What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’
ByAaron Gell April 21, 2026

In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in GazaFormer Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, when asked to explain the apparent about-face that…

Read More What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’
Africa | Albert Camus | Algeria | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Crime films | Culture | Donald Trump | Drama films | Europe | Film | Film adaptations | France | François Ozon | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | World news

The Stranger review – lustrously beautiful and superbly realised modern take on the Camus classic
ByPeter Bradshaw April 7, 2026

François Ozon’s adaptation of the 1942 novella L’Etranger passionately honours the original text while bringing a contemporary perspective to its themes of empire and raceA heatstricken reverie of violence and mystery unfolds in this film, a numb ecsta…

Read More The Stranger review – lustrously beautiful and superbly realised modern take on the Camus classic
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Donald Trump | Family | Fiction | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | US news | World news

My last fight with my Palestinian father still haunts me. Neither of us could bury the past
ByHannah Lillith Assadi March 26, 2026

My eternally exiled father was dying and witnessing a siege on Gaza. Afterwards I could go home – but he couldn’tThe last fight we ever had, my father and I, occurred on a night in May 2021 on the eve of his first chemo treatment. At this point in our …

Read More My last fight with my Palestinian father still haunts me. Neither of us could bury the past
Africa | Algeria | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Culture | Donald Trump | Emmanuel Macron | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Islam | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | Religion | World news

‘I felt betrayed, naked’: did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman’s life story?
ByMadeleine Schwartz February 17, 2026

His novel was praised for giving a voice to the victims of Algeria’s brutal civil war. But one woman has accused Kamel Daoud of having stolen her story – and the ensuing legal battle has become about much more than literary ethicsEvery November, leadin…

Read More ‘I felt betrayed, naked’: did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman’s life story?
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Culture | Donald Trump | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Penguin | Petrol prices | Publishing | World news

Marwan Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish book from prison
ByEmma Loffhagen February 3, 2026

Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine is a collection of writings by the Palestinian political leader, who has been held in Israeli prisons since 2002A collection of writings by the imprisoned Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti will …

Read More Marwan Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish book from prison
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Donald Trump | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated
ByAmir Mehdi Haghighat January 7, 2026

The sight of my work, torn and singed but still legible, made me realise the importance of translating and protecting stories – so they remain when everything else falls awayIn the rubble of a collapsed apartment block, a single image stayed with me: a…

Read More A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I’d translated
Autobiography and memoir | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Culture | Donald Trump | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Jordan | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | World news

‘What other silences filled my childhood?’: Tareq Baconi on excavating his queer and Palestinian identities
ByEmma Graham-Harrison December 28, 2025

In his memoir, the author recalls the boy he loved while growing up in Jordan – and weaves the tale with his family’s history of dispossessionSeven decades after Tareq Baconi’s grandmother fled in terror from the port city of Haifa, carrying a Bible, a…

Read More ‘What other silences filled my childhood?’: Tareq Baconi on excavating his queer and Palestinian identities
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Culture | Donald Trump | Family | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Parents and parenting | Petrol prices | Society | Women | World news

‘For the women who gave birth in the dark’: a portrait of motherhood in Gaza
ByAseel Mousa November 8, 2025

Diana Shams wrote a book because ‘no one explains how to carry your baby through fire, hunger and fear – and still sing to her at bedtime’She used to worry about screen time. She used to fret over sugar. She used to dwell on what cartoon character migh…

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Donald Trump | Egypt | Gaza | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel-Gaza war | Israel–Iran War | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestine | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | World news

‘Beating, torturing, killing’: freed Palestinian author on life in Israeli jails
ByJulian Borger November 4, 2025

Nasser Abu Srour says prisons became like ‘another front’ in Gaza war and tells of struggle to adjust to life outsideA celebrated Palestinian author who was freed last month after more than 32 years in Israeli prisons has said the use of torture increa…

Read More ‘Beating, torturing, killing’: freed Palestinian author on life in Israeli jails
Africa | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei | Bashar al-Assad | Benjamin Netanyahu | Books | Culture | Donald Trump | Egypt | Europe | Extradition | Gaza | Human rights | Iran | Iran's nuclear programme | Israel | Israel–Iran War | Law | Lebanon | Middle East and north Africa | Nuclear weapons | Palestinian territories | Petrol prices | Poetry | Syria | Torture | Turkey | UK criminal justice | United Arab Emirates | United Nations | World news

UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet
ByWilliam Christou November 1, 2025

Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governmentsThe UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish p…

Read More UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet