From a farm in Yemen to global science sensation, the journey of Peshawar University graduate

The undated photo shows Hashem Al-Ghaili delivering a Ted Talk. (Photo courtesy: Universum Bremen)
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Updated 11 April 2023
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From a farm in Yemen to global science sensation, the journey of Peshawar University graduate

  • Al-Ghaili’s father expected him to work on their qat farm in Yemen, brushing away any dissent
  • Today, the 27-year-old has an army of fans avidly following his online mini-films explaining science

LONDON: Hashem Al-Ghaili has come a long way from his family’s qat farm in northern Yemen, he now communicates complex theories of physics to millions of followers.

As a young boy growing up in northern Yemen, Al-Ghaili already knew he wanted to be a scientist — but his father had other ideas.

Al-Ghaili senior grows qat, the mildly narcotic herb beloved of Yemenis and the people of the Horn of Africa, and he expected Hashem, 10th of his 12 children, to work on the farm with him. Indeed he demanded it, brushing away any dissent.

“I tried because it is very difficult in Yemen to go against your parents’ wishes, but in the end I had to follow my dream,” said Al-Ghaili.

Today, Al-Ghaili, 27, is a scientist and a media star with an army of fans avidly following his online mini-films in which he explains science to non-scientists.

He began posting occasional videos with a commentary in 2009. He taught himself graphics and editing and launched a Facebook page, just to share with friends. The group continued to grow and by the end of 2015, he had acquired 66,000 followers. Now he has 24 million followers globally and has racked up a staggering eight billion views on Facebook.

What began as a hobby made him a science superstar. But despite his natural ability, it hasn’t been easy.

His communication skills were evident at school where he would read aloud to the class “and explain things.” He was six.

At age 16 when he graduated from high school, he secretly applied for a government scholarship to study abroad. He had to go to the capital, Sanaa, to fill out the paperwork and made the six-hour journey without telling his father.

“I called him from Sanaa and he was really upset.” Angry, upset or disappointed? “I’d say angry. But I told him I was going to do this against all odds and he realized then that there was nothing he could do.”

Al-Ghaili secured the scholarship, but that didn’t mean he could study the subject he wanted at the university of his choice.

“People with connections get places in Europe and America. The rest of us get the leftovers and even then, the computer randomly chooses for you. I requested physics in Egypt or Jordan and I got biotechnology in Pakistan.”

Another shock awaited him when he arrived at the University of Peshawar and realized that his schoolboy English was not good enough to follow the tutorials and there was no language course he could sign up for that could bring him up to the required level. Undeterred, he set about teaching himself English from online tutorials that he was able to watch after borrowing money to buy a laptop.

“Peshawar wasn’t a very safe place back in 2008 so I wasn’t going out much. Within three months I was ready,” he said.

He graduated with a first-class degree and was appointed the university’s ambassador to Yemen.

He then applied for a scholarship to study for a master’s degree in Germany and became one of only five applicants out of 1,070 to be awarded a scholarship.

“So I had the scholarship, but to get the visa I had to have a place at a university, which I didn’t. But I couldn’t risk missing my chance,”

He arrived in Dresden, Germany, and spent five months learning German and applying to universities.

“I sent off 70 applications in one day. Most didn’t reply at all, a few said applications were closed and one replied saying: ‘Let’s talk.’”

That was Professor Sebastian Springer of Jacobs University, an English-language institution in Bremen, northern Germany, which has students from around 80 countries.

“DAAD (the scholarship-awarding body) made a strong recommendation for his exceptional communication abilities and his extraordinary dedication,” said Prof. Springer.

“In my interview, Hashem came across as a very dedicated and professional person who spoke excellent English and his gift of communication was already very clear.”

But a further shock awaited Al-Ghaili in Bremen, the course he had studied in Pakistan had been more theoretical. “I didn’t know how to conduct experiments or how to use the equipment. I was devastated.”

He confided his concerns to Prof. Springer. “He said he knew I was worried, and if I had not come to him, he would have known I was not serious about my studies. He said, ‘I’m here to help you.’ He was so supportive and I owe him a lot. I got the hang of the practical work and in the end I excelled at it.”

After he got a top grade in his master’s degree he was chosen to give the students’ speech at the graduation ceremony. He embarked on a doctorate, but gave it up after three months as his communicator role gradually took precedence over his science.

“I couldn’t do both and I realized I was better at the communicating.”

The online comments he gets bear this out. Many are of the “Wow, this is awesome!” variety. In response to a film about the history of the universe, from birth to now, one wrote: “This was the most amazing and educational six minutes and 11 seconds of my life.”

Al-Ghaili says he chooses topics that interest him or that could be useful.

“It might be a medical breakthrough or something to do with the environment, or correcting misconceptions about GM [genetically modified] foods or vaccines or climate change.”

Inevitably, he has faced criticism from Internet trolls calling him a fake and saying he should be arrested. He no longer reads the comments.

“I can’t screen hundreds of thousands of them. I only read them if they require intervention. I don’t care about the personal comments, but I won’t have them spreading misinformation.”

A particularly proud moment for him came two years after he got his master’s when he was invited on to a discussion panel with Randy Schekman, Nobel laureate in medicine, a powerful illustration of how far he has come.

His determination has also paid off for others as three siblings, including two sisters, have also gone to university. His brother has been studying business administration in Malaysia, one sister is a journalist and poet and the other is studying economics.

He is especially pleased for his sisters. “Women in Yemen are trained to accept what others decide for them. They don’t even know their rights. My dad is very proud now and convinced about education. He keeps track of everything I do. We speak every week.”

He lives in Berlin describing the city as “a great central hub for start-ups and collaboration,” but woefully lacking in Yemeni restaurants: “I mean, there’s not a single one anywhere in all of Germany!”

He now has four people to help him with sourcing video, editing and writing scripts. But nothing goes through without his approval. His current big project is “Simulation,” a science fiction short film he has written, directed and funded and intends to show at film festivals and then sell online.

He has not seen his family since 2013 and as the war rages on in Yemen he has no idea when he will. Doing what he does from Yemen would be difficult. “Talking about things like the Big Bang can get you into trouble,” he said.

But he feels a responsibility to represent his country well and longs to see it flourish.

“Being rich can make you a bit lazy,” he said. “Yemen is a poor country, but we have creative people.”
 


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Updated 05 November 2024
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

  • Washington told Israel on Oct. 13 it had 30 days to take steps to address humanitarian crisis in Gaza
  • Israel on Monday announced cancelling agreement with UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.


Israel issues 7,000 new draft orders for ultra-Orthodox members

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israel issues 7,000 new draft orders for ultra-Orthodox members

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued 7,000 additional army draft orders Monday for individuals from the country’s ultra-Orthodox community, historically exempted from mandatory service until a June Supreme Court decision.
Gallant approved the Israeli army’s “recommendation to issue an additional 7,000 orders for screening and evaluation processes for ultra-Orthodox draft-eligible individuals in the upcoming phase, which is expected to begin in the coming days,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
The order comes after a first round of 3,000 draft orders were sent out in July, sparking protests from the ultra-Orthodox community.
Monday’s orders come at a time when Israel is struggling to bolster troop numbers as it fights a multi-front war, with ground forces deployed to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The defense minister concluded that the war and the challenges we face underscore the (Israeli army’s) need for additional soldiers. This is a tangible operational need that requires broad national mobilization from all parts of society,” the ministry said.
In Israel, military service is mandatory for Jewish men for 32 months, and for 24 months for Jewish women.
The ultra-Orthodox account for 14 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), representing about 1.3 million people.
About 66,000 of those of conscription age are exempted, according to the army.
Under a rule adopted at Israel’s creation in 1948, when it applied to only 400 people, the ultra-Orthodox have historically been exempted from military service if they dedicate themselves to the study of sacred Jewish texts.
In June, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the draft of yeshiva (seminary) students after deciding the government could not keep up the exemption “without an adequate legal framework.”
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
Since late September, Israel has broadened the focus of its war to Lebanon, where it intensified air strikes and later sent in ground troops, following nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire with Hezbollah.


Palestinians build new lives in Cairo’s ‘Little Gaza’

Updated 05 November 2024
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Palestinians build new lives in Cairo’s ‘Little Gaza’

CAIRO: Palestinian Bassem Abu Aoun serves Gaza-style turkey shawarma at his restaurant in an eastern Cairo neighborhood, where a growing number of businesses opened by those fleeing war have many dubbing the area “Little Gaza.”
“It was a big gamble,” said the 56-year-old about opening his restaurant, Hay Al-Rimal, named after his neighborhood in Gaza City, now devastated by Israeli bombardment.
“I could live for a year on the money I had, or open a business and leave the rest to fate,” he said.
So less than four months after fleeing with his family to neighboring Egypt from the besieged Palestinian territory, he opened his eatery in Cairo’s Nasr City neighborhood.
The establishment is one of the many cafes, falafel joints, shawarma spots and sweets shops being started by newly arriving Palestinian entrepreneurs in the area — despite only being granted temporary stays by Egypt.
These spaces have become a refuge for the traumatized Gazan community in Cairo, offering a livelihood to business owners, many of whom lost everything in the war.
“Even if the war stops now in Gaza, it would take me at least two or three years to get my life back on track,” Abu Aoun said.
“Everything has been wiped out there,” he continued.
His patrons are mainly fellow Palestinians, chatting in their distinct Gazan dialect as they devour sandwiches that remind them of home.
On a wall next to his shop was a mural of intertwining Egyptian and Palestinian flags.
“I have a responsibility to my family and children who are in university,” said the restaurateur, whose two eateries in Gaza have now been completely destroyed.
Abu Aoun and his family are among more than 120,000 Palestinians who arrived in Egypt between November last year and May, according to Palestinian officials in Egypt.
They crossed through the Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s only exit point to the outside world until Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in early May and closed it ever since.
Although Egypt insists it won’t do Israel’s bidding by allowing permanent refugee camps on its territory, it had allowed in medical evacuees, dual passport holders and others who managed to escape.
Many drained their life savings to escape, paying thousands of dollars a head to the private Egyptian travel agency Hala, the only company coordinating Gaza evacuations.
War broke out in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Hamas’s surprise attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

Gazan-style desserts
Opening the restaurant was not an easy decision for Abu Aoun, but he says he’s glad he did it.
“I’ll open a second branch and expand,” he said with a smile, while watching a family from Central Asia being served a traditional Gazan salad.
Nearby is Kazem, a branch of a decades-old, much-loved Gaza establishment serving iced dessert drinks.
Its Palestinian owner, Kanaan Kazem, opened the branch in September after settling in Cairo.
The shop offers ice cream on top of a drink sprinkled with pistachios, a Gazan-style treat known as “bouza w barad,” which has become a fast favorite among the Egyptian patrons filling the shop.
“There’s a certain fear and hesitation about opening a business in a place where people don’t know you,” said Kazem, 66.
But “if we’re destined never to return, we must adapt to this new reality and start a new life,” he said, standing alongside his sons.
Kazem hopes to return to Gaza, but his son Nader, who manages the shop, has decided to stay in Egypt.
“There are more opportunities, safety and stability here, and it’s a large market,” said Nader, a father of two.
Gazan patron Bashar Mohammed, 25, takes comfort in the flourishing Palestinian businesses.
“Little Gaza reminds me of Gaza’s spirit and beauty and makes me feel like I’m really in Gaza,” he said.
After more than a year of war, Gaza has become uninhabitable due to extensive destruction and damage to infrastructure, according to the United Nations.
“It’d be hard to go back to Gaza. There’s no life left there,” he said, taking a deep breath.
“I have to build a new life here.”


Israel accuses Turkiye of ‘malice’ over UN arms embargo call

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israel accuses Turkiye of ‘malice’ over UN arms embargo call

  • Turkiye’s letter, seen by AFP Monday, called the “staggering” civilian death toll “unconscionable and intolerable”

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday accused Turkiye of “malice,” after Ankara submitted a letter signed by 52 countries calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel over the war in Gaza.
“What else can be expected from a country whose actions are driven by malice in an attempt to create conflicts with the support of the ‘Axis of Evil’ countries,” said Ambassador Danny Danon, using a pejorative term to describe the Arab countries who signed the letter.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry said Sunday it had submitted the letter to the United Nations, with the signatories including the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel has faced international criticism for the conduct of its war in Gaza, where its offensive has killed at least 43,374 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
The war was sparked by Palestinian armed group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
“This letter is further proof that the UN is led by some sinister countries and not by the liberal countries that support the values of justice and morality,” said Danon.
Turkiye’s letter, seen by AFP Monday, called the “staggering” civilian death toll “unconscionable and intolerable.”
“We therefore make this collective call for immediate steps to be taken to halt the provision or transfer of arms,  munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the letter said.
It added that the UN Security Council (UNSC) must take steps to ensure compliance with its resolutions “which are being flagrantly violated.”
The UNSC called in March for a ceasefire in Gaza, but has struggled to speak with a unified voice on the issue due to the veto wielded by Israel’s key ally, the United States.
Asked about the joint letter on Monday, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had not seen it.


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Updated 05 November 2024
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

  • Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.