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Simon Hooper @simonbhooper

Journalist at @MiddleEastEye

Joined October 2010
  • Tweets 5,049
  • Following 1,435
  • Followers 2,630
49 Photos and videos
Met's Deputy Commissioner cites use of Palantir tech by '72 NHS trusts' to argue why it was considered an appropriate supplier by the London police force even though recognised as a 'divisive' company. by @oscarrickettnow middleeasteye.net/news/sadiq…

Sadiq Khan cancels Met police Palantir contract, with pressure to end all links to AI firm

London mayor blocked £50m Palantir deal with the Met on Thursday, but police force already has a contract with tech giant linked to Israeli atrocities

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How activists pushed the UK's largest pension megafund to divest from Israel middleeasteye.net/news/how-a…

How activists pushed the UK's largest pension megafund to divest from Israel

Local government workers were shocked to discover their pensions were being invested in Israeli bonds at the height of the Gaza war. But within a few months the bonds had been quietly sold

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Exclusive by @SondosAsem1 for @MiddleEastEye: Judges clear ICC’s Karim Khan over sexual misconduct claims middleeasteye.net/news/judge…

Exclusive: Judges clear ICC’s Karim Khan over sexual misconduct claims

Panel appointed by war crimes court’s governing body says UN probe has not established any ‘misconduct or breach of duty’ by chief prosecutor

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Simon Hooper retweeted
Peter Oborne@OborneTweets
Mar 20
MEE reports that after endorsing Nick Timothy's attack on British Muslims, Kemi Badenoch seems not to have sent out a message marking Eid al-Fitr. Leaders of other main parties, apart from Reform, all did so. Badenoch HAS marked Hanukkah and Diwali. middleeasteye.net/news/conse…

Conservatives' Badenoch fails to issue Eid message to British Muslims

Silence on Eid al-Fitr fuels criticism after Nick Timothy’s 'act of domination' remarks deepen concerns over party’s stance on British Muslims

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Simon Hooper retweeted
Peter Oborne@OborneTweets
Mar 20
Edward Heath sacked Powell. Kemi Badenoch defended Timothy on the basis he was defending British values. In this column for Middle East Eye I argue that last week was the defining moment for Badenoch's Tory Party as a cesspit of hatred and bigotry: middleeasteye.net/opinion/ni…

Nick Timothy shows how UK Tory party has become a cesspit of hatred

His latest vile attack on Muslims in Trafalgar Square was framed by the party leader as 'defending British values'

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Exclusive: Israel to keep Al-Aqsa Mosque closed through Eid al-Fitr and beyond middleeasteye.net/news/exclu…

Exclusive: Israel to keep Al-Aqsa Mosque closed through Eid al-Fitr and beyond

Sources tell MEE Israel has limited Al-Aqsa access to just 25 Waqf staff per shift for over two weeks

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'Suez moment': US missteps in Iran echo across East Asia to the Gulf and Europe middleeasteye.net/news/suez-…

'Suez moment': US missteps in Iran echo across East Asia to the Gulf and Europe

The US is taking from allies in the Gulf, Europe and Asia to wage an ill-defined war that has raised questions of 'competence', experts say

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Simon Hooper retweeted
Imran Mulla@Imran_posts
Mar 12
NEW: Great fanfare has surrounded the anti-Muslim hatred definition. But the Labour government has also brought in sweeping new counter-extremism measures which will use an "authoritarian" definition of extremism first introduced by Michael Gove: middleeasteye.net/news/uk-go…
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This Home Office graph reveals the shocking spike in terrorism arrests in the UK since Palestine Action was banned last July. middleeasteye.net/news/uk-ho…
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'Most of us don’t even know where our relatives are': Families of detainees in Syria, including Sally Lane (@CampaignforJack), fear 'extraordinary rendition' as US starts moving prisoners to Iraq. w/ @are_eb middleeasteye.net/news/famil…

Families fear for detainees as US moves Islamic State prisoners out of northeast Syria

Rights groups raise concerns for safety of men, women and children held in camps and prisons after SDF relinquished control

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RT @SondosAsem1: NEW: The UK admits for the first time a phone call between David Cameron and Karim Khan in which the then British foreign…
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Further to @middleeasteye's story about the cargo plane flying between the UAE, Israel, Bahrain and Ethiopia. On Thursday it returned to Abu Dhabi from Thailand and today it flew to Leipzig in Germany middleeasteye.net/news/uae-f…

Exclusive: UAE flights linked to Sudan war tracked from Israel to Ethiopia

As Saudi Arabia-UAE rivalry intensifies, cargo plane connected to Mohammed bin Zayed conducts multiple flights across Middle East, Horn of Africa, and beyond

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A massive cargo plane previously linked to the alleged supply of weapons to UAE-backed fighters in Libya and Sudan has been shuttling between military bases in Abu Dhabi, Ethiopia, Bahrain and Israel in recent weeks. w/@oscarrickettnow middleeasteye.net/news/uae-f…

Exclusive: UAE flights linked to Sudan war tracked from Israel to Ethiopia

As Saudi Arabia-UAE rivalry intensifies, cargo plane connected to Mohammed bin Zayed conducts multiple flights across Middle East, Horn of Africa, and beyond

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Berbera on the Gulf of Aden coast has been in the news in connection with Emirati scheming in Sudan and Yemen, and Israel's recognition of Somaliland. What's more surprising is that the UK government is a co-owner of the port. With @oscarrickettnow middleeasteye.net/news/uk-go…

UK government co-owns Somaliland port at centre of Horn of Africa crisis

Berbera is part of UAE-controlled Gulf of Aden network of ports and airbases under scrutiny over Emirati support for RSF in Sudan

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Simon Hooper retweeted
Peter Oborne@OborneTweets
23 Dec 2025
Bulldozers are at work building an Israeli settlement in Shepherds' Field where, according to Christian tradition, angels brought news of Christ’s birth to “shepherds tending their flock by night.” Lubna Masarwa and I report for Middle East Eye: middleeasteye.net/news/chris…

Christians in Bethlehem face existential threat under Israel's occupation

Christmas should be the busiest time of the year for the shopkeepers of Manger Square, but the birthplace of Jesus is now a ghost town

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ICC rejects Israel's appeal that sought to invalidate Netanyahu arrest warrant middleeasteye.net/news/icc-r…

ICC rejects Israel's appeal that sought to invalidate Netanyahu arrest warrant

In major development, appeals chamber dismisses Israel's arguments that opening an investigation after 7 October was contrary to Rome Statute

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UK faces mounting pressure to repatriate British nationals held in Syria middleeasteye.net/news/uk-fa…

UK faces mounting pressure to repatriate British nationals held in Syria

Mother of Jack Letts, held by Kurds since 2017, says clock is ticking as experts warn refusal to repatriate detainees, including young children and some stripped of citizenship, is untenable

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Simon Hooper retweeted
Imran Mulla@Imran_posts
2 Dec 2025
NEW: How ICC prosecutor's removal from Venezuela case is being used to target him on Gaza file - my dispatch from The Hague with @simonbhooper middleeasteye.net/news/icc-r…
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Karim Khan was forced to recuse himself from the ICC's investigation in Venezuela over a conflict of interest complaint. Now Israel is also calling for him to be removed from the Gaza war crimes probe. With @Imran_posts in The Hague middleeasteye.net/news/icc-r…

Karim Khan: How ICC prosecutor's removal from Venezuela case is being used to target him over Gaza...

US-based Venezuelan rights group which forced Karim Khan to recuse himself over conflict of interest concerns has also criticised prosecutor’s pursuit of Israeli leaders for war crimes

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Manfred Goldberg: Holocaust survivor who said he was 'heartbroken' by Gaza dies aged 95 middleeasteye.net/news/manfr…

Manfred Goldberg: Holocaust survivor who said he was 'heartbroken' by Gaza dies aged 95

Goldberg spoke to MEE last year to express his dismay after his friend and fellow survivor Zigi Shipper's prayer shawl was taken into Gaza by a British man fighting for the Israeli army

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