In the gulf, women employed as domestic workers are being sold on apps provided by Apple and Google. It’s been called an online slave market. Our World: Silicon Valley’s Online Slave Market, BBC 2019
There are more than 700,000 domestic workers in Kuwait. ibid.
The seller sends us the passport of the 16-year-old girl. ibid.
As coups and civil wars spread throughout the Third World, Stirling was determined to find a subtler way to maintain Britain’s influence in the world. He set up a secret organisation called WatchGuard: its job was to provide Africa and Middle-Eastern leaders with a private army of British mercenaries. They would prevent the rulers that Stirling approved of from being overthrown. WatchGuard was a great success. Stirling organised protection for leaders in Africa and the Middle East. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set I: Who Pays Wins ***** BBC 1999
Then an event occurred in the Middle East which gave Stirling the chance to reassert Britain’s power abroad but in a new different way: in September 1962 Egyptian troops invaded the Yemen. ibid.
In 1977 [Anwar] Sadat was flown to Jerusalem to start the peace process. To the west it was an heroic act but to the Islamists it was a complete betrayal. Adam Curtis: The Power of Nightmares I: Baby It’s Cold Outside, BBC 2004
Assad decided get the Americans out of the Middle East, and to do this he made an alliance with the new revolutionary force of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran … Khomeini told his followers that they could destroy themselves in order to save the revolution, providing that in the process they killed as many enemies around them as possible. Adam Curtis, HyperNormalisation 2016
In 1971 Britain withdrew from Bahrain, Qatar and the Sheikdoms that soon became the UAE. Secrets and Deals: How Britain Left the Middle East, caption, BBC 2022
‘Britain forced these regions, sheikdoms and emirates into unequal relations.’ ibid. Taqi Albaharna
‘They [British] interfered in the local administrations. They organised coups.’ ibid. Dr Wafa Alsayed
For 50 years the Arab states have been independent and increasingly rich. Only recently have historians here in the Gulf begun to examine the previous era when Britain’s influence was dominant. ibid.
‘Britain dominated the Gulf’s resources politically, economically, and financially.’ ibid. Albaharna
Britain moved its Persian Gulf residency to Bahrain after World War II … Britain was highly dependant on Arab oil. ibid.
1965: As a result of the uprising, dozens of Bahrainis were exiled or imprisoned. ibid.
Abu Dhabi: ‘The usual English story: They said members of the ruling family carried out the coup.’ ibid. historian
The [UK] government prepared to slash spending and took a momentous decision: they would end Britain’s presence in the Gulf by 1971. ibid.
If Britain withdrew its troops, the Sheikhs would only have their local police for protection. ibid.
In February 1968 the rules of Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial states agreed in principle to unite their nine Sheikhdoms into a federation. ibid.
In June 1970 a new Conservative government comes to power in the UK. Just 18 months remain until Britain is to leave the Gulf. But the islands [Bahrain] problem is no closer to being solved. ibid.
1971: In August Bahrain and Qatar each declared independence. ibid.
‘Today virtually the same families are on the throne in each Emirate.’ ibid. English dude
November 2nd 1917: This is the Balfour Declaration, the first moment that the British government acknowledged there should be a home for the Jewish people. The Holy Land & Us: Our Untold Stories, BBC 2023
For the Palestinians there was nothing to celebrate. ibid.
More than 700,000 Palestinians refugees were created by the events between 1947 and 1949. ibid.
For centuries there had been a minority Jewish population in the region. But by the late nineteenth century onwards Jewish immigrants began arriving from around the world to escape rising Anti-Semitism. ibid.
By the mid-1930s Arab fears of losing their land to the new Jewish immigrants led to an uprising against the British who controlled Palestine at the time. In response, in 1939, the British severely limited the number of Jewish immigrants they allowed into Palestine. ibid.
For the Arabs too this was their land and the UN plan divided it against their will. ibid.
The British mandate for Palestine came to an end, and the Jewish leadership declared the establishment of the state of Israel. ibid.
By 1949 the scale of the Palestinian refugee crisis was clear. Hundreds of Arab towns and villages had been depopulated and many destroyed, making around 100,000 families homeless. ibid.
The idea that there is a land, a place, a home, for the end of the wandering, changes the entire complexion of what it means to be Jewish. The Holy Land & Us: Our Untold Stories II
The brutal response to Hamas and its murderous attack … In Gaza a growing humanitarian crisis. The loss of life is fuelling anger on both sides. With Israel on the verge of a ground invasion of Gaza, could this crisis engulf the whole of the Middle East? Panorama: At War: Crisis in the Middle East, BBC 2023