As Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in 2023, people around the world found different ways to express their solidarity with Palestinians. From wearing the keffiyeh to sharing watermelon emojis, these acts of solidarity took many forms.

For paediatrician Dr Abdul Qader Ismail, it was a poppy-shaped badge.

Alongside his work treating children for the NHS and writing picture books, Dr Abdul created the Palestine poppy badge shortly after Israel's war began in the besieged enclave. The badge gave people a way to show support for Palestinians at a time when expressions of solidarity faced growing scrutiny.

"I wanted to take a symbol that was beloved in the West, given the West's integral role in the suffering and injustice endured by the Palestinian people — from the Nakba, and even before it, to the present day, including the current genocide," Dr Abdul tells The New Arab.

Pinned proudly to his chest as he speaks, the poppy badge features the colours of the Palestine flag. He designed the pin himself, drawing inspiration from other designs he saw online.

For Dr Abdul, the poppy’s associations with remembrance, peace and the human cost of war make it a particularly fitting symbol for Palestine.

"If the poppy is there to remember those who fell in war, those who suffered because of war, and to symbolise peace and an end to violence and injustice, then I think Palestinians, who have suffered immensely, deserve the poppy just as much as anyone else," he adds. 

He stressed that the badge was not intended to provoke division or hostility towards anyone. "It's not meant to be a symbol against anyone. It's not meant to be something that causes division or hate or anything like that," Dr Abdul shares. 

In Britain, the red poppy is closely associated with Remembrance Day, when people honour the service and sacrifice of armed forces members who died in conflict. Over time, it has also become a symbol of national remembrance, and its use in political campaigns has sometimes sparked controversy.

But the poppy's significance extends beyond Britain. Dr Abdul highlighted that it is also a national symbol for Palestinians, arguing that this connection has been forgotten. He also pointed to the tens of thousands of Palestinians who, he said, fought alongside the Allies during the Second World War, as well as the poppy’s longstanding use in pro-Palestine activism.

Backlash from right-wing UK press

Despite Dr Abdul having made the badge in December 2023, it has now caught the attention of right-wing media, who are accusing the doctor of "hijacking" Remembrance Day.

"I suppose like any media outlet, what they want is to publish a juicy story that gets them more readers and more attention and causes anger and debate, and so I suppose that's what media does, isn't it," Dr Abdul says about the backlash. 

He strongly rejected any suggestion that he was anti-Semitic, pointing to his support for Jewish Green Party leader Zack Polanski and his longstanding professional relationships with people of different faiths and backgrounds.

He said he had joined the Green Party specifically because of Polanski's outspoken support for Palestinians and his opposition to conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

"Whenever people have tried to show support for Palestine, it's always framed by those who don't like it, that you are somehow a terrorist sympathiser or supporter, that you are anti-Semitic, that you're pro-violence, you're anti-peace," the doctor adds.  

"It's always framed in that way to silence people, to stop them from speaking out, to stop them from showing their support for the Palestinian people, and this is no different than that."

Boost in sales

While he had anticipated some backlash and personal attacks, Dr Abdul was surprised that the badge had attracted attention nearly three years after its creation.

The controversy, however, has had an unexpected consequence — a sharp rise in sales.

"Since these articles have come out… its sales have gone through the roof to the extent that I've actually run out of stock now," the doctor explains, noting that the sales within the last few months had "dried up."

He said the badge has attracted buyers from a wide range of backgrounds, both online and at pro-Palestine events, with interest extending well beyond Muslim and Palestinian communities.

"I can see the names of the people who are buying from me... They are from all kinds of backgrounds," Dr Ismail explains.

"There's a lot of support for this. People like the badge, people like the concept, and people recognise it for what it is: a symbol of peace and a symbol for showing your support for Palestine and the Palestinian people," he added.

Like the books he has written, the badge itself is not-for-profit, with proceeds going toward producing more badges and supporting charities working on the ground in Palestine or educating people about the cause.

Reflecting on the backlash, Dr Abdul acknowledged that anticipating criticism and experiencing it firsthand are two very different things, as he continues to navigate the attention his work has drawn.

"If [right-wing press] didn't want the badge to be sold or known about, they've done the exact opposite by writing articles about it," Dr Abdul concluded. 

Anam Alam is a staff writer at The New Arab. She frequently writes about human rights and social issues, including women's rights and sex education

Follow her on X: @itsanamalam

The New Democrats Are More Interested In Changing the US Than Changing Russia and Iran Nima and I discuss whether […]

Earlier this year, during an appearance on Kareem Rahma’s popular Subway Takes show, Jasper Craven explained line-crossing ceremonies, in which sailors celebrate first crossings of the equator. In US naval history, line-crossing ceremonies have at times involved violent hazing. But they have also involved pageantry, ritualistic performances of masculinity and femininity that tip over into drag. “Young men want love, support, community,” Craven said. “The military provides a permission structure to show love, often in very pure ways.”

It’s a characteristic insight from Craven, a freelance reporter who has made a singular beat from the intersection of masculinity and the American military. In his magazine features, Craven has scrutinized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s opposition to women in the armed forces via Hegseth’s undergraduate fits over The Vagina Monologues, and profiled Bernarr McFadden, a bodybuilder and publisher who oversaw two military schools “to impose his love of physical strength onto American children, the War Department, and the world.” Craven’s recent book, God Forgives, Brothers Don’t, follows some of our most insidious models of masculinity back to the military education programs that have shaped them for centuries.

Craven is a dynamic counterexample to the men he writes about, less interested in bulking up the boundaries of his identity than testing their limits. For a memorable Harper’s feature, he spent six months undercover as an employee of the world’s largest private-security firm. (During his first shift, a supervisor criticized Craven for his non-detachable necktie, which could be used to strangle him.) He is at once stridently critical and deeply compassionate. (He is also, as you’ll learn, deeply and truly funny.)

“There are myriad other ways to prove your manhood, and they’re not simply being emotionally vulnerable or non-violent,” Craven told an interviewer earlier this year. “You can actually fight for things: fight for peace, be a little risky, be a little reckless, break the law, put your body on the line. If it’s around a morally sound mission, that can feel incredibly validating.” I don’t take a lot of heart from the men Craven writes about, but I take some heart from his work.

—Brendan Fitzgerald

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Where did you grow up?

Peacham, Vermont.

What places feel like home?

The sluiceway at Gull Pond in Wellfleet, Massachusetts; Tom’s Diner in Brooklyn, New York; The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Other than family members, who or what has shaped you the most?

My folks, both filmmakers, shielded me from television and other mainstream entertainment as a child. Much as I resented their restrictions at the time, they forced me to troubleshoot my taste through the physical media available in our home, a beautiful process of discovery tinged by family lineage that I wish was still widely practiced. Nothing got me more excited than the films of Charlie Chaplin. I’ve consumed all his films, and The Great Dictator is my favorite. It is what much of my journalism aspires to be: narratively compelling, funny, and unflinching. 

What is your favorite time of day?

I’ll take any time on the weekend. On workdays: I like the mornings for research and making calls, and evenings for writing. To me, the midafternoon is almost always a slog. 

What are you really good at?

Guessing what time it is without a watch.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

I love Cold War ephemera. My two favorite gifts are a vintage poster of Dr. Strangelove and a Vietnam-era Snoopy Zippo. 

Describe your favorite meal.

Negroni and a cheeseburger at Long Island Bar. 

Sound or silence? (And if sound, what sound?)

Sound. Ideally jazz or a film score. I wrote my book about military masculinity mostly to the work of Bill Evans, Pharaoh Sanders, and the soundtracks from Jackie, Do the Right Thing, One Battle After Another, and Ken Burns’s The Vietnam War.

Where do you do your best thinking?

On bike rides. 

What journey—physical, creative, intellectual, or otherwise—has meant the most to you?

Hauling a golden gorilla statute across America for a crypto concern during COVID.

Where do you like to read?

New York City’s Prospect Park, my clawfoot tub, the bed.

What’s the last rabbit hole you disappeared into?

Disney Adult YouTube vlogs. Still haven’t emerged.

Name three publications you enjoy reading these days.

The Baffler, Harper’s, The New York Review of Finance.

What’s one longread that you can’t stop thinking about?

Evan Esnos’s 2017 New Yorker piece on the ultra-rich doomsday preppers. Wildly prophetic and totally bonkers. 

What was the last book you read?

Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage by Matthew Wolfe. Reads like The Italian Job or any other great caper movie: a political prophecy of ragtag bandits that is tense, propulsive, and brilliantly reported.

What piece of nonfiction are you most proud of writing?

Probably my Harper’s dispatch on my six months undercover as a security guard.  

What’s your most reliable way to get creatively unstuck?

Watching a movie or schvitzing at The Wall Street Bath & Spa.

Who’s a writer you turn to when you need some inspiration?

Right now, Don DeLillo.

What words do you overuse?

Tenacious. Hyperaggressive. Amped. 

What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?

90 Day Fiancé.

What superpower would you like to have? 

Like any good reporter, I’m very nosey, so probably superhuman eavesdropping. Lost about 20 percent of hearing in my right ear when a speaker blew out at a college party. Would love that back, and then some.

What animal or nonhuman being do you most identify with?

I’ve got the curiosity of a cat, but I often don’t land on my feet.

If you have a free solitary hour in your day, what do you typically do?

I’ll either go on a bike ride or veg out on YouTube. The duality of man. 

What five items would you place in a time capsule?

A hanging chad ballot. The EV Hummer. Some Trump steaks. An AR-15. My medical bills after I fell off my bike. 

What does your writing space look like?

I am someone who writes anywhere and everywhere. Amtrak. Delta. Starbucks. My bed. The Wertheim Room at the New York Public Library has been the best of them all.

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Jasper Craven is a freelance reporter covering men and the military for outlets including Harper’s, The New Yorker, New York, Wired, The Baffler, and The New York Times. He’s also the author of a new book for Simon & Schuster about the military’s influence on masculinity, entitled God Forgives, Brothers Don’t.