Benjamin Black

Humanitarian. Doctor. Writer. Special Advisor @MSF. Racial injustice panel @birthrights. Award-Winning Author of #BellyWoman Available:

[Benjamin Black @BenjamBlack]

What happens to pregnant women in a humanitarian crisis? My effort to share a story often left untold.

Pre-order available from https://t.co/5D0oJxbmt2

#bellywoman #ebola #humanitarian #maternity #obstetrics #birth #book @NeemTreePress

[Neem Tree Press @NeemTreePress]

#BellyWoman proofs are here! Thanks @JamesPaulJones for this phenomenal design.

#BellyWoman is a first-hand account by @BenjamBlack of the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone exploring the shocking global disparities in access to maternal healthcare.

🔗https://t.co/1YcishdYfU

[Tigray Update @TigrayUpdate]

7th October 2026 - "The U.N. and its humanitarian partners continue to monitor the situation and access issues in the north, where continued hostilities are driving new displacement and humanitarian needs. We are working to scale-up life-saving assistance wherever access permits, despite limited funding and fuel availability, among other constraints. In #Tigray, the U.N. is also concerned about reports that health services are at risk of disruption.

Humanitarian colleagues tell that any interruption would have serious consequences for people who depend on these health services, particularly as conflict escalates and the humanitarian needs deepen."

🔗https://t.co/emDIevcsGe
🔗https://t.co/URGsViYgKY

[Tigray Update @TigrayUpdate]

No accountability nor redress for victims of #TigrayGenocide, a Genocide that killed over 800,000 people in 2020-2022 - and yet #Tigray becomes a battlefield for another round war... May God have mercy on our people.

[Omar Abd Rabou @omarabdrabou]

I was in Gaza when I condemned October 7—and I paid a heavy price for saying so. During the war, Hamas subjected me to severe intimidation and attacks because I spoke openly against what happened.

I did not condemn October 7 from a distance or from safety; I condemned it from Gaza, while living through the consequences myself. My position has not changed. It comes from my conscience, my humanitarian principles, and my faith.

[Eli Kowaz - איליי קואז @elikowaz]

Three years ago, Michael, who was 9, and Amalia, who was 6, called the police from the safe room in their home in Kfar Aza. Their parents, Roi and Smadar Idan, had just been murdered. The children told the dispatcher where they were, and then said it over and over: our parents are dead.

They went back to hiding in the closet. Help didn't reach them until 19:20 that evening. Their little sister Avigail, who was 3, had been taken to Gaza. She came home after 51 days.

This recording was played for the first time tonight at the opening of "The Space That Remains" at the Peres Center in Jaffa, an exhibit put together by the October Council.

This was incredibly hard to listen to, but I think we owe it to them to hear it anyway.

[Danielle Haas @DanielleHaas01]

“Neutral, impartial & independent” @MSF_uk says it focuses on “medical needs alone, not politics.” So why’s it rallying people Oct 10 with groups from a coalition a UK govt review described as “six British Far Left and Islamist groups”?

The 2024 Walney Review, the UK government’s 2015 Muslim Brotherhood Review & subsequent court records show:

• @PSCupdates has a “history of alleged support for Hamas”: two former leaders met Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza; PSC has advocated Palestinians’ “right to armed resistance” and opposed the UK’s 2021 proscription of Hamas in its entirety. Its director was convicted in 2026 of breaching protest conditions and two counts of inciting others to breach them; he has said he will appeal.

• @MABOnline1 was established by “a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure.” The 2015 review found that the Muslim Brotherhood “dominated” MAB for some years.

• Palestinian Forum in Britain has a “long-standing history of alleged links to or support for Hamas.”

• Friends of Al-Aqsa’s founder visited Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and was filmed saying, “we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel.”

• @STWuk’s vice-chair was convicted in 2026 of breaching police-imposed protest conditions; he has said he will appeal.

"Humanitarian" NGOs, including @MSF, can no longer be allowed to claim principles without proof. They need urgent investigation.

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Well, I guess for some “pro-Palestine” activists in the West, Palestinian victims only matter when the perpetrator is Israel.

When Hamas brutalizes Palestinian civilians in Gaza, kidnaps them, tortures them, and breaks their limbs, suddenly Palestinian lives don’t seem to matter anymore.

Palestinians in Gaza protested against Hamas last year. They protested again this year. And for nearly two decades under Hamas rule, Palestinians have risked their lives to speak out against Hamas terrorism, endless wars, corruption, repression, and abuse.

Instead of receiving solidarity from many of the so-called “pro-Palestine” activists in the West, Palestinians who protested against Hamas were branded “traitors” by the very people who claimed to stand with them, simply for daring to speak out against Hamas.

Imagine claiming to stand with Palestinians while making excuses for those who kill, beat, torture, threaten, and silence Palestinians simply for demanding a better life and a future for their children.

Palestinian lives do not become less valuable when the person abusing them is Palestinian. Palestinian human rights do not begin and end with Israel.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

In an op-ed for The New York Times, I argue that saving Gaza & its Palestinian people requires resisting Hamas, weaving in personal themes, addressing issues with the Left & "pro-Palestine" movement & proposing a vision for Gaza's future Transformation.
https://t.co/X4OCVETl8M

[Benjamin Black @BenjamBlack]

Right now in DRC, an Ebola outbreak is a declared global health emergency. In outbreaks, maternal deaths go invisible without active surveillance. R-MDSR is a framework to prevent that. #Ebola #EVD #MPDSR #Maternalhealth

[Benjamin Black @BenjamBlack]

New paper: we used Rapid Maternal Death Surveillance & Response (R-MDSR) in Sudan — one of the world's worst crises, with women & girls bearing the cost. Maternal deaths must not be invisible. @FIGOHQ @IJGOLive
https://t.co/Nc8gyoEbK6

[Benjamin Black @BenjamBlack]

This is our 2nd R-MDSR paper (1st was in Tigray ����🇹), where the tool helped identify severe anaemia as a leading driver of maternal death and directly shaped the humanitarian response.
https://t.co/tXPFgHIuQC

[Bhargavi Rao @drbhargavirao]

@BenjamBlack speaks on the epidemic but hidden nature of maternal deaths in crises - which are almost entirely preventable. Critical need to track these to improve programming and advocacy

[Danielle Haas @DanielleHaas01]

"I was fired by the NGO Plan International France for speaking out vs. antisemitism on the left." @diane_richard1 also demanded they acknowledge Hamas' Oct 7 sexual violence. Harassed, then fired, she's taking them to court. The tip of the iceberg in NGO/NDA silencing culture.

@PlanFrance @hrw @amnesty @Greenpeace
Her original post in French here: https://t.co/NlQcjSj4yv
For English translation see: Evidence Wall, https://t.co/9P6sixVHcR or below:

"A year and a half ago, I was fired by the NGO Plan International France for speaking out against antisemitism on the left.

In February 2023, I was hired as a press officer by the NGO Plan International France, an NGO that defends children's rights around the world. I was explicitly recruited because I am an activist and because the Director General wanted to give the organization a more activist-oriented direction. For a year, everything went very well: I managed relations with journalists, I was also one of the NGO's spokespersons, and I continued my personal activism on the side.

At the end of 2023, when I publicly expressed criticism about the way certain feminist organizations had responded after October 7th, my relationship with one of my colleagues and friends (whom I call Nadia in my book), also a feminist activist, deteriorated sharply. Her hostility quickly turned into harassment at work and on social media: she stopped speaking to me, would leave a room when I entered it, obstructed my work, stated that she did not want to appear publicly alongside me, posted insulting stories about me, and sent me threatening messages.

At first, I said nothing — I hoped the situation would calm down and I didn't want to cause her difficulties. I also never voiced any criticism of Plan International's messaging on the situation in the Middle East, even though there were things worth questioning. Like most NGOs, Plan said nothing on October 7th. Their first tweet came on October 10th and condemned 'the escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine,' calling for a ceasefire. I then wrote numerous press releases and tweets condemning the strikes on Gaza.

At the start of 2024, I received an email to my professional inbox from someone criticizing us for having said nothing about the sexual violence of October 7th. I would have liked to reply that she was right, but I couldn't. The Director General then forwarded me a directive from the NGO's headquarters: we were instructed not to respond to this type of criticism. The subject line of that email was 'Allegations of sexual violence on Oct 7.' Several months later, the accusations of sexual violence were therefore still only 'allegations' as far as Plan International was concerned.

This time, I replied with a strongly worded email to the Director General and the department heads. I never received a response. I once again witnessed Plan International's double standards during the Hezbollah strike that killed 12 Druze children in July 2024 on the Golan Heights: the NGO wrote in a tweet that it was a 'tragic' event, without naming the source of the strike. Yet two days earlier, a strike on a school in Gaza had sparked outrage of a completely different magnitude — as, rightly, do all such attacks.

On March 8, 2024, I went to the feminist demonstration with my colleagues. The 'Nous Vivrons' ['We Will Live'] contingent was right behind us, and Nadia explained to everyone that they were far-right genocidal Zionists. When I objected, she screamed at me in front of all our colleagues. After an intense period of harassment following March 8th, I was put on sick leave for two weeks. At that point, I finally told my manager about the situation, and she said she would handle it.

When I returned from sick leave, nothing had changed. So I used the magic word: harassment. I finally felt like I was being taken seriously. I had a meeting with the Director General during which I told her everything, verbally and in writing. I made clear that I did not want an investigation or sanctions against Nadia, but mediation — that my only wish was to be able to work again in good conditions. But two weeks later, I was summoned and asked to sign a contract regulating what I could and could not say on my personal social media.

I was made to understand that I had to sign if I wanted to keep my job. So I signed, committing not to mention the NGO in my personal communications and to respect its missions and values — which I was already doing. There was no issue with the substance, but I couldn't understand why I was the only one required to sign this document — not Nadia, not the other spokespeople. Nor why the response to my harassment complaint was to treat me as though I were the one responsible for what was happening to me.

To continue down that path, the HR director asked me some time later whether I was really sure I wanted to keep talking about harassment. Because if I persisted, mediation would not be possible — which is false under the French Labour Code. When I insisted, she ended up sending me an email advising me to call the psychological support hotline. At the end of July, I returned from vacation to learn that Nadia was leaving: she had obtained a mutual termination agreement — from what I understood, with all the benefits she had asked for.

At the same time, I received a formal warning over a story I had posted a month earlier, in which I had urged feminist organizations to attend a rally in support of the 12-year-old girl who was the victim of an antisemitic rape in Courbevoie — even though Plan International's very purpose is to defend children and girls. In August, I was hit by an online pile-on in reaction to a tweet: insults and threats flooded in for several days. One person even tagged Plan International in a story and shared the Director General's email address, encouraging people to write to her to report me.

The reaction was swift: I received a call from the HR director telling me I was no longer to come into the office, that my access would be revoked and that I was no longer permitted to work. Along with a summons to a pre-dismissal interview, with no explanation. During that interview, I was reproached for having spoken about the 'sensitive' subject of the October 7th sexual violence, for having criticized feminist organizations, and for having challenged media outlets on their coverage of the conflict. Even though I was speaking in my own name, I was told it had created confusion between my personal positions and those of the NGO.

Yet I had already criticized left-wing organizations and challenged media outlets on other topics — such as the Julien Bayou affair — without it ever being a problem. But it seems that when it comes to antisemitism, cowardice took over. They offered to negotiate a mutual termination, but the conditions they wanted to impose were unacceptable: the minimum legal severance payment and a ban on posting anything about activism — on any topic — on my personal social media for one month. I refused the offer and was dismissed for serious misconduct, with no notice period and no severance pay.

Apart from one colleague, no one tried to reach out to me after my departure. Nadia, meanwhile, still has access to the NGO. In October, I filed a claim with the labour tribunal (prud'hommes) in Bobigny. Hearing in November."

[Niyak Ghorbani (نیاک) @GhorbaniiNiyak]

⭕️Breaking news

Last night in Golders Green, London, individuals attempted to set fire to a memorial wall dedicated to the fallen victims who took to the streets after the call by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and were killed by the Islamic Terrorist Regime. This memorial wall, created by Iranians in London’s Jewish and Iranian community, has stood for a long time in honour of those victims. Fortunately, the attempt to burn it down was unsuccessful.

The Islamic Terrorist Regime is so fearful that it is even threatened by the photographs of those killed during the Lion and Sun Revolution and by the telling of their story.

The Islamic Terrorist Regime must be dismantled. As long as it continues to exist, it will remain a potential threat to everyone.

شب گذشته افرادی در گلدرزگرین لندن تلاش کردند دیوار یادبودی را که به یاد جاویدنامانی ساخته شده بود که پس از فراخوان شاهزاده رضا پهلوی به خیابان‌ها آمدند و توسط جمهوری تروریستی اسلامی به قتل رسیدند، به آتش بکشند. این دیوار یادبود که توسط ایرانیان در منطقه یهودی‌نشین و ایرانی‌نشین لندن ساخته شده، مدت‌هاست برای گرامی‌داشت یاد آن جان‌باختگان برپا شده است. خوشبختانه این اقدام نافرجام ماند.

جمهوری تروریستی اسلامی آن‌قدر هراس دارد که حتی از تصاویر کشته‌شدگان انقلا�� شیر و خورشید و روایت شدن داستان آنان نیز می‌ترسد.

جمهوری تروریستی اسلامی باید نابود شود. تا زمانی که این رژیم وجود داشته باشد، تهدیدی بالقوه برای همه خواهد بود.

[Omid Djalili @omid9]

It is truly remarkable that the people of Iran - apart from the few privileged white SIM card holding regime supporters who can by-pass the digital blackout - continue to have their voices cut for 60 days straight. Bear that in mind next time you hear “news” that the masses are fully behind the IRGC and cheer on executions of protesters.

[NetBlocks @netblocks]

🗓️ Exactly two months ago on 28 February, #Iran was thrown into digital darkness as authorities cut off access to the global internet.

Metrics show the blackout is now entering its 60th day after 1416 hours despite regime efforts to introduce tiered access for privileged groups.

[Maryam (Bamdad Pirouzi) @BamdadPirouzi]

His words were repeating what Islamic Republic terrorists wanted but his tears and closed hands said "I AM INNOCENT."
Erfan Kiani was executed this morning in the silence of the world.
#ErfanKiani
#JavidShah‌‌‌‌‌

[Bahar Akhavan @AkhavanBahar]

This week was tough. I had dinner with my intelligent friends from European countries, people who have spent half their lives working within the United Nations. We were having a good time until the conversation turned to Donald Trump and Iran. Everyone, without exception, spoke badly of Trump: that he causes problems for everyone, that war is terrible, that it is illegal, and so on.

I stayed silent. When everyone finally became quiet, I asked only one question: who is actually going to collect and remove those more than 400 kilograms of uranium?

My French friend said: Trump is no better than the regime. On top of that, he has started an illegal war, and many countries have nuclear power plants why shouldn’t Iran have them too?

I exploded inside, but I remained silent at first. When I finally broke my silence, I said: was it illegal when the United States helped the French during the Second World War? Was it unnecessary?

Then silence returned.

I kept thinking about how to express everything happening inside me; how to explain the regime to a European-someone surrounded by left-wing ideology, enclosed within indirect forms of censorship, and always ready to say that war is terrible, yet surprised when I say many Iranians wanted it.

How do you explain to people who live in safety that some nations sometimes see outside pressure as the only remaining path when every internal path has been closed? How do you explain that they do not even speak in geopolitical terms, but judge only from a position of moral comfort, while others are speaking about survival?

Europeans who, despite democracy and free internet, still do not know what happened in Iran on January 8–9. Europeans who believe every conflict can be understood through the same moral template. Europeans who condemn all violence in theory, but have never had to live under a Islamic system where violence is part of everyday life.

And I sat there with the feeling that the distance between our realities was greater than the table around which we were sitting…

[Cameron Khansarinia @khansarinia]

After Prince Reza Pahlavi’s press conference, I stood next to the parents of the victims the Prince refers to. I was supposed to translate.

I reminded the journalists of who these brave parents were.

The journalists still ignored them. I had no questions to translate.

Shame.

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

Whether or not Europe stands with us, whether or not your journalists do their jobs, whether or not your politicians demonstrate the courage to act, I will fight for my people and my country.

[NetBlocks @netblocks]

🗓️ The internet blackout in #Iran is now on its 55th consecutive day as connectivity flatlines at 2% of ordinary levels after 1296 hours.

Restrictions on global network access continue to hinder online commerce, payment systems and digitally dependent sectors of the economy.