Rachel Shabi () is a British-Israeli journalist and author. She is a contributing writer to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and the author of ''We Look Like the Enemy, Israel's Jews from Arab Lands''.

Early life

Born in Israel to Iraqi Jewish parents in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

, Shabi grew up in the UK. She studied politics and literature at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Career

Shabi is a journalist based in the UK, having also reported from the Middle East including on the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

and from Tunisia and Egypt. As well as focusing on the Middle East, she writes about progressive politics, the far right, counter-extremism and migration. She is also the author of ''We Look Like the Enemy: Israel's Jews from Arab Lands'', and appears as a commentator on international news channels. Shabi has written for publications including ''The Guardian'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', the London '' Times'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'',

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

, ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'', '' Prospect'' and the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. Her book, ''We Look Like the Enemy: Israel's Jews from Arab Lands'', was published in 2009. In the work, Shabi argued that Israel has discriminated against and culturally stripped its population of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. The book received a

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

. Shabi was shortlisted for the 2011 Orwell journalism prize and was a joint winner in the Press Category of the Anna Lindh Journalist Award for reporting across cultures (for her article "We were looking for a nice, peaceful place near Jerusalem", published by ''The Guardian'') the same year. In 2013, Shabi won the International Media Awards' Cutting Edge Media award. In September 2017,

Iain Dale Iain Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author, political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. He was the publisher of the ''Total Politics'' magazine between 2008 and 2012, a ...

placed Shabi at No. 30 on his list of 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left', up sixty places on his previous listing, noting that, "Omnipresent on our screens, the redoubtable Shabi is one of the few

Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983. Now an independent, Corbyn had been a member of the Labour Party from 1965 until his expulsion in 202 ...

supporting commentators to be taken seriously by the media. Thoughtful and fluent, she deserves her massive rise in this year's list." Shabi identifies as an Arab Jew and has lamented the stigmatisation of Arab-Jewish culture in Israel. In March 2025, Shabi signed an open letter to British Secretary of State

David Lammy David Lindon Lammy FRSA (born 19 July 1972) is a British politician who has served as Foreign Secretary since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham since 2000. Lammy previously held vario ...

, asking him and the British government to pressure Israel into ending the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

following a second raid on the Educational Bookshop in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, denouncing Israel's actions as "

genocidal Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" b ...

violence".

Bibliography

* ''We Look Like the Enemy: The Hidden Story of Israel's Jews from Arab Lands'',

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

2009. * ''Off-White: The Truth About Anti-Semitism '',

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a li ...

2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shabi, Rachel 1973 births Arab journalists Living people British journalists Jewish British writers British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Israeli emigrants to the United Kingdom The Guardian journalists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People from Ramat Gan Israeli Mizrahi Jews British women journalists Jewish women writers Israeli Arab journalists Israeli journalists Arab Jews