March 2026, Jasem Aljuraid drew international attention when he gave a speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where he challenged prevailing narratives about Israel and condemned the UN’s disproportionate focus on it.
A Kuwaiti journalist, political individualist and refugee living in exile, Aljuraid has become one of the Arab world’s most outspoken defenders of Israel and fiercest critics of Iran, Islamist extremism and the culture of anti-Israel incitement that pervades the Middle East. However, his public advocacy has come at a steep personal cost. Forced from his homeland and living under persistent threat, he continues to speak out despite the risks.
In this conversation with Ami, Aljuraid discusses his appearance at the UN, his support of Israel, the campaign against Iran and its proxies, and the price of dissent in a region where such views can have grave consequences.
You went to Geneva, Switzerland, to speak at the United Nations Human Rights Council, which really made headlines and grabbed our attention.
Yes. I gave two speeches there. One was in Arabic in which I criticized Saudi Arabia, the radical Islamists and the IRGC, and expressed support for Yemen and Somaliland. The other was in English and focused on support for Israel. That has been my position ever since I was 17 or 18, and I’m 42 now.
What kind of reaction did you get? I would imagine that you were threatened by some and embraced by others.
For sure. I made another visit to Geneva to attend the UN Watch Gala. I spoke about how I had managed to unite the Arab-speaking nations, because all of their media outlets went after me. “It’s a good thing to be united,” I said. “But you’re united in the wrong cause.”
I got death threats afterward, but they were typical social media things like, “You Zionist! We’re going to find you. We know you’re in Ontario!” blah, blah, blah. So I started changing my address. Even now I’m not entirely safe, so I can’t reveal my exact location.
I am intentionally provoking the people who don’t want progress or coexistence to help them understand why Israel is important. My wife didn’t used to support my views. She was very skeptical, but she recently told me that she now gets it, and we’ve been married for ten years. That only came about after she saw that we share the same enemy. We are all going after the IRGC.
After you left Kuwait, why did you choose Canada over the United States?
I’m an Algonquin College alumnus, so I felt that I could continue my higher education in Canada because they don’t accept any accreditations from Kuwait. I was studying for a master’s degree in Scotland, but Canada was willing to let me use those credits toward a master’s and then become an academic. Going to the United States under Joe Biden would have been very difficult because it was very radical, and I was very openminded in my views; I was a classic liberal centrist. But these days, I don’t understand the left. I don’t know how they can collaborate with the radical Islamists, who are so far to the right.
Is your wife with you in exile?
Yes. My wife and my daughter.
How are they adjusting? You’re living in such a different climate and atmosphere.
My wife and I aren’t Muslim, so it’s easy to embrace a Western country.
Do you practice any religion?
No. I’ve been a non-believer since I was 17, and my family was fine with that because my mother’s grandmother on her father’s side was Jewish so her father was Jewish. He converted to Islam just so he could protect his kids. My mother grew up in Islam, but she also read about Judaism and felt that there was no difference between the two. They were centrist Muslims who really believed in coexistence and openness. People call this “moderate Islam,” but I don’t think there really is such a thing. To me, it just depends on how peaceful people are.
As for my father, he wasn’t a practicing Muslim, and we never hated Israel. We didn’t hate anything in our house; we were free to practice whatever we wanted. It was a unique approach, not very widespread in Kuwait. My family was educated, and my father was against the Palestinians, Hamas and the radical Islamists.
Have you been officially granted asylum?
Yes. I am now a protected person. I don’t have a passport yet, but I do have a travel document. It wasn’t easy going through all this.
Are you afraid to walk the streets or do you feel safe?
I was afraid when I was living in the city center, but that’s one of the reasons I moved elsewhere. Things are much better now.
When did life change for you?
I had been writing for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas since 2015. After my father passed away, I decided to pursue confronting the radical Islamists, which is what my father had done professionally for Kuwaiti intelligence. I started to expose the radical scholars, the Muslim Brotherhood, the al-Qaeda people, the silent cells and those who were loyal to the IRGC.
In those days we had a good emir, a benevolent leader who was a liberal; his name was Sabah Al-Ahmad. But after he died in 2020 they started to go after me. They said, “This guy was protected by Sheikh Sabah, but now it’s time for revenge.”
There were many parts to how they did this, and in the end I had to pay a lot of money. The general prosecutor’s office became my home away from home. I was there once or twice a week. Sometimes I was detained for 12 hours, other times it was 24 or even 48 hours. And all this was while I was the senior vice president of Kuwait Financial Centre. Can you imagine? I was a member of the elite in my career, and I was very successful. One of the biggest investors in Kuwait Financial Centre is the publisher of Al-Qabas, which is why he was in love with my words and my work.
When I saw that Israelis had started visiting Riyadh and Medina, I said that I wished I could invite my friend Edy Cohen, an Israeli of Lebanese Jewish origin, to visit me in Kuwait. In response, a huge campaign was launched to get me fired from Al-Qabas. This was in February of 2022. It was successful.
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