Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi, a great legacy
There is no need to exaggerate or betray our conversations about the relationship between a seasoned manager, writer, and journalist born in Iraq and adopted by his family in London, and a Spanish journalist with an international publishing venture as necessary in its content and objectives as it is uncertain in its financing.
We met in Madrid in 2018. A journalist from your group put us in touch and we had a meeting in a hotel in Madrid. It took less than an hour to hit it off and confirm that Atalayar was a good fit between the two shores as a Hispanic-European complement to the Al Arab group.
Trust and recognition of the professional work of the Atalayar team, with the great support and editorial guidance of the team at Al Arab, The Arab Weekly, Ahval News, and Middle East Online during these years of great light and some shadows caused by COVID, with substantial cuts and other difficulties that are part of the job, as we say in Spain.
I always found in Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi the right words to define the situation, the clear criteria for analyzing issues, the rigor to face difficulties, the prudence to avoid unnecessary risks, the firm politeness to reject insults, and the loyalty to maintain unity with the goal of overcoming difficulties. And all this with an affable, empathetic character and a sense of humor even in the harshest moments when the pain was unbearable.
I cannot hide my great admiration for his courage and determination in not giving up in the face of cancer and undergoing harsh, risky, and uncertain treatments to steal time from death. After several years of arduous and painful struggle for his life, we are left with the time he managed to steal from death, from the damn disease that attacked him mercilessly.
I will never forget the story of his surgeries and his fears mixed with great doses of hope during a walk through the gardens of a hotel in Rabat and at his home in London last July, the last time we saw each other in person. A delicious Iraqi meal prepared by his wife.
He trusted me with a great journalistic adventure that had good results and great difficulties, especially in recent months, with an unfair situation for the quality of our work, but above all because of the pressure on his precarious health.
The challenge we now face is to continue on the path we have taken and to value his legacy.
Excellent career
Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi, CEO of Al Arab Publishing House, has died at the age of 61. A British-Iraqi media editor and founder of several news portals, he died in London after a long battle with cancer.
El-Zobaidi arrived in London from Iraq in 1988 to pursue his postgraduate studies at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.
In 1990, he obtained a Master's degree in Control Systems from the Faculty of Engineering, followed by a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the same university in 1998.
El-Zobaidi's keen interest in politics landed him a job at the Al Arab newspaper in 1991 while he was pursuing his postgraduate studies.
In September 2000, he created his own news website, Middle East Online, in both Arabic and English.
Middle East Online grew over the years to become one of the most widely followed news portals in the Arab world for coverage of politics, business, culture, and current events in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2009, he became a major shareholder in the London-based newspaper Al Arab and became CEO of Al Arab Publishing House.
In 2014, his ambitious media project continued to grow with the birth of the weekly newspaper “the Arab Weekly” in 2014. His love of art and culture led him to found the magazine “Al Jadeed,” an Arab cultural and intellectual magazine that focuses on contemporary Arab thought, literature, and the arts, providing a platform for writers, poets, and intellectuals from across the Arab world.
In 2017, he established “Ahval News,” an online news website in Turkish that has risen to prominence in its first few months thanks to its analysis, commentary, and reporting on politics, society, and culture.
In 2018, he relaunched the Spain-based news website “Atalayar,” which has become a respected platform for geopolitical analysis, offering insights into Mediterranean and Arab affairs, often with contributions from diplomats, analysts, and journalists.
El-Zobaidi managed to weather many crises to keep his media group running and was known for his resilience, kindness, modesty, and passion for his work.
His legacy will live on among many of his employees, family, and friends.
