A tribute to Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi
We are saddened to hear the news of the passing of Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi this weekend. Dr. El-Zobaidi, the Chief Executive Officer of UK-based Al Arab Publishing House, died on 17th May in a London hospital at the age of 61, after a long struggle with cancer, according to Middle East Online.
Dr El-Zobaidi was born in March 1964 in Anbar, Iraq. After studying Mechanical Engineering at Baghdad University, he moved to London in 1988 and obtained a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Imperial College London.
El-Zobaidi landed a job at the London-based newspaper Al Arab in 1991 during his studies. In September 2000, he set up his own news platform titled “Middle East Online” in both Arabic and English. Middle East Online became one of the most successful news websites in the Arab region for many years, covering political, economic and cultural issues across the MENA region.
In 2009, El-Zobaidi became a shareholder in Al Arab newspaper, and later became CEO of Al Arab Publishing House. He then went on to found the weekly newspaper “The Arab Weekly” in 2014, and later birth “Al Jadeed” culture magazine which discussed Arab arts, literature and intellectual thought, amongst many other topics.
In 2017, El-Zobaidi set up “Ahvaz News” an online news platform in Turkish, and in 2018 co-founded the Spanish-based news website “Atalayar”, which became a platform discussing Mediterranean and Arab current affairs and geopolitics. His daughter Dunia El-Zobaidi writes a touching tribute to her late father on Atalayar here.
Dr. Haitham El-Zobaidi was revered for his dedication and resilience throughout all his media projects, with an extensive knowledge of politics, technology, media, to name a few. He authored many scientific research papers and was a prolific writer of Middle Eastern affairs and had a special place in his heart for Morocco which he regularly visited.
He will be fondly remembered amongst friends, family and colleagues; our thoughts go out to them.
Arab Weekly/Middle East Online/Maghrebi
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