Art, Music & Culture

People like us: a review of "Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians: For my parents"



Sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that prove the most resonant. Take Seth Tobocman’s Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians: For My Parents. The book, a collection of drawings and thoughts, is the end product of the author’s month-long tour of Israel and Palestine during June, 2002. Tobocman was accommodated by the International Solidarity Movement and a visited a West Bank hospital, took a night-time bus ride in Israel, and worked as an art teacher during a summer school session in the West Bank village of Dir Ibzia — sketching what he encountered. Maureen Clare Murphy reviews the book for EI

Ibdaa dance troupe on US Tour



Ibdaa is a Palestinian youth dance troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp, near the city of Bethlehem in the Israeli occupied West Bank. MECA is sponsoring the 2nd nationwide performance tour of Ibdaa, the renowned Palestinian youth dance troupe from Dheisheh Refugee Camp, West Bank, this July and August. 

Hany Abu-Assad wins 'Spirit of Freedom Award' at Jerusalem Film Festival

Hany Abu-Assad’s documentary ‘Ford Transit’, which follows Palestinian taxi-van driver Rajai who tries to live and survive in and around roadblocks separating Ramallah from Jerusalem, won the ‘Spirit of Freedom Award’, dedicated to the memory of Wim van Leer, for best documentary at the 20th annual Jerusalem Film Festival. 

From a lost refugee

I come from a small deprived Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon called Bourj Al Barajneh. Something special about my camp is that it rains day and night, during summer and winter. It rains tears that are a result of future worries, present fears, and past dark memories. 

Interview with comedienne Maysoon Zayid



Palestinian American comedienne Maysoon Zayid is a rising force who has appeared on MTV, As the World Turns, and 20/20. EI’s Nigel Parry caught up with Zayid at the annual conference of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) conference where she performed to a packed and appreciative crowd at the Friday dinner honoring Arab American achievements. Listen to EI’s first audio interview in MP3 format. 

Palestinian Filmmaker this year's winner of the Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking



Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad is winner of this year’s Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking. He will be presented the prize at the 14th Annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, which takes place in New York from 13 to 26 June. 

Doctor Earle's diagnosis

“American singer Steve Earle, no stranger to rehab himself, has a few prescriptions for an ailing America,” Robert Everett-Green writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail. “I’m not anti-Semitic, but I am anti-Zionist,” says Earle. “Why do we expect the Palestinians who have lived there for a couple of thousand years to accept that they should be second-class citizens in their own homeland?” 

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